The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is an important study about how humans affect the environment. It was requested by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000, started in 2001, and completed in 2005 with more than $14 million in funding. The study introduced the term "ecosystem services," which describes the ways ecosystems help people.

History

During the 1990s, international agreements like the UNEP Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification showed that a global scientific study of ecosystems was needed. Progress in resource economics had not changed environmental policies much. In November 1998, UNEP, NASA, and the World Bank released a report titled "Protecting our Planet, Securing our Future: Linkages Among Global Environmental Issues and Human Needs." In 2001, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment began. It took four years to complete, and over 1300 people from 95 countries helped write it.

Funding

In May 2000, the Global Environment Facility approved a $7 million grant. In July 2000, the United Nations Foundation provided a $4 million grant, and the government of Norway offered financial support for the first meeting of the MA Board in Trondheim. In December 2000, the Packard Foundation gave a $2.4 million grant. These funds totaled more than $13.4 million, which covered 75% of the full budget.

Findings

The MA was published in 2005 and included four main findings:

• Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems faster and more widely than at any other time in history, mainly to meet growing needs for food, clean water, wood, fiber, and fuel. This has caused a major and likely permanent loss of Earth’s variety of life.
• These changes have helped improve human well-being and economic growth, but these benefits have come with increasing harm, such as the damage to ecosystem services, greater risks of sudden environmental changes, and worsened poverty for some groups. These issues, if not fixed, could greatly reduce the benefits future generations receive from ecosystems.
• Damage to ecosystem services may become much worse in the first half of this century and could prevent progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
• Some ways to reduce ecosystem damage while meeting growing needs are possible, but this would require major changes in rules, organizations, and practices that are not currently happening. Many methods exist to protect or improve specific ecosystem services in ways that reduce harmful effects or create helpful connections between services.

The main idea from the MA is that human activities are using up Earth’s natural resources, putting so much pressure on the environment that ecosystems may no longer be able to support future generations. However, the assessment also shows that with the right actions, many ecosystem services can be improved over the next 50 years. This would require major changes in rules and practices that are not currently in place.

Legacy

In 2008, a report found that the world's wealthiest countries caused environmental harm to developing countries that was greater than the total debt of all developing nations, which was $1.8 trillion.