Status: completed (2009)
The Ecosystem Approach
of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Huth, Anne-Christine and Londoño-Stipanovic, Fidel
an_huth@web.de and fidel.lond@gmail.com
(Source: A. Huth/T. Mingam)
Abstract
The Ecosystem Approach (EA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity is a holistic environmental management strategy which aims at the integrated governance of land, water and living resources. It promotes the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and strives for an equitable sharing of its benefits. This article attempts to provide an in depth overview about the EA. In the following, the background of the EA and its origins in US environmental policy-making will be briefly outlined and its underlying principles and ideas will be described. The conception that economic-, social- and ecological aspects are indispensably interlinked and all have to be taken into account, when it comes to the conclusion of natural resource- and environmental management plans, constitutes the core idea of the EA. The twelve fundamental principles which give guidance on how to properly apply the EA will be displayed in detail. Furthermore, the proposed ways of implementation will be presented making reference to the five operational guidelines, the suggested steps of implementation and the creation of structured management plans. Finally, implementation obstacles like the lack of necessary institutional framework and awareness will be depicted, and future challenges will be discussed.
1. Introduction
Since the late 1980s and the early 1990s in several countries, especially in the USA and Canada, policy-makers increasingly became aware of the necessity to use a more holistic approach to the management of natural resources. Strategies which consider stakeholder participation and co-operation between different sectors of management were discussed and gained in importance among United States federal agencies (Stadler, 2002, p. 25). In this context also Hartje et al. (2003) point out that “the changing quality of environmental problems and the manifold user interests in land use demand a more integrated approach to ecosystem management” (p. 9). The former main focus on single species and area protection was more and more abandoned in favor of ecosystem protection and integrated land use planning. Although these national processes were not directly related to the debates on the ecosystem approach held by the CBD, they provided some essential impetus to the latter.
2. Definitions
The ecosystem approach is a holistic environmental management strategy which aims at an “integrated governance of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way” (SCBD, 2009a).
The ecosystem approach (EA) was adopted within the Convention of Biodiversity in 1995 by the Conference of the Parties (COPII) as the primary framework for biodiversity conservation. The Conference of the Parties, at its Fifth Meeting in 2000, endorsed the description of the ecosystem approach and operational guidance, and recommended the application of twelve principles and other guidance on the ecosystem approach (SCBD, 2009c). Under the ecosystem approach main emphasis is placed on the sustainment of functioning ecosystems and on the recognition of the interdependency between human actions and ecosystem dynamics (Fig.1). It focuses on structure, functions and interactions of ecosystems and acknowledges that human beings are an integral part of them. The ecosystem approach involves adaptive management measures to cope with the complex and very dynamic nature of ecosystems and the absence of complete knowledge and understanding of their functioning. It is a general management approach not competing with other existing management-, conservation strategies or national policies. There is no one unique way to implement the ecosystem approach, as it depends on local, regional, national or global circumstances. It is highly flexible and can be applied to a wide range of scales to address a variety of problems in the management of biological diversity in order to simultaneously achieve conservation, sustainable development and equitable sharing of its benefits (SCBD, 2006a).
Figure 1. Interdependence between human actions and ecosystems
Several concepts stand behind the ecosystem approach (see Fig. 2). It is a holistic approach as it considers the ecosystem with all its properties as a whole. It attempts to include ecological as well as social, political and economic views into management strategies to conserve biodiversity and to advance human well-being. In addition, the ecosystem approach is based on the idea of environmental justice which gives priority to fair treatment and involvement of all people in the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws and polices. Indigenous people and local communities are acknowledged as important stakeholders whose rights and interests have to be recognized (societal choice). Furthermore, adaptive management practices are required as ecosystems are dynamic systems which are subject to change and uncertainties (Korn et al., 2003).
Figure 2. Important concepts behind the ecosystem approach
3. Implementation of the Ecosystem Approach
As part of the scheme proposed for the EA, a series of recommendations were issued, with the purpose of giving guidelines on the application of this management strategy. Inter alia 12 principles where adopted, which should help to get a broader and clearer view of the elements that have to be taken into account when carrying out the EA.
