Course description
Introduction
Natural resources and ecosystem management involves managing whole geographic landscape over long time, taking human needs into consideration, maintaining biodiversity and ecological processes, utilizing innovative institutional arrangements, integrating economics, science and policy, encouraging public involvement, and adapting management based on conscious experimentation and routine monitoring. Ecosystem management, like sustainable development, recognizes that societal goals, environmental quality, and economic health are all inextricably interlinked. Natural resources management is fundamentally concerned with ecosystems interactions- of energy, air, water, mineral, plant, animal and microbial components. A key concept here is that any human activity influencing one component will also affect the other components. Since we live in an era of increasing social and environmental awareness, intelligent questions arise about whether or not human societies can be sustained without destruction of the natural resource bases they depend upon. In response to these questions, an understanding of the interactions between natural and social processes is required. While the natural processes are predominantly ecological, the social processes are mainly economic and political in nature. In confronting natural resources management issues, one can find two directions ahead: resource exploitation and/ conservation. Management philosophy has long been dominated by resource exploitation- take all that you can in a cost-effective manner and move on, is thus short-sighted that tends to ignore future human needs. As an alternative, conservation philosophy emphasizes the efficient use of natural resources while protecting their capability for renewal.
In this end in view, natural resource management is the manipulation of ecosystem components for human benefits. As a rule, the object of natural resource management is to obtain the ideal (optimum) combination of goods and services for society on a sustained basis. Goods include all material resources, where services include energy resources and other non-material functions. For example, undisturbed wetland ecosystems can function to provide a number of pollution, water supply and flood control services while also containing genetic diversity. So far we have defined, natural resource management has two basic aspects: (1) sustaining or restoring the integrity of the energy, air, water, plants, animals and microbes (the ecosystem complex), and (2) supplying products such as wood, food, water, minerals, wildlife consistent with demand and sustained production far into the future. In theory and practice, renewable resources can be used while the integrity of the ecosystem that sustains their renewal is preserved.
In fact, the most difficult of all decisions today is to acknowledge the obvious. It is obvious that the world’s national economics are based on the goods and services derived from ecosystems. It is also obvious that human life itself depends on continuing capacity of ecosystems to provide their multitude of benefits. Yet, for too long in both rich and poor countries, development priorities have focused on how much humanity can take from our ecosystems, with little attention to the impact of our actions. Fortunately, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank (WB), and the World Resources Institute (WRI) have recently reconfirmed their commitment to making the viability of the world’s ecosystems as critical development priority for the 21st Century. The content of this book, thus, goes beyond the typical inventory of natural resources as encountered in many introductory texts, to include a broader view of natural resource ecology from policy and management perspective. This chapter focuses attention on major trends of the global environmental scenario, natural resources perspective, resource concepts, resource types, problems, role of individual in resource conservation, and ecosystem as a natural resources management approach.
A: Global Environmental Scenario: Major Trends
Many environmental and resource problems now confront us. The beginning of the new millennium and a new century became the occasion for taking inventory in many areas of human concern, including, in particular, economic development and the global environment. It is striking to note that the conditions of our planet Earth that emerged from a number of surveys were troubling. Four global environmental trends are of particular concern: (i) population growth and increasing per capita consumption, (ii) a decline of vital life support ecosystems, (iii) loss of biodiversity; and (iv) global warming and climate change.
Population Growth and Increasing Consumption: The world’s human population has grown substantially in the past century (over 6.1 billion persons in 2001, has grown by 2 billion in just the last 25 years) and is continuing to grow (over 7 billion in December 2011) at an alarming rate, adding nearly 78 million persons per year, according to an estimate. Most of the growth is taking take place in the poorer countries, particularly in cities. Even though the growth rate of the population is slowing gradually, the world population in 2050 could be as high as 8.9 (9) billion, according to the projections from the UN population Division (2000). Whether there will be sufficient resources to support additional members on a sustainable basis or not is one of the most fundamental questions we face now. For instance, global demand for food will continue to increase with the increase in human population. According to IFPRI, between 1995 and 2020, global demand for cereals is projected to increase by 40 percent, with 85 percent of the increase in demand coming from developing countries. Global agriculture will face an enormous challenge to meet the growing food needs of an additional 1.7 million people. This will create pressure on the cropland worldwide. Pressure will increase especially in countries where arable land is in short supply. In 14 countries, arable land per capita is expected to be less than 0.07 ha including Bangladesh. Further, how we might stabilize population and what level of resource consumption we can afford are equally difficult parts of this challenging equation. The roughly 3 billion new faces that are likely to be added to the human population by 2050 will all have to be fed, clothed, housed, and supported by gainful employment. Virtually, all of these will be in the developing countries, where birth rates are still higher than death rate. In these same countries, approximately 1.2 billion people presently experience severe poverty, lacking sufficient income to meet their basic needs for food, clothing and shelter. Food insecurity are already too familiar in many places of the world, and may increase in frequency and intensity if population growth, global warming, soil erosion and nutrient depletion continue at the same rate as had in the past. Presently, over 800 million people (one out of every five) remain under-nourished. At the same time, global economic production continues to rise, tripling since 1980. In spite of that growth, the gap between the average incomes of the wealthiest 20 percent and the poorest 20 percent in the world is widening. In 1990, it was 60 to 1; in 1999 it widened to 74 to 1. Stabilizing population growth in the developing countries is the most important prerequisite for closing the economic gap between those nations and the industrialized countries.
