Public actors need to monitor the state of the environment in order to assess the effectiveness of their actions, prioritize management policies and measures, and thus objectively establish their contribution to the conservation of natural capital. To do so, they must be able to rely on science-based standards to identify the thresholds at which environmental functions can be considered sustainable.

The ESGAP (Environmental Sustainability Gap) is an innovative tool for assessing the condition of a territory’s environmental functions and how sustainable they are. For all critical components of natural capital in the territory concerned (air or water quality, pollution, forest resources, fisheries, etc.), this indicator calculates the difference between their current state and a state that would be sustainable (i.e., a state compatible with the sustainable functioning of the processes necessary for the preservation of life, human activities and well-being). This allows for the calculation of the “environmental sustainability gap”, which highlights the path to environmental sustainability. This can then serve as a guide for public policies to estimate and preserve the critical functions of the natural capital of a given territory. ESGAP has already been tested in New Caledonia, Kenya and Vietnam.

Within the framework of the ECOPRONAT research programme, AFD aims to develop methodologies for assessing strong sustainability, that is, adopting demanding criteria concerning the non-substituability of natural capital by other forms of capital (physical among others) in a territory or country. AFD also wants to promote their use in international frameworks and contribute to emerging international standards on the good ecological state of ecosystems.

Find out more about ECOPRONAT

The ESGAP pilot project recently conducted in Vietnam made it possible to measure the state of the environmental functions of this country. It identified fisheries resources, soil erosion, air and water pollution as the most degraded dimensions. 

It appears that some economic activities can put pressure on these different environmental functions, while other activities depend on their proper functioning. Developing the ESGAP framework is necessary to go further, by integrating the linkages that exist between the economy and the environment and identifying which human activities are concerned. 

In order to do this, the research team will try to link ESGAP measures to socio-economic activities and build a monetary ESGAP. The aim will be to assess the physical risks associated with certain economic activities on the basis of scenarios of environmental pressures (such as the breakdown of supply of certain essential environmental services, for example in agriculture). The development of these new applications of the ESGAP framework aims to guide policy makers in designing more sustainable development paths. 

 

The research project will be conducted in two phases: 

• The first step will consist in building a “monetary” ESGAP that measures the cost (expressed in monetary units) needed to achieve a sustainable environmental state. This cost is considered an unpaid ecological debt: it corresponds to the cost of effective measures that society would have to spend to achieve a good ecological state. It will be calculated as an abatement cost, that is, the expenditure necessary for human activities (such as production and consumption) in Vietnam to reduce their environmental pressures to a level that does not result in degradation of natural capital (or to an acceptable level, considering the good condition standards considered by the ESGAP).
• The second phase will use the modeling framework developed in the first phase, and assess how different public policies can improve Vietnam’s environmental sustainability by 2035, as well as mitigate the economic risks associated with the loss of the country’s natural capital. First, the team will develop scenarios to determine which interventions can improve Vietnam’s ecological status. Secondly, it will assess the extent to which economic risks related to biodiversity (due to the dependence of the Vietnamese economy on ecosystem services) can be mitigated through these interventions.

Since this study is considered experimental research, the different elements outlined in the research proposal and intermediate results may be adjusted throughout the study based on different factors – such as access to data, data quality, difficulties in implementing certain aspects of the methodology, or unsustainable or misleading results.

The team will produce a synthesis of the study, that will be used as a working document for communication purposes. The final deliverable will outline the methodology, database used and main results of the monetary ESGAP applied in Vietnam and the physical risk assessment methodology for the Vietnamese economy. This final deliverable will explore the relevance of ESGAP for the implementation of public policies aimed at achieving a good state of environmental conditions and future research pathways to link ESGAP measures to socio-economic activities.

Contact: 

• Oskar Lecuyer, research officer, AFD

Public actors need to monitor the state of the environment in order to assess the effectiveness of their actions, prioritize management policies and measures, and thus objectively establish their contribution to the conservation of natural capital. To do so, they must be able to rely on science-based standards to identify the thresholds at which environmental functions can be considered sustainable.

