UNEP Co-Hosts Beijing Forum on Ecosystem Management and the Green Economy

On 18 November 2011, UNEP, together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), will host the High-level International Forum on Ecosystem Management and the Green Economy in Beijing -an international gathering of experts, scientists and government officials from around the world - to look at ecosystems and their management and the need for a transition to a Green Economy.

These are current and critical topics. The Earth's ecosystems are the natural foundation of human civilization. However, ecosystems have been profoundly degraded over the last 50 years and pressure on them continues unabated.

In a recently released report, Keeping Track of Our Changing Environment, UNEP has shown through peer-reviewed indicators how natural resources, from species extinction to biodiversity loss are being depleted or degraded at rates that are breaking historic records. But concrete evidence also shows that ecosystem management and a Green Economy can halt and reverse this trend. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a broad partnership involving UNEP, is a major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity as well as to highlight the multi-trillion dollar costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.

The Forum will produce a communiqué on ecosystem management which will be taken as a recommendation for the upcoming summit on sustainable development, popularly known as Rio+20, in Brazil next June.

The meeting will also mark the launch of the International Ecosystem Management Partnership (IEMP), a joint initiative of UNEP and CAS. IEMP will be a China-based international programme promoting ecosystem management in all developing countries, particularly in Africa.

Media, including photo/video, attending the forum must register in advance. Lunch will be included.

When: 09:00-18:30, 18 November 2011 (Friday)

Where: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.11A Datun Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing

Who:

• Mr. Zukang Sha, Under Secretary General, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
• Mr. Achim Steiner, UN Under Secretary General, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
• Mme. Julia Marton-Lefevre, Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN),
• Mr. Bjorn Roland Stigson, President, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD),
• Sir Crispin Tickell (Director, Policy Foresight Programme, James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization, Oxford University),
• Mr. Art Hanson, International Chief Advisor, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED),
• Officials from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Science Foundation of China will also attend and speak at the Forum.

For More Information and to Register, Please Contact:
Jiang Nanqing, UNEP China Office, Tel. +861085320922, Fax: +861085320907
Email: nanqing.jiang@public.un.org.cn
Guoqin Wang, International Ecosystem Management Partnership-UNEP,
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR),
Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 11A Datun Road. Beijing 100101
Tel/Fax: +86 10 64889031, Email: guoqin.wang@unep-iemp.org