BELA CASE STUDY SERIES: ZIMBABWE EVALUATING COSTS AND BENEFITS OF NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS IN PRODUCTION LANDSCAPES CASE STUDY PROFILE WORLD BANK REGION SECTORS ENGAGED INSIGHTS Agriculture Water Land condition & trends Sub-Saharan Africa Environment & Poverty Landscape investment Carbon Market Natural Resources SCALE OF ANALYSIS: National & Subnational priority areas Potential BANK PROCESS INFORMED ECOSYSTEM SERVICES Advisory Services and Analytics (ASA) Erosion & Carbon Storage Water Regulation Sedimentation PROJECT CYCLE STAGE Crop Production Ecotourism Non-timber Project Project forest products Identification Preparation @ Shutterstock Upstream/ PROJECT Implementation Diagnostics & Support CYCLE STAGE Livestock Production BACKGROUND Z imbabwe, a landlocked African country, is vulnerable the Mazowe Catchment, which was identified as a key to the impacts of climate change, underscored by its intervention area. The BELA team assessed the potential low ranking of 168 (out of 185) on the 2021 ND-GAIN ecosystem services returns from a suite of management Index. The primary sectors crucial for economic growth, actions, including climate-smart agriculture, sustainable outlined in its initial Nationally Determined Contribution rangeland and resource management, and protection of key (NDC) — encompassing agriculture, water, energy, forestry, ecological infrastructure. The ecosystem services valued tourism, and industry — are particularly susceptible to the for the baseline and restoration scenarios included crop adverse impacts of sudden climate shifts. Deforestation, production, livestock production, harvested wild resources, and land degradation, particularly in communal areas, nature-based tourism, carbon storage, flow regulation, induced by unsustainable agricultural and natural resources erosion control and sediment retention. management (NRM) practices, along with urbanization, population growth, and energy demands, are aggravating climate vulnerability, and adding to Zimbabwe’s greenhouse WHAT IS BELA? gas emissions. Land degradation alone extracts a toll equivalent to 6.3 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic The Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Landscape Assessment Product (GDP). This poses a significant threat to the (BELA) initiative supports landscape assessments of livelihoods of rural population, heavily reliant on agriculture biodiversity and ecosystem services in World Bank and natural resources. engagements. BELA provides Bank teams and clients with efficient, tailored, and in-house analytical services, offering To tackle these dual challenges of land degradation and insights on land condition & trends, landscape investment climate change, the Government of Zimbabwe requested priority areas, ecosystem services in macro economy, technical assistance from the World Bank to explore the climate change impacts, carbon market potential, and possibility of using a Payment of Ecosystem Services support for natural capital accounting. The BELA team (PES) mechanism for implementing sustainable land works on a contract basis with World Bank teams, with management programs in the country to build climate funding for core operations provided by the PROGREEN resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Global Partnership for Sustainable and Resilient Landscapes. Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Landscape Assessment (BELA) team partnered with Anchor Environmental Interested in learning more? Click here. Consultants and the Government of Zimbabwe, to map and value ecosystem services for sustainable landscape management for a selected catchment in Zimbabwe. The BELA team first analyzed national ecological trends and @ Shutterstock associated drivers to identify potential areas to prioritize for the PES intervention, and supported the government in selecting the Mazowe Catchment for further study. The economic value of ecosystem services was estimated in WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF BELA’S WORK? B ELA's national landscape assessment areas were identified and are under discussion provided the evidence for sustainable with government counterparts in Zimbabwe: landscape management investments in the (1) scaling up climate-smart agriculture; (2) country, offering data-driven recommendations investing in sustainable forest management; for the selection of the Mazowe catchment and (3) leveraging climate finance and piloting as a target area for development of the new payments for ecosystem services to incentivize PES program. The analysis showed that public sustainable landscape management and climate investment to scale up sustainable landscape action. The pathbreaking Mazowe Catchment @ Shutterstock management in the Mazowe catchment is work has since been extended to cover the entire cost-effective, with every US$100 invested in country in a regional comparative framework, as landscape interventions generating US$170 in a background paper to the Country Climate and benefits. As a result of BELA’s work, three policy Development Report. KEY QUESTIONS What are key ecosystem service hotspot areas in Zimbabwe that could be good candidates for  a project to enhance biodiversity and climate resilience in productive landscapes?  