The Decline of Ecosystems: Around the world, we see that vital resources are stressed out by the dual demands of growing population and increasing consumption per person. There is ample evidence to show that ground water supplies have depleted; agricultural soils have degraded, oceans have over-fished, and tropical rain forests have destructed lot faster than they can regenerate. There is also well founded fear that water deficits and contamination of existing fresh water supplies will be threatening for future agricultural production, as well as for domestic and industrial uses. Many countries already have experienced serious water shortages and more than one billion people lack access to clean water or adequate sanitation. It is feared that violent conflicts over control of natural resources will be escalated among nations in many places of the world if we do not learn how to adapt ourselves with the changing circumstances. Pilot Analysis for Global Ecosystems (PAGE) researchers has already addressed these trends through the examination of the status of five major global ecosystems that support human life and the economy: agro-ecosystems, forest ecosystems, freshwater ecosystems, coastal/marine systems and grasslands. One of the most striking findings of PAGE is that human activities are now beginning to significantly alter the bio-chemical cycles- affecting water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur- on which all ecosystems depend.
Loss of Biodiversity: The rapidly growing human population, along with increasing consumption, is changing land uses by accelerating the conversion of forests, grasslands, and wetlands to agriculture and urban development. Each year overgrazing by livestock degrades a vast tract of land. Such practices reduce wildlife habitat, and biodiversity. Human activities have already significantly altered the biochemical cycles of the environment. Destruction of tropical rain forests, coral reefs, wetlands, and other biologically rich sanctuaries are good examples. Thousands of wild species become extinct each year, largely because of human activities. Even many rare and endangered species are threatened directly or indirectly by human activities. Moreover, hundreds of species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds, and butterflies, as well as innumerable plants are exploited for their commercial value each year. The Earth is rapidly losing many of its species- no one knows how many. Loss of genetic diversity could severely limit our future options. Now, the obvious question why is loosing biodiversity is so critical? This is simply because all domestic plants and animals that are now used in agriculture were derived from wild species. There are also aesthetic and moral obligations for maintaining biodiversity. These examples help to explain why most environmental scientists believe that over the next few decades, the danger of environmental degradation and natural resources depletion will be greatest, even for potentially renewable resources.
Global Warming and Atmospheric Changes: Further, toxic air pollutants along with huge amounts of solid and hazardous wastes are becoming overwhelming problems in industrialized and in some developing countries. Acids formed in the air as a result of fossil fuel combustion already have caused extensive damage to building materials and sensitive ecosystems in many places. Continued use of fossil fuel without pollution control measures could cause even more extensive damage. Historically, pollution has been a relatively local problem, affecting a given river, lake or the air in a city. Today, scientists are analyzing pollution on global scale (e.g. emissions of greenhouse gases, stratospheric ozone depletion etc). Today, there is strong scientific evidence that the concentration of 'greenhouse gases' that determines the earth's average temperature have risen substantially in recent decades. It may be pointed out that the danger of global climate change is mainly due to excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) emission- an unavoidable by-product of burning fossil fuels- crude oil, coal and natural gas. Because of large amount of fossil fuels currently being burned, CO2 levels in the atmosphere have grown remarkably. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in 2005 was 379 ppm much higher than the natural range of the last 650,000 years: 180 to 300. Warming in the last 100 years has caused about a 0.74 Degree C increase in global average temperature, up from the 0.6 Degree C increase in the same duration, prior to the IPCC Third Assessment Report of 2001. Between 1850 and 1990, mean global temperature (after correcting for urban heat island effects) has risen from 0.4 to 0.7 Degree C (0.7 -1.3 Degree F) The last decade of the 20th Century (1990-2000) and the beginning of the 21st Century (2001-2011) have been the warmest period in the entire global instrumental record. The scientific consensus on climate change is that “climate is changing and that these changes are in large part caused by human activities and it is largely irreversible” (IPCC, 2007). Concern about global climate change led representatives of 198 nations to meet in Durban, Africa in December of 2011 to negotiate a treaty to reduce emissions of CO2 by 2015, and create a $100 billion a year Green Climate Fund.
B: Natural Resource Management: A Perspective
Life on Earth depends on a variety of environmental goods and services (e.g. air, water, soil, forest, crops, wildlife, minerals, oil, coal, etc.). Since these are provided by the nature, are generally known as natural resources. Natural resource management emphasizes the control and direction of resource development. In other words, natural resource management represents the actual decisions made by appropriate authority concerning policy or practice regarding how resources are allocated and under what conditions and arrangements resources may be developed. As Mitchell (1989) explained, resource management may be defined as a process of decision making whereby resources are allocated over space and time according to the needs, aspirations, and desires of man within the framework of his technological inventiveness, his political and social institutions, and his legal and administrative arrangements. As such, resource management should be visualized as a conscious process of decision involving judgements of preference and commitment, whereby certain desired resource output are sought from certain perceived resource combinations through the choice among various managerial, technical and administrative alternatives.
Many people believe that resource management should be viewed above power and politics, and may include either the management of production from a specific resource point of view such as a forest or the overall planning of the development and use of resources in an area or region. In general, resources management is executed by elected or appointed officials in the public or private sectors. It is expected that in reaching decisions, the resource manager will frequently seek guidance from the resource analyst, although the latter's advice usually represents only one of many inputs to be considered in the decision process. Although the activities of analyst, manager and developer may overlap, it is useful to differentiate their dimensions: physical habitat, human culture, and economic scarcity. If these three categories are combined with the ideas advanced by Zimmermann and Mitchell, different perspectives emerge: bio-physical, economic, social, political, legal, institutional, and technological. Whether considering a resource sector (land, water, air, forest, minerals), a resource topic (demand, supply, quantity, quality), a resource problem (carrying capacity, community involvement) or a resource issue (conflicts among different stakeholders), these perspectives emphasize the substantial mix and difficulty of considerations involved in reaching decisions. Further, to develop a through grasp of even one perspective, temporal or spatial scale represents a monumental task.
