Ecosystem Management: Tomorrow’s Approach to Enhancing Food Security under a Changing Climate

Abstract

This paper argues that a sustainable ecosystem management approach is vital to ensure the delivery of essential ‗life support' ecosystem services and must be mainstreamed into societal conscience, political thinking and economic processes. Feeding the world at a time of climate change, environmental degradation, increasing human population and demand for finite resources requires sustainable ecosystem management and equitable governance. Ecosystem degradation undermines food production and the availability of clean water, hence threatening human health, livelihoods and ultimately societal stability. Degradation also increases the vulnerability of populations to the consequences of natural disasters and climate change impacts. With 10 million people dying from hunger each year, the linkages between ecosystems and food security are important to recognize. Though we all depend on ecosystems for our food and water, about seventy per cent of the estimated 1.1 billion people in poverty around the world live in rural areas and depend directly on the productivity of ecosystems for their livelihoods. Healthy ecosystems provide a diverse range of food sources and support entire agricultural systems, but their value to food security and sustainable livelihoods are often undervalued or ignored. There is an urgent need for increased financial investment for integrating ecosystem management with food security and poverty alleviation priorities. As the world's leaders worked towards a new international climate change agenda in Cancun, Mexico, 29 November-10 December 2010 (UNFCCC COP16), it was clear that without a deep and decisive post-2012 agreement and major concerted effort to reduce the food crisis, OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2011, 3 938 the Millennium Development Goals will not be attained. Political commitment at the highest level will be needed to raise the profile of ecosystems on the global food agenda. It is recommended that full recognition and promotion be given of the linkages between healthy, protected ecosystems and global food security; that sufficient resources be allocated for improved ecosystem valuation, protection, management and restoration; and that ecosystem management be integrated in climate change and food security portfolios. We will not be able to feed the world and eradicate extreme poverty, if we do not protect our valuable ecosystems and biodiversity.

Evaluation and Clustering Maps of Groundwater Wells in the Red Beds of Chengdu, Sichuan, China

“…Although farm irrigation is not necessary, in the 1980s the Ministry of Water Resources issued data about the grain production from irrigated and non-irrigated lands and found that the grain production from irrigated lands was two to four times greater than those of non-irrigated lands, with arid lands benefitting from irrigation more than non-arid lands [30]. Because farmland crops are somewhat replaceable and farmland must meet the living requirements of the residents, the areas that were irrigated in this paper are referred to as irrigation insurance areas.…”

Addressing Tipping Points for a Precarious Future

“…EbA provides many other benefits to communities including food security (from fisheries to agro-forestry), sustainable water management and livelihood diversification (through increasing resource-used options). (Munang et al 2011) But such positive schemes rely on robust and extended leadership, investments in transport and marketing arrangements, and integrative behaviour by farmers and food suppliers/distributors protected from the volatilities of the international food markets. This is a tall order.…”

Conceptualizing Sustainably Produced Food for Promotional Purposes: A Sustainable Marketing Approach

“…Biodiversity-restoring food production helps reverse the loss of diversity of plant and animal species, of varieties within species and in ecosystems [55,62,69]. The cornerstone of all aspects of biodiversity is soil fertility.…”

“…This development has been spurred by the use of genetically engineered (GE) crops, where the intensified use of Roundup has increased the risk of weed pesticide resistance and changed the soil flora [60]. Ecosystem degradation must be reversed in order to feed the increasing number of inhabitants in the world [61][62][63]. The eight Millennium Development Goals set targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the reduction of biodiversity loss and increased water security.…”