NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Ecological Footprint

Ecological Footprint
The Ecological Footprint measures the amount of nature's resources an individual, a community, or a country consumes in a given year, normalized to a unit of land area, most often hectares
Coined in 1992 by William Rees a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada

Every choice we make has an impact on the planet.
An ecological footprint is a tool to measure our environmental impact.
It tracks how much individuals, organizations, cities, regions, or nations as a whole consume and compares this amount to the resources nature can provide.
http://www.footprintnetwork.org

Concept of Ecological Footprint
The quantity of bioproductive land
that is required to
support current
consumption food, housing, transport, consumer goods, services
Includes land needed for absorption of waste
Wackernagel and Reese, Our Ecological Footprint

How big is your footprint?
There are currently about 7 billion people on the Earth.
Do you believe that the planet has the capability to support your lifestyle for everyone?

Ecological Rucksack
Ecological Rucksack is the total quantity (in kg) of the natural material that is disturbed in its natural setting and thus considered the total input in order to generate a product - counted from the cradle to the point when the product is ready for use - minus the weight (in kg) of the product itself.

Quantfied Ecological Rucksack
Steel: 21 (One kilogram of steel carries an ecological rucksack of 21 kilograms.)
Aluminum: 85
Recycled Aluminum: 3.5
Gold: 540,000
Diamond: 53,000,000
Rubber: 5.

Some other ecological rucksacks

Ecological Rucksack

Resource productivity: more from less
More benefit out of less material and energy
More welfare with less environmental damage
Unsustainable level of natural resource consumption
Carrying capacity of nature exceeded already
Total material consumption steadily growing
Consumption distributed unequally
increasing poverty problems
increasing social problems
Source: Wuppertal Institute

Natural Resource Management (NRM) is complex and multi-faceted –having policy, institutional, social, economic and technical dimensions.

Different reactions to dynamic change within NRM :
existing management practices and technologies, policies and institutional arrangements may no longer be sufficient;
power relations, benefit distribution, and interests may no longer be in balance
ecological functions may be disrupted
risks may exceed management capacity
economic forces may outstrip conservation forces;
cultural heritage associated with management practices as well as ownership patterns, may no longer be operating.

Shifts in Development Paradigms
Economic cum Cultural Progress
1920’s – 1940’s
Economic Progress
1940’s – 1960’s
Economic Progress cum Rural Development
1950’s – 1970’s
Integrated Area Development
1970’s
Participatory Development
1980’s
Sustainable Development
1990’s-2000’s
Exploitation of natural resources
Industrialization as vehicle of econ devt
Recognition of disparity in income
Agri-production and geographic equity
Reversal of TOP–DOWN approach

Paradigm Shift
A paradigm shift is call for a shift from business as usual, and from lineal approach to interdisciplinary approach.
The paradigm shift needs to start with institutions of higher education.These institutions are well placed to make the necessary curriculum changes that will turn out future professionals that have the skills and knowledge to work in interdisciplinary teams.
Interdisciplinary approach to problem solving means that professionals of different backgrounds work together to solve a complex problem.

Ceres Principles
1989
Protection of the biosphere
Sustainable use of natural resources
Reduction and disposal of wastes
Energy conservation
Risk reduction
Safe products and services
Environmental restoration
Informing the public
Management commitment
Audits and reports
a 10-point code of corporate environmental ideals to be publicly endorsed by companies as an environmental mission statement or ethic

Hannover Principles
(William McDonough and Michael Braungart, 1992)
Rights of humanity and nature to co-exist
Interdependence between humans and nature
Respect relationships between spirit and matter
Responsibility for consequences of design
Safe objects of long-term value
Eliminate the concept of waste
Rely on natural energy flows
Understand the limitations of design
Share knowledge for constant improvement
http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/Hannover-Principles.htm

Objective of Natural Resource Management
Sustainable Use:
Use of natural resources in ways that ensure a non-declining stream of benefits for all, without weakening ecological functions of the resources.

Economic Principles
Undistorted price
remove government subsidies for resource use
Cost internalization
resource users pay for external effects
Constant income
estimate & invest user costs to maintain income-generating capacity of the resource
Full-cost pricing is the essence of economic principles

Harvard Business Review*
“An activity is sustainable when
all costs are internalized.”
“Holding on to an economics-based definition of sustainability helps reconcile broader social interests with the measurement of shareholder value.”
* “We Need a Definition of Sustainability”, Chris Meyer - 2008

A system is sustainable when it does not generate the symptoms of unsustainability.
The most important chart in the world…

Source: Lietaer, Ulanowicz, Goerner 2008
Natural Systems Definition: Balance of Efficiency and Resiliency
Collapse of Financial System

Environmental Principles
Sustainable harvest
do not mine renewable resources
Constant stock
increase renewable resources to make up for loss of non-renewable resources
Precautionary principle
safeguard ecological functions in the face of uncertainty

Social Principles
Fair distribution
distribute secure property rights or use rights to the poor
Community management
rely on community institutions for managing their common resources
Critical support
provide info, technology, training, & credits to enable sound resource management

Principles: Illustration

Institutional Implications
What institutional arrangements are required to:
implement full-cost pricing?
ensure sustainable harvest?
prevent irreversibility?
redistribute rights over use of resources
make community resource mgt effective?
What are the difficulties?

Approaches applied to natural resource management
Top-down or Command and control
Bottom-Up (regional or community based NRM)
Adaptive management
Precautionary approach
Integrated approach (INRM)

Adaptive management
Determination of scale
Collection and use of knowledge
Information management
Monitoring and evaluation
Risk management
Community engagement
Opportunities for collaboration

Definitions
of Integrated Natural Resource Management
INRM is defined as an approach that integrates research on different types of natural resources into stakeholder-driven processes of adaptive management and innovation to improve livelihoods, agro-ecosystem resilience, agricultural productivity and environmental services at community, eco-regional and global scales of intervention and impact’ (Hawkins et al 2009) .
Sayer and Campbell (2004) defines INMR as a systems approach and a process-orientated approach that leads to measurable impacts and outcomes; work at multiple scales with multiple stakeholders; address issues of tradeoffs; employ new tools and methods; be amenable to scaling up and out ....”

INRM Efficiency
The efficiency of INRM in dealing with these problems comes from its ability to:
empower relevant stakeholders
resolve conflicting interests of stakeholders
foster adaptive management capacity
focus on key causal elements (and thereby deal with complexity)
integrate levels of analysis
merge disciplinary perspectives
make use of a wide range of available technologies
guide research on component technologies
generate policy, technological and institutional alternatives

Principles of INRM
.
INRM integrates the perspectives, knowledge and actions of different stakeholders around a common theme. The theme or ‘entry point’ represents a research and development ‘challenge’, identified by one or more stakeholders who recognize that a broader working alliance is needed to achieve the desired development impact.
INRM integrates the learning that stakeholders achieve through working together. Beyond simply a concerted action process, INRM is a social learning process, with stakeholders learning from the experience of working together.
INRM integrates analysis, action and change across the different (environmental, social and economic) ‘dimensions’ of development.

Approach to INRM institutionalisation
Institutional Arrangement for projects implementation
Capacity development
Stakeholder Engagement
Team work

Implementing INRM principles

Strengthening INRM capacities