Table 1. Overview- The 12 Principles of the Ecosystem Approach
| 1. |
The objectives of management of land, water and living resources are a matter of societal choices. |
| 2. |
Management should be decentralized to the lowest appropriate level. |
| 3. |
Ecosystem managers should consider the effects (actual or potential) of their activities on adjacent and other ecosystems. |
| 4. |
Recognizing potential gains from management, there is usually a need to understand and manage the ecosystem in an economic context. |
| 5. |
Conservation of ecosystem structure and functioning, in order to maintain ecosystem services, should be a priority target of the ecosystem approach. |
| 6. |
Ecosystem must be managed within the limits of their functioning. |
| 7. |
The ecosystem approach should be undertaken at the appropriate spatial and temporal scales. |
| 8. |
Recognizing the varying temporal scales and lag-effects that characterize ecosystem processes, objectives for ecosystem management should be set for the long term. |
| 9. |
Management must recognize the change is inevitable. |
| 10. |
The ecosystem approach should seek the appropriate balance between, and integration of, conservation and use of biological diversity. |
| 11. |
The ecosystem approach should consider all forms of relevant information, including scientific and indigenous and local knowledge, innovations and practices. |
| 12. |
The ecosystem approach should involve all relevant sectors of society and scientific disciplines. |
Source: SCBD (2007)
The twelve principles include a broad list of elements and as can be read in the next lines, each has an explanation that links them to particular issues, marking also the limits in between each other.
- The objectives of management of land, water and living resources are a matter of societal choices: All sectors of society have their own perception of ecosystems, according to their own economic, social and cultural perspectives and necessities. Due to this, they have the right to be recognized as stakeholders, on which the weight of the future decisions should be placed.
- Management should be decentralized to the lowest appropriate level: Decentralization allows for greater efficiency and equity in the use and administration of resources. The closer the management / administration is to the ecosystem, the greater is the responsibility, ownership, accountability, participation and use of local knowledge (see hierarchy theory).
- Ecosystem managers should consider the effects of their activities on adjacent and other ecosystems: Management interventions often have unforeseeable effects on other ecosystems. Therefore, previous impact assessment studies are indispensable.
- The ecosystem should be managed and understood in an economic context: This principle refers to the actual schemes of managing the resources, which have market distortions that negatively affect biodiversity. It includes the creation of incentives for the promotion of diversity conservation and its sustainable use. Costs and benefits in a given ecosystem should be internalized when possible so that the real value of the ecosystem can be established.
- Conservation of ecosystem structures and functioning, in order to maintain ecosystem services, should be a priority: Ecosystem functioning and resilience depends on the dynamic relationship between biotic and abiotic factors. The conservation, and if necessary restoration of these interactions is more important for the long-term maintenance of biological diversity than merely single species protection.
- Ecosystem must be managed within the limits of their functioning: The limits to ecosystem functioning may be affected to different degrees by temporary, unpredictable or artificially maintained conditions. Thus possible management strategies should be appropriately cautious, taking into account these unpredictable elements.
- EA should be undertaken at the appropriate spatial and temporal scales: This principle refers to the necessity of any strategy to be bounded to spatial and temporal scales according to the objectives of management. It has to be recognized that every system has boundaries that can be defined or at least approximated, according to the levels of understanding and needs of the project (see hierarchy theory)
- Recognizing the varying temporal scales and lag-effects that characterize ecosystem processes, objectives for ecosystem management should be set for the long term: Ecosystem processes are defined by uncertain temporal scale and lag-effects. This fundamentally conflicts with the tendency of humans to favor short-term gains and immediate benefits over future ones.
- Management must recognize that change is inevitable: Ecosystems change, including species composition, population abundance and so forth. It has to be taken take into account that traditional disturbance regimes may be important for ecosystem structure and functioning, which may need to be maintained or restored.
- The EA should seek the appropriate balance between conservation and use of biological diversity: This principle refers to the need for a shift to more flexible situations, where conservation and use of resources are seen in a broader context; and the full range of measures is applied in a continuum from strictly protected to human-made ecosystems.
