Box 1.2 Governance and ecosystems
An ecosystem is a community of interacting organisms and the physical environment they live in. They are the productive engines of the planet—the source of food, water, and other biological goods and services that sustain us. To be effective, environmental governance must lead to fair and sustainable management of ecosystems. However, ecosystems bring special governance challenges:
Ecosystem scales differ:
Ecosystems exist at multiple scales, from a single stream, bog, or meadow, to a major river system or regional forest. How can management structures be tailored to match?Uses and users vary:
Ecosystems produce many different goods and services—fish, timber, crops, recreation—and must serve many different stakeholders, from local residents to commercial harvesters. Not all these uses and users are compatible, but what is the optimum mix? How are trade-offs made and disputes resolved?Threats are cumulative:
Many ecosystem threats, such as habitat loss or agricultural run-off into waterways, come from cumulative actions that occur at different scales and from different sources. How can environmental policies address these large-scale and integrated threats?Recovery while in use:
Most ecosystems are already impaired in some way, but they remain under heavy use. How can use be moderated to allow recovery without disenfranchising those who depend on ecosystems for subsistence and employment?| Dependence and impact on ecosystems | |
| Annual value of global agricultural production(Wood et al. 2000:40) | $1.3 trillion |
| Percentage of global agricultural lands showing moderate to severe soil degradation (Wood et al. 2000:49) | 52% |
