Linking the concept of ecological footprint and valuation of ecosystem services: A case study of economic growth and natural carrying capacity

Human activities have become so extensive that all ecosystems on the planet have been altered to some extent. The fate of humankind will be determined by how sustainable ecosystems and the renewable resources in them are managed. The implication of this is obvious: humanity must live within nature's carrying capacity. In recent years, humans have recognised that growth of the economy depends on natural capital, and it is important that we now recognise that we are part of an international ecological economics community, so as to better integrate the economy and ecology. However, there are few successful examples of this. The aim of this paper is to show a method for integrated analysis between economic growth and natural carrying capacity by linking the concepts of ecological footprint and valuation of ecosystem services. When applied to China for the period 1987–2003, the empirical evidence suggests that the size of the Chinese economy surpassed the carrying capacity in 1992. Perhaps, we should abandon our high-growth predilection and initiate a transition to a steady-state economy.     

Modeling the impact of feeding stations on vulture scavenging service efficiency

Vultures, the only vertebrate obligate scavengers, are currently facing a dramatic worldwide decline with over half of vulture species now classified as threatened. To address this widespread decline, the use of feeding stations has been widely advocated in recovery programs. However, providing food that is more predictable in time and space than natural resources could disrupt the ecological scavenging service provided by vultures. In this study, we build a multi-agent system (MAS), which describes the social foraging behavior of Gyps vultures in order to investigate how resource predictability in space and resource management affect scavenging service efficiency. We study the possibility that vultures take into account feeding station location in addition of using local enhancement. Our results show that the efficiency of the scavenging service is heavily affected by the way resources are distributed between feeding stations and natural areas. Nevertheless, it appears possible to minimize a loss in service efficiency by increasing the number of feeding stations while keeping the total amount of resources available constant, thus reducing the predictability of the resources located on the stations. We illustrate our work in the case of European feeding stations that provide supplementary resources in areas where natural ones are scarce. Moreover, we discuss the implications worldwide, in particular in the case of India, where feeding stations for vultures are intended to lure individuals away from potentially harmful natural carrion.     

Climate change and its consequences for water and wastewater management

Life, in combination with solar radiation and abiotic processes, is most probably the reason why liquid water has existed on Earth for over billions of years, and the global mean temperature has remained in a lifeenabling range. Efforts to limit or even reverse global warming must be derived from the knowledge of the Earth’s complex life-support system. In this context, the balance between liquid and gaseous water plays a crucial role, and water management becomes an important field of innovation and action, globally, on the scale of watersheds but also on the very local level. Cascading use, reuse, and temporary storage of water in urban settings must be considered to limit over-extraction of water from natural resources, and to maintain the life supporting function of ecosystems. At the same time, public health requirements, cost efficiency, and reliability demands are to be met.     

Local use of agricultural lands and natural resources as the commons in Gunung Halimun National Park,West Java,Indonesia

The theory of the commons encompasses two interpretations: one based on 'manifest customs', whilst the other relates to 'latent customs'. The former asserts that individuals behave as rational economic units, pursuing their own profit based on economic mechanisms, whilst social restrictions relating to the use of resources within communities act to prevent the total destruction of the natural environment. In contrast, the latter holds that people behave according to the morality or ethics embedded within the society, and that this contributes to sustainable resource management.

A field survey conducted in West Java as part of the present study revealed that a system of communal ownership of lands and resources is widely practiced on land that is strictly private property, including paddy fields, cultivated swiddens, gardens and so forth, facilitated by the distribution of land, lending and borrowing of land and collaborative labour systems. This customary management system is considered a prime example of the commons resource management. Furthermore, communal lands were also seen to play a significant role in the distribution of land and resources amongst community members to supplement daily needs. In addition, these customary land-use systems, as the commons, are considered to contribute towards mitigating the gap between rich and poor.     

