Humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively in the last 50 years than in any comparable period of human history. We have done this to meet the growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber, and fuel. While changes to ecosystems have enhanced the well-being of billions of people, they have also caused a substantial and largely irreversible loss in diversity of life on Earth, and have strained the capacity of ecosystems to continue providing critical services.
- Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystem & Human Well-Being: Volume 1, Current Status and Trends
This sums up the challenge that faces the
Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). The MA is an international effort to provide scientific information for decision makers and the public concerning the consequences of ecosystem changes for human well-being. This information also is intended to help identify options to respond to those changes. Launched in 2001 by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the MA provides assessment support for
several UN conventions on environmental matters as well as for private enterprise and public entities. More than 1,300 authors from 95 countries worked more than four years on the MA.
So what's it do?
The MA focuses on ecosystem services (the benefits people obtain from ecosystems), how changes in ecosystem services have affected human wellbeing, how ecosystem changes may affect people in future decades, and response options that might be adopted at local, national, or global scales to improve ecosystem management and thereby contribute to human well-being and poverty alleviation.
The idea underlying the concept of "ecosystem services" is that human societies derive many essential goods from natural ecosystems, beyond food, fuel, metals, building materials (timber and aggregates) and pharmaceutical products. Ecosystems also perform fundamental life-support services without which human civilizations would cease to thrive. These include air and water purification, detoxification and decomposition of wastes, regulation of climate, maintenance of soil fertility, and preservation of biodiversity, an important component for agricultural and pharmaceutical industries.
These natural processes are worth many trillions of dollars annually, possibly exceeding the value of all man-made capital. Yet, most of these vital services carry no price tags that could alert society to changes in their supply or deterioration of underlying ecological systems that generate them. Because there's no simple way to place a dollar value on the role of a wetland in preserving water quality for an adjacent river and providing recreational value, it become an easier decision economically to destroy it and fill it in for "higher value" condos and shopping centers. Since the threats to these systems are increasing, identification and monitoring of ecosystem services both locally and globally has become a critical need, so their value can be incorporated into decision-making processes.
Hence, the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment.
A recent report on the impact of the MA on decision making concludes:
Close to one year after the release of the core Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) findings in March 2005 a survey of individuals involved in the MA process provides widespread evidence that the assessment is having an impact on its target audiences, but the extent of that impact is very mixed, with some institutions, regions, countries, and sectors significantly influenced by the MA while others have not been influenced at all.
This report also observes that it will be several years from the time of release of the MA reports (starting in 2005) before a full evaluation of the impact of the MA can be carried out.
Let's hope we don't run out of time before then.