The Project for Ecosystem Services (ProEcoServ) (2010 – 2014)

The Project for Ecosystem Services (ProEcoServ) was a global, four-year initiative that sought to understand how to integrate ecosystem assessment, scenario development and economic valuation of ecosystem services into national sustainable development planning, and decision-making. The project was launched in 2010 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It was rolled out in four countries –Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, Vietnam and South Africa and Lesotho. In T&T, the project in­volved three main sites: Nar­i­va Swamp, Buc­coo Reef, and the east­ern North­ern Range. In each site, sci­en­tists investigated a dif­fer­ent mix of ecosys­tem ser­vices, including pollination (be­tween 2010 and 2012, the av­er­age val­ue of pollination to just one crop, hot pep­pers, pro­duced na­tion­al­ly by farm­ers was over TT$54 mil­lion), and a combination of selected services in the Northern Range (such as climate regulation, flood prevention, water purification)  are estimated to be worth a $497 US million to the residents of Trinidad and Tobago in 2010, around 2.4 % of current GDP.