Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 8.3 Differences between traditional and ecosystem approaches to studies of natural
resources with forestry as an example
Parameter
Traditional approach
Ecosystem approach
Goal
Maximum possible production of
consumer goods
Maximizing the value of produce
Maintaining the state of the forests
or the use of forest products at
levels equal to or below those
ensuring the growth or restoration
of the forests
Maintenance of forest ecosystems
as an interconnection component of
the natural medium with provided
stable production of consumer
products
Preserving a possibility of the
choice in the future
Providing a persistent productivity
of ecosystems with an account of
forest aesthetics and social
acceptability of the forestry
practice
Works on the level of forest stand
within the boundaries of the states
or property
Works on the levels of ecosystems
and landscapes
Scale
Role of
science
Consideration of problems of
forestry management as the applied
science
Forestry management with
scienti
c data and social factors
taken into account
Role of
management
Special attention to
final results
(production of goods and services)
from the viewpoint of provision of
needs for wood, solution of
recreation problems, maintenance
of wild nature, and obtaining the
forage
Reaching the management that
ensures the needed industrial
production
Priority of wood production
Desire to avoid the wood de
cit
Consideration of forests as systems
of wood production
Assessment of the economic
efficiency of forestry
Emphasis on the safety of forest
ecosystems with an account of
needed soil properties, biological
diversity, and ecology on the whole
in the interests of raising the level
of production of goods and services
Approach to management that
ensures the solution of the nature-
protection problems
Complex approach to solution of
the production problems
considering similar importance of
the problems of nature protection
Desire to avoid losses of
biodiversity and soil degradation
Approach to forests as safe natural
systems
Assessment of economic profits
and social acceptability
to stimulate the development of science and observational means;
to realize and quantitatively estimate the value of functions performed by the
ecosystems;
to stimulate a broad discussion of the goals, scienti
c foundations, and practical
importance of the ecosystem approach; and
to provide the participation of all needed specialists in the solution of the
problems of the ecosystems management.
The scienti
c understanding of the laws of ecosystems
'
functioning and,
moreover, a possibility to predict the ecosystems
'
dynamics are still in the initial
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