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Annual Symposium 2006

Ecological Limits to Sustainable Development
10 - 11 April 2006, University of Edinburgh, UK

****THIS SYMPOSIUM HAS BEEN CANCELLED****

PROGRAMME

Speakers have been invited to give a synthesis of their topic and to present their perspectives on opportunities, capacities and strategies for meeting present and future challenges. Professor Howard Dalton will introduce the meeting and Dr Stephen Bass will be invited to provide an overall synthesis at its conclusion.

Monday 10 April

8:30	Registration & Coffee
9:30	Dr Paul van Gardingen Symposium Co-organiser University of Edinburgh, UK	Welcome and Introduction
9:40	Professor Howard Dalton Chief Scientific Advisor, UK	Ecology: Constraints and Opportunities for Development
10:30	Coffee
	Session 1 Chair: Dr Paul van Gardingen University of Edinburgh, UK	Ecological Determinants of Productivity
11:00	Professor Gareth Edwards-Jones University of Wales, Bangor, UK Dr James Bullock CEH Dorset, UK	Technology or Ecology?: Solutions for Agricultural Production.
11:50	Professor Frits Mohren Wageningen University, Netherlands	Forest Production Ecology as a Basis for Sustainable Use
12:40	Lunch
14:00	Professor John Beddington Imperial College London, UK	Fishery Science Today
14:50	Discussion: Ecological Determinants of Productivity
15:10	Coffee
	Session 2 Chair:      Professor Jaboury Ghazoul ETH, Zurich, Switzerland	Ecosystem Services in a Changing World
15:30	Professor Dave Raffaelli University of York, UK	Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: an Ecosystem Health Perspective
16:20	Professor Richard Bardgett University of Lancaster, UK	Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
17:10	Close of Day 1

Tuesday 11 April

		Session 2 (continued)	Ecosystem Services in a Changing World
9:00	Professor Roy Haines-Young University of Nottingham, UK		The Ecology of Sustainable Landscapes - Understanding the Limits
9:50	Professor R. Uma ShaankerUniversity of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India		Ecosystem Services for Development
10:40		Discussion: Ecosystem Services in a Changing World
11:00		Coffee
		Session 3 Chair:      Professor Dave Raffaelli University of York, UK	Ecology and Human Society
11:20		Professor Kamal Bawa University of Massachusetts, USA	Capacities for Conservation and Sustainable Management in Tropical Forest Systems
12:10		Professor Charles Perrings Arizona State University, USA	Ecological Economics
13:00		Lunch
14:30		Dr Paul van Gardingen University of Edinburgh, UK	Ecology and International Development
15:00		Steve Bass International Institute for Environment and Development, UK	Synthesis
15:30		Discussion Chair:      Dr Paul van Gardingen University of Edinburgh, UK
16:00		Coffee & Close

Abstracts:

Professor Howard Dalton, Chief Scientific Advisor, Defra, UK. 'Ecology: Constraints and Opportunities for Development'.
There are limits to the capacity of the Earth to continue to absorb pollution and provide natural resources so it’s vital that we learn to live within environmental limits today, in order to secure a future that is fairer for the generations of people that come tomorrow. Learning to do more with less is the objective of sustainable development, the theme of this conference and the challenge for our work at Defra. Science can be viewed as is a driver of the economy and in terms of wealth creation. Another way, science can be described as is about thinking imaginatively and solving problems, and science can be used to tackle problems concerning the environment. This is how we’re thinking about science in Defra. More specifically, we’re asking how science can address the link between environmental degradation and our desire for more goods and services in its Sustainable Consumption and Production programme. As Chief Scientific Adviser to Defra I will explain how this programme is using science to provide us with evidence to preserve biodiversity, maintain healthy ecosystems and implement sustainable development.

Professor Gareth Edwards-Jones, University of Wales, Bangor and Dr James Bullock, CEH Dorset, UK: 'Technology or Ecology?: Solutions for Agricultural Production'.
Technological advances have been the primary approach for increasing agricultural productivity. Notable developments include artificial chemicals, more effective machinery and plant and animal breeding. These have been successful so far in increasing the production of food and other consumables, which remains the main aim of world agriculture. However, the technological approach has a number of limitations. Environmental services and moderation of ecological damage are becoming important aims of agriculture. These aims include conservation of resources such as soils, reduction of pollution such as that from nitrates, and even alternative land uses such as the creation of habitats of conservation value. These aims require a greater understanding of ecological processes and how agricultural systems work and interact within the broader rural landscape.  However, both ecological and agricultural scientists are often puzzled as to why apparently more sustainable approaches are not adopted more widely in developed and developing countries.  In this paper we will consider whether technological approaches need to be integrated with ecological, economic and sociological analyses of agricultural systems to meet the full range of demands made by society on modern agriculture.

