Lecture 8: Managing hydrological ecosystem 2 Flashcards
Managing landscapes for crop production and ecosystem services
Given the need to maintain ES, we have to achieve the right balance between cropland and natural landscapes. Different landscapes give different ‘bundles’ of ES:
What conservation can and cannot provide
Nature cannot provide all services at all spatial scales, and is most effective locally
Ecosystem services can be restored by rehabilitating land and finding the appropriate farmland/conservation mix
Protected area growth
16% of the terrestrial surface is nominally protected
Target of 17% by 2020
34% of ice free areas are used for agriculture and grazing
The rest is ice, desert,urban or unprotected wilderness
Mean management budget: $8.75 per km2*
Yet, protected areas provide ecosystem services: tracing the impact of protected areas on water
As you travel downstream
from the protected areas their contribution to flow diminishes as rivers are swamped with water from non-protected areas
Mechanisms for management: 1: engineering ecosystem services
Human water security threats are highest in the developed world
But we engineer our way out of the threat
Not entirely sustainable, better to have nature do it
To protect ecosystem services
we need to manage the indirect drivers of change - through changing the economic drivers
Ecological economics
Global initiative focused on drawing attention to the economic benefits of biodiversity including the growing cost of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.
2: Payments for ecosystem services
Costs and benefits
Identify the costs of maintaining ecosystems services
Identify the benefits of maintaining ecosystem services
Costs and avoided costs
Costs of action
Avoided costs of inaction
Examples of costs:
reservoir siltation
overgrazing
salinization
Payments for ecosystem services
hose who benefit pay those who manage
Flows of ES from supply-sheds to benefit-sheds: ES are generated at a point but flow along gradients
Land rivers : Water quantity, dilution (quality), sediment (nutrients), regulation (timing)
Sky rivers : Rainfall (generation), cloud cover (reduced ET)
Those who pay the costs may not be those who receive the benefits
Benefit sharing mechanisms
to share the benefits and costs of ES provision e.g. UN-REDD
Political processes
The 2010 Biodiversity Target:
“. . . to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss. . .”
Protect the components of biodiversity
Promote sustainable use
Address threats
Maintain ecosystem services
Protect traditional knowledge
Ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits
