Promoting Upstream-downstream Linkages through Integrated Ecosystem Management in the Greater Mekong Subregion - Ecosystems Management Policy Brief 8 - 2012

In the context of supporting biodiversity conservation, sustainable development, and poverty reduction, this policy paper portrays the critical role that ecosystem management and ecosystem services can play in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Ecosystem management is “an integrated process to conserve and improve ecosystem health that sustains ecosystem services for human well-being” (UNEP, 2009). The IUCN defines it as “a process that integrates ecological, socio-economic, and institutional factors into comprehensive analysis and action in order to sustain and enhance the quality of the ecosystems to meet current and future needs” (IUCN, 2011). Ecosystem management embraces an interdisciplinary approach that highlights connections between ecological, social-cultural, economic and institutional structures. Underlying the approach is the explicit goal to sustain ecosystem composition, structure, and function while providing for human needs (Grumbine, 1994, Layzer, 2008). Critical to this is ongoing research and monitoring of ecological interactions and processes, and a collaborative, adaptive approach to planning.