|
|||
|
AGRO-ECOLOGICAL BLOGDISCOVER THE SOURCE OF WEALTH: ECOSYSTEM HEALTHEcosystem services; something of a buzz word/topic but one that has underlying substance and significance. There is a growing understanding of the need to value ecosystem services. A topic we have covered before in the Investment Insight. Ecosystem services mean aspects such as food, medicine, pollination by bees, water quality and climate. New and additional ecosystem services are being discovered; or perhaps recognised would be a more apt description. This includes services such as the benefits of biodiversity for human health. The reality is that all ES have benefits for human health whether directly or indirectly but many links are poorly understood, insufficiently recognised or yet to be discovered. The core theme to understand being that protecting biodiversity – individual species and their interaction within ecosystems – is not just about hugging trees, furry pandas or polar bears (although they are part of it); but it is in fact about ensuring superiority of health outcomes for people…and food production systems. Biodiversity, as defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), is ‘the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems’. Biodiversity plays a fundamental role in ensuring food security. There has been a dramatic loss of genetic diversity in agricultural crops over the last 100 years which has only accelerated in the last 20 years. This represents a threat to human health and to our ability to maintain resilience through genetic diversity and adaptability in the crop/animal make up of our food production systems. Bees are pollinators and therefore essential for food production. Food production is dependent upon a small number of pollinator species to perform these critical services. This obviously creates a risk as recent declines in bee populations have highlighted. The protection of a wide range of species including wild pollinator populations and the complex ecosystems that support pollinators is therefore critical to food production and human existence. This needs to be applied in combination with knowledgeable and active management of natural and agricultural habitats in order to protect diversity and therefore enhance the resilience of our food production systems. The biodiversity surrounding and within the farm ecosystem plays a critical role in avoiding disease/pest infestations that could threaten food production. Indeed it is the deliberate enhancement and utilisation of this on farm biodiversity or reservoir of health and pest/disease control that characterises and is so important to, more ecologically competent management systems. The importance of biodiversity also applies at the microbial/soil level. It is microorganisms in the soil that carry out important ecosystem services such as recycling organic waste and converting nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form that plants can utilise. These ecosystem services make soil more productive for agriculture and are therefore important for food security. In the last 50 years, approximately 60 percent of all ecosystem services have been in decline as a result of converting land to agricultural use (food, fibre and fuel). “The best things in life are free including nature” according to Stephen Polasky, Professor of Applied Economics and Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour at the University of Minnesota. “But without a price for nature’s services we don’t maintain the environment in ways necessary to sustain these valuable services” Ecosystem health, particularly in food production is a key investment theme investors increasingly need to understand and align their portfolios for. Comments on this blog
|
|
|||||||||