The ESGAP (Environmental Sustainability Gap) is an innovative tool for assessing the condition of a territory’s environmental functions and how sustainable they are. For all critical components of natural capital in the territory concerned (air or water quality, pollution, forest resources, fisheries, etc.), this indicator calculates the difference between their current state and a state that would be sustainable (i.e., a state compatible with the sustainable functioning of the processes necessary for the preservation of life, human activities and well-being). This allows for the calculation of the “environmental sustainability gap”, which highlights the path to environmental sustainability. This can then serve as a guide for public policies to estimate and preserve the critical functions of the natural capital of a given territory. ESGAP has already been tested in New Caledonia, Kenya and Vietnam.

Within the framework of the ECOPRONAT research programme, AFD aims to develop methodologies for assessing strong sustainability, that is, adopting demanding criteria concerning the non-substituability of natural capital by other forms of capital (physical among others) in a territory or country. AFD also wants to promote their use in international frameworks and contribute to emerging international standards on the good ecological state of ecosystems.

Find out more about ECOPRONAT

Building on the previous work of University College London (UCL) on the application of ESGAP in countries of the Global South, this research project led by UCL aims to implement the ESGAP framework in Colombia and South Africa. It will test its relevance in fostering public policy dialogue in these two countries that already have a regulatory framework and natural resources management, but where not all data on biodiversity is available. 

More specifically, this project has four objectives: 

• Developing the ESGAP components related to biodiversity and the state of ecosystems that could be used by Colombian and South African governments, and promoting the use of science-based targets for ecosystem maintenance; 
• Promoting reflection on strong sustainability in Colombia and South Africa through the ESGAP framework, by assessing whether the activities carried out in these countries are within the safe operating space for humanity;
• Clarifying how the ESGAP framework aligns, complements and adds value to other types of existing sustainability indicators that national governments are already using;
• Strengthening the capacity of partner countries to implement the ESGAP framework beyond this research project. 
  
   

The ESGAP framework is based on a dashboard that provides information on changes in the functional state of 23 components of the environment, focusing on the gaps that exist between these changes and the objectives of maintaining or achieving a "good environmental state". These components cover the 4 main categories of critical and essential environmental functions: resource provision, pollution reprocessing, biodiversity and human health. The scores for each of the twenty-three components are then aggregated to form a synthetic indicator and a dynamic indicator.

The research activities in the two pilot countries is carried out by researchers from Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and the National University of Colombia (UNAL). Capacity building will include training four postgraduate students as well as awareness-raising activities targeting policymakers and other stakeholders, in order for them to take ownership of the ESGAP and use it during public policy formulation.

 

The research teams will produce scientific papers on the relationship between the ESGAP framework and other sustainability indicator initiatives, as well as on the work and calculations of the ESGAP indicators carried out in each country, comparing the cases of Colombia and South Africa. A specific report will be produced on indicators of the state of biodiversity and ecosystems as well as the identification of data sources for the two countries studied.

A "Research Conversations" webinar presented the results of the articles to the scientific community in November 2024:

In addition, an international workshop will be organized to present the complementarities between the ESGAP framework and relevant initiatives of existing sustainability indicators.

Finally, the research team intends to produce several documents for decision-makers and public policy actors:

• A summary of the review of biodiversity indicators and the state of ecosystems, which may be useful for negotiations at the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the Convention on Biological Diversity and for the design of national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs);
• A webinar with a webinar report on the relationship between the ESGAP framework and other international sustainability reporting initiatives;
• A summary for decision-makers in each partner country on the rationale of the strong sustainability development approach and the methodology and ESGAP indicators that enable it to be implemented.

Download the publications related to the project: 

• Enhancing Environmental Sustainability Through the Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP) Framework in Colombia, Policy Dialogues n°67, Editions Agence française de développement, October 2024

Contact: 

• Oskar Lecuyer, research officer, AFD

The relationship between the biodiversity crisis and agriculture is complex. On the one hand, the expansion of agricultural systems and conventional agricultural practices threaten biodiversity; on the other hand, agricultural production is dependent on biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides. 

In Mozambique, tensions between poverty reduction targets and biodiversity protection are high. The expansion of small farms leads to the fragmentation of natural ecosystems and it represents one of the main sources of biodiversity destruction for the country. One of Mozambique’s responses to this fragmentation is to save the clearing of new land through a more intensive use of inputs, clearly separating land for nature protection from land for productive agriculture. 