Resource Concepts
As already mentioned above, land, forest, wildlife, minerals are all examples of natural resources. Our streams, rivers, lakes, underground water, and oceans make up our water resources. Zimmermann (1933) provided a functional interpretation of resources that is still relevant today. He argued that neither the environment nor its parts are resources until they are or considered to be capable of satisfying human needs. In other words, resources are an expression of appraisal and represent an entirely subjective concept. According to Zimmermann (1951), coal for example, was not a resource without people whose wants and capabilities gave it utility. He thus viewed the concept of a resource from a subjective, relative and functional perspective. He also added that natural resources are dynamic, becoming available to man through a combination of increased knowledge and expanding technology as changing individual and societal objectives. Consequently, resources evolve from a three-way interaction of natural, human and cultural assets- not static but expand and contract in response to human wants and human actions. In summary, natural resources may be defined by human perceptions and attitudes, wants, technological skills, legal, financial and institutional arrangements, as well as by political customs. What is a natural resource in one culture may be secular stuff' in another culture.
Although Economists have identified some other characteristics of resources i.e. utility, scarcity, externality and transferability, in this book, we apply an inclusive notion- resource is anything or raw material that we get from our nature or the environment (Earth’s life-support systems) to meet our needs or desires. Humanity has now grown over 7 billion because of the mobilization of these resources to provide themselves with the physical and conventional necessities of life i.e. food, water, habitation, infrastructure and other material welfare. All forms of life need resources such as food, water, and shelter for their survival and good health. Some resources, such as solar energy, fresh air, clean water, fertile soil, and wild plants are directly available to us for our use and other organisms. Other resources such as crude oil, iron ore, groundwater, and modern crops, are not directly available to us, and their supplies are limited; they become useful only with some effort and technological ingenuity of human being. Petroleum, for example, was a mysterious fluid until we learned how to find it, extract it, and refine it into gasoline and other products that could be sold at affordable prices. Early societies, used wood rather than oil for fuel, so oil was not one of their resources. Historically, people have increased the extent of the Earth’s resources, turning to new ones to meet their needs, when the old were exhausted.
Biotic and Abiotic Resources
Natural resources include biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) things that interact and affect human welfare. Biotic resources are living organisms such as fish, wildlife, and trees. Abitoc resources include minerals, air, water and solar radiation, although some nonliving resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas were formed from once-living matter exposed to anaerobic environments under pressure for million of years. Soil resources include a mix of biotic and abiotic properties, which have unique attributes such as arability, fertility, and drainage. Regardless of their divisions, natural resources are divided (for the purpose of this text), into a number of basic categories: soil/ land (agricultural), water, air, forest, fisheries, biodiversity, wilderness, minerals and energy, keeping in mind their relevancy to Bangladesh.
Natural Resources vs Manufactured Goods
Natural resources can be easily differentiated from manufactured goods. The later are produced with added value using human ingenuity and labour. Livestock, fisheries, food crops, and even trees are considered as natural resources, as oppose to furniture and prepared meals that incorporate substantial human inputs. Coal, oil, and solar radiation are good examples of natural resources, but the electricity generated from them is not. Sand and limestone are natural resources, but the concrete made from them is not. Similarly, the plastics, fibers, glasses, and various refined metals that compose many of our manufactured goods are not natural resources regardless of the uses of natural resources in their production.
Resource Consumption, Use and Renewalne material that occurs naturally, soil and most rocks consist of two or more minerals. A mineral resource becomes economically depleted when the cost of finding, extracting, transporting, and processing the leftover exceed the amount earned from them.
Non-renewable Resources
Resources that exist in the Earth’s crust in a fixed quantity, which can be used up completely with no re-generation possibility is called non-renewable (exhaustible) resources (Figure 4.1). Such resources can be renewed by geological processes, on a time scale of millions to billions of years. However, these resources can be depleted much faster than they are formed, on the much shorter human time scale of hundreds to thousands of years. In general, exhaustible resources are the Earth’s geologic endowment including most energy sources (coal, oil, natural gas, uranium), metallic minerals (gold, silver, iron, copper and aluminium), and non-metallic mineral resources (sand, soil- silt, clay- salt, magnesium, phosphates, potash, and water) and other materials present in fixed amounts in the environment. Although a mineral refers to any hard, usually crystalline material that occurs naturally, soil and most rocks consist of two or more minerals. A mineral resource becomes economically depleted when the cost of finding, extracting, transporting, and processing the leftover exceed the amount earned from them.
In theory, these exhaustible resources place a strict upper limit on the number of humans and the amount of industrial activity our environment can support. Predictions are abundant that we are in eminent danger of running out of one or another of these exhaustible resources. In practice, however, the available supplies of many materials such as metals can be effectively expanded by more efficient use such as generate less waste, recycle, reuse existing supplies, develop substitute of one material for another, better extraction or do as usual and wait millions of years for more to be produced. Some non-renewable material resources, such as copper and aluminum can be recycled or reused to extend supplies, but some other non-renewable energy resources, such as coal, oil, and natural gas cannot be recycled or reused. Once burned, the useful energy in these fuels is gone, leaving behind waste heat and polluting exhausts gases.
Renewable Resources
As discussed above, resources may be consumed totally during their use, or remain to be used again. When coal is burned or grasses are eaten by livestock are considered as consumed, and cannot be used again in their original form. However, a wilderness park may be visited, endangered species preserved, or a fish caught and returned without consumption. They could be used over and over with human benefit from each use. This flow of materials often leads to the ideas of recycling and renewal of natural resources through ecological processes.
