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Making The Case for Earth Repair Work – Part III

In addition to my last two posts (here and here), here are a couple of additional information sources to help make the case for major investment to be made into global earth repair/ecosystem restoration work.

The United Nations Environment Programme recently published a report titled "Dead Planet, Living Planet – Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration for Sustainable Development: A Rapid Response Assessment" (15mb PDF). What makes this document so useful and important is that it presents compelling arguments for performing this work that speak to the concerns of business & economics just as much as it does of those concerned about the state of our global ecology and environment. Doing so will prove to be invaluable in helping to attract funding in amounts befitting the vital importance of this work.

Below, I’ve excerpted portions of the report’s summary that are of particular interest:

  • Ecosystems, from forests and freshwater to coral reefs and soils, deliver essential services to humankind estimated to be worth over USD 72 trillion a year – comparable to World Gross National Income. Yet in 2010, nearly two-thirds of the globe’s ecosystems are considered degraded as a result of damage, mismanagement and a failure to invest and reinvest in their productivity, health and sustainability.
  • Biodiversity and ecosystems deliver crucial services to humankind – from food security to keeping our waters clean, buffering against extreme weather, providing medicines to recreation and adding to the foundation of human culture. Together these services have been estimated to be worth over 21–72 trillion USD every year – comparable to the World Gross National Income of 58 trillion USD in 2008.
  • Effective conservation is the cheapest and most optimal option for securing services, costing only from tens to a few hundred USD per hectare.
  • Indeed, restoration costs range from hundreds to thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of USD for every hectare restored, or over 10 fold that of effectively managed protected areas. These numbers, however, are dwarfed compared to the long-term estimated costs of loosing these ecosystem services.
  • Well planned, appropriate restoration, compared to loss of ecosystem services, may provide benefit/cost ratios of 3–75 in return of investments and an internal rate of return of 7–79%, depending on the ecosystem restored and its economic context, thus providing in many cases some of the most profitable public investments including generation of jobs directly and indirectly related to an improved environment and health. Ecological restoration can further act as an engine of economy and a source of green employment.
  • A world wide survey of studies looking at restoration and conservation of ecosystem services shows us that conservation and restoration provides a highly profitable, low-cost investment for maintaining ecosystem services. Increases in biodiversity and ecosystem service measures after restoration are positively related. Restoration actions focused on enhancing biodiversity should support increased provision of ecosystem services, particularly in tropical terrestrial biomes. Conversely, these results
    suggest that ecosystem restoration focused mainly on improving services should also have a primary aim at restoring biodiversity.

The report isn’t completely devoid of contentious points. In providing suggested guidelines for avoiding pitfalls in restoration projects, the native vs. non-native debate rears its ugly head. See suggestion #3 (Note: The report may be making the suggestion that carefully chosen, intended non-native species may be used):

A set of guidelines are recommended to avoid pitfalls in restoration projects. These pitfalls include, among others:

  1. Unrealistic goals or changes in restoration targets in the process;
  2. Improper and partial restoration which creates monocultures with little ecosystem service capacity compared to reference sites;
  3. Unintended transplant of non-native invasive pests or species;
  4. Lack of monitoring to ensure that restoration results in rising biodiversity and services in restored ecosystems;
  5. Lack of reduction in the pressures that lead to the loss of ecosystems in the first place;
  6. Lack of adequate integration of stakeholders and socio-economic issues.

The final portion of the report’s summary makes 11 excellent recommendations for ecosystem restoration work that deserve to be read. Take time to check out the link – it’s well worth it.

Rhamis Kent

Rhamis Kent is a consultant with formal training in mechanical engineering (University of Delaware, B.S.M.E. '95) and permaculture-based regenerative whole systems design. He has previously worked for the renowned American inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen at DEKA Research & Development, with subsequent engineering work ranging from medical device research and development to aerospace oriented mechanical design. After taking an interest in the design science of Permaculture, he sought extended training with permaculture expert and educator Geoff Lawton at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. This led to his involvement with design work connected to the development of Masdar City in UAE after Mr. Lawton and his consulting company (Permaculture Sustainable Consultancy Pty. Ltd.) were contracted by AECOM/EDAW to identify solutions which fit the challenging zero emissions/carbon neutral design constraint of the project.

8 Comments

  1. World entered ecological debt on Saturday 21 August 2010:

    https://www.neweconomics.org/press-releases/world-enters-ecological-debt-on-saturday-21-august-2010

    What is Earth Overshoot Day? What is Overshoot? The Cost of Ecological Overspending. How is Earth Overshoot Day Calculated?

    See: https://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/earth_overshoot_day/

    Globalism in a nutshell:

    – We exported 131,000 tonnes of chewing gum to Spain and imported 125,00 tonnes back again.

    – The UK exported 3,300 tonnes of soft toys to New Zealand, and then imported 2,400 tonnes back again.

    – We exported 43,000 tonnes of toffee to France while at the same time importing 39,000 tonnes from the French.

    The same thing goes on here in Scandinavia. Some years ago my father talked with a truck driver, and he frequently drove toilet paper from Finland to Norway and from Norway to Finland. This was because of state subsidies to the paper industry in some way or another made it cheaper to use imported toilet paper from one another. The world is crazy!

  2. Here is a good example of ecosystem restoration: https://jp.dk/indland/article2159316.ece

    After most of Lake Filsø was drained for agricultural use, most of it will now be restored and given back to bird life. For the time the lake is at just 65 hectare, but when restored it will cover 900 hectare.

    Thank God it’s still good news to be found in this world! This is a very good example of ecosystem restoration.

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