The reconciliation of agricultural development and conservation through the use of agricultural techniques respectful of biodiversity is now essential to ensure the sustainability of agricultural systems and secure the food supply of the population. 

This project is part of the ECOPRONAT research programme, which supports research on how to better take into account biodiversity and mainstream it into key economic sectors.

This research project aims to understand the possible trade-offs and complementarities between poverty reduction, food security and biodiversity in the context of developing countries, where farmland expansion is a major threat to biodiversity. This research will help understand how local landscape/community units function, how they impact biodiversity and its ecosystem services and how they benefit from them.

This knowledge will make it possible to identify the levers to mainstream biodiversity into the agricultural sector. This project also aims to demonstrate the need to create a link between the national policy framework regarding the mainstreaming of biodiversity into agriculture, and the socio-ecological context of successful local interventions.

The project involves a multidisciplinary team of ten Portuguese and Mozambican researchers: two from Observatório do Meio Rural (OMR), two from Eduardo Mondlane University, one from Lúrio University and five from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia in Lisbon (including a doctoral student). In addition, eighteen people (researchers and students) are involved in data collection activities. 

The methodological approach is divided into three steps:

• Step 1. Priorities, analysis and mapping at the country level: carried out at national level, with the aim of producing a broad, national picture of the effects of farming systems on poverty reduction, food security and biodiversity conservation; as well as an understanding of the conflicts and complementarities between these objectives.
• Step 2. Priorities, analysis and research into local context-sensitive interventions: carried out at the local level, through five case studies, covering the main socio-ecological gradients of Mozambique that should be considered when developing a national strategy to mainstream biodiversity into agricultural policies.
• Step 3. Link between local initiatives and the national framework for the mainstreaming of biodiversity in agriculture: aims to integrate the results of the first and second steps, to help the mainstreaming of biodiversity in agricultural policy, addressing the conflicting relationships and complementarities between the objectives of poverty, food security and biodiversity. 

This research project mobilizes different scientific disciplines in a transdisciplinary way, such as socioeconomics of agriculture, ecology, agronomy or sustainability sciences. This work will result in the production of a mapping of regions characterized by similar biophysical and socio-economic conditions, composition of agricultural systems, landscape mosaic, and levels of poverty, food insecurity, and biodiversity.

Stakeholders (decision-makers and contributors to public policies at the central level, farmers' organizations, environmental protection organizations, local actors) are also mobilized throughout the research work and their knowledge, perceptions and preferences incorporated into the analyses produced. This involvement of stakeholders aims to co-construct policies for mainstreaming biodiversity in agriculture. 

The main expected results of this project are: 

• Production of a policy paper presenting the regional reference framework (socio-ecologically homogenous regions) and guidelines for mainstreaming biodiversity in each region;
• Assessment of the transferability of local success interventions within and across regions;
• Identification of the necessary political conditions at the national level for the implementation of local interventions;
• Comparative evaluation of different policy tools;
• Development of a simulation tool based on a farming system approach, that will allow policy makers to assess ex ante the impacts of alternative policies on the objectives of poverty reduction, and food security and biodiversity and ecosystem services improvement. 

The production of cartographic data at the local level contributes to the development of agricultural and land use policies at the national level. Moreover, the cross-referencing of these local data with participatory approaches (organization of workshops with producers and sharing of public policy options) contributes to the development of more transversal policies.

The project contributed to the training of local young students and technicians in applying surveys using tablets and using the Open Data Kit program. The project contributed to the exchange of knowledge between the researchers members of the project and the fieldwork guides regarding the identification of birds and vegetation species.

Find out more about the project's results: farsymabi.webnode.pt

Contact: 

• Julien Calas, research officer, AFD

According to a 2021 OECD report, two-thirds of African cities are at “extreme” risk of climate and water-related shocks. Violent climate events, heat waves and droughts are thus at the top of the risks incurred by urban areas. Rapid urbanization, unsustainable development and degradation of natural ecosystems exacerbate these risks. 

Nature-based solutions (NBS), which rely on natural ecosystems and the services they provide to human activities, address these urban challenges, while simultaneously providing benefits in terms of human well-being and biodiversity. However, they are still little integrated into urban planning processes and decision support tools available to planners. The lack of knowledge, data and experimentation on nature-based solutions therefore hampers their adoption and deployment. 