The renewable resources (tangible) include sunlight- our ultimate solar source of energy- and the biological organisms and the geo-biochemical cycles powered by sun- direct solar energy. Solar energy, for example, is called a renewable resource because it is essentially inexhaustible on a human time scale. It is expected to last at least 6.5 billion years when the sun completes its life cycle. Renewable resources also include winds, tides, flowing water, soils, air, water, farm products, forests, fisheries, wildlife, and genetic resources (Figure 4.1). In contrast to minerals or fossil fuels, biological organisms are self-renewing. These resources can be managed to meet basic human needs on a sustainable basis. With careful management, we can harvest surplus animals and plants again and again without reducing their available supply. Ironically, with human mismanagement these renewable resources may be more constrained than fixed geological resources. Their overuse by humans also causes depletion or degradation beyond repair. Ecologists believe, deforestation, overgrazing or improper farming practices can destroy an inch of fertile topsoil that takes roughly 1,000 years to form.
Intangible Resources: Constitute non-material or abstract resources including open space, serenity, beauty, genius, information, diversity, satisfaction etc. that can be, strangely, infinite and exhaustible. There no upper limit of to the amount of knowledge or love that can exist in this world, yes they can be easily exhausted. However, unlike tangible resources that are reduced by use or sharing, intangible resources are often increased by use and multiplied by sharing. These abstract sources can be important economically. For example, recreation, hospitality and tourism together has become one of the most powerful and largest industries in the world.
Figure 4.1: Types of Natural Resources
Potentially Renewable Resources
A potentially renewable resource can be renewed lot faster (fairly rapidly ranging from hours to several decades) through natural processes. Examples of such resources include forest trees, grassland grasses, wild animals, fresh stream water and lake, wetlands, groundwater, fresh air and fertile soil (Figure 4.1). Although most sources use the term renewable to denote these resources, I have chosen to use the word potentially to emphasize that these resources can be depleted or exhaustible if we use them faster than natural processes renew them.One important aspects of potentially renewable resource for us and other species is biological diversity or biodiversity, consisting of the life forms that can be best survive in the variety of conditions currently found on the Earth’s surface. Types of biodiversity include I) genetic diversity, ii) species diversity, and iii) ecological diversity. This rich variety of genes, species and ecological communities gives us food, wood, fibers, energy, raw materials, industrial chemicals, and medicines- all of which pour hundreds of billions of dollars into the world economy each year. Earth’s vast inventory of life forms and biological communities also provides free recycling and purification services and natural pest control (see for details in Chapter-9). Potentially renewable resources, however, can be quickly depleted or exhausted. The highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its normally available supply is called its sustainable yield. If a resource’s natural replacement rate is exceeded, the available supply begins to shrink- a process called resource depletion as a result of environmental degradation. Several types of environmental degradation can change potentially renewable resources in many ecosystems into unusable or non-renewable resources. Top soil, for instance, is now eroding faster than it forms on about 33 percent of the world's cropland. Salt build up has reduced crop yields on one-fourth of all irrigated cropland. Almost half of the world's tropical forests have been cleared. Thousands of wildlife species become extinct each year, mostly because of human activities. These examples help explain why most environmental scientists believe that over the next few decades, the danger of degradation and depletion is greatest / highest for potentially renewable resources. One of the major causes of environmental and resource degradation is the overuse of common-property resources, which are owned by none but available to all users free of charge e.g. clean air, fish in the open ocean, migratory birds etc.
Causes of Environmental and Natural Resources Problems
The environmental difficulties that confront us are not new, but only recently we have began to understand their complexity. Many of the environmental challenges we face today- deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, salinization, and loss of biodiversity- were problems even in ancient times. What are different now are the scale, speed and long-tem nature of modern civilization's challenge to the Earth's ecosystems. During the first 30,000 years of human history we were mostly hunters-gatherers who moved from place to place as needed to produce enough food for survival. Environmental degradation started to occur right after the Agricultural Revolution, but was much more gradual- occurring over hundred or thousands of years- and much more localized (e.g. Mesopotemea/ Sumerian civilization, Mayan civilization etc.). However, the cultural shift marked by the Industrial Revolution have began available to us much more energy and new technologies with which to alter and control more of the planet earth to meet our basic needs and increasing desires. Among the results, have been skyrocketing resource use, pollution and environmental degradation. The best way to deal with these environmental and resources problems we face today is to identify their underlying causes first. Environmentalists have included the following:
· Demographics: Population growth and consumption;
· Lifestyles: Poverty (desperation) vs. affluence (over consumption);
· Ignorance, inattention, lack of education and traditional knowledge;
· Modification and degradation of earth’s life support systems;
· Widespread use of fossil fuels giving rise to environmental pollution;
· Rapid and wasteful use of ecosystem resources, and lack of awareness;
· Overuse and degradation of global common property;
· Failure to discourage Earth’s degrading forms of economic growth;
· Globalization/ trade liberalization, market force, greed or enterprise;
· Land use change: deforestation, agricultural, urban and industrial conversion;
· Distorted market prices and undervalued services;
· Government subsidies and other policy failures;
· Our urge to dominate and manage nature for our use; and
· Failure to encourage Earth-sustaining forms of economic development.
Demographics and Consumption
Behind all the pressures impinging on ecosystems are two basic drivers: human population growth and increasing consumption- rising levels of production and rapid conversion. Currently, we are adding about 90 million people each year. Over the next 50 years, demographers expect the world population to grow from the current 7 billion (2001) to 9 billion (2050). About 97 percent of this growth will take place in developing countries, mostly in cities. This will certainly increase the demand for ecosystem products and further raise the stresses on global food and freshwater supplies. Between 1995 and 2020, global demand for cereals is projected to increase by 40 percent, with 85 percent of the increase in demand coming from developing countries. Meat demand is projected to increase by 58 percent during the same period. Global agriculture will face an enormous challenge to meet the growing food needs of additional 1.7 billion people. This will create stress on the cropland worldwide. Pressure will increase especially in countries where arable land is in short supply. In 14 countries arable land per capita is expected to be less than 0.07 ha including Bangladesh.
