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What is the
ecosystem approach?
The Ecosystem
approach is a strategy for the integrated management
of land, water and living resources that promotes
conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way.
It is a holistic
methodology for implementing the key objectives of
the Conservation on Biological Diversity and delivering
good ecosystem management.
It is particularly
appropriate for application at the catchment scale.
What are the objectives?
To restore
and sustain the health, productivity and biological
diversity of ecosystems and the overall quality of
life through a natural resource management approach
that is fully integrated with social and economic
goals. Sustainable living depends on the maintenance
of the Earth’s vitality and diversity. It is
concerned not simply with protecting or preserving
existing species but involves:
• Maintaining
life-support systems – ecological processes
that keep the planet fit for life – they shape
climate, regulate and cleanse water flow, regulate
essential elements, create and regenerate soil and
enable ecosystems to renew themselves
• Maintaining
biodiversity – including species of plant, animals
and other organisms, the range of genetic stocks within
each species, habitat, ecosystem and landscapes (especially
cultural components)
• Ensuring
use of renewable resources is sustainable including
natural and modified (e.g. cultivated) ecosystems
together with the wild and domesticated organisms
and products derived from them.
Ecosystem management
is the manipulation of the physical, chemical and
biological processes which link organisms with their
abiotic environment and the regulation of human actions
to produce a desired ecosystem state, and is an essential
requirement to deliver all three objectives (above).
Historically delivering these has been the responsibility
of government departments, agencies or organisations
with a nature conservation remit, which have been
quite separate from the bodies responsible for water
resources, forestry, agriculture or fisheries. This
traditional sectoral approach forms an inadequate
basis for managing ecosystems and delivering practical
solutions to achieving sustainable ecosystem management.
Ecosystem management
can include:
• Adjusting
chemical conditions by controlling pollution or altering
the input of nutrients and contaminants to the atmosphere, waters, soil or directly
to vegetation
• Regulating
physical conditions, for example controlling releases
of water from a reservoir
or entry of saltwater into coastal impoundments
• Altering
biological conditions, for example by the use of grazing
to prevent scrubbing up of grassland, or controlled
burning for heathland management
• Limiting
human use of biological resources, for example by
restricting the use of fertilizers and pesticides,
or regulating fish net mesh sizes
• Intervening
in cultural, social and economic processes, for example
by compensating farmers for reducing the intensity
of their operations in the interests of conservation.
Innovative
tools and approaches are necessary to deliver the
objectives of ecosystem management, and break the
divisions among ecology, economics and social sciences.
The ecosystem
approach has now been adopted1 by the IUCN2 contracting
parties as the framework for balancing the three key
objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity,
namely the conservation of biological diversity, the
sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable
sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation
of genetic resources. The Convention interprets the
ecosystem approach as a strategy for the integrated
management of land, water and living resources that
promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable
way. It recognises the need for a more holistic methodology
to tackle conservation alongside the legitimate but
often competing and apparently conflicting demands
of socio-economic and political agendas.
The IUCN Conference
of Parties as well as other governments and international
organisations are
called upon to apply, where appropriate, the ecosystem
approach together with its underlying
principles and points of guidance (listed below)
1. Objectives are a matter of societal choice
2. Management should be undertaken at the lowest appropriate
level
3. Consider the effects on adjacent/other ecosystems
4. Understand and manage ecosystems in an economic
context
5. Conservation of ecosystem structure and functioning
is a priority
6. Manage within limits of functioning
7. Use appropriate spatial and temporal scales
8. Objectives for Ecosystem Management should be long
term
9. Management must recognise that change is inevitable
10. Keep an appropriate balance between integration
of conservation use and use of biological diversity
11. Consider all relevant information
12. Involve all relevant sectors of society and science
Guidance:
• Focus on functional relationships and processes
• Enhance benefit sharing
• Use adaptive management practices
• Carry out management actions at appropriate
scale with decentralisation to lowest appropriate
level
Ensure inter-sectoral cooperation.
Applications of the ecosystem approach can be a highly
effective tool in implementing the integrated management
of river basins in a practical way.
1 Decision
V/6. Ecosystem Approach. Decision adopted by the Conference
of the Parties to the
Convention on Biological Diversity at its fifth meeting,
Nairobi 15-26 May 2000
2 International
Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources |
