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Ecosystems Capital: Use and Restoration

This document discusses different perspectives on ecosystem management and natural resource use, from preservation to conservation to exploitation. It outlines the views of early conservationists like John Muir and Gifford Pinchot. It also describes the more preservation-focused "Earth First!" movement and the industry-aligned "Wise Use" movement. The document discusses challenges like deforestation, sustainable forest management, and debates around uses of public lands in the US like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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37 views33 pages

Ecosystems Capital: Use and Restoration

This document discusses different perspectives on ecosystem management and natural resource use, from preservation to conservation to exploitation. It outlines the views of early conservationists like John Muir and Gifford Pinchot. It also describes the more preservation-focused "Earth First!" movement and the industry-aligned "Wise Use" movement. The document discusses challenges like deforestation, sustainable forest management, and debates around uses of public lands in the US like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Uploaded by

Prime Rieta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Ecosystems Capital:

Use and Restoration


Services of Natural
Ecosystems
• Modification of climate
• Maintenance of hydrological cycle
• Erosion control and soil building
• Maintenance of oxygen, phosphorus and nitrogen
cycles
• Waste treatment
• Pest management
• Primary production & maintenance of carbon
cycle
• Cultural benefits: spiritual, recreational, aesthetic

See Fig 1-13, chapter 3


2 approaches to ecosystem management
Conservation Preservation
Manage or regulate Ensure continuity
use within capacity regardless of
of renewal potential utility

Can be sustainable Can preclude


in long-term human use in
some cases, ex
old growth
forests
Preservation: John Muir
http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thum
bnail268.html

John Muir 1838 – 1914

Studied Yosemite area and Sierras

Discovered sign illegally claiming private ownership in


Kings Canyon, and cutting of ancient giant sequoia
south of present day Sequoia National Park

Greatest threat to the Yosemite area and the Sierras was livestock, sheep

Introduced bill to Congress to make Yosemite area into a national park, modeled after
Yellowstone

Helped form organization called the Sierra Club in 1892

Befriended Gifford Pinchot, but that friendship was ended when Pinchot stated that
forests should be managed for the betterment of mankind,

President Theodore Roosevelt accompanied Muir on a visit to the Yosemite


Conservation: Gifford Pinchot
1865 1946

1898, head of the Division of Forestry, later renamed the U.S.


Forest Service,

Advocated scientific conservation, planned use and renewal


of the nation's forest reserves; exploited commercial
potential by private use in exchange for modest fees

"the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for
the service of man."

Friendship of President Theodore Roosevelt

Preservationists opposed commercialization of the land

In 1907, Congress forbade the President to create more forest reserves in Western
states

Taft elected in 1908, fired Pinchot for speaking out against policies of Secretary of
the Interior Richard A. Ballinger

Helped lead to split of the Republican Party


Current “Wise Use Movement”
Loose affiliation of free-market environmentalists, begun in 1988

Multiple Use Strategy that produced a 25-point Wise Use Agenda, examples:

• "Immediate wise development of the petroleum resources of the Arctic


National Wildlife Refuge."

• "Passage of the Global Warming Prevention Act to convert in a systematic


manner all decaying and oxygen using forest growth on the National Forests
into young stands of oxygen producing, carbon dioxide -absorbing trees to
help ameliorate the rate of global warming." (Founder, Ron Arnold quoted
saying "There isn't any such thing" as the Greenhouse effect).

Goals are to increase responsible commercial use of public lands for uses such as
timber, mining, and oil, to open recreational wilderness areas for easier access by
the general public, and to implement free-market solutions to environmental
problems.

Several environmental advisors to president George W. Bush have been associated


with the wise use movement, including Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/efj/primer/different.html

At the other end:


Earth First!
Not enough to preserve some remaining wilderness. We need to preserve it
all, and it is time to recreate vast areas of wilderness in all the planet's
ecosystems: identify key areas, close roads, remove developments, and
reintroduce extirpated wildlife.
                                                   
Many environmental groups are members of the American political
establishment and adopt the anthropocentric (human-centered) world view of
industrial civilization

Developing a new biocentric paradigm based on the intrinsic value of all


natural things: Deep Ecology. Earth First! believes in wilderness for its own
sake

Use confrontation, guerrilla theater, direct action and civil disobedience to


fight for wild places and life processes, but do not condone or condemn
monkeywrenching or ecotage.
"We are sick to death of environmentalism and so we will destroy it. We
will not allow our right to own property and use nature's resources for the
benefit of mankind to be stripped from us by a bunch of eco-facists.“

– Ron Arnold (a founder of wise use movement), Boston Globe, January


13, 1992. "New, militant antienvironmentalists fight to return nature to a
back seat."