Eco-ethical issues: Self-regulating versus subsidized ecosystems

Sustainable use of the planet requires dependable delivery of ecosystem services at a level necessary to meet the needs of humankind. During the last two centuries, particularly in the twentieth century, ecosystems have been fragmented and stressed in a variety of ways, including biotic impoverishment. Self-regulating ecosystems are capable of maintaining nominative structure and function, including normal variability. Those ecosystems incapable of self regulation will require subsidies, which will divert resources from other activities that may also be important to sustainable use of the planet. If ecosystems are not subsidized, the loss of natural capital and ecosystem services will almost certainly impair the quest for sustainable use of the planet. Although most discussions of sustainability reflect an awareness of humankind's dependence on natural systems, ecosystem self regulation has not received an adequate amount of attention.     

Food availability at birth limited reproductive success in historical humans

Environmental conditions in early life can profoundly affect individual development and have consequences for reproductive success. Limited food availability may be one of the reasons for this, but direct evidence linking variation in early-life nutrition to reproductive performance in adulthood in natural populations is sparse. We combined historical agricultural data with detailed demographic church records to investigate the effect of food availability around the time of birth on the reproductive success of 927 men and women born in 18th-century Finland. Our study population exhibits natural mortality and fertility rates typical of many preindustrial societies, and individuals experienced differing access to resources due to social stratification. We found that among both men and women born into landless families (i.e., with low access to resources), marital prospects, probability of reproduction, and offspring viability were all positively related to local crop yield during the birth year. Such effects were generally absent among those born into landowning families. Among landless individuals born when yields of the two main crops, rye and barley, were both below median, only 50% of adult males and 55% of adult females gained any reproductive success in their lifetime, whereas 97% and 95% of those born when both yields were above the median did so. Our results suggest that maternal investment in offspring in prenatal or early postnatal life may have profound implications for the evolutionary fitness of human offspring, particularly among those for which resources are more limiting. Our study adds support to the idea that early nutrition can limit reproductive success in natural animal populations, and provides the most direct evidence to date that this process applies to humans.     

生态保护红线分区建设模式研究——以广东大鹏半岛为例

生态保护红线是中国一项创新性的环境保护制度,但目前其划分和实施管理机制仍处于不断探索阶段。以大鹏半岛为研究区域开展生态保护红线分区模式研究。通过生态调查和GIS空间分析相结合,综合分析大鹏半岛的功能定位、地形地貌特征、典型生态系统类型、珍稀濒危动植物资源和自然遗迹的分布状况、生态系统完整性和连续性特征,构建了全面反映生态特征的生态保护红线分区建设模式,提出基本生态控制线内差别化管理的思路,探讨了分区、分类、分级的生态保护管理体系,创新了流域生态管理模式。以基本生态控制线为基础划分7个重点区域进行分类分级保护模式,重点保护面积为171.59 km2,占基本生态控制线面积的77.3%。重点保护区域包括大鹏半岛国家地质公园、大鹏半岛自然保护区、红花岭海岸森林公园、大鹏半岛中部生态廊道、坝光古银叶树Heritiera littoralis国家湿地公园、东涌红树林湿地公园、西涌香蒲桃Syzygium odoratum林自然保护小区。该模式的实施既能较好地保护大鹏半岛具有重要生态价值的资源,也能够协调经济社会发展和生态保护的关系,是深圳市基本生态控制线内分区管理制度的有益尝试,为生态保护红线的可持续性管理提供技术支撑,也为中国城市生态保护红线的划分体系和精细化管理提供参考。     

Integrating eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness into the design of sustainable industrial systems in China

As an important tool for environment management, eco-efficiency has been widely applied, but eco-effectiveness has only made progress on eco-design and life cycle management in recent years. Few have attempted to integrate eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness into sustainable industrial systems. In a new framework integrating eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness, both concepts can find unique roles and complement each other in industrial ecosystems to dissolve conflicts between industry and the environment. This article provides a case study of China in which eco-efficiency indicators (energy, water and waste utilisation intensity) have demonstrated great progress in China, but eco-efficiency cannot stop the increasing release of pollutants and their accumulating impact on ecological life-support systems. China must integrate eco-effectiveness and eco-efficiency into concrete sustainable development strategies, questioning whether limited resources are being used correctly. Both eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness are identified as important indicators in the development of sustainable industrial systems. In the framework of sustainable industrial systems, eco-effectiveness must begin to play a more important role.     

