|
The 'ecosystem approach' (EA) has been widely
recommended, both internationally and within the
UK, as a way in which the overall health or integrity
of ecosystems can be assessed and the multiple
benefits derived from them, i.e. goods and services,
better described and managed. Defra have initiated
a very timely set of studies designed to look
in detail at the potential of the ecosystems approach
as an integrating policy framework.
The need for such work was emphasised at a recent
meeting of the UK Global Biodiversity Sub-Committee
of the Global Environmental Change Committee which
considered the benefits of extending the approach
developed in the Millennium Assessment (MA) to
England's ecosystems. It was argued that by emphasising
the contribution of ecosystem goods and services
to human well-being, the MA approach potentially
allowed the importance of ecological systems to
be more fully considered in policy or planning
decisions. The 'ecosystems approach' is one way
in which this might be achieved.
In order to take work on the ecosystems approach
forward, however, a number of key objectives have
to be resolved, namely:
- Establishing and agreeing what an ecosystem
approach involves and how it can be used to
make an assessment of the outputs of ecosystem
goods and services at national, regional and
local scales. Such work would require a better
understanding of how current thinking about
environmental limits and values link into the
ecosystems approach, and how such information
can be used to help assessing the state and
trends in the output and human use of ecosystem
goods and services.
- Understanding how the principles of the ecosystems
approach can be used in decision making at national,
regional and local scales. Such work would involve
looking at the content of the evidence-base
and the types of decision-support tools that
would be needed to implement the approach, in
relation to current policy and decision-making
frameworks. It would also involve looking at
how the ecosystems approach would relate to
other methods of policy development and appraisal
so that synergies and cumulative pressures can
be identified and optimal cost-benefit outcomes
potentially achieved.
This study will address these two central issues
and consider whether a case can be made for intervention
on an ecosystem scale to ensure the on-going supply
of ecosystem goods and services (overall objective).
Given the importance of these issues, we consider
that within the Phase II programme this project
plays a key strategic role in taking Defra's thinking
forward. Thus the integration of outputs with
the other studies being considered by Defra has
been an important consideration in the design
of the work.
[
top ]
|
