Science for Nature and People Partnership : Fall 2017

Dear Friend,

More than 20 years ago, I experienced my own boot camp in
post-humanitarian crises as a Peace Corps volunteer in a Cold War hotspot, Nicaragua. While the Cold War had ostensibly ended, its echoes seemed to follow me wherever I went.

I saw crumbled drinking water infrastructure with the alternative of hauling water from the cyanide-and-mercury infused Rio Mico, which was downstream from the Santo Domingo gold mines.
Well-preserved rainforest rose like an island amid agricultural desertification; the island was preserved because the hilltop was littered with landmines. Like the country’s president at that time, my collaborators in the ministry of education and comedor infantile, who helped found an environmental education and research facility for school children, were highly educated and empowered women. At the same time, gunfire and kidnappings by the self-proclaimed re-contras interrupted my environmental education talks, or charlas, in remote regions.

These site-specific contrasts sit at the nexus of human well-being, sustainable economic development, and nature conservation. And science is poised to help find broad-scale solutions.

I’ve worked to bridge nature conservation with other sectors for more than 20 years – including the past 10 years as a senior scientist with The Nature Conservancy – and if there is one thing I have learned, it’s that we are not all that great at talking to each other across both sectors and scientific disciplines. Different ways of knowing often make working across disciplines hard to do, but a little emotional intelligence can go a long way.

That’s why I’m so honored to be named the Interim Director of the Science for Nature and People Partnership.

I can think of no partnership so attuned to different ways of knowing – and to translating those ways into action. SNAPP brings leaders from multiple institutions and multiple sectors, and while each still honors their individual missions, they work for something larger. SNAPP groups don’t just publish, they also focus on solutions. Different sectors aren’t brought in after a paper is published, they’re a part of the group from the beginning.

It’s big, ambitious work, and I’ll share highlights in these quarterly updates. I invite you to be part of the conversation. Let me know what most excites you about SNAPP and how these updates can best serve your needs.

I look forward to working with you on science that benefits both people and nature.

Yours in Conservation and Development,
Jensen Montambault

Will the Insurance Industry Support Nature-Based Solutions?

It’s no secret that hurricanes and tropical storms cost the insurance industry. Nature-based solutions to reducing storm damage – like coastal wetlands and oyster reefs – are often promoted as a way of reducing damage, and as such should be attractive to insurers.

The problem? Conservationists and insurers don’t talk. And even if they do, they don’t talk the same language.

The SNAPP Coastal Defenses working group is changing that. The working group recently published the first paper on research conducted in partnership with the insurance industry, the first to put a tangible dollar value on wetlands using “the highest rigor out there.”

Groves Retires As Executive Director

Please join us in thanking Craig Groves for his service as SNAPP’s first executive director, leading efforts across sectors over the past three years.

Craig retires after a 33-year conservation career, tackling big conservation challenges at The Nature Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Society. He is the author of two conservation planning books, both considered “bibles” in the field.

While retired, Craig has already signed on as board member and advisor for several conservation initiatives, and also looks forward to more time on ski slopes and in the backcountry. Thank you Craig for all you’ve done for SNAPP.

A Tiny Portion of the World’s Oceans Could Meet Global Seafood Demand

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector in the world. Like most industries, aquaculture can be done in ways that are more or less sustainable. The SNAPP Sustainable Aquaculture working group found that 3 percent of the world’s oceans appears very suitable for marine aquaculture. This may sound small, but it is actually an extraordinary amount of area, spread across nearly every coastal country in the world – about four million square miles.

Done right, this aquaculture could meet growing seafood demands and reduce pressure on wild fisheries. One of the major challenges? The working group found that many consumers had negative reactions to aquaculture, even when done sustainably.

SNAPP Meeting Focuses on Links Between Development, Conservation

SNAPP supporters and partners gathered at WCS’s Central Park Zoo on September 26th around the theme of “A Sustainable Future: Linking International Development and Conservation.”

The event coincided with the United Nations General Assembly and echoed many of the UN’s seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, which SNAPP endeavors to address through its work. UN Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner’s keynote remarks focused on collaborating with the private and non-profit sectors to achieve those goals.

Attendees also heard in-depth presentations from two SNAPP team co-leads for updates on their work. Krithi Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Jane Carter Ingram of Ernst & Young joined SNAPP Executive Director Craig Groves to discuss lessons learned through their work on landscape connectivity and coastal defenses, respectively, which included the importance of expanding multi-disciplinary teams beyond the usual environmental and conservation partners for fresh perspectives.

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Can We End Hunger and Protect the Forest in sub-Saharan Africa?

At first glance, it looks like food and forests in
sub-Saharan Africa present a “catch 22.” In much of the region, locally grown cereal crops (e.g., barley, maize, teff, rice, sorghum, among others) are the mainstay of diets. But expanding the area under agriculture could be in direct conflict with the forests that protect the very soil and water resources needed to produce all that food.

It also places the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to end hunger in direct conflict with the Sustainable Development Goal aimed at forest protection. Can this be resolved?

This is why Phil Franks of the International Institute for Environment and Development (based in the UK) convened a team of experts in a SNAPP working group to find solutions to this problem in four high opportunity countries. Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana and Zambia all hold the promise of intensifying local agriculture to give people food security and enhance the way nature works, particularly in forests.

2017 Science for Nature and People Partnership

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