Nature's Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature by Tercek Mark R. & Adams Jonathan S

Author:Tercek, Mark R. & Adams, Jonathan S. [Tercek, Mark R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780465046966
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2013-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

MARINE ECOSYSTEMS ARE MORE DYNAMIC AND INTERCONNECTED than grasslands, forests, or deserts. And compared to land-based resources, much more of the ocean is considered common property, open to all comers, from tiny artisanal fishing communities to huge industrial fleets, to tourism, shipping, and energy development.

This complexity leads some experts to question whether zoning the oceans is even possible. But it clearly should be part of any broad effort to balance conservation and development of marine resources.

The Micronesia Challenge—the collaborative effort at regional marine protection—marked one of the first regional political commitments to finding that balance. In 2009, inspired by that effort, six more governments in the western Pacific joined to protect the oldest and richest coral system on earth, the Coral Triangle.

The Coral Triangle covers over 2 million square miles of eastern Indonesia, parts of Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and the Solomon Islands. It is home to more than 150 million people, more than half of whom rely on the sea for food. Located at the intersection of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Coral Triangle is a genetic mixing bowl. The region’s unique coral reefs draw tourists from around the world. All told, fisheries, tourism, and shoreline protection from coral reefs and mangroves are worth some $2.3 billion annually.

Each of the six governments in the Coral Triangle has made unprecedented conservation commitments under the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security. Indonesia, for example, created an 8.5-million-acre marine-protected area in the Savu Sea, near the eastern end of the archipelago. The program helps countries in the Coral Triangle expand national Marine Protected Areas and Marine-Managed-Areas Networks, develop strategies for responding to climate change, and find the money to pay for it all.

The Coral Triangle Initiative highlights a crucial fact: while individuals and companies can value nature, sometimes the only investor capable of making a significant difference will be the government. Only governments can establish laws that allow markets to flourish, for example, or that take Ostrom’s insights about community-level cooperation and make them work across a nation, a region, or even more. Governments—local, national, and even multinational alliances—now recognize the potential of nature as a source of jobs and economic development. Shovel-ready projects to restore or re-create that capital offer abundant short- and long-term returns in the developed and developing worlds.

Compelling examples of these projects can be found where people rely on the oceans for sustenance. The natural and human communities near shore are rich, resilient, and at risk.

Oil, Oysters, and Communities

Grand Isle, Louisiana bears no resemblance to Pohnpei, and oyster reefs look nothing like coral reefs. Though the natural communities are different, the reefs provide many of the same services, from coastal protection and nurseries for fish to recreation and tourism. Coral reef conservation builds resilient natural and human communities in the Pacific. So, too, oyster reef restoration helps communities on Grand Isle, in Mobile Bay, and across the Gulf of Mexico.

A single narrow road, Louisiana Highway 1 (LA 1), connects Grand Isle with the mainland.

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