What are the values of ecosystem services provided by the Mazowe catchment, and what is the potential for their improvement with landscape management interventions? Where can investments in landscape management be prioritized to build climate resilience,  alter the trajectory of land degradation, and provide positive economic benefits across sectors? BELA APPROACH Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 PLANNING ECOSYSTEM RESULTS > INSIGHTS SERVICES ANALYSIS • Meet with relevant • Land condition & trends • Ecosystem services and stakeholders to align degradation hotspots • Landscape investment around common vision priority areas • Costs & benefits of • Define study objectives landscape restoration • Carbon market potential • Identify and gather • Opportunity-based priority resources, data and areas for investment experts STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT @ Shutterstock Phase 1 PLANNING T he BELA team collaborated with key Zimbabwean Government stakeholders, mainly from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural loss of ecosystem services. Preliminary analysis at the national scale was done to identify candidate landscapes for further study and ecosystem services valuation. Data Resettlement (MLAFWRR) and Ministry of Environment, were compiled on soils, land cover, land management, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry (MECTHI) to climate, carbon, poverty, and costs of land degradation identify key ecosystem services and sectors impacted from remote sensing, global data, sectoral teams, and by decades of land degradation and the corresponding local sources, when available. Phase 2 ECOSYSTEM SERVICES ANALYSIS The BELA team: T he BELA team identified areas that provide a high level of five key services: food production, erosion control, water regulation, carbon storage, and eco-tourism The restoration scenario assumed broad investments in supporting, regulating, and/or incentivizing climate- smart agriculture practices which: (a) increase the potential. The assessment also evaluated where there productivity of land and reduce rates of land conversion, are likely to be many beneficiaries connected with those soil loss, and water consumption; (b) limit the use of services, and where recent trends in land degradation grazing and wild resources to sustainable levels, to are threatening to further reduce the provision of these maintain their productivity as well as other services; services. and, (c) restore and protect key natural areas important The BELA team, in collaboration with Anchor for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Environmental, carried out a comparison of the economic The team identified landscape investment priority areas impacts of land degradation with the benefits of and highlighted the sectoral and project-level benefits restoration. Key sectors analyzed included agriculture, of investing in sustainable land management. hydropower generation, carbon emissions, and tourism. Phase 3 RESULTS --> INSIGHTS B ELA communicated its results to Bank staff and clients by developing the Zimbabwe report on Mapping and valuing ecosystem services for sustainable landscape management in Zimbabwe, contributing a Supplement on Integrated Landscape Assessment Methodology, and through webinars and presentations. @ Shutterstock BELA INSIGHTS  What are key ecosystem service hotspot areas in Zimbabwe that could be good candidates for a project to enhance biodiversity and climate resilience in productive landscapes? Top Service Providing Areas + Most Beneficiaries Figure 1. Results of the national screening analysis of five key ecosystem services: food, erosion control, water, carbon, and ecotourism and their potential beneficiaries. (Source: BELA Initiative, World Bank). T he Mazowe Catchment, spanning approximately based on five pivotal ecosystem services: food, erosion 40,000 km2, is one of Zimbabwe's seven national control, water, carbon, and eco-tourism, taking into account catchments. It encompasses portions of Mashonaland their potential beneficiaries. The assessment process was Central, Mashonaland East, north of Harare, and north of enriched by multi-stakeholder insights, including input Manicaland provinces. The catchment was chosen as a key from the government, from the ministries MLAFWRR and ecosystem service hotspot in Zimbabwe, in conjunction MECTHI. with other administrative considerations. Selection was  What are the values of ecosystem services provided by the Mazowe catchment, and what is the potential for their improvement with landscape management interventions? Value