Publication: Coastal and Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystems
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2025-03-25
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2025-03-25
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The Blue Solutions for Africa series of operational briefs captures how a thriving Blue Economy can help African countries better manage the development challenges they face while supporting economic growth, sustainable livelihoods, and the health of these precious ecosystems.
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“World Bank. 2025. Coastal and Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystems. Blue Economy for Resilient Africa Program. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42997 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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Valuation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in India(Washington, DC, 2013-06-05)This report provides estimates of social and financial costs of environmental damage in India from three pollution damage categories: (i) urban air pollution, including particulate matter and lead; (ii) inadequate water supply, poor sanitation, and hygiene; (iii) indoor air pollution; and four natural resource damage categories: (a) agricultural damage from soil salinity, water logging, and soil erosion; (b) rangeland degradation; (c) deforestation; and (d) natural disasters. The estimates are based on a combination of Indian data from secondary sources and on the transfer of unit costs of pollution from a range of national and international studies. The quantification and monetary valuation of environmental damage involves many scientific disciplines including environmental, physical, and biological and health sciences, epidemiology, and environmental economics. 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The report is structured as follows: section one provides a summary of estimated social and financial costs of environmental damage; section two focuses on urban air pollution; section three deals with water supply, sanitation, and hygiene; section four focuses on indoor air pollution; section five focuses on land degradation, crop production, and rangeland degradation; and section six deals with forest degradation.Publication Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Climate Change : The Economic Problem(Washington, DC, 2010-11)Climate change is both a cause and an effect of biodiversity change. Along with anthropogenic dispersion, climate change is the main driver of change in the geographical distribution of both beneficial and harmful species, crops, livestock, harvested wild species, pests, predators and pathogens. And the capacity of ecosystems to adapt to climate change depends on the diversity of species they currently support. This paper considers the connection between climate, biodiversity and ecosystem services. The impact of climate change on human wellbeing is measured by the change in ecosystem services caused by climate related change in biodiversity. Similarly, the role of species richness and abundance in climate change mitigation or adaptation is measured by the change in the climate-related services of biodiversity. The categories of ecosystem services are those applied in the millennium ecosystem assessment. The paper first considers how climate and biodiversity have been linked in recent attempts to link the two things. From the side of the natural sciences, this covers the consequences of climate change for various dimensions of biodiversity. From the side of the social sciences, it covers the value of biodiversity in the carbon cycle. 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The crisis affecting this region's coastal and marine areas requires an urgent and resolute response from the global community. This report details the challenges facing coastal and marine environments in Sub-Saharan Africa. It describes the World Bank's strategy for supporting sustainable development in the sector, while stressing an integrated approach to coastal management in Sub-Saharan Africa, which will be strategic in design, with both traditional investments in fisheries, or coastal biodiversity, and creative interventions for making large-scale investments in infrastructure, or water "coastal friendly", to avert impacts, while bringing tangible benefits to coastal populations, and ecosystems.
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