- The EA should consider all forms of relevant information, including scientific and indigenous and local knowledge, innovations and practices: Information from all sources is critical to arriving at effective ecosystem management strategies.
- The EA should involve all relevant sectors of society and scientific disciplines: The management of biological diversity is often complex. This complexity necessitates the involvement of all necessary expertise and stakeholders at the local, national, regional and international level, as appropriate.
4. Guidelines for application – Operational guidelines
In order to ensure the correct application of the twelve principles, five operational guidelines where established with the aim of pointing at the specific elements that may be part of any project to develop. These include issues related to the understanding of ecosystem functions and services as well as management aspects related to the adequate use of information for the creation of permanent feedbacks, the allocation of the project in the correct scale and the collaboration with different sectors of society (SCBD, 2006b):
a. Focus on the relationships and processes within ecosystems
Improved practical management has to take into account knowledge related to ecosystem functions and structure, including issues like: ecosystem resilience and the effects to biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation
b. Improve benefit sharing
Benefits derived from different ecosystem functions have to be shared equally, taking special care on the maintenance and restoration of resources also in accordance with stakeholders needs like: capacity building, valuation of ecosystem goods and services and removal or replacement of wrong incentives.
c. Use adaptive management practices
Ecosystem management must involve a learning process, which helps to adapt methodologies and practices to the ways in which these systems are being managed and monitored. Also implementation programs should be designed to adjust to unexpected situations. There is a need for flexibility in policy-making and implementation.
d. Carry out management actions at the respective appropriate scale
Every management practice should be adjusted in scale to the proper demands and actual limits of the problem, this also includes decentralization to a level in which the stakeholder has the opportunity to assume responsibility and the capacity to take appropriate decisions.
e. Ensure intersectoral cooperation
There is a need to integrate the ecosystem approach into agriculture, fisheries, forestry and other production systems that have an effect on biodiversity. In this way, the management of natural resources needs increased communication in between sectors of government or society.
5. Suggested steps of implementation of EA management plan
Following the previous ideas, the EA provides also an overall pathway for the implementation of management plans. Several publications like the Advanced User Guide issued by the CBD provide important information for project managers on how to apply the ecosystem approach properly (SCBD, 2009b). Also other international environmental organizations like the World Conservation Union (IUCN) have addressed the issue of the ecosystem approach and attempt to increase the understanding of the latter. In their publication The Ecosystem Approach-5 Steps to Implementation guidance is given on how to easily apply the EA to project management. Five steps are advised to be carried out in order to facilitate the implementation of the EA (Shepherd, 2004):
- Determining the main stakeholders, defining the ecosystem area, and developing the relationship between them
- Characterizing the structure and function of the ecosystem, and setting in place mechanisms to manage and monitor it
- Identifying the important economic issues that will affect the ecosystem and its inhabitants
- Determining the likely impact of the ecosystem on adjacent ecosystems
- Deciding on long-term goals, and flexible ways of reaching them
In order to give guidance on how to create an appropriate management plan, the CBD also gives an example which steps should be included (SCBD, 2009b). However, it is emphasized that it does not set out the exact prescriptive order, as every project is different and there is no single correct way to create such a plan. Several steps are outlined, following a linear scheme that starts with the simple task of identifying issues of interest for management and ends with monitoring and evaluation of the proposed and put-into-practice plan (meaning that to some extent this is a circular process!). Also, it gives special focus on the timing, the analysis of impacts, the involvement of key actors and definition of clear boundaries of the project, as shown in Figure 3.
Source: F. Londoño-Stipanovic
Figure 3. Structured Management Plan (Created according to SCBD, 2009b)
6. Obstacles to implementation
Although the ecosystem approach has gained support from policy-makers and certain environmental NGOs and international actors, its implementation is still insufficient. Several critics point at the limits to implementation of the EA due to the lack of necessary institutional provisions (Hartje et al., 2003). Often especially developing countries do not possess the required institutional and legal framework, planning system, monitoring system, knowledge and technical capacity to successfully enforce the EA. Moreover, also in other countries a general lack of awareness as well as gaps in the knowledge and understanding of ecosystems and processes hamper effective implementation. Centralized political systems play a negative role, because of the reduced independency of actors, or the distortion of the appropriate ways of implementation of the approach (SCBD, 2007).
