Environmental Sustainability Factsheet

Millennium Development Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 9: Include the principles of sustainable development in policies and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

Key messages

Environmental resources such as forests, water and a consistent climate have a vital role to play in boosting economic growth and reducing poverty. That’s why we need to look after our environment and make sure it’s being used in a sensible and sustainable way.

Many of the world’s poorest people depend on natural resources for a healthy diet, clean water, shelter, energy, and medicines. What’s more, these people are often most vulnerable to disasters and hazards such as flooding, landslides and pollution brought about or exacerbated by environmental degradation

Environmental sustainability is essential for meeting all the Millennium Development Goals. Environmental objectives should be part and parcel of development, to avoid environmental risks and promote environmental opportunities for enhancing development.

More developed countries also have a role to play in reversing the loss of environmental resources by reducing their consumption and pollution.

Facts and figures

Climate: Carbon dioxide, the main “greenhouse gas” has increased by 30 per cent over the last 250 years. This is causing climate changes and global warming, with the 1990s being the warmest decade since records began .

The major threats from climate change are: reduced annual rainfall, increased temperature and rainfall variability, increased risk of flooding and/or drought, and sea level rise.

The knock-on effects from climate change include reduced food security, spread of disease, increased risk of accidents and damage to infrastructure. The poor are most at risk from these changes, and have limited capability to respond.

Biodiversity: Human health and well-being are directly dependent on biodiversity. The global market value of pharmaceuticals derived from natural resources is more than US$75 billion per year and 75 per cent of the population rely on traditional medicines from natural sources .

Commercial exploitation has generated US$160 million per year from wild Ethiopian barley and US$50 million per year from wild Turkish wheat.

Water: Currently one in three people lives in a water-stressed environment, and this is expected to double within 25 years .

Water consumption per person is ten times higher in developed countries than in developing countries.

More than half of the world’s major rivers are ‘seriously depleted and polluted, degrading and poisoning the surrounding ecosystems, threatening the health and livelihood of people who depend on them’.

A lack of clean water means less water for drinking, irrigating crops and watering livestock, an increased risk of water-borne disease, and reduced opportunities for industrial development and economic growth.

Forests: Forests and woodlands play a critical role in supporting livelihoods.

Forests reduce soil erosion, control rainwater run-off, regulate the climate, and protect coastlines.

Forests were being cut down at the rate of more than nine million hectares a year during the 1990s, equivalent to losing 2.4 per cent of the total forested area each year.

Deforestation of tropical forests is almost 1 per cent per year. It is estimated that the illegal timber trade makes up more than 10 per cent of total global timber trade, worth more than US$150 billion a year.

At least half of all logging activities in particularly vulnerable regions such as the Amazon Basin, Central Africa, Southeast Asia and the Russian Federation is thought to be illegal illegal .

Fisheries: Fisheries account for 17 per cent of the total annual animal protein consumed globally.

The net foreign exchange earnings for fishery commodities by developing countries reached US$17.7 billion in 2001

But 75 per cent of fisheries stocks are exploited at or above their maximum capacity and several have already collapsed due to over-fishing.

Are we on track to meet the target?

Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) have been developed in 53 countries, but how they treat environmental issues varies. According to a recent review by the World Bank , immediate environmental concerns are gaining attention in Poverty Reduction Strategies, but the focus on long-term sustainability is still lacking.

Target 9 is not time-bound, but there is still a very long way to go to reverse the loss of environmental resources. The official indicators which measure progress in Target 9 show a mixed response - some improvements but also some degeneration (for details see www.developmentgoals.org/Environment.htm.This makes the need to integrate environmental issues into policies all the more urgent.

Obstacles to improvement

The poor, who are most dependent on natural resources, and most affected by environmental degradation, do not always have access to information, rights, or access to participate in decision-making and policy development. This means that critical opportunities for mainstreaming environmental issues can be missed.

By contrast, those who are most influential in policy development may have little understanding of the environmental costs and benefits associated with such policies. The costs of not considering environmental risks, and the benefits of seizing environmental opportunities are often difficult to assess or describe in monetary terms.

As a result, growth and environment are sometimes still viewed as competing objectives. This can result in confusing or even conflicting policies and programmes.

Progress - what DFID is doing to help

DFID uses environmental screening for its development interventions. Environmental opportunities and risks are therefore identified at an early stage, and if necessary a full environmental assessment takes place. Recommendations are built into the plans, and are closely monitored during implementation.

DFID also encourages countries to include environmental issues in Poverty Reduction Strategies. Country-based advisors and local consultants assist with this. A review of several country experiences is underway, which will provide lessons and guidance for other countries.

We are also working with countries to:

Assess what natural resources each country has and how these resources could contribute to reducing poverty;

Integrate specific obligations of multilateral environmental agreements;

Improve, simplify and harmonise policy appraisal tools (such as bringing together Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) with Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)); and

Develop indicators for monitoring environmental performance of their Poverty Reduction Strategies.

Case studies

In Kenya, DFID supports a £2.2 million environmental governance programme. This helps communities to understand their rights and responsibilities under new environment legislation - so that they can benefit from better access to environmental resources, manage them more sustainably, and benefit from their full value. We are working with the Ministry of Planning to improve its capacity to make use of the environmental opportunities presented by the PRS.

In both Nigeria and Ghana, DFID is supporting an economic assessment of the contribution of renewable natural resources to growth. This is being done in a way that simultaneously informs the PRS processes, and empowers poor groups to lobby for sustainable approaches. DFID also supports the Enugu State Government (Nigeria) in developing the environment component of its State Poverty Reduction Strategy.

In Uganda, DFID supported analytical work linking the environment to poverty reduction. Now complete, this will feed into revision of the PRS. It will also enable environment and natural resources institutions to link up better with each other, and to influence the finance authorities that coordinate the PRS. DFID also supports Uganda’s pro-poor decentralisation process, helping the Ministry of Local Government and National Environment Authority to work together on environmental management issues.

In Tanzania, DFID seconded a staff member to UNDP, to work with the Tanzanian Vice President’s Office on incorporating environmental issues in the PRS. Current work is focusing on waste management and property rights.

What the international community is doing

Several other aid agencies are also emphasising the importance of taking environmental opportunities and risks into account when developing country policies and programmes. The World Bank, for example, is encouraging environmental mainstreaming in Poverty Reduction Strategies. For more details, visit:

www.worldbank.org/poverty/strategies/chapters/environment/environ.htm