per year Types of services Explanation Value to whom (US$, millions) Communal farmers 38.0 Cultivated production Production value net of human inputs Commercial farmers 30.2 Communal farmers 43.1 Livestock production Production value net of human inputs Commercial farmers 21.6 Value of wild harvested foods, fuel, and raw Wild resources Rural households 105.7 materials net of human inputs Cost savings due to vegetation capacity to Water utilities and Sediment regulation hold soil in place or trap eroded soils before 166.3 private dam owners entering streams Flow regulation (contribution to Cost savings in water resources infrastructure Water utilities and/or 83.9 baseflows and due to facilitation of recharge by vegetation direct water users groundwater) Net income generated as a result of tourism Tourism Tourism sector 42.9 to natural attractions Avoided climate-change damages as a result Zimbabwe 30.0 Carbon retention of avoided CO2 emissions from ecosystem degradation Rest of world 1,230.0 Table 1. Values of ecosystem services provided by the Mazowe Catchment annually. (Source: BELA Initiative, World Bank). B y implementing a suite of interventions within the tillage, could yield carbon credits valued at a minimum of Mazowe catchment - Climate-Smart Agriculture US$13.5 million annually. (CSA), restoring riparian buffers lost to cultivation, Collectively, these interventions could trigger an increase rehabilitating degraded natural habitats passively, in groundwater recharge estimated around US$11.8 million managing grazing and resource harvesting pressures, and annually and mitigate reservoir sedimentation costs, enhancing community conservation areas - significant potentially saving approximately US$10.2 million yearly. economic and environmental benefits emerge. CSA has A high-level cost-benefit analysis over a 25-year horizon the potential to amplify crop production on small-scale indicates that the proposed interventions, if implemented farmland by an estimated US$32.8 million annually. The full across the entire area, could yield a return of US$1.70 for restoration of riparian buffers and degraded natural habitats every dollar invested. This 360 degree approach not only could substantially increase the value of wild resource demonstrates the economic viability of these interventions harvesting by US$3.54 million each year. Simultaneously, but also underscores their significant role in fostering the recovery of these buffers and habitats, coupled with sustainable and resilient ecosystems within the Mazowe enhanced soil carbon sequestration through conservation catchment.  Where can investments in landscape management be prioritized to build climate resilience, alter the trajectory of land degradation, and provide positive economic benefits across sectors? Figure 2. Return on Investment (ROI) per sub-catchment with implementation of the proposed landscape interventions (number represents sub-catchment). (Source: Anchor Environmental). I n a high-level cost-benefit analysis to determine the Return driven by positive changes in land resources management on Investment (ROI), potential outcomes in ecosystem following CSA adoption, availability of water resources, service supply are contrasted with a Business as Usual presence of intact forests and wetlands, and presence of (BAU) scenario, utilizing a 25-year time horizon and a social high biodiversity within the ecosystem. These drivers are rate of discount at 4.56 percent. The analysis extends to the reflected in the location of the largest ecosystem services sub-catchment level, strategically identifying priority sub- benefits: for CSA adoption, sub-catchment 7 (US$95 million); catchments to inform a phased investment strategy. The for avoided dam costs, subcatchment 15 (US$43.6 million); findings reveal that across the entire catchment, the Net for carbon revenues, sub-catchment 4 (US$32 million); for Present Value (NPV) from intervention of US$287.9 million, harvested wildlife resources, subcatchment 15 (US$8.5 the Return on Investment (ROI) stands at a healthy 1.7. million); and for tourism, sub-catchment 1 (US$4.3 million). The major leading sub-catchments by ROI were 15, 7 and 5 (see Figure 2). The ecosystem services benefits are primarily @ Shutterstock FURTHER READING THE BELA TEAM • Mapping and Valuing Ecosystem Services for Adrian L. Vogl, Urvashi Narain, Jorge Leon, Lingling Liu, Sustainable Landscape Management in Zimbabwe Sydney Moss, Evariste Rutebuka FUNDING FOR THIS WORK • Policy Note: Valuing Ecosystem Services in Zimbabwe • Zimbabwe - Webinar on ecosystem services Climate Support Facility (CSF) & PROGREEN assessment for PES (PROGREEN) • Blog: Valuing ecosystem services for integrated EDITOR landscape management in Zimbabwe Simi Mishra DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Roots Advertising 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 USA Telephone: 202-473-1000 Internet: www.worldbank.org/environment