Ecosystems Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Programme - Funding Opportunity

Citation

(2007), "Ecosystems Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Programme - Funding Opportunity", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 8 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijshe.2007.24908cab.005

Ecosystems Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Programme - Funding Opportunity

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment showed that the loss of services from ecosystems (for example deforestation, soil degradation, and water purification) is a significant barrier to reducing poverty, hunger and disease. Tackling this set of problems requires a combination of environmental science, ecological economics and political economy. Three British organisations, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DfID), have joined forces to explore the potential for a multi-disciplinary research programme that will address how to achieve sustainably managed ecosystems.

This work aims to contribute to reducing poverty and improving well being in developing countries, through the improvement of ecosystems management policies. Under the programme heading “Ecosystem Services & Poverty Alleviation” a new funding opportunity has been launched. Applications are invited for situation analyses of the challenges to the sustainable management of ecosystems to maximise poverty alleviation in Amazonia/Andes, semi-arid Africa, India and the Hindu Khush and China. For further details of the ESPA programme, visit www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/espa/