The objective of this research project is to enable, through the construction of a strategic framework, the deployment and scaling of nature-based solutions, in particular to address water and heat risks. The challenge is to improve the ecological resilience of cities by helping them identify the risks they must prepare for, to assess the potential of NBS to address them and to develop implementation and funding strategies for these NBS as part of the urban planning process. 

A fast, effective and practical methodology for assessing the potential of nature-based solutions will be made available to the cities of Addis Ababa and Kigali, which are the two pilot cities of this research project. The project is led by WRI, in partnership with the Addis Ababa Urban Development Department, the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture and the Rwanda Young Water Professionals Association. This methodology is intended to be adopted by other urban centers to allow a broader appropriation and mobilization of NBS in cities. 

At the methodological level, the construction of a strategic framework for nature-based solutions is interesting for two reasons:

• Identification of flood risks, heat islands, water supply and biodiversity potential of cities through the production of composite maps and the mobilization of satellite data;
• Participatory construction of the strategic framework through workshops with stakeholders of both cities to validate the priority areas of intervention and identify the NBS most adapted to the issues of each area.  

Developed by the WRI research team with the cities of Addis Ababa and Kigali, the Strategic NbS Framework can support cities in selecting and implementing appropriate nature-based solutions (NbS). 

By integrating globally available data sets with local data, it helps identify areas of a given city that are susceptible to extreme flooding and heat, as well as opportunities to expand urban green spaces and create ecological corridors. 

To ensure successful implementation, collaboration between public authorities, technical experts, and community leaders is essential. Using this framework, citywide maps can be quickly generated to identify priority areas. After a validation by city stakeholders, field experts then play a key role in designing effective NbS, tailored to local conditions. 

Although it has limitations in data detail, the Framework provides a solid starting point to build sustainable cities. Additional guidelines provide technical information on usable NbS, as well as case studies. These guidelines are available for download below: 

Download the guidelines

A webinar from the Research Conversations series was held to present the project's findings, and these research findings are summarized in a policy brief available for download below.

The research project identified a series of lessons to facilitate the deployment of nature-based solutions (NbS), taking into account the specific needs of cities. These lessons highlight the potential of nature in urban resilience planning and climate action:

• To increase awareness and institutional integration:

1. Set up multi-stakeholder processes to support dialogue and the prioritization of identified NbS.
2. Rely on case studies to facilitate understanding and engagement.

• To enhance data availability for more effective planning:

1. Combine local and global datasets to carry out multi-hazard assessments (flooding, urban heat islands, etc.).
2. Encourage citizen science initiatives for data collection, and ensure it is considered in decision-making.

• To strengthen planning and implementation linkages:

1. Establish dedicated governance structures (such as a mayoral committee) to coordinate various technical services involved and mobilize funding.
2. Develop common reference frameworks (design standards, guidelines, etc.) to strengthen political and public support.

• To secure long-term financing:

1. Integrate NbS into existing city investment programs.
2. Include strategies for public-private partnerships and use a multi-benefit assessment framework to demonstrate their long-term value.

• To adapt solutions to the local context and ensure monitoring:

1. Launch NbS pilot projects with monitoring systems to track their performance.
2. Integrate gender, equity, and inclusion considerations from the selection phase of each NbS.

Latin America is the second most urbanized region in the world, with 81% of its population concentrated there. This strong urbanization, its rapid growth and the weakness of urban planning policies affect areas of high ecological and environmental value. However, natural ecosystems can be a source of solutions for those involved in urban design and development, in particular to respond to the risks generated or exacerbated by climate change.

Understanding nature-based solutions (NBS), studying their implementation conditions and analyzing their integration into public policies is therefore necessary to ensure the livability of cities in the long term. While NBS and green infrastructure are still recent in the urban landscape, initiatives have been deployed for several years and are a privileged source of data to exploit. 

