Ecological Sustainability as a Conservation Concept

Abstract

Neither the classic resource management concept of maximum sustainable yield nor the concept of sustainable development are useful to contemporary, nonanthropocentric, ecologically informed conservation biology. As an alternative, we advance an ecological definition of sustainability that is in better accord with biological conservation: meeting human needs without compromising the health of ecosystems. In addition to familiar benefit-cost constraints on human economic activity, we urge adding ecologic constraints. Projects are not choice-worthy if they compromise the health of the ecosystems in which human economic systems are embedded. Sustainability, so defined, is proffered as an approach to conservation that would complement wildlands preservation for ecological integrity, not substitute for wildlands preservation. Sustentabilidad Ecológica como Concepto de ConservaciónResumen: Ni el concepto clásico de manejo de recursos, ni el concepto de cosecha máxima sostenida son aplicables en biología de la conservación contemporanea, no antropocéntrica y ecológicamente informada. Como una alternativa, proponemos una definicion ecológica de sustentabilidad que es mas acorde con la conservación biológica: alcanzar las necesidades humanas sin comprometer la salud de los ecosistemas. Además de las restricciones familiares de costo-beneficio en las actividades económicas humanas, solicitamos agregar las restricciones ecológicas: Proyectos no deberán ser seleccionados si comprometen la salud de los ecosistemas en los cuales se desarrollan actividades económicas humanas. La sustentabilidad, así definida, se sugiere como una aproximación a la conservación que complementaría la conservación de áreas silvestres para la integridad ecológica, sin sustituirla.

Effects of fire on fish populations: landscape perspectives on persistence of native fishes and nonnative fish invasions

“…In aquatic ecosystems in the western US, localized disturbances initiated by fires, floods, and wind can have a profound influence on physical environments, with attendant effects on fish populations (Benda et al, 1998). The traditional approach to managing disturbance focused on static ecosystem and landscape conditions, and ''command and control'' management to minimize their influences (Callicott and Mumford, 1997).…”

Contrasting values in the sustainability debate: limitations of economic valuations and their role in decision-making

“…At the same time, comparisons of moral significance become even more complicated between individuals and groups of species or ecosystems (Warren, 1997:16) By acknowledging intrinsic value of non-human beings, a different social goal could be sought whereby the value in protecting an ecosystem would be measured by the contribution of that protection towards the goal of ecological sustainability, not utility maximization. Ecological sustainability is defined here following Callicott and Mumford (1997) as "meeting human needs without compromising ecosystem health." Most importantly, the two goals discussed so far -ecological sustainability and utility maximization -generate different, and possibly conflicting, concepts of what policy or action would be considered "valuable" even when dealing with the same ecosystem.…”

The Deniable Truth of Sustainable Forestry

“…We also need to define a low intensity of sustainable forestry purely from the ecology of the system (e.g., Callicott and Mumford 1997). Protected areas that exclude human use are outside sustainable forestry, however in other areas, a minimum level of extraction might be defined.…”