Developing shared qualitative models for complex systems

Understanding complex systems is essential to ensure their conservation and effective management. Models commonly support understanding of complex ecological systems and, by extension, their conservation. Modeling, however, is largely a social process constrained by individuals’ mental models (i.e., a small-scale internal model of how a part of the world works based on knowledge, experience, values, beliefs, and assumptions) and system complexity. To account for both system complexity and the diversity of knowledge of complex systems, we devised a novel way to develop a shared qualitative complex system model. We disaggregated a system (carbonate coral reefs) into smaller subsystem modules that each represented a functioning unit, about which an individual is likely to have more comprehensive knowledge. This modular approach allowed us to elicit an individual mental model of a defined subsystem for which the individuals had a higher level of confidence in their knowledge of the relationships between variables. The challenge then was to bring these subsystem models together to form a complete, shared model of the entire system, which we attempted through 4 phases: develop the system framework and subsystem modules; develop the individual mental model elicitation methods; elicit the mental models; and identify and isolate differences for exploration and identify similarities to cocreate a shared qualitative model. The shared qualitative model provides opportunities to develop a quantitative model to understand and predict complex system change.     

Resource distribution,aggressive asymmetries and variable access to resources in the nectar feeding bellbird

Summary A continuum concept of spatial organization linking territoriality and social hierarchy suggests that individuals will alter their degree of exclusiveness and priority of access to resources in accord with the net benefits of aggression. Thus changes in resource distribution will produce changes in the control of resource space for any one individual. Similarly when comparing among individuals, responses will change in accord with their aggressive abilities when compared to those of possible opponents. The existence of such a continuum model of spacing was investigated in a nectar feeder, the New Zealand bellbird (Anthornis melanura: Meliphagidae). A natural change in spatial distribution of resources from highly concentrated to dispersed provided an opportunity to follow changes in access for known individuals. Comparison of individuals of different hierarchical status, sex and residential status was also possible within each system as was an estimate of comparative rewards. At the concentrated resource, individuals could be ranked in a dominance hierarchy although spatial separation between more dominant individuals did occur. At the more spatially dispersed resource, most individuals obtained a level of exclusive use. Access to both resources varied for different individuals but the asymmetries that related to greater access in one system also produced greater access in the other resource.     

大亚湾开发区经济发展与土地资源的可持续利用

大亚湾开发区由于自然地理条件优越,特别是曾因美国的熊猫汽车和英荷壳牌石油等的落户而带动了区域经济的迅速发展,成为广东省沿海地区外商投资的热点,使原为滨海小镇的穷乡僻壤面临大规模高强度的开发．本文根据区域自然环境条件和经济发展势态．对土地资源的利用现状、土地利用结构的动态变化以及土地承载力状况进行分析;指出在开发过程中存在的耕地面积急剧下降．农田用多养少,土地征而未用以及在规划上对农业的重视不足等问题;最后从协调经济发展与土地利用保护的矛盾,维护区域的良好自然生态环境和土地资源的可持续利用出发,对区域的土地利用保护提出了六点对策性措施．     

Psychological stress and marginalization as indicators of human carrying capacity in deforesting areas

SUMMARY

A scheme in which psychological factors are considered in effective forest management planning is proposed. A central role is played by human carrying capacity, the resilience of people to deal with the consequences of environmental degradation. Stress and marginalization are taken as indicators of human carrying capacity. A study in Côte d'Ivoire is described in which psychological stress and marginalization were studied in individuals from environments which show different degrees of degradation. Three related hypotheses are proposed: first that individuals living in or near a degrading forest are more stressed and marginalized than individuals in a reference group living in Abidjan; second that people living near the forest with the most sustained and severe degradation would be more stressed and marginalized; finally, that members of autochthonous cultural groups show higher stress and marginalization levels than members of migrant groups. The results of our study showed that people living near the degraded forest were more stressed but not marginalized unless the degradation was severe and sustained. Females were more stressed than males and members of both sexes from autochthonous cultural groups were more prone to stress and marginalization than members of migrant groups.     