7. Discussion
The EA constitutes a demanding approach in terms of its complexity. Although today several international actors support the ecosystem approach, it has been proved difficult to apply it in all of its extension, due to its complexity and overlapping predicates that tend to be full of theory. Often the lack of necessary institutional provisions hampers effective implementation. As can be observed on the CDB sources, the references to successful projects are diverse but small, taking into account that this should be a worldwide strategy (Smith and Maltby, 2003). Nevertheless, in those cases in which it has been applied, it has proved to be an element that provides a set of tools that are utilized in diverse situations, which is of great importance for the process of standardization of programs and projects that have the same final objective (Andrade Pérez, 2008). In order to make the application of the EA more successful, besides the creation of important political, legal and economic conditions, regional and international workshops can help to foster the awareness and understanding of the EA. Regional training programs for target groups of professionals as well as National Agencies can help to give guidance and help to assist environmental managers in the application of the EA to their projects.
References
- Andrade Pérez, A. (Ed.) (2008). Applying the Ecosystem Approach in Latin America. Bogotá, Colombia: CEM-UICN.
- Caldwell, L. (Ed.) (1988). Perspectives on ecosystem management for the Great Lakes. Albany, USA: State university of New York Press
- Hartje, V., Klaphake, A., Schliep, R. (2003). The International Debate on the Ecosystem Approach: Critical Review, International Actors, Obstacles and Challenges. Bonn: German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Bfn Skripten 80-2003. Retrieved August, 5, 2009 from: http://www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/esa/ecosys-01/information/ecosys-01-inf-03-en.pdf
- Korn, H., Schliep, R., Stadler, J. (Eds.) (2003). Report of the international Workshop on the “Further Development of the Ecosystem Approach”. Bonn: German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Bfn Skripten 78-2002. Retrieved August, 10, 2009 from: http://www.bfn.de/fileadmin/MDB/documents/skript78.pdf
- Korn, H., Stadler, J., Maltby, E., Kerr, A (Eds.) (1999). Report of the scientific workshop on “The ecosystem approach- what does it mean for European ecosystems?” Bonn: German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Bfn Skripten 9-1999. Retrieved September, 18, 2009 from: http://www.lepidat.de/fileadmin/MDB/documents/ecoapproach.pdf#page=28
- SCBD (2009a). Ecosystem Approach: Introduction. Retrieved August, 5, 2009 from. http://www.cbd.int/ecosystem/
- SCBD (2009b). The Ecosystem Approach Advanced User Guide. Retrieved August, 4, 2009, from: http://www.cbd.int/doc/programmes/cro-cut/eco/eco-guide-ad-en.pdf
- SCBD (2009c). COP Decision 5 V/6. Retrieved August, 5, 2009 from: http://www.cbd.int/decision/cop/?id=7148
- SCBD (2007). Principles. Retrieved August, 4, 2009, from: http://www.cbd.int/ecosystem/principles.shtml
- SCBD (2006a). Description. Retrieved August, 4, 2009, from: http://www.cbd.int/ecosystem/description.shtml
- SCBD (2006b). Operational Guidelines. Retrieved August, 4, 2009, from http://www.cbd.int/ecosystem/operational.shtml
- Shepherd, G. (2004). The Ecosystem Approach: 5 Steps to Implementation. Cambridge and Gland: IUCN.
- Smith, R.D., Maltby, E. (2003). Using the Ecosystem Approach to Implement the Convention on Biological Diversity: Key Issues and Case Studies. Cambridge and Gland: IUCN. Royal Holloway Institute for Environmental Research. University of London. Uk
- Stadler, J. (2002). A Brief History of the Development of the Ecosystem Approach within the Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity. In: Korn H., Schliep, R. Stadler, J. (2002). Report of the International Workshop on the “Further Development of the Ecosystem Approach”. Bonn: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Bfn-Skripten 78.
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