{"id":338,"date":"2011-11-12T14:04:15","date_gmt":"2011-11-12T03:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/?p=338"},"modified":"2011-11-12T14:32:43","modified_gmt":"2011-11-12T03:32:43","slug":"ecological-and-economic-foundations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/?p=338","title":{"rendered":"Ecological and Economic Foundations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Rating:<\/strong> \"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"☆\"\"☆\"<\/p>\n

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, ed Pushpam Kumar. 2010 Ecological and Economic foundations. UNEP\/Earthscan. ISBN 978 1 84971 212 5<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This is one text where context is crucial. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB<\/a>) was set up by the UNEP in 2007. It was started became of the concern that current economics was either not valuing nor not valuing sufficiently, our ecosystem services and, by extension, the biodiversity that keeps it functioning. This perspective would be similar to driving a car and only adding petrol on the grounds it hadn’t stopped yet! Since that position is obviously untenable, it follows that there is a belief our use of ecosystems is similarly flawed because, partly, it is based upon the same conventional economic thinking. From that viewpoint grew this book which is a collection of works by leading experts in the field.<\/p>\n

Not unreasonably, we start with a glossary which sorts out the many acronyms and terms that one encounters with any UN-inspired work. The introduction sets the scene. A series of reports have made 4 things clear: we are changing ecosystems rapidly, we are degrading many ecosystems, it’s getting worse and we need to reverse it to stop complete ecological collapse. In other words, we are responsible for destroying that which supports us. Placed in such stark terms we are hardly likely to disagree but the debate comes in the way we define changes and impacts. TEEB is more than a meeting it’s actually a framework for valuing ecosystem services. It links clearly the flow of\u00a0 processes, part of which we use: ecology>functions>services> benefits>value. The first two are the realm of ecology, the third is our linkage to the ecosystem which the last two are part of our cultural values. TEEB, in effect, seeks to close the loop whereby human benefits are harvested to ensure ecosystems continue to function (in much the same way, to use an earlier analogy, we service a car to keep it going). The key to understanding this is to take a series of ecosystems (given at the end of chapter 1) and define the services that we take from them (also defined). Chapter two starts the detailed examination by studying ecosystems not from the conventional ecological sense of food webs etc. but from the view of how ecosystem functioning provides the services we need. This is a different perspective; one of applied ecosystem ecology and although clear, is not the way we usually proceed. Take one example at random: we study plant distributions but TEEB questions how many we use for medicines and the way these specific species react to changes in biodiversity. This means not only functioning but the overall resilience of the system. Chapter three focusses on how we can accurately and reliably measure these things we argue are changing. It’s not just the direction of change, it’s the amount and rate as well.\u00a0 Chapter four shows how we currently value ecosystem services; a relatively slim chapter compared to the one following which examines alternative economic devices. If some measure is to be found we need to look not only at prices today but also value into the future. for this reason, chapter 6 looks at the idea of discounting and the ethics behind it. Here’s a central dilemma. We might want to keep ecosystem services for future generations but that presumes they will need\/use them (no evidence here) or that our actions might even inhibit choice. It’s this ethical dilemma that’s coming more to the fore in these discussions. A final chapter links these ideas with existing national policies. Two appendices are equally important; a first showing how the framework can be applied (in this case, to the Amazon), and a second detailing woodland services.<\/p>\n

This is a very complex text and clearly not one for the beginner (although such ideas really need to be taught early). By now, the ecosystem service concept is so well known it should be well into junior high school if not lower so there’s no issue with it’s relevance. Perhaps it’s worth starting with the summary<\/a> first before launching into the main text. For those involved in economics and ecology courses, this text represents a clear statement of the TEEB process and how it has been constructed and as such should be seen as a central text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rating: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, ed Pushpam Kumar. 2010 Ecological and Economic foundations. UNEP\/Earthscan. ISBN 978 1 84971 212 5 This is one text where context is crucial. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) was set up by the UNEP in 2007. It was started became of the concern that current economics was either not valuing nor not valuing sufficiently, our ecosystem services and, by extension, the biodiversity that keeps it functioning. This perspective would be similar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[46,45,81,36],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-biodiversity","tag-ecology","tag-economics","tag-ecosystem-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}