Would Pinchot support Wise Use?

Would Muir support Earth First!?

What should be the balance between private use and


preservation?

Who should decide?


Impacts of natural resource
harvest on ecosystems
Tragedy of the Commons
• Begins with unregulated access to a
resource owned by no one.
– Grasslands (mining, grazing)
– Open H20 (mining, fishing, bottling)
• Harvest based on largest amount over
the shortest period of time.
• Can deplete resource.
Preventing a Tragedy of the
Commons
• Private ownership
• Regulated access: mutual coercion
mutually agreed upon (G. Hardin)
– Sustained benefits
– Fairness in access rights
– Common consent of the regulated
Ecosystem restoration
Ex. Florida Everglades

http://fssr.home.comcast.net/news.htm
The book

The movie: Adaptation


Biomes Under Pressure
• Forests and woodlands
• Tropical forests
• Oceans
• Coral reefs and mangroves
World Wood Consumption
United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
2001 report on forest resources

http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?
url_file=/docrep/003/y0900e/y0900e05.htm
United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
2001 report on forest resources major findings

1) More forest area than in 1995, partly because


industrialized nations switched definition of forest from
20% canopy coverage to 10% coverage
2) Deforestation still occurring, mostly in developing
countries, often for conversion to pasture land
3) Drought years, ex. 1998 caused large burning of
forests
4) ~10 of forests are protected world wide
5) Role of forests in climate change acknowledged:
1) Release CO2 when burned
2) Indicators of climate change
3) Renewable energy
4) Healthy forests store CO2
Types of forest harvest

Clear cutting: removing all trees, not a good idea

Selective cutting: harvest only mature trees

Shelter-wood cutting: cut mature trees only over


long time period, some big trees always present
to provide shade and seeds

Require more skill


Do not require replanting
More functional ecosystem
Sustainable Forest Management

-Sustainable wood yield

or

-Maintain other ecosystem functions:


Meet present needs without
compromising needs of future
generations
Tropical forests
-Wood harvest

-Clearing for agricultural land


(plantations (tree farms) or other
crops)

-Usually involves cutting and burning


(1997 Indonesian fires)
Factors effecting loss of Tropical
Rainforests

• Huge national debts

• Fast food chains and cheap hamburger


Alternatives to clearing and plantations:
Shade Grown Coffee

Coffee is a shade-loving shrub; full-sun hybrids ~25 years ago to


increase yield

Maintains biodiversity, especially bird habitat

Differs from organic and fair trade- but sometimes all together

More expensive (lower yield, small market)

Sometimes carried by Starbucks


Other conservation strategies

• Ecotourism
• Management by indigenous people
• Plantations; may be better than “crop”
agriculture
• Sustainable logging
Eco-valentines

Plantations Arriba gourmet chocolate. Grown in the


shade of the Ecuadorian rainforest, and in harmony
with the ocelots, parrots and howler monkeys that call
the rainforest home, this first-ever
Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate does as much
good for the environment and cocoa-producing
communities as it does for the people who savor its
rich flavor.
http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/valentine/index.html
How can non-tropical residents influence
the loss of tropical forests?

Is it any of our business?

Are you willing to “vote with your wallet”?


Federal Lands (40%) In The U.S.
Wilderness Act of 1964
• Provides for permanent protection of
undeveloped and unexploited areas so
that natural ecological processes can
operate freely.
• 5% of land area in U.S.
• Preservation not conservation
National Parks and Wildlife Refuges

Protection & public access

Can be in conflict:
off road vehicles
car traffic
National Forests: multiple use: grazing, logging
mining, and recreation

• Only 5% of the
original U.S.
Forests are left
• Most U.S.
Forests are
second growth
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge controversy
Pros
-Need domestic oil
-National security

Cons
-Amount not significant compared to
consumption (~180 day supply)
-No oil for 10 years
-Sensitive coastal habitat
& spp.

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