Exergetic assessment for ecological economic system: Chinese agriculture

Based on the thermodynamic concept of exergy as a unified measure for environmental resources and economic products, a framework for systems assessment is presented for ecological economies. With a typical systems diagram devised for a general ecological economy with four arm fluxes for free local natural resources, purchased economic investment, environmental impact and economic yield, system indices of the renewability index, exergy yield ratio, exergy investment ratio, environmental resource to yield ratio, system transformity and environmental stress index are defined for a congregated systems ecological assessment with essential implications to sustainability. As a detailed case study to the Chinese agriculture from 1980 to 2000 with cropping, forestry, stockbreeding and fishery sectors, extensive exergy account and systems assessment are carried out with emphasis on annual and structural variations against social political transitions. For the overall agriculture as a congregated ecological stage, the value of the system transformity is found around 10, the typical value for the general ecological hierarchy as well devised by Odum associated with Lindeman's Tenth Law.     

Mapping woodland vegetation in SW Ethiopia based on a hybrid model

SUMMARY

Despite the fact that indigenous inhabitants have sustainably managed the forests and woodlands for centuries, Ethiopia's woodland resources are now under severe pressure. At the request of the Ethiopian Government, in 1996/97 the Savanna Woodland Management Study Project was initiated by the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ). A detailed analysis of the woodland resources in SW Ethiopia and a vegetation map were produced. The map was generated using multispectral remote-sensing data, and provides details of the variety within Ethiopian woodlands. A hybrid data classification procedure was applied to incorporate relief and climatic conditions. After analysis of the remote sensing data by image processing, a spatial overlay was performed to incorporate the additional site condition factors. The vegetation map shows the spatial distribution of all existing woodland types in the area and enhances our knowledge of the rich biodiversity of SW Ethiopia. Such mapping gives us a better understanding of existing ecosystems and indigenous land-use systems, and hence, can lead to more sustainable management of the natural resources in the future.     

The potential of bamboo as an interceptor and converter of solar energy into essential goods and services: focus on Ethiopia

SUMMARY

The sun is the ultimate energy source of the Earth. This energy is a resource if utilised, a menace if not. Plants collect and transform radiant energy to chemical energy through photosynthesis. Part of the converted energy is used for their maintenance, while the remainder is stored as biomass. The living biomass plays a vital role in ecological processes and relationships, and provides essential services: soil and water conservation, a buffer against the adverse effects of rain, wind and sun, aesthetics, recreation, and environmental cleaning. Harvested biomass provides safe energy and materials for production of valuable products through industrial processes and household-based technologies. In the absence of vegetation, solar radiation dries soil moisture and disrupts natural processes essential for healthy ecosystem sustenance. Light-use efficiency of plants is positively correlated with rate of growth and bamboos are among the fastest growing perennial plants. This paper is not a thorough review of radiation or bamboo. The following issues are highlighted: (1) The flow of sunlight to the Earth and its usefulness as a resource if used properly and its tendency to become a nuisance if not. (2) The virtues of bamboos as light interceptors and providers of goods and services, better than many tree species. (3) The endowment of Ethiopia with large natural bamboo resources, the availability of denuded land for expansion, and the urgency for proper management, expansion and utilisation for faster socio-economic development and environmental improvement.     

Examples of sustainable development efforts in Costa Rica

SUMMARY

Efforts towards sustainable development are now being undertaken at all levels and the concept has increasingly entered the consciousness of the average person. For many Costa Ricans however, it is not just an abstract concept but a matter of survival as input costs increase, natural resources diminish and the soil loses fertility or is washed away. This paper reviews three case studies representing different approaches towards achieving sustainable development by different types of organization which are each innovative in preventing further destruction of tropical forest resources.     

