The Meaning of Resource: Resource Systems

The Meaning of Resource: Resource Systems

3/2/2016

Introduction

The Earth’s natural ecosystems have provided clean water, fertile soils, fresh air, and bio-diverse terrestrial and aquatic natural resources, allowing for the development of human civilization. They form the foundation of natural capital for Green Economy development. However, the health of the Earth’s ecosystems that provide this essential ‘life support’, or ecosystem goods and services, on which we all depend, is being severely degraded, due to compounded pressures of rapid population growth, economic development, environmental change and climate change. In 2011, the world population has already passed the 7 billion mark. This situation is expected to grow worse as the per capita consumption of ecosystem goods services has grown at a much faster rate than population, i.e. per capita water consumption is rising twice as fast as world population growth. The World Economic Forum (WEF) suggests that “A combination of increasing scarcity of some natural resources, climate change and growth in global population to 9 billion by 2050 are creating the conditions for a ‘perfect storm’”. This means that the Earth’s degrading ecosystems would have to carry yet an additional 2 billion people. Ecosystem goods and services are not only threatened by the growing population but also by increasing consumption rates, especially in developing countries with high growth rates. Without secure, healthy and fully functional ecosystems, all sections of society, rich and poor, will face substantial risk in the future. The WEF (and others) stress that humanity’s ecological footprint is 50% higher than the Earth’s ability to support it.

Without fully reflecting the value of natural assets in economic systems and actions, and sharing the benefits of ecosystems more equitably, human interaction with them will remain unsustainable and degradation is likely to accelerate, leading to the potential collapse of important ecosystem functions and services and the loss of important species. This threatens the security of all sectors of society, regardless of political ideologies, cultures and stages of development. Amongst all stakeholder groups, it is the poor in developing countries that are most vulnerable to these threats.

History has taught us that failure to understand and appreciate the value of nature has led to the downfall of civilizations7. Since the industrial revolution, depletion of natural resources and degradation of ecosystems has negatively affected the global environment. The Rio Summit in 1992 introduced the concept of sustainable development with a landmark agreement of Agenda 21, which led to the three multilateral environment conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Yet, economic crises, such as the Asia Economic Crisis in 1997 and the Great Recession in 2008, as well as natural disasters including those caused by global warming and loss of ecosystem services, reminded us that we need smarter and more practical ways to secure our future.

The conventional model of development that has propelled the growth of nations in the last two centuries is now recognized for its unsustainable nature. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the conventional measure of economic growth, urgently needs to be re-examined insofar as its use as an index of well being, as it does not capture the needs of sustainable consumption, sustainable use of natural capital and conservation of ecosystems . Based on current indicators, the current growth model of economics is proving to not be sustainable and alternative development models should be explored. Recent reports, including the Stern Review on the economics of climate change, indicate quite clearly that the Earth’s abilities to provide for the needs of humanity is limited and countries are faced with dire economic and natural consequences for their inability to sustainably manage their ecosystems.

It is obvious that a Green Economy, defined by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as

An economy that results in “improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities”, is more likely to be realized if built on a baseline foundation of a healthy, fully functional and resilient ecosystems. In the new millennium, many ecosystems are facing mounting pressures from rapid population growth, economic development, climate change, biodiversity loss and environment pollution. To restore this natural foundation for sustainable development the Ecosystem Management Approach, which is defined as “an integrated process to conserve and improve ecosystem health that sustains ecosystem services for human well-being,” plays a critical role.

Natural ecosystems provide the life-support systems for humans, and the natural foundation for a sustainable green economy, yet their health is under increasing threat.

• Cutting-edge science has proven that ecosystems provide the essential ‘life support systems’ we all depend on.
• Recent economic analysis of ecosystems revealed that ecosystems provide the natural capital and lay the foundation for the development of a Green Economy.
• There is mounting evidence that many ecosystems are in various states of degradation and face unprecedented pressures from unsustainable exploitation, unplanned or poorly planned development, invasive species, climate change and population growth. This will not only jeopardize economic development, but also impose increasing threats to the survival of human beings, with the poor being most vulnerable.

Numerous examples exist of promising initiatives in Ecosystems Management. Their scale and level of support is presently too small to address the mounting challenges they seek to address. There is an urgent need for much greater and long-term financial support and to institutionalize the overall Ecosystem Management approach. This will facilitate even greater up-take of the approach on the ground and internalize it within economic development and political processes. Across all these initiatives there is a need for co-ordination and sharing of best practices as we learn how best to apply the Ecosystem Management approach.

As the pressures on ecosystems are expected to increase in the future, there is clearly a need to invest in the resilience of those ecosystems and for much stronger governance and institutional structures. These structures must be substantial enough, equipped with the appropriate level of power and influence, and adequately supported to ensure the necessary changes to conventional development models.

More than at any time in our past, there is now an imperative to develop sustainable economic models and political processes with a common language of comprehensive ecosystem valuation that is acceptable to a diverse range of political systems and cultures, and sustainably manages ecosystems to ensure the long-term delivery of the vital ecosystem services. Thus the challenge is to create a political and economic environment that enables society to achieve a balance of societal needs and Earth’s ecosystems capacity, through a process of rapid introduction of stimulus to promote the transformational change to a sustainable Green Economy.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), the “Rio+20”, which took place in Rio de Janeiro on 4-6 June 2012, will covered two themes:

1. a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication;
2. the institutional framework for sustainable development. It provided a unique opportunity to:
   • Recognize Earth’s ecosystems as the natural foundation for all life on the Earth;
   • Reform the economic models for wealth creation, to focus increasingly on the value of ecosystem goods and services and natural capital;

To ensure investments in healthy ecosystems capable of sustaining a vibrant human population, we have to make fundamental changes to our policies (and implement them) and economic systems. The link between limitless growth and resource extraction, as well as externalization of human and environmental costs must be broken. We will need to move toward a system where prosperity, progress and wellbeing of people enhances, instead of undermines the functions and processes of our ecosystems. Transitioning to a Green Economy firmly rooted in Ecosystem Management principles implies changing the way we do business, make policy, and see the natural world. The challenges of making this change are tremendous, but the process provides many great opportunities to create a sustainable future.