Professor Frits Mohren, Wageningen University, Netherlands: 'Forest Production Ecology as a Basis for Sustainable Use'.
Sustainable use as a long tradition in forestry, where concepts of sustained yield where developed already during the 18th and 19th Century. Originally, the focus was predominantly on regulating forest yield to maintain constant harvest levels over time. Essentially this was based on assumptions of conservation of site productivity by minimizing nutrient losses through harvesting of timber only, and maintaining the forest cover and forest microclimate as much as possible. The concept of sustained yield was subsequently developed into an essentially technical approach to forest management planning, ensuring a steady flow of forest products while maintaining the production potential of the forest. With the increasing interest in sustainability, the concept of sustainable forest management was expanded to include socio-economic and cultural aspects of sustainability as well, not only with respect to timber and other forest products, but also for ecosystem services such as biodiversity conservation and the regulating capacity of forest ecosystems wih respect to the exchange of water and carbon with the atmosphere. As a consequence, sustainable forest management has become a more complicated concept to analyse, and cannot be simply related to ecosystem properties or ecosystem management only. With the gradual awareness of environmental changes such as associated with global climate change, sustainability of forest use cannot be viewed as a static concept anymore, and ecological understanding of adaptive capacity of ecosystems to gradual changing environmental conditions becomes a pre-requisite for sustainability assessments again. Forest production ecology, as the discipline aimed at understanding forest growth and forest dynamics in relation to environmental conditions, is becoming increasingly important to assess the dynamics of resource availability over time, and hence for the assessment of the possibilities for provision of goods and ecosystem services in a sustainable way in a changing environment.

Professor John Beddington, Imperial College London, UK: 'Fishery Science Today'.
The depletion of fish stocks on a global scale is well documented. The list of stocks that have been seriously depleted is dominated by large predatory fish and fisheries are increasingly focussing on species lower down in the food web. This paper reviews whether fisheries science provides a sufficient level of understanding of the processes involved to guide management in a more efficient stewardship of marine resources in the future. Despite a widely recognised need for a more ecosystem-based approach to fishery management, the vast majority of practical assessments remain firmly fixed in the single species paradigm. This is reviewed and then current and likely future extensions to multi-species/ecosystem assessments are examined. While a flawed understanding of the biology and ecology of exploited fish stocks may be partly to blame for the historical stock depletions, arguably it is primarily economic forces that have undermined fishery management. The key economic drivers are identified and the likely shape of a more successful future fishery management system is outlined.

Professor Dave Raffaelli, University of York, UK: 'Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services: an Ecosystem Health Perspective'.
Sustainable economic development and well-being depend on the range of services which can be supported by the natural capital present within systems. The outputs of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment indicate clearly where and how these systems are being compromised world-wide.  Approaches to assessing, valuing (in the broadest sense) and managing natural capital and services need to acknowledge the uncertainty which characterises society-environment interactions, in particular how views on option usage might change as societal knowledge, understanding and values evolve in the future. This paper explores the potential of holistic and inter-disciplinary (ecological, environmental and social) measures of natural capital and services at different spatial scales as a basis for informing decisions on usage options in discussions with policy makers and the public.

Professor Richard Bardgett, University of Lancaster, UK: 'Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services'.
The study of soil biodiversity and its significance for ecosystem services is a relatively new field of ecology. Although it has been known throughout history that the activities of soil organisms are integral to soil fertility, it is only during the last few decades that ecologists have begun to explore more deeply the belowground world and its functional significance for ecosystem services. This interest is due, in part, to technological advances that have enabled scientists to extract and characterize diverse soil communities and to assess what they do. It is also due to an increasing recognition by ecologists, who have traditionally focused on aboveground organisms, of the importance of belowground organisms as structuring forces in terrestrial ecosystems. In this talk I will discuss some recent developments in this exciting field of ecology and reveal how they relate to sustainable land management. First, I will reveal some of what is known about the hidden reservoir of underground biodiversity and discuss how anthropogenic forces, such as climate and land use change, affect it. Second, I will explore the consequences of changes in soil biodiversity for ecosystem services, with special reference to processes of nutrient cycling and plant production.  Much is still to be learned about soil biodiversity and I will highlight some of the many challenges that face ecologists in their exploration of soil and its importance for  sustainable management.

