World Bank to help developing countries mull `green` policymaking+

NAGOYA, Oct. 28 Kyodo -
The World Bank launched Thursday in Nagoya a global effort to help developing
countries take into account the value of benefits which their forests, wetlands
and other ecosystems provide when they compile economic and development
policies.
The bank also launched a separate project to protect endangered species and
their habitats with money raised from the private sector, with the bank's
President Robert Zoellick giving a push to an international initiative to save
wild tigers.
The series of World Bank moves came as delegates gathered in the central Japan
city were struggling to finalize new targets for safeguarding the diversity of
plants, animals and their habitats around the world in the final days of nearly
two weeks of negotiations.
The ''green'' policymaking project, launched in partnership with developed and
developing states, including Japan and India, as well as international and
nongovernmental organizations, is aimed at providing developing countries with
information on the ''natural wealth'' in their own territories.
Noting that one cause of the biodiversity loss crisis today is the failure to
properly value the planet's ecosystems, Zoellick told a news conference that
the time has come to ''promote natural wealth accounting as a better measure of
development.''
The five-year pilot program seeks to quantify the value of ecosystem services
in terms of income and assets, and develop ways to incorporate it into state
policies that could be linked to economic growth.
The project also aims to set guidelines that can be used to value ''natural
capital,'' the World Bank chief said, adding that it will be implemented in
between six and 10 countries, starting with Colombia, India and Mexico.
''We need to give top decision-makers the tools they need to make the right
decisions,'' Zoellick said.
The new effort is based on a final report released last week by The Economics
of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, or TEEB, project of the U.N. Environment
Program that proposes sustainable use of ecosystems by showing the importance
of their benefits in economic terms.
On the sidelines of the U.N. biodiversity meeting, the World Bank also launched
a separate project along with other organizations to protect endangered species
and their habitats with money raised from the private sector.
The initiative, named ''Save Our Species,'' or SOS, will provide grants to
conservation efforts that target specific threatened species, with funds mostly
coming from companies that use animals and plants in their logos.
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. has committed $500,000 to the project as
the first private-sector partner, a senior company official said.
The bank and the Global Environment Facility, an independent financial
organization, have committed a total of $10 million to it as initial capital.
Later Thursday, Zoellick gave a push to an international drive to double by
2022 the number of wild tigers in 13 ''Tiger Range'' countries such as Russia,
India and China where the iconic mammals still live but are threatened with
extinction.
''This is the International Year of Diversity. According to the Asian calendar,
it's also the Year of the Tiger,'' he said during a panel discussion on the
theme. ''Together, we can save the (tiger), but the clock is ticking.''
The tiger recovery program will be implemented under the Global Tiger
Initiative, which was started by the World Bank and other organizations in
2008. It will be launched at the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, in
November.
==Kyodo