It is not only the pressure of population growth that degrades ecosystems, but also more a matter of consumption- how much and what we consume. Both poverty (a condition marked by under consumption which forces people to jeopardize the ecosystems on which they depend) and affluence (marked by over consumption) are contributors to resource degradation. Global increases in consumption have greatly outpaced population growth. According to an estimate, from 1980 to 1997, the global economy nearly tripled to some US$29 trillion, yet the world population increased only 35 percent. At the same time, the world economy has become more integrated; trade liberalization has made consumer markets more global; industries has become more international and less tied to a certain place or production facility. This economic globalization means that consumers drive goods and services from ecosystems around the world. This tends to hide the external (environmental) costs of increased production and consumption. Although it is not surprising that those doing the most consuming live in industrial countries, the disparity of consumption of ecosystem goods and services worldwide is striking.
Further, the rising living standards of the affluent and the cumulative actions of rapidly industrializing societies have given rise to more complex resource problems. Acid rain, global warming, ozone depletion and toxic wastes are examples of such problems with global and regional consequences. Closely related are also set of economic, social and political factors, market forces, government subsidies, globalization of production and trade, and corruption that influence what and how much we consume resources, where it comes from) that leads people to disregard the natural limits that sustain ecosystems. Other issues such as poverty, land tenure, arm conflicts are also significant factors in how people treats the ecosystems they live in, and extracts goods and services.
Greed or enterprise
Earth degrading forms of economic growth is also responsible for environmental stresses. At the multinational level, selling chemical fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural machinery, genetically modified crops etc. to make big companies richer (by pampering and catering their services) leads to environmental degradation. Loss of traditional knowledge of sustainable production systems: Also at the farmer's level, agriculture has shifted away from producing food to a business (shift to cash crops instead of food crops e.g. cotton instead of corn etc.) and this has cause poor management practices and adoption of the green revolution other environmentally damaging cropping systems. Ignorance or inattention, and lack of education: Our urge to dominate and manage the planet for our use, and unwise use of resources with too little emphasis on pollution prevention or waste reduction leads to destruction of natural habitats- simplification and degradation of part of Earth's life support systems, and loss of biodiversity.
Distorted Prices and Undervalued Services
Further, economic signals- reflected in prices and government policies are one of the major factors determining how we treat ecosystems. They are clearly behind our choices of what to consume and how to manage our lands and our businesses. But in most cases, market prices do not reflect the real costs of harvesting goods and services from the environment. This is because many of the less tangible aspects of ecosystems, particularly the services they provide, are not brought or sold in the market place, harder to assign a market value e.g. how much is carbon storage in forest worth? This is part of the reasons why most ecosystem services have been either undervalued in the past or neglected in decisions about whether to exploit or modify an ecosystem. The market has failed so to speak to register the real value of ecosystem services in its price systems. It is likely that market will not take into full account of many environmental costs (some say external or social costs) of forest clearing. For example, cutting down tropical rainforests might increase downstream flooding and sedimentation, but since these costs are borne by people living far downstream, they are more likely to be ignored by upstream farmers.
Government Policy, Subsidies and Institutional Failures
Government policies are often responsible for ecosystem decline through their effect on prices. For example, fiscal polices affect prices through tax incentives and subsidies. Tariffs increase the price of imported goods directly and import quotas increase them indirectly. Further, exchange-rate policies affect the value of all tradable commodities, often at pre-determined prices. All these actions can influence the decisions of farmers, fishers, lumbers, timber and mining companies, developers, and others who exploit the ecosystems. On the top, government subsidies contribute significantly to current stress on ecosystems, often encouraging environmental resource degrading activities e.g. generous loan to buy fishing boats, agricultural price support or depletion allowances for timber. Beyond their effect on prices, government policies can also impact ecosystems more directly, through such mechanisms as zoning ordinances, pollutions standards or other regulations that affect land use and business practices. Other factors also affect the ecosystems. Government institutions, for example, are systematically divided into sectors (ministries) that work against adopting any integrated view of ecosystems or their management. Corruption at this level is another common institutional failure that allows unchecked exploitation of ecosystems- often by small elite. In the event these laws and management policies are sound, may be undermined by government officials who turn a blind eye to illegal harvesting or themselves take part in the plunder through sweetheart deals or insider investment. The scale of corruption in the forest sector, for instance, is enormous. According to an estimate, in Indonesia for example, illegal logging accounts for more than half of the nation's timber production. As a result, the Indonesian government loses an estimated US$ 1-3 billion per year in timber royalties, and the forests suffer from haphazard cutting.
Conservation of Natural Resources: Role of an Individual
Natural resources play a vital role in the economic development of a nation. However, overuse of these resources in our modern society is resulting in fast depletion leading to many social problems. Until recently, mankind acted as if he could exploit the natural resources (like soil, water, forests, grasslands, minerals and fossil fuels) endlessly. However, in the last few decades, it has become increasingly evident that the global ecosystems have the capacity to sustain only a limited level of use. Bio-physical systems cannot go on replenishing resources if they are misused or overused. No natural resource is limitless. At a critical point growing pressure destabilizes their natural balance. Even natural resources traditionally classified as ‘renewable’- such as those from our oceans, forests, grasslands and wetlands- are being degraded by overuse and may be permanently destroyed. Non-renewable resources will be rapidly exhausted if we continue to use them at the present rate. The two most damaging factors leading to the current accelerated depletion of all forms of natural resources are rapid population growth and increasing consumption on the part of the affluent section of our society. However, both factors are the results of choices we make as individuals. As individuals we need to decide whether we would like to compromise with the ability of our future generations to meet their own needs. What will we leave to our children? Are we thinking of short-term material gain? Is our material gain someone else’s loss? No doubt that there is a great need to conserve the natural resources for the promotion of human wellbeing. In this regard, an individual can play a dominant role side by side with the Government. Environment belongs to each one of us and all of us have a responsibility to contribute towards its conservation and protection. With our small individual efforts we can collectively help in conserving our natural resources to a great extent. The following are some of the ways, for example, an individual can help in conserving different natural resources:
Reduce Consumption
Reduce uses
Avoid buying things that you don’t need or won’t use; use library instead of purchasing books
Avoid disposable items; choose items build to last; carry reusable bags; buy items in bulk;
Conserve water
Don’t keep water tap running when bathing, washing, shaving or brushing your teeth;
Check for water leaks in pipes and repair them promptly; use water-saving devices e.g. flushes
Water the plants in your home garden only when necessary, and the lawns in the evening
Improve irrigation efficiency by drip and sprinkling methods to reduce evaporation; and
Install rain water harvesting system in your house; collect and use rain water when it is appropriate to do so;
Conserve energy
Turn off lights, fans and other household appliances when not in use;
Use tube lights and energy efficient bulbs that save energy; keep these clean at all times;
Switch off the television or radio as soon as the program of interest is over.
