Ansan Declaration in the 1st ESP Asia Regional Conference

June 3, 2016

Understanding that all benefits from biodiversity and ecosystem services(ES) are composed of services essential to human well-being, and that, according to the strategic goal D of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the ecosystems enabling such natural benefits should be restored and safeguarded, to meet the needs of the vulnerable including youth, women, the old, indigenous people, and local communities;

Bearing in mind that changes in institutional and environmental governance frameworks are sometimes required to create the conditions for enabling effective management of ecosystems, and many existing institutions at both the global and the national level have the mandate to address issues of protecting and restoring the degraded ecosystem;

Present members of the 1st Asia ESP Conference gathered here from Asia, Pacific and Europe during May 30 ~ June 3, 2016 in Ansan, the diverse and promising city, to discuss the emerging issues of natural capital and to find out the palpable solutions based on ecosystem services for environmental justice, and to share the experiences thereof;

CALL all members of Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) Asia for cooperation to assess and maintain ecosystem services in protected areas, rural landscapes, urban ecosystem, and vulnerable ecosystems, and to restore ecosystems, and also for sharing the natural benefits through fostering all members’ collaboration by way of networking, communicating, and establishing the organization and the offices therefore in the regional/sub-regional areas of Asia, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean;

REQUEST public authorities, NGOs, and social/private enterprises in ESP members’ countries to work with local people to facilitate and support the environmental collaboration activities relating to the conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity, and for benefit sharing under the proper legal institutions, and also the public sectors and the private ones to cooperate together in achieving the national goals required by Aichi Targets and Sustainable Developing Goals(SDGs);

AND URGE the governments of members’ countries to consider ES at prior steps of the national and local policies including administrative plans and the following processes, to institutionalize scientific assessment, monitoring, and economic valuation of ecosystem services, and to integrate the ES into the development plans and projects through environmental impact assessment (EIA) and financing schemes like payment for ecosystem services (PES).

Download the Ansan Declaration here.