Ecosystem People, Biosphere People, Ecological Refugees

Abstract

One may assign people to three broad categories from an ecological perspective. Ecosystem people meet the bulk of their resource requirements from a limited area near their habitation through gathering or low-input agriculture and animal husbandry. Biosphere people enjoy access to resources garnered from the entire biosphere and made available through markets, while ecological refugees are people that have lost access to their traditional base of natural resources yet have very limited access to resources through markets. In India today the ever-growing pressure of biosphere people is converting an increasingly large proportion of ecosystem people into ecological refugees.