Are We Destroying Our Insurance Policy? The Effects of Alien Invasion and Subsequent Restoration - Landscape Ecology for Sustainable Environment and Culture - page 326

Diary Extract: C. I. La Trobe 1816
Upper Langkloof
'First impression of Langkloof: ''a vale of perhaps 100 miles enclosed by mountains of
different heights. On entering it we felt not a little disappointed … we saw a long ridge of
comparatively low hills, divided by narrow parallel kloofs, without wood or water, skirting
a dull uncultivated vale….'''. (Skead 2009 )
-The Langkloof is the local name for the Kromme River valley

16.1 Introduction

The concept of insurance, using financial capital as a store for future undesirable
and yet possible events, is well entrenched within modern society. It is considered
wise to invest in and protect manufactured and human capital but the concept of
protecting and investing in natural capital is met with great resistance. Natural
capital is the ecosystem infrastructure that provides humankind with essential
ecosystem goods and services (Aronson et al. 2007 ; Mander et al. 2010 ). The
Kromme River system has valuable natural capital, including wetlands and
aquifers, which provide water as well as regulating and storing services to the
downstream Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan hub (Haigh et al. 2002 ; Raymer
2008 ). The Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan hub has a history of struggling to
match water supply with demand, largely due to its rapidly increasing population
size as well as economic development (Raymer 2008 ). There is a strong correla-
tion of 0.91 between population size and water demand, and it is already evident
that water supply is set to outstrip demand for the Nelson Mandela Bay metro-
politan hub in the near future (Eberhard 2009 ). This ever increasing demand for
resources coupled with the uncertainty surrounding the predicted changes in cli-
mate, will be a recipe for disaster if it is not mitigated by investing in and ensuring
that natural capital is maintained (Fig. 16.1 )

Natural Capital:
'' Natural Capital is an economic metaphor for the stock of physical and biological natural
resources that consist of:
Renewable natural capital (living species and ecosystems);
Nonrenewable natural capital (subsoil assets, e.g. petroleum, coal, diamonds);
Replenishable natural capital (e.g., the atmosphere, potable water, fertile soils); and
Cultivated natural capital (e.g., crops and forestplantations).''

(Aronson et al. 2007 )

The ongoing efforts to maintain economic growth and development are driving
the intensification of agriculture and other ways of using landscapes. Land trans-
formation, or habitat loss, is currently the major factor endangering species (Pimm
and Raven 2000 ; Raimondo et al. 2009 ) and ecosystems (Rouget 2004 ; Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment 2006 ). This effect is exacerbated in semi-arid