Papers by Mediatrice Bana
This publication may be reproduced by any method without fee for teaching or nonprofit purposes, ... more This publication may be reproduced by any method without fee for teaching or nonprofit purposes, but not for resale. The papers should be cited with due acknowledgment. Copyright resides with the IGCP.
Data Release for Toward ecosystem accounts for Rwanda: Tracking 25 years of change in ecosystem service potential and flows
Ecosystem accounts link national-scale environmental and economic trends, offering an internation... more Ecosystem accounts link national-scale environmental and economic trends, offering an internationally standardized approach to tracking sustainability. We compile ecosystem accounts for Rwanda over a 25-year period, and demonstrate that despite strong economic growth, social development, and high-level commitment to environmental goals, ecosystem services fundamental to Rwanda's well-being have declined substantially during this period. Conversion of forests and other natural ecosystems to cropland are the primary drivers of these trends. Ecosystem accounts are particularly important for tracking sustainability in African nations with high levels of economic and population growth and rapid environmental change. These accounts can build our understanding of trends in nature?s ability to provide critical benefits that underpin human well-being.
People and Nature
1. Rwanda, a small but rapidly developing central African nation, has undertaken development of n... more 1. Rwanda, a small but rapidly developing central African nation, has undertaken development of natural capital accounts to better inform its economic development through the World Bank's Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) Partnership. In this paper, we develop ecosystem service (ES) models to quantify ecosystem condition and physical supply components of ecosystem accounts in Rwanda from 1990 to 2015. 2. We applied the InVEST carbon storage, sediment delivery ratio, nutrient delivery ratio, and annual and seasonal water yield models to map changes in potential ES supply nationwide. We also quantified flows of sediment, water and nutrients to 96 hydroelectric dam, irrigation dam and water treatment plant sites. 3. Over a 25-year period, we found declines in all ES, which were most strongly driven by conversion of forests to cropland. Declines were most pronounced from 1990 to 2000 and 2010 to 2015; ES were relatively stable from 2000 to 2010 (with the exception of nutrient exports to water bodies, which jumped most sharply from 2000 to 2010). From 2010 to 2015, over 42% of Rwanda's water-use sites (representing 9% of the nation's hydroelectric generation capacity and 59% of its water treatment capacity) had upstream increases in sediment export and quick flow greater than the national average. Half of Rwanda's water treatment plants had upstream phosphorus exports greater than the national average.
Society & Natural Resources, 2011
The disappointing performance of integrated conservation and development projects has been partly... more The disappointing performance of integrated conservation and development projects has been partly blamed on the lack of linkage between the development intervention and the expected conservation outcome, resulting in projects that rarely achieve the sought-after “win–win” outcomes. While this study replicates findings about the difficulties of establishing successful linkages, it also seeks to go beyond problem identification, by evaluating responses initiated within a long-term conservation initiative, the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, that has since 1991 worked with communities as part of its efforts to protect mountain gorillas and their habitats. The principal lesson that emerges from interviews with IGCP partner organizations relates to the benefits of a “conservation logic” in which conservation and development outcomes are linked through mutual dependence but also contractual conditionality.
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Papers by Mediatrice Bana