Talk:Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

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--Alex 08:48, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

This an an April Fool's joke. -- Stevey7788 07:26, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

No...actually, it's not. Check the research. 208.17.208.253 15:40, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4391835.stm

[edit] Official website

http://www.maweb.org/en/index.aspx

[edit] Material from Millennium ecosystem assessment

Following is material copied from the other site, lest it be lost. It's not so ready for direct pasting. Daniel Collins 01:09, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

What's New in the MA

The MA, like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), assesses current knowledge, scientific literature, and data. Assessments of this nature synthesize information that has previously been available, and do not present new research findings. Nevertheless, three aspects of the MA do represent important new contributions.

• First, the findings of this assessment are the consensus view of the largest body of social and natural scientists ever assembled to assess knowledge in this area. Like the IPCC, the availability of this broad consensus view of scientists is an important “value added” part of the process and an important contribution to decision-makers. The assessment identifies where broad consensus exists on findings but also where the information is insufficient to reach firm conclusions.

• Second, the focus of this assessment on ecosystem services and their link to human wellbeing and development needs is unique. By examining the environment through the framework of ecosystem services, it becomes much easier to identify how changes in ecosystems influence human well-being and to provide information in a form that decisionmakers can weigh alongside other social and economic information. The MA framework of ecosystem services and links to human well-being is already being adopted by other institutions and incorporated into other processes.

• Third, the assessment identified a number of ‘emergent’ findings, conclusions that can only be reached when a large body of existing information is examined together. Four of these stand out:

• • The balance sheet. Although individual ecosystem services have been assessed previously, the finding that 60% of a group of 24 ecosystem services examined by the MA are being degraded is the first comprehensive audit of the status of Earth’s natural capital.

• • Nonlinear changes. Nonlinear (accelerating or abrupt) changes have been previously identified by a number of individual studies of ecosystems. The MA is the first assessment to conclude that ecosystem changes are increasing the likelihood of nonlinear changes in ecosystems and the first to note the important consequences of this finding for human well-being. Examples of such changes include disease emergence, abrupt alterations in water quality, the creation of “dead zones” in coastal waters, the collapse of fisheries, and shifts in regional climate.

• • Drylands. Because the assessment focuses on the linkages between ecosystems and human well-being, a somewhat different set of priorities emerge from it. While the MA does confirm that major problems exist with tropical forests and coral reefs, from the standpoint of linkages between ecosystems and people, the most significant challenges involve dryland ecosystems. These ecosystems are particularly fragile, but they are also the places where human population is growing most rapidly, biological productivity is least, and poverty is highest.

• • Nutrient loading. The MA confirms the emphasis that decision-makers are already giving to addressing important drivers of ecosystem change such as climate change and habitat loss. But the MA finds that excessive nutrient loading of ecosystems is one of the major drivers today and will grow significantly worse in the coming decades unless action is taken. The issue of excessive nutrient loading, although well studied, is not yet receiving significant policy attention in many countries or internationally.

While the MA findings do identify significant problems related to management of ecosystems, these problems need to be viewed in the context of the MA finding that the changes people have made to ecosystems have contributed to substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development. The problems identified in the MA – including growing costs in the form of degradation of ecosystem services, increased risks of nonlinear changes, and the exacerbation of poverty for some groups of people – are serious and the MA shows that these problems could grow much more serious in the coming decades. At the same time, the assessment shows that the future really is in our hands. People can reverse the degradation of many ecosystem services over the next 50 years, but the changes in policy and practice required are substantial and not currently underway.