Dry your cloths in sun instead of drier, if it is a sunny day;
Build your house with the provision for sunspace in order to allow more sunlight and keep your house warmer;
Use solar cooker for cooking your food whenever it is possible to do so; a pressure cooker can save up to 75 percent of the energy required for cooking; it is also faster; keeping the vessel covered with a lid during cooking helps to save energy.
Drive less, make fewer trips and use public transportation where possible;
Try riding bicycle or just walk down small distances instead of using your car;
Protect the soil and promote sustainable agriculture (organic farming)
Don’t uproot the trees while constructing your house; plant the disturbed areas with a fast growing native ground cover- grass to prevent soil erosion;
Grow different types of herbs, medicinal and ornamental plants in your garden;
Reduce the use of chemical fertilizers; herbicides, pesticides and insecticides;
Control pests by a combination of cultivation and biological control methods;
Use green manure (organic fertilizer) for your home garden;
Don’t irrigate the crops using a strong flow water , as it would erode the soil;
Use mixed cropping so that some nutrients are retained in the soil;
Don’t waste food; eat as much as you can;
Eat local seasonal fruits and vegetables; this saves lot of energy on transport, storage and preservation;
C: Ecosystems as Natural Resources- An Approach
Ecosystems Defined
Ecosystems are physical areas with unifying ecological characteristics on which human have placed boundaries for management purposes. They are not just assemblages of species; they are systems combined of organic and inorganic matter, and natural forces that interact and change. Ecosystems surround us as forests, grasslands, streams, rivers, lakes, coastal and deep-sea waters, islands, and mountains- even cities. Each ecosystem represents a solution to a particular challenge to life, worked out over millennia; each encodes the lessons of survival and efficiency as countless species scramble for sunlight, water, food, nutrients, and shelter. From a management perspective, the watershed, for instance may be used as the common geographic unit for water resources. Since no sharp geographic boundaries exist between different ecosystems, studies must necessarily be limited both in area and content. After the purpose of a study is defined, arbitrary limits must be set. Whatever boundaries are placed on ecosystems, the interactions among the biotic and abiotic components sustain a wholeness that is greater than the sum of the component parts. The energy that runs the system comes from the sun; is then absorbed and turned into carbohydrate (food) by plants and other photosynthesising organisms at the base of food chains. Water is the crucial element flowing through the system. Thus, Ecosystems are regarded as dynamic entity, constantly remaking themselves, reacting to natural disturbances and the competition among and between species. The purpose of thinking in terms of an ecosystem as natural resources is to link obligatory, interdependent, and causal relationships that form the whole- much as individual ingredients go together to make a cake. Shifts in the constituents of either, change the end product.
Sources of Wealth and Well-Being
Ecosystems are the productive engines- solar powered factories of the planet Earth- that yield the most basic necessities of life- food, fiber, water, livestock, fish, lumber, fuelwood and fodder. Genetic resources that flow from the biodiversity of the world’s ecosystems provide direct benefits by contributing genes for improving the yield and disease resistance of crops, and for developing medicines and other products. Indirect benefits arise from interactions and feedback among organisms living in an ecosystem. Many of them take the form of services, like water filtration and purification, and water storage that plants and soil microorganisms provide in a watershed, or the pollination and seed dispersal that many insects, birds and mammals provide. Ecosystems also provide essential environmental services by making the earth habitable: purifying air and water, maintaining biodiversity, controlling climate, decomposing and recycling nutrients, and providing other critical functions. Some benefits are global in nature, such as biodiversity or the storage of atmospheric carbon in plants and soils. Others are regional such as watershed protection that prevents flooding far downstream. But many ecosystem benefits are local, and these are often the most important, affecting people directly in many aspects of their daily lives. For instance, homes, industries, and farms usually get their water supplies from local sources. Urban and sub-urban parks and the enjoyment of backyards trees and wildlife are all local products. Jobs associated with agriculture including sub-sectors such as forestry, fishing, and livestock are local benefits as well. These sectors are responsible for one of every two jobs worldwide, and seven of ten job in sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific. In a quarter of the world’s nations, crop, timber and fish still contribute more to their local economy than manufactured goods. According to an estimate, global agriculture alone produces US$1.3 trillion in food and fiber each year. Other benefits are less tangible, but highly valued. Ecosystems feed our mind and soul as well, providing places for meditation, aesthetic enjoyment (scenic joy of sunset), and recreation. In fact, we are utterly dependent on ecosystems for most of our services. In almost every respect, human development, economic security and aesthetic values are closely linked to the productivity of ecosystems. Our future rests heavily on their continued viability. However, it is easy to lose touch with our link to ecosystems, despite their importance. For the millions of us who depend directly on forests or fisheries for our survival, the vital importance of ecosystems is a fact of daily life. But for the millions of us who live in cities, our link to ecosystems is indirect. We buy our food and clothing in stores and depend on technology to deliver water and energy. We take it for guaranteed that there are ample foods in the market, and market will take care of everything. Too often, we are only reminded of our link to natural systems when a fishery collapses, a reservoir goes dry, or air pollution begins to make us sick. Then we suddenly become aware of the real value of these resources and the potential economic and biological costs of mismanagement.
