Biodiversity

In this policy paper, a group of young researchers, among them Ecologic Institute's Holger Gerdes, provides possibilities and suggestions for a transformation of the approach taken in Germany towards ecosystem services, which should allow for the integration of this concept into relevant policy areas and cross-cutting issues. The policy paper is available for download.

The policy paper specifies seven guidelines for the protection and promotion of ecosystem services within man-made environments and shows how these could be realized and implemented within the existing German political...Read more

This report presents an analysis of the Peatland Rewetting Project in Belarus, which explores the potential of carbon emission reductions from rewetting degraded or depleted peatland located within the Belarusian territory and the opportunity to trade credits representing these reductions in a voluntary carbon market. Peatland rewetting as applied in the Belarus Project represents an ecosystem-based approach to climate change adaptation and mitigation and is approached in this report as such. The report is available for download.Read more

In this study, Ecologic Institute researchers Timo Kaphengst and Lucy Smith summarize the advantages and disadvantages of the increasing share of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in developing countries. The accrued benefits and/or disadvantages vary widely across the reviewed countries and depend on the  governance structures of each country. On the one hand, GM crops can increase export revenues; on the other hand, developing countries' resulting dependency on Western biotechnology companies could grow and threaten local farmers, especially smaller ones. Moreover, GMOs are...Read more