Diciembre de 2020
Ecosystem Integrity for Reaching SustainabilityAlfredo Ramos Vázquez
aramosvr@gmail.com
All hominids, including Homo sapiens, developed in riches ecosystems full of biodiversity, and this situation allowed us to have enough natural resources to survive. In the beginning, we were hunters and gatherers, and we obtained everything from natural ecosystems, which included food, medicine, raw materials, firewood, clothes, and so on. It means we evolved and developed in regions in which existed places with ecosystems integrity, and for thousands of years, we survived under these circumstances.
Then when we invented agriculture, communities from all over the world developed in places where existed the right conditions to produce our food, and we started to modify the landscape, due to, we needed land to sow our food. And our population began to grow and develop, making incredible progress in different areas like architecture, astronomy, and so on. Also, around our communities existed areas with ecosystem integrity from which we obtained enough resources and services for our development. Many civilizations stayed in this way for hundreds or even thousands of years, until some of them deteriorated their natural resources or happened some changes in the physical environment, and those events were the principal reasons that some civilizations collapsed.
On the other side, during industrialization, we used many resources from natural ecosystems, which allowed us to develop and improve our civilization; however, we destroyed many forests all over the world. Forest degradation has been for decades, and that is the reason that we have a lot of environmental problems that are affecting humans and wild species. So, we must restore ecosystem integrity if we want to survive in the right conditions. Healthy ecosystems offer us many different things like food, medicines, raw materials, but above all, other ecosystems services as carbon sequestration, water, biodiversity, soil fertility, clean air, and so on, which are essentials for life and wellbeing.
For example, water is essential for everything, including agriculture and industry. So, without irrigation systems, we can not produce enough food for all of us. Besides, we use water to create energy and in many other processes in the industry. For those reasons, water security must be part of our sustainable plans. Biodiversity is another fundamental aspect that we must consider; because some crops and fruit trees depend on pollinators. They are crucial to producing enough food for the human population. Also, pollinators play a fundamental role in natural ecosystems, and many species of plants depend on them to reproduce. Besides, soil microorganisms degrade dead organic matter, which keeps soil fertility and nutrients cycles, as well as storing carbon dioxide into the ground that reduces the greenhouse gas emission to the atmosphere.
Besides, wild plants, fungi, and animals are fundamental to make our world works, due to all species, including microorganisms take part in the flows of matter and energy on our planet, which create the perfect conditions to evolve and make the incredible biodiversity that exists today. Also, biodiversity absorbs some toxic components that humans make and control our climate. For example, forests and marine ecosystems absorb and sequestrate enormous quantities of carbon dioxide meanwhile swamps clean our water from toxic chemicals, and so on. So, if we want to survive in the right conditions and reach sustainability, we need to keep ecosystems integrity. For that reason, we must protect natural ecosystems.
In those days, most ecosystem conservation is made by the government through different schemes of natural protected areas (biosphere reserves, national parks, etcetera), and to create these areas require resources and the participation of people who live in these places. This scheme has its limitation and can protect limited areas, but we must protect even those areas rich in biodiversity but unprotected under baseline conditions. To make this thing, we should create a global biodiversity conservation scheme, but how can we implement this idea? First of all, natural ecosystems are essentials; because they keep energy and matter flows in a way that maintains life and offers us ecosystem services which all need and use to survive and develop. In this sense, our industry and activities use these services to operate, for example, most water that we use comes from a water cycle in which natural ecosystems play an essential role in infiltration, flow, and storage, and after that, we can use this water in agriculture, industry, and cities. So, we must create an offset mechanism to protect natural ecosystems to keep this resource and others. So, the market-based mechanism of biodiversity credits scheme could be the answer to this. And natural ecosystems can benefit from this mechanism, including public and private protected areas, among other conservation areas with ecosystems integrity. However, how can we create a mechanism in which companies and countries are involved? To respond to this situation, we should incorporate the idea of every company and organization has some effect on the environment. And we can use the Ecological Footprint (including the family related to this as carbon and water footprint) to measure this effect, among other indicators that measure pollutants (in particular hazardous and persistent pollutants). And according to the negative or positive effect they produce on the environment, they must receive or pay these biodiversity credits through regulated schemes.
Of course, it is necessary to create a regulatory framework to reach this situation, and nations must agree. This scheme must include obligatory measures to keep ecosystems integrity or restore ecosystem integrity. Nature Map Initiative (UNEP-WCMC, 2020) could be considered, among other ideas, and governments must have to do their job. For example, many countries must stop deforestation and ecosystem degradation immediately. Besides, other countries like México and Colombia have to stop drug traffickers; because they are destroying some forests by producing drugs in these places. So governments from these countries must protect those areas and restore ecosystem integrity. In other places like Peru and Brazil, illegal mining is destroying the forest, and those countries have to regulate this situation. On the other hand, countries like New Zealand and Costa Rica that protect their natural ecosystems and make ecotourism must continue in this direction.
We need to change the narrative that exists today because our model does not work anymore. So we must protect our environment and should involve all industries and organizations in this scheme. They have to work as complex systems in coevolution to be efficient and look for a collective benefit for the system. It means everyone needs to create conditions for the systems success and adapts to new circumstances. But above all, we have to change the system for something better and try to reach sustainability.
Finally, Ecosystems Integrity not only contributes to solving some environmental problems like climate change, water security, extinction, soil degradation, zoonosis but also lets us survive and develop in the right conditions making our civilization and biodiversity continue evolving and keeping a world full of marvelous things.
References:
Alvarado-Quesada, I., Hein, L. and Weikard, H. (2014). Market-based mechanisms for biodiversity conservation: a review of existing schemes and an outline for a global mechanism. Biodivers Conserv 23:1–21.
UNEP-WCMC. (2020). STRENGTHENING SYNERGIES How action to achieve post-2020 global biodiversity conservation targets can contribute to mitigating climate change. Recuperated on:
https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/34342/StreSyn.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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