The Decline of Ecosystems
Unfortunately, mismanagement of ecosystems abounds. Around the world, we see that vital resources are stressed by the dual demands of increasing population and increasing consumption per person. Worldwide, human overuse and abuse of major ecosystems have degraded or destroyed hectare upon hectare of once-productive habitat. Destruction of tropical rain forests, coral reefs, wetlands, and other biologically rich sanctuaries are going on at an alarming rate. This certainly has harmed wildlife as the number of endangered species attests. But it has also harmed human interests by depleting the flow of the very goods and services we depend on. There are ample evidence that ground water supplies have depleted; agricultural soils have degraded, oceans over-fished, and forests cut faster than they can regenerate. Human activities are now beginning to significantly alter the geo-biochemical cycles- water, carbon etc.
Issues: Whatever the causes are, declining in the productive capacity of ecosystems can have devastating human costs. Too often, the poor are first and most directly affected by the degradation of ecosystems. Impoverished people are generally the most dependent on ecosystems for subsistence and cash, but usually exert the least control over how ecosystems are used or who reaps the benefits of that use. Because so many ecosystem goods and services are consumed locally, it follows that local inhabitants are the worst sufferers when these benefits are lost. By the same token, it is local inhabitants who usually have the greatest incentive to preserve the ecosystems they depend on. In fact, local people hold high potential both for managing ecosystems sustainability and for damaging them through careless uses. But the irony is, local communities rarely exert full control over the ecosystems they inhabit; with the market for ecosystem goods becoming increasingly global, external economic forces and government involvement can overwhelm (ensure) the best local intentions. Many issues have developed out of imbalances in resource supply and demand. Resource sustainability requires understanding of the underlying mechanisms determining continued supply and effect of human demand on those mechanisms. For renewable resources, much of that understanding comes from ecology and policy (by which societies organize guidance in balancing supply and demand based on ecological and economic information).
As far as is known, human use is the primary source of pressure on ecosystems today far outstripping the natural processes of ecosystem change. In the modern world, virtually every human use of the products and services of ecosystems translates into an impact on those ecosystems. Thus, very use becomes either an opportunity for enlightened management or an occasion for degradation. The challenge for the 21st Century, then, is to understand the vulnerabilities and resilience of ecosystems, so that we can find ways to reconcile the demands of human development with the tolerance of nature. This requires learning to monitor our activities through the living lens of ecosystems. At the end, it means adopting an ecosystem-oriented approach to managing the environment- an approach that respects the natural boundaries of ecosystems and takes into account their inter-connections and feedbacks.
Managing Ecosystems: Trade-offs and Choices
Ecosystem management is more than safeguarding a handful of isolated remnants of natural plant and animal communities. It is also more than a series of approaches and techniques used to produce particular desired outcomes. It is an inescapable fact that human beings are dependent upon the workings of the global ecosystems, or biosphere. It is also obvious that the human species has developed a capacity to change the dynamics of ecosystems through exploitation at a scale and speed never seen before. This is mostly done to derive the greatest possible commercial benefit or to make use of goods selfishly or unethically. If we use a resource in this way there can be no guarantee of its continuing availability. Further, if management of a species is based solely on market forces, rather than upon a regulated response to sustainable yield, the population may eventually extinct.
As far as is known, people often manage ecosystems with good intention- to enhance their capacity of producing goods and services. However, the degrees of management vary widely across national geographic space. In the process, some ecosystems are affected heavily, while others remain relatively unaltered, and management range through various types of use- e.g. from non-destructive tree plantations to clear-cutting forests. In any case, human influence is pervasive among all ecosystems types. Further, the decision to manage an ecosystem involves trade-offs; not all benefits can be obtained at the same time, and maximizing one benefit may reduce or eliminate others. Converting a natural forest to tree plantation, for example, may increase the production of marketable pulp and timber, bringing high monetary returns per ha, but it generally reduces biodiversity and habitat value compared with a national reserve forest. To a limited extent, such trade-offs may be necessary to efficiently produce certain goods, and historically we have been very successful at selectively increasing those ecosystems good we value most. However, it is only recently that we have started to focus on the dangers of such trade-offs. The environmental awareness and knowledge we have gained over the last few decades have taught us that there are limits to the amount of alteration or modification that ecosystems can tolerate and still remain productive. The loss of a hectare of forest habitat may not affect the functioning of the system drastically or immediately, but it may enforce the system toward a threshold from which it cannot recover.
Biological threshold remind us that it is the cumulative effects of human activities that cause in most ecosystem decline. A series of small changes, each seemingly harmless, can result in huge impacts that are irreversible- the tyranny of quick decisions. Determining the threshold between sustainability is not an easy task- a good reason why ecosystem is difficult to manage responsibly. Although ecosystems are naturally resilient and have the capacity to tolerate considerable disturbance, it is difficult to estimate how much. Our understanding of ecosystems is far from being complete, and is still too limited to answer this critical question. At a global level we still lack even the most basic statistics on ecosystems- how much and where they have been altered, for example, or how their productivity has changed over time. So, at both an individual ecosystem level and at a larger national or regional level, we find it extremely difficult to predict how close to the edge our management system has brought us, or to determine the extent of the trade-offs we have made so far.