The ENSLAC (Enabling Nature based solutions Scale-up in Latin American Cities) project aims to analyse the mechanisms that enable the scale-up of nature-based solutions implementation in Latin American cities, drawing on 15 case studies in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. This research approach aims to: 

• Analyze the challenges of ecological restoration for the management of risks related to the impacts of climate change in urban areas;
• Understand the levers for using NBS as a tool for urban planning and development;
• Identify the temporal, technical, cultural, political, social, financial and cooperative processes that have enabled large-scale NBS-based projects;
• Assess the influence of national or supranational strategies and policies on NBS development;
• Disseminate the knowledge produced by focusing on formats and channels that can be used for the training of urban development actors. 

To explore these issues, Yes Innovation, based in Quito, works with the Humboldt Institute for Biological Resources Research, an institution linked to the Ministry of the Environment of Colombia, and Periferia Territorios Vivos, a Peruvian organization specialized in urban planning with an ecological approach. 

This research project uses two analytical tools (depending on the case study and the available field data):

1. Temporal and spatial analysis (known as BA/CI, which refers to a Before/After and Conservation/Intervention analysis);
2. Comparative analysis between case studies on NBS and reference cases of comparable characteristics but without implementation of NBS. 

The ENSLAC research project aims to: 

• Understand mechanisms that enable scale-up of nature-based solutions as a tool for urban and peri-urban planning;
• Identify replicability levers of these NBS for Latin American cities;
• Produce training materials for urban development actors. 

The research team presented its findings during a webinar from the Research Conversations series. The replay is available below (in French and Spanish).

Today, the majority of leaders acknowledge the degradation of natural capital and the urgent need to protect the environment. Nevertheless, in order to define appropriate public policies, they must be able to rely on scientific standards that allow them to assess the state of a territory’s natural capital.

It remains difficult to assess this state, or even to define exactly what a "good state" of the planet should be: most existing instruments have an incomplete definition of environmental sustainability, lack of relevant indicators or fail to set appropriate targets to achieve good environmental status. There is therefore no satisfactory approach that would allow decision-makers or experts to know whether a country is moving towards environmental sustainability.

Based on a dashboard assessing the state of 23 environmental components, the ESGAP framework aims to address this need. However, the lack of appropriate standards for many essential natural capital contributions and in many countries is one of the most notable gaps identified in the ESGAP pilot projects in New Caledonia, Kenya and Vietnam.

Watch the video: How to measure the state of the planet?

This research project with EcoAct aimed to identify missing standards for several components of the Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP). It discusses possible strategies to develop appropriate standards in the event that no standards are available globally.

ESGAP is an innovative tool initially developed with University College London (UCL) that assesses the state of a territory’s environmental functions and their level of sustainability. For all critical components of natural capital in the territory concerned (air or water quality, pollution, forest resources, fishing resources, etc.), this indicator calculates the difference between their current state and a state that would be sustainable (that is, a state compatible with a sustainable functioning of the processes necessary for the preservation of life, human activities and well-being). This allows the calculation of an “environmental sustainability gap” (ESGAP), which highlights the path to environmental sustainability. This can then serve as a guide for public policies to estimate and preserve the natural state of a given territory.

Standards have been proposed for 16 out of the 22 ESGAP indicators examined in this research project. For 8 indicators, there was not enough solid information to propose a global standard. The study identified 13 datasets available to calculate these indicators globally and provided the source and link to these publicly available databases.

Read the final report: Defining Standards of Good Ecological Condition for Computing the ESGAP in Developing Countries 

The next step to produce a standard of good ecological condition applicable to all countries involves, for indicators with "standards to be defined by experts" (Fairbrass, 2020), to consider who the experts might be and how to engage with them to define a globally applicable standard. This depends on the existence of a globally recognized authority (such as the World Health Organization for pollution or the Food and Agriculture Organization for fisheries), or if the indicator is developed by different teams of scientists or organizations. 

Future work could also focus on examining the state of knowledge and options for setting standards from unconventional sources, such as geospatial data, big earth data, etc. The ARIES project related to the compilation of ecosystem accounts under the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) could be an interesting source for this.

Find out more about ESGAP:

• A single indicator of strong sustainability for development: Theoretical basis and practical implementation (2019)
• Monitoring the Environmental Sustainability of Countries through the Strong Environmental Sustainability Index (2022)
• Are We on the Right Path? Measuring Progress towards Environmental Sustainability in European Countries (2022) 

Contact: 

• Oskar Lecuyer, research officer, AFD