Professor Roy Haines-Young, University of Nottingham, UK: 'The Ecology of Sustainable landscapes - Understanding the Limits'.
If the goals of sustainable development are to be achieved then we need to understand environmental limits and thresholds. Although a review of the recent scientific literature suggests that we can identify how limits might be defined for particular natural resource systems, and what kinds of systems are likely to exhibit threshold responses, the key practical challenge that remains is to understand how notions of limits are played out at the landscape scale, where issues of multi-functionality are important. While the concept of ecosystem goods and services is gaining widespread support, only limited attention has been paid to the idea of goods and services related to whole landscapes. We suggest that this is particularly important on in a country such as the UK, where landscapes provide not only a stream of benefits from nature, but also from our rich cultural and social heritage. It is suggested that a landscape focus can be useful for operationalising thinking about environmental limits, and that their definition depends on an understanding of the biophysical properties of landscapes and the way people value the benefits derived from them. In particular, it is argued that a landscape approach may be one way of defining a ‘sustainability choice space’ within which spatial planning decisions can be made. 

Professor R. Uma Shaanker, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India: 'Ecosystem Services for Development'.
Ecosystem services (eg: pollinator and bio-control services, watershed and nutrient cycling services) accruing out of ecosystems have traditionally been assumed and have received little formal attention. Yet these services are some of the most important and sensitive to changes in land use and land cover including de-forestation and forest fragmentation. In the tropics, ecosystem services play an important role in contributing directly and indirectly to the livelihoods of people dependent upon forest resources.  However a relentless and a heavy dependence on forest resources have seriously threatened many of these services.  It is believed that erosion of ecosystem elements and their functions can most certainly lead to the impoverishment of the forest dependent communities and to their further marginalization. It is imperative that if livelihoods of forest-dependent people have to be maintained, critical ecosystem services need to be protected and maintained. In this paper we exhaustively review the role of ecosystem services in livelihoods of forest dependent communities and identify the major drivers that threaten the ecosystem services. Based on the review, we offer a synthesis and a conceptual framework to reach out at a win-win mode: of how critical ecosystem services can be maintained while enhancing the livelihoods of forest dependent people.

Professor Kamal Bawa, University of Massachusetts, USA: 'Capacities for Conservation and Sustainable Management in Tropical Forest Systems'.
Capacity building and institutional development are critical for success in conservation and in the practice of sustainability science. Despite efforts that have lasted several decades, human capacity and institutions to meet contemporary challenges in sustainability science remain weak, particularly in developing countries. We need new models and approaches to build human and social capital as well as institutions to confront sustainability challenges. I outline some of these models and approaches to enhance human capital and institutional framework to promote conservation and sustainable management of natural resources in India. I share experiences from setting up institutions at multiple scales.  Interdisciplinarity, participatory processes, and networking among nested institutions are key elements of the models and approaches that we are pursuing. In spite of initial successes, major constraints and challenges remain. I discuss ways to overcome these limitations, and offer general comments on the type of institutions that we would eventually need to make progress.

Professor Charles Perring, Arizona State University, USA: 'Ecological Economics'.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment encourages us to think about biodiversity in functional terms - through its role in the provision of ecosystem services of value to humans. Ecological economists have previously attempted to estimate the value of biomes, the most famous (or infamous) example being the 1997 paper by Costanza et al in Nature. However, the work of estimating the economic implications of the changes in biodiversity identified by the Millennium Assessment has yet to be undertaken. This paper considers how an ecological-economic approach to the problem posed by the Millennium Assessment might affect the relative value of biodiversity in areas of differing species richness. It is argued that the marginal value of a change in biodiversity is likely to be highest in species-poor, heavily impacted ecosystems delivering critical regulating services.  At the same time, these are precisely the services that are least well measured by conventional measures of scarcity, market prices. The policy implications of this fact are discussed.

Dr Paul van Gardingen, Edinburgh University, UK: 'Ecology and International Development'.
What are the links between ecology and international development and how are these relevant to the concept of sustainable development? Whilst there are readily accepted definitions for the meaning of the term ecology the same cannot be said for international development. At best it can be considered to describe a set of processes which contribute to the well-being and livelihoods of people living in less-developed countries. International development activities are conducted by a range of different stakeholders with varied objectives and approaches. The approach adopted by governments, development agencies and many NGOs are now determined by the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) a set of eight Goals adopted by world leaders at the United Nations in 2001. These include goals to address poverty, education, gender equality, health and environmental sustainability with specific targets to be achieved before 2015. How can ecological knowledge contribute to the achievement of the MDGs and sustainable development?

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