Earth's ecosystems meet critical human demands for food, water, fiber, and fuel, provide services such as water purification and waste assimilation, and strongly influence human health and economic development. Ecosystem degradation takes the most serious toll on the poor, who often depend directly on forests, fisheries, and agriculture for their livelihood and who tend to be most vulnerable to environmental threats. Both the challenge of effectively managing Earth's ecosystems and the consequences of failure will increase significantly during the 21st century. The scientific knowledge required to meet this challenge is unavailable today in the desired form.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is a four-year international scientific assessment of the condition of Earth's ecosystems, potential impacts of changes to ecosystems on their ability to meet human needs, and policies, technologies, and tools to improve ecosystem management. It is designed to improve economic and environmental decisions by:
- improving the information used by decision-makers and the public; and
- building capacity, particularly in developing countries, to undertake ecosystem assessments and act on their findings.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment will provide information not just on the biological aspects of managed and unmanaged ecosystems but also on the economic values of the goods and services produced by ecosystems and the potential economic and health impacts of changes in those ecosystems.
The World Bank is one of the primary partners in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, providing both technical and analytical contributions.
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