Asean officials to dwell on bio-diversity economics in Manila

The Star 20 Jan 12;

KUALA LUMPUR: Senior environment, finance and economic experts and officials from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore will gather in Manila next week for a high level dialogue on the economics related to biodiversity.

The dialogue on Jan 25 and 26 is part of a project being jointly undertaken by the Manila based ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, according to a statement issued by ACB on Friday.

The dialogue entitled "Southeast Asia Regional Policy Dialogue on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Transforming Policies into Actions" would engage senior level policy drafters in recognising the economic benefits and values of ecosystems and biodiversity.

The dialogue is part of a project to disseminate and develop national capacity on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) project, and the issue of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES).

The statement added that the dialogue would also review Climate Change and Biodiversity Action Plans, and identify approaches to integrate TEEB and PES into such plans.

In addition, it would develop a training module on TEEB and PES for continued capacity building in the ASEAN region. - Bernama