Bridging the GAPS between ecology and human security - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 141

estimated to have the third lowest biocapacity in Latin America, ahead of
Jamaica and Haiti, while Nicaragua's biocapacity was higher, but still well
below the average for Latin America: it's complicated!
Apparent similarities in the level of ecosystem integrity in a country where,
at the same time, there may be broad differences in the quality of human life
is not a reason for dismissing the notion that functional ecosystems, which
provide various services and benefits, such as clean water (Costanza et al .
1997), are a contributing factor to human security. In cases where similar
conditions exist in countries with vastly different political stability and qual-
ity of life, as rated in various United Nations Human Development Index
(HDI) tables and reports (UNDP 1990), there will always be multiple driv-
ing factors, and every system has a different history and trajectory. Sagar and
Najam (1998) criticized the HDI for failing to include sustainability and
ecological indicators related to depletion of natural resources. Were meas-
ures of ecosystem integrity to be taken into account in comparing any two
countries with differing political systems (having good vs. poor governance),
and similar ecosystem integrity, the ecological view would likely be that any
future improvement in human security and governance in the country with
a poor rating may be more likely to be maintained due to greater ecosystem
resilience (Elmqvist et al . 2003).
A comparison of maps and satellite imagery illustrates the connection
between ecology, human security and state security, as represented by the lat-
ter's political borders. The world seen on Landsat images is more a reflection
of the major biomes or habitat types, such as boreal forest and tundra (Evert
and Eichhorn 2013), than countries. However, at a larger scale, the political
borders of neighbouring countries located in the same major biome type are
easy to detect (e.g. Kuemmerle et al . 2006). This difference in land cover often
reflects the country's political history. Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti
and the Dominican Republic, provides an example in which vegetation cover
and other ecosystem attributes are very different between the two countries
and the border can be clearly distinguished (Wilson et al . 2001). These altered
biome states on either side of the border will have very different hydrological
(water-cycling) and nutrient regimes.
The links between ecology and the environmental security component of
human security can be found in the debates occurring in the resource scarcity
and conflict literature, where both sides attempt to argue if and how resources
and conflict might be related (if at all), and how these perceptions affect our
understanding of security (e.g. Matthew et al . 2002). Additionally, links are
increasingly being made between environment, justice and ethics by those
in the legal (Keiter 1998; Clarkson and Wood 2010) and health (Donohoe
2003) fields. Many universities have created programmes and institutes with
the mandate of bringing an interdisciplinary, broad-based approach to deal-
ing with the 'wicked problems' of climate change and poverty (Jentoft and
Chuenpagdee 2009). Similarly, at international agencies as diverse as the