Building on hidden opportunities to achieve the millennium development goals:

IIED opinion paper which argues that whilst biodiversity loss has the potential to undermine progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), conservation of biodiversity offers many (sometimes overlooked) opportunities to reduce poverty. The paper explores the importance of biodiversity within the context of the Biodiversity Convention and the MDGs and outlines a number of key challenges which need to be addressed in order to take advantage of the opportunities arising.The challenges which the paper elaborates on include:To seek out those initiatives that have simultaneously reduced poverty and conserved biodiversity and demonstrate and raise awareness of the role that such initiatives can play in achieving the full range of MDGs.To find new ways to incorporate environmental goods and services in accounting procedures, and develop innovative payment systems to communities for provision of ecosystem services and other public goods.To expand worldwide demand and markets for goods produced in ‘biodiversity friendly’ ways and establish certification systems for sustainably produced community goods and services.To support indigenous and other local peoples to address resource access and land ownership issues and facilitate processes that bring them into decision-making processes around land use.To undertake a systematic analysis of the MDGs to identify opportunities where activities related to biodiversity can make a contribution to their achievement.To place emphasis on the effective implementation and realisation of the third objective of the CBD ‘fair and equitable access to the sharing of benefits arising out of utilisation of genetic resources’.