Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Solution: Adaptive Ecosystem Management
People with competing interests can work together to
develop adaptable plans for managing and sustaining
nature reserves.
Managing and sustaining a nature reserve is difficult.
Reserves are constantly changing in response to envi-
ronmental changes. In addition, their size, shape, and
biological makeup often are determined by political,
legal, and economic factors that depend on land own-
ership and conflicting public demands rather than by
ecological principles and considerations.
One way to deal with these uncertainties and con-
flicts is through
adaptive ecosystem management.
This
strategy relies on four principles.
First,
integrate ecological, economic, and social
principles to help maintain and restore the sustainabil-
ity and biological diversity of reserves while support-
ing sustainable economies and communities.
Second,
seek ways to get government agencies,
private conservation organizations, scientists, busi-
ness interests, and private landowners to reach a
consensus on how to achieve common conservation
objectives.
Third,
view all decisions and strategies as scientific
and social experiments, and use failures as opportuni-
ties for learning and improvement.
Fourth,
emphasize continual information gather-
ing, monitoring, reassessment, flexibility, adaptation,
and innovation in the face of uncertainty and usually
unpredictable change.
Figure 8-25 summarizes the adaptive ecosystem
management process.
Science and Stewardship: Biodiveresity
Hot Spots
We can prevent or slow down losses of biodiversity by
concentrating our efforts on protecting hot spots
where there is an immediate threat to an area's
biodiversity.
In reality, few countries are physically, politically, or fi-
nancially able to set aside and protect large bio-
diversity reserves. To protect as much of the earth's re-
maining biodiversity as possible, conservation biolo-
gists use an
emergency action
strategy that identifies and
quickly protects
biodiversity hot spots
. These “ecological
arks” are areas especially rich in plant and animal
species that are found nowhere else and are in great
danger of extinction or serious ecological disruption.
Figure 8-26 (p. 176) shows 25 such hot spots. They
contain almost two-thirds of the earth's terrestrial bio-
diversity and are the only homes for more than one-
third of the planet's known terrestrial plant and animal
species. Says Norman Myers, “I can think of no other
biodiversity initiative that could achieve so much at a
comparatively small cost, as the hot spots strategy.”
Learn more about hot spots around the world, what is at
stake there, and how they are threatened at Environmental
ScienceNow.
Natural Capital: Wilderness
Wilderness is land legally set aside in a large enough
area to prevent or minimize harm from human
activities.
One way to protect undeveloped lands from human
exploitation is by legally setting them aside as wilder-
ness. According to the U.S. Wilderness Act of 1964,
wilderness
consists of areas “of undeveloped land af-
fected primarily by the forces of nature, where man is a
visitor who does not remain.” U.S. president Theodore
Roosevelt summarized what we should do with
wilderness: “Leave it as it is. You cannot improve it.”
The U.S. Wilderness Society estimates that a
wilderness area should contain at least 4,000 square
kilometers (1,500 square miles). Otherwise, it can be
affected by air, water, and noise pollution from nearby
human activities.
Wild places are areas where people can experi-
ence the beauty of nature and observe natural biologi-
cal diversity. They can also enhance the mental and
physical health of visitors by allowing them to get
away from noise, stress, development, and large num-
bers of people. Wilderness preservationist John Muir
advised us:
Develop
or revise
ecological
goals
Develop
or revise
ecological
model
Monitor
and assess
attainment
Implement
or modify
strategies
Develop
or revise
a plan
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Na-
ture's peace will flow into you as the sunshine into the
Figure 8-25
Solutions:
the adaptive ecosystem management
process.
