Twenty-First Century Ecosystems Managing the Living World Two Centuries After Darwin: Report of a Symposium (2011) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 1-10
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Earlier concerns about biological extinction had led to the passage of the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, but the 1986 National Academy of Sciences forum, on which the Biodiversity report was based, placed contemporary biological extinctions in a broader ecological, economic, and global development context.
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A sampling offered by James P Collins included seven titles from the "bookshelf of reports in my office."2 In 2005 the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment3 -- a massive effort involving more than 2,000 scientists from 77 countries conducted over the preceding 5 years and authorized under four international conventions4 -- attempted a comprehensive overview of the changing state of the ecological services that underpin human well-being.
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Ongoing alterations to global landscapes are amplified by increased ease of air and sea transport, which together with the widening and deepening of international travel and trade have succeeded in globalizing not only business and production but also diseases and natural pests on a scale never seen before. The increasing capacity for humans to modify ecological systems and evolutionary and geological processes at a global scale poses challenges for understanding and managing ecosystems for human well-being, now and into the future.
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Michael Donoghue, February 11, 2009
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Speakers described challenges that flow directly or indirectly from human activity related to land use, food production, economic development, and trade. They enumerated changes in ecosystems that are occurring at all scales, from global to highly local, with implications for ecosystem degradation, rapid
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THEME 3: SAVING WHAT WE CAN Saving biodiversity and sustaining ecosystem functioning will require an array of strategies, founded on the best possible understanding of what biodiversity exists, how organisms interact to create functioning ecosystems, and how these organisms and systems are changing. A variety of strategies were presented to address the ongoing erosion of biological diversity and ecosystem function, although numerous speakers emphasized that successful interventions require a systems approach and a broad understanding of the goods and services provided by species in ecosystems.
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Examples they cited included the effects of policies related to biofuels and carbon on agriculture, water resources, and biodiversity; of approaches to fisheries management on marine ecosystems; and of trade policies on the global dispersal of pests and pathogens. Understanding and managing such complex systems, several speakers noted, requires ongoing adaptive cooperation and collaboration among disciplines and across jurisdictions, both public and private, as knowledge continues to evolve.
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Some speakers emphasized that scientific input should be informed by awareness of both the strengths and limitations of research results and the complexities of policy making, and that effective policy advice should also take into account the need for public support of particular policy approaches. THEME 6: INCREASING SOCIETAL CAPACITY TO MANAGE AND ADAPT TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE Environmental changes, from climate change to introduced pests and pathogens, can threaten both ecosystem functioning and the services that human beings derive from ecosystems.
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Two opportunities that several speakers mentioned specifically as vehicles for international cooperation were enhanced trade regulation and the nascent Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) .7 THEME 8: ACCOUNTING FOR THE VALUE OF NATURE Some speakers contended that ecosystems and biodiversity will continue to suffer as long as economic incentives and associated social pressures fail to incorporate nonmarket externalities and to favor short-term exploitation and damage without regard to long-term sustainable management.
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