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7.6
MAKING IT hAPPEN – PoLICy MIxES
To GET RESULTS
Minimising emissions
from point sources (e.g. factories) and diffuse sources
(e.g. pesticides) and tackling resource over-use are
essential to halt losses and maintain ecosystem
services and functions.
Policy makers already have a useful toolkit at their
disposal. Pollution control, resource use minimisation
and land use management can best be achieved on
the basis of a strong regulatory framework. Regulation,
especially setting standards, has achieved great
successes: many environmental problems that were
pressing in the past (e.g. contamination of water
bodies, high concentrations of pollutants in the
atmosphere) have been significantly reduced through
this type of instrument. There is considerable scope for
further use of regulation to address environmental problems
directly. however, a
it is a
such
as offset requirements, biodiversity banking or ecologically-focused
taxes.
No single policy instrument is enough to tackle the
wide range of activities, sources and sectors affecting
biodiversity and ecosystem services provision. Marketbased
instruments are crucial to keep the costs of
action low as they encourage actors to develop and
implement the cheapest abatement options. The real
challenge is to create
to reach the full potential of
the polluter pays and full cost recovery principles
(see Figure 7.4).
Policy mixes offer opportunities to address various
ecosystem services and various actors at the same
time. The optimal policy mix will depend on the state
of the resource or ecosystem in question and the number
and variety of actors affected. By way of example:
• in the field of hazard prevention, strong environmental
regulation is important (e.g. banning highly
toxic substances that may be released into the
environment);
• for sustainable management of renewable resources,
market-based solutions such as permit
trading or introducing taxes merit serious consideration;
• even for a single resource, a combined approach
is often suitable e.g. in fisheries policies, no-take
zones such as marine protected areas might be
appropriate to provide undisturbed spawning
grounds while fish catch might best be managed
through individual tradable quotas.
can deliver significant
social benefits as they stimulate consideration of
different abatement costs among resource users and
development of . however, these
appro-aches are insensitive to distributional concerns
and often neglect the needs of the poor and vulnerable.
Governments around the world already use a
significant share of their revenues to equalise incomes
and regulate market activity to ensure wider access to
goods and services by such groups. For this reason,
smart policy mixes need to go beyond simple cost
recovery mechanisms to include appropriate
.
TEEB FoR NATIoNAL AND INTERNATIoNAL PoLICy MAKERS - ChAPTER 7: PAGE 34