Ecosystem management looks at the ‘big picture’ where people and nature meet. It is about reconciling community needs with principles of ecology, combining science with indigenous knowledge and linking local realities with global responsibilities.
The international community has set itself an ambitious goal: to halve the number of people living on less than US$1 a day by the year 2015. As laudable as the goal may be, the key to finding the way out of poverty for today’s poor is not just about putting some extra dollars in their pockets, believes IUCN-The World Conservation Union.
Today, 53% of the world’s six billion people still live on the land. More than 99% of the world’s food supply comes from the land, while less than 1% is from oceans and other aquatic habitats. Even so, about one billion Asians rely on fish as their primary source of protein, while the fishing enterprise employs some 200-million people globally.
Worldwide, 200-million indigenous people live in and depend on the forests for their livelihood, food and medicine. And the rest of the planet depends on forests – directly or indirectly – as a source of food, shelter and clean air.
Indeed, those who claim they do not need natural resources for their living would be either Martians or robots. The majority of the world’s poor people continue to live in rural areas and depend heavily on natural ecosystems for their livelihoods. For example, 88% of Nepal’s 21-million people are dependent on agriculture and related activities and 40% live in absolute poverty.
The challenge is therefore to accommodate the growing – and sometimes truly pressing – needs of humankind with the capacity of nature to restore itself. Even more so if we’re talking about a timespan longer than a human life.
To face this challenge, IUCN mobilises all its expert knowledge to ensure that people can harvest wood, fish and yield crops not only today, but also tomorrow. That’s what sustainable livelihoods are all about.
Another ambitious goal? It may well work. Ecosystem management looks at the “big picture” where people and nature meet. Reconciling community needs with principles of ecology, combining science with indigenous knowledge and linking local realities with global responsibilities are at the heart of IUCN’s search for sustainable development options.
One illustration is found in the Tanga region of Tanzania, where coastal villages have more fish to catch after IUCN introduced collaborative fish management. Elsewhere, wise use of bamboo shoots has significantly increased household income in three villages in Lao.
An IUCN project in Cameroon is aiming to address issues of development, health, drinking water and agriculture in an integrated manner to attain sustainable development. For instance, it became apparent that the rice grown in the Waza-Logone of Cameroon is less costly than rice previously produced through an irrigation scheme of a dammed river.
In the same area, 37 wells constructed in 33 villages reduced water-borne diseases by 70%. IUCN worked on the restoration of seasonal flooding of the river along with teaching people to read and write, and training in fisheries, agriculture and small production. All these measures combined have dramatically improved livelihoods.
Both nature and humans have miraculous hidden capacities: once given some breathing space, they turn out to be great compromise-seekers. IUCN is committed to continue its work around the world to strike the right balance between human uses and the capacity of ecosystems, especially since it has so far proved to make sense penny-wise.