The IEEM Platform and Green Growth Evaluating the Economic and Ecosystem Service Impacts of Green Growth Strategies in Rwanda

We link the Integrated Economic-Environmental Modeling (IEEM) Platform to ecosystem services modeling (ESM). The IEEMESM Platform is an innovative decision-making framework for exploring complex public policy goals and elucidating synergies and trade-offs between alternative policy portfolios. The IEEMESM approach is powerful in its ability to shed light on: (i) change in land use and ecosystem services driven by public policy and the supply and demand responses of businesses and households, and; (ii) impacts on standard economic indicators of concern to Ministries of Finance such as gross domestic product and employment, as well as changes in wealth and ecosystem services. The IEEMESM approach is being adopted rapidly and by the end of 2020, IEEMESM Platforms will be implemented for about 25 countries. To demonstrate the insights generated by the IEEMESM approach, we apply it to the analysis of alternative green growth strategies in Rwanda. In applying IEEMESM and comparing the outcomes of Rwandas green growth policies, increasing fertilization of agricultural crops shows the largest economic gains but also trade-offs in environmental quality reflected through higher nutrient export and reduced water quality. Combining crop fertilization with reforestation better balances critical ecosystem services and their role in underpinning sustainable economic development. This application to Rwandas green growth strategy demonstrates the value-added of the IEEMESM approach in generating results that speak to both economic outcomes and impacts on market and non-market ecosystem services.