Movement ecology: size-specific behavioral response of an invasive snail to food availability

Immigration, emigration, migration, and redistribution describe processes that involve movement of individuals. These movements are an essential part of contemporary ecological models, and understanding how movement is affected by biotic and abiotic factors is important for effectively modeling ecological processes that depend on movement. We asked how phenotypic heterogeneity (body size) and environmental heterogeneity (food resource level) affect the movement behavior of an aquatic snail (Tarebia granifera), and whether including these phenotypic and environmental effects improves advection-diffusion models of movement. We postulated various elaborations of the basic advection diffusion model as a priori working hypotheses. To test our hypotheses we measured individual snail movements in experimental streams at high- and low-food resource treatments. Using these experimental movement data, we examined the dependency of model selection on resource level and body size using Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC). At low resources, large individuals moved faster than small individuals, producing a platykurtic movement distribution; including size dependency in the model improved model performance. In stark contrast, at high resources, individuals moved upstream together as a wave, and body size differences largely disappeared. The model selection exercise indicated that population heterogeneity is best described by the advection component of movement for this species, because the top-ranked model included size dependency in advection, but not diffusion. Also, all probable models included resource dependency. Thus population and environmental heterogeneities both influence individual movement behaviors and the population-level distribution kernels, and their interaction may drive variation in movement behaviors in terms of both advection rates and diffusion rates. A behaviorally informed modeling framework will integrate the sentient response of individuals in terms of movement and enhance our ability to accurately model ecological processes that depend on animal movement.     

Complementarity,impatience, and the resilience of natural-resource-dependent economies

We study how society's preferences affect the resilience of economies that depend on more than one type of natural resource. In particular, we analyze whether the degree of complementarity of natural resources in consumer preferences may give rise to multiple steady states and path dependence even when resources are managed optimally. We find that, for a given social discount rate, society tends to be less willing to buffer exogenous shocks if resource good are complements in consumption than if they are substitutes. The stronger the complementarity between the various types of natural resources, the less resilient the economy is, and even more so the higher is the social discount rate.     

Sustainable co-evolution

Humankind is dependent upon Earth's ecological life support system, whose well-being, in turn, depends upon the practices of human society. The health of both systems requires harmonious, mutualistic interactions between them. Because of its population size and demographic distribution (increasingly urbanized), humankind is also dependent upon its technological life support system, which, as currently managed, threatens the ecological life support system. A fundamental difference exists between the two systems—humankind is capable of using intelligence and reason to regulate its activities but the 30+ million other life forms that comprise the ecological life support system cannot. As a consequence, empathy for the other system is the responsibility of human society. Sustainable co-evolution requires that human society has a high level of ecological literacy and acts in a nurturing, compassionate way toward the other system. Only then will sustainable co-evolution be possible since both systems are dynamic and continually changing.     

The bridge between diversity and adaptivity: Answering McIntosh and Jeffrey

SUMMARY

The emerging concept of industrial ecology (IE) has been applied in practice in few case studies on local/regional industrial recycling networks. Analogously to a natural ecosystem, the aim is to develop material cycles and energy cascades between local cooperative actors. An optimal resource basis of an industrial ecosystem is the sustainable use of local renewable natural resources. In this paper, we consider the region of North Karelia in Finland, with 19 municipalities, and hence somewhat expand the system boundaries of an industrial ecosystem case study. The current situation and two scenarios of municipal heating energy production are presented. The heating system consists of individual, district and electric heating. The heat production and related greenhouse gas emissions are considered. The current fuel use is based on imported oil and regional fuels (peat, wood wastes). Also, shares for co-production of heat and electricity (CHP) are shown. In scenario one, we assume the majority of the fuel basis in oil and absence of CHP. Scenario two illustrates nearly complete dependence on regional wood wastes and firewood with the current share of CHP. The North Karelia region provides the IE theory with a fruitful case study because the supply of waste fuels and local renewables is vast and waste utilisation technologies (CHP, fluidized bed burning) constitute a significant part of energy production. Implications of the applied scenario approach are discussed in the context of regional decision making and, in particular, for its implementation with the concepts of a regional environmental management system (EMS) and a regional industrial ecosystem management system (RIEMS).