Despite the fact, a well-managed ecosystem can provide a range of benefits over the long term. For example, we can choose to emphasize one or a few benefits over other- timber production vs. scenery or more food vs. continuous forest. Poor management choices in the past have often degraded ecosystems, yielding fewer goods and services. Retaining the productive capacity of ecosystems in the face of the trade-offs we make demarcate the difference between good and poor management. But we are still struggling to find out what does it take to manage ecosystems so that they remain resilient and productive. There is hardly any standard measure of ecosystem resilience. We need to know how much productivity should we expect from ecosystems, and how much degradation can we afford? How much can we repair what we have broken, and how much will it cost? Certainly, these are not scientific questions alone although answering these queries requires a fundamental knowledge of ecosystems processes, interactions, and relationship between various goods and services. They are also matters of serious societal judgement of economics, politics and of ethics.
Regardless of our choices, our opportunities to improve our management of ecosystems are substantial. Our understanding of how ecosystems function, of the links between them and their biological limits, and of their total value has improved significantly in just a few decades. Remote sensing, satellite images, improved measurement techniques such as geographic information systems (GIS) have heightened our ability to monitor ecosystems and measure the results of our management. Ecosystem restoration (e.g. habitat creation) techniques have been also advanced with the hope that some recovery of productivity is possible. Moreover, governments, NGOs and communities have begun to understand the link between ecosystem’s health and their own economic prosperity and quality of life. Many circles have already started to define for themselves what sustainable ecosystem management might be- a regional approach to watershed management or demand for eco-tourism, for example. Even initiatives to preserve farmland and curb suburban sprawl have begun in many urban areas. In the United States for example, ambitious projects to restore threatened ecosystems such as the Rhine River or the Florida Everglades have generated political and financial backing- evidences of a growing desire to experience and conserve ecosystems, and a willingness to pay for it.
In spite of these promising signs, the challenge of defining equitable and sustainable ecosystem management at all geographic levels should not be minimized. Our dependence on ecosystems is growing, not diminishing; once the productivity of ecosystems is lost through poor management, it is difficult and costly to recover. Tackling these issues will require new management strategies that go far beyond political boundaries and without losing local content or support. However, we know surprisingly little about the overall state of the Earth's ecosystems or their capacity to provide for the future. We need to know how viable are Earth's ecosystems today? How best can we manage ecosystems so that they remain healthy and productive in the face of increasing human demand? The following Chapters, mainly 5, 6, 7 and 8, present the results of pilot assessment of the world's major ecosystems. It is the hope that such background knowledge can help to reveal the trade-offs we have so far made and crystallize the management choices that remain to us.
Further Readings
3/ Natural Resources Management
Brown, Lester R., and hal Kane. 1994. Full House: Reassessing the Earth's Population Carrying Capacity. New York: W.W. Norton.
Daily, G., ed. 1997. Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on natural Ecosystems. Washington, DC.: Island Press.
Ecological Society of America (ESA). 1997. "Ecosystem Services: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems". Issues in Ecology 2 (Spring).
Ehrlich, Paul R., and Anne H. Ehrlich. 1970. Population, Resources and Environment. Sanfrancisco: W.H. Freeman & Co.
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). 1998. Production Year Book. United Nations FAO Statistics Series, No. 51. Rome, Italy.
Hardin, Garrett. 1968. "The Tragedy of the Commons". Science, vol. 62, 1243-1248.
Hardin, Garrett. 1993. Living within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos. New York: Oxford University Press.
Holechek, Jerry L., Richard A. Cole, James T. Fisher, and Raul Valdez. 2000. Natural Resources: Ecology, Economics and Policy. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Knight, Richard L. and Sara F. Bates. 1995. A New Century for Natural Resources Management. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Miller Jr., G. Tyler. 1990. Resource Conservation and Management. Belmont, California: Wadsworth
Publishing Company.
Miller Jr., G. Tyler. 1996. Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections and Solutions. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Mitchell, Bruce. 1989. Geography and Resource Analysis. Longman House, England: Longman Scientific & Technical.
Myers, Norman. 1993. Ultimate Security: The Environmental Basis of Political Stability. New York: Norton.
Myers, Norman and Julian Simon. 1994. Scarcity or Abundance? A Debate on the Environment. New York: Norton Publishing Company.
Nebel, B.J. and R.T. Wright. 1998. Environmental Science: The Way the World Works. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Owen, O.S., D.D. Chiras, and J.P. Reganold, 1998. Natural Resource Conservation. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Porritt, Jonathan. 1991. Save the Earth. Altanta: Tumer Publishing.
Schiller, B.R. 1994. The Economy Today. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Simon, J.L. 1981. The Ultimate Resource. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Simon, J. L. and A. Kahn, eds. 1984. The Resourceful Earth. New York, NY: Basil Blackwell.
U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) 2000. Human Development Report 1998. New York: UNDP.
U.N. Population Division (UNPD). 1998. World Population Prospects: The 1998 Revision. New York: UNPD.
Ward, Barbara, and Rene Dubos. 1972. Only One Earth. The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet. New York: Norton.
Wood, S., K. Sebastian and S. Scherr. 2000. Pilot Analysis of Ecosystems: Agro-ecosystems Technical Report. Washington, D.: World Resources Institute (WRI) and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
World Bank (WB). 1999. World Development Indicators 1999. Washington, DC.: The World Bank.
World Resources Institute (WRI). 1989. The Crucial Decade: The 1990s and the Global Environmental Challenge. Washington, DC.: World Resources Institute.
World Resources Institute (WRI), UNDP, UNEP, and the World Bank. 2000. World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems. Kidlington, Oxford: Elsevier Science.
Zimmermann, E.W. 1951. World Resources and Industries. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers.
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