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Ecosystem Management: Climate Change and Global Sustainability—An Introduction

Arnab Banerjee1*, Manoj Kumar Jhariya2, Abhishek Raj3 and Taher Mechergui4

1University Teaching Department, Department of Environmental Science, Sant Gahira Guru Vishwavidyalya, Chhattisgarh, India

2University Teaching Department, Department of Farm Forestry, Sant Gahira Guru Vishwavidyalya, Chhattisgarh, India

3Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay College of Horticulture & Forestry, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agriculture University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, India

4Faculty of Sciences Bizerte - Laboratory of Forest-Pastoral Resources (Tabarka), Bizarte, Tabarka, Tunisia

Abstract

At the present context, global climate change is a mega event that is the biggest challenge for the mankind to face with. It is causing severe impacts over the existing ecosystem over the earth surface in the form of environmental degradation and challenging global sustainability. At this context, proper management of the ecosystem is the biggest challenge in front of the humankind. Ecosystem management is such a process that is linked with the decision-making process, planning, and strategy formulation that would help to build climate resiliency for the ecosystem as well as addressing global sustainability in social, economic, and environmental perspective. Therefore, ecosystem management encompasses management of natural resource, pollution control, checking environmental degradation, and move toward a sustainable and greener economy. Global sustainability is a broader term from the perspective of climate change as it hampers the various sustainability goals and well-being of mankind. There should a proper harmony between the ecosystems, their behavior, and services along with use of natural resources, which would govern the fate of future sustainability toward a greener or cleaner economy.

Keywords: Sustainability, climate change, ecosystem, management, conservation

1.1 Introduction

Ecosystem health is an important aspect that promotes the conservation of bioresources as well as provides sustainability in ecosystems. Bioresources are important aspect of life, which provides livelihood support and helps in adapting toward changing environmental scenario [1–3]. Even the economic system of the country is dependent upon the particular ecosystem and their services [4]. At present times, more focus on growth and productivity has led to unsustainable development with gradual loss of ecosystem services. Under the process of rapid economic growth, lack of proper funding process followed by overexploitation of resources has led to disruption of ecosystem service and functions on global basis [5]. As a consequence of all these, loss of biodiversity and habitat and irreversible change in the ecosystem structure were observed across the various countries across the world. These events are found to be more prominent in the developing world. Hence, to achieve sustainable development, proper formation of eco-friendly strategy for ecosystem management is the need of the hour [6, 7]. The negative consequences in terms of loss of biodiversity, habitat fragmentation, and alteration in ecosystem structure and function would create mass negative impact over the existence of future generation. Hence, to achieve the goals of sustainable development, proper strategy formulation is required for conservation and management of ecosystem. In this connection, agencies should focus on societal development as well as economic benefit, giving emphasis on development of key ecosystem components as well as ecosystem services [8–10]. On global basis, various forms of practices exist in terms of ecosystem management that includes traditional system as well as modernized system which has been shown in Table 1.1.

Human beings are the integral component of nature, and, hence, the survivability of us very much depends upon various natural ecological processes as well as on the sustainable production and services that we procure from the natural ecosystem [17]. Proper functioning of the ecosystem depends upon interaction between the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem. Ecosystem management is a concept that aims toward sustainable use of ecosystem and their services along with natural resources as well reduce the impact over ecosystems [18, 19]. Therefore, essential ecosystems services need to be maintained in order to properly manage ecosystem as well fulfill the sustainable development goals. Across the time span, it was observed that depletion of natural resources results due to failure in the existing development policies. Further, there is gradual loss of biodiversity as well as degradation of the environment. Since, the last two decades number of approaches has been attempted to promote sustainable practices for conservation and management of ecosystem. Hence, the resolution of Agenda 21 under Rio conference has mentioned some key features for ecosystem management. Major key features include identification of deficiencies that lead to degradation of the environmental systems as well as find out suitable alternatives and approaches for sustainable use of ecosystem services without hampering the overall environmental quality. As per United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity [20], one seeks to find a harmony between natural resource use along with maintaining the biological integrity, structure, function and diversity of the particular ecosystem concern. Setting of proper goals and activities through adequate monitoring followed by R&D activities to fulfill the aims and objectives is required.

Table 1.1 Various case studies of ecosystem management across the globe.

Ecosystem is the largest biological unit that comprises the biota and non-living component as well as the underlying relationship between them. The major aspect of ecosystem includes variation at the species and ecosystem level. Now, the important aspect of nature is its goods and services that govern the existence of life on earth. Gradual degradation of various ecosystem components across the globe has caused loss of ecosystem services [21]. For example, various forms of degradation of forest land has caused decline in the availability of plant and food medicinal resources [22]. Hence, ecosystem management demands the conservation of the biological resources that surrounds us. Significant level of variation was observed in biodiversity level depending upon the climate, habitat condition, and other associated features. For isolated habitat patches, usually, they are low in diversity but enriched with endemism. However, it was observed that an ecosystem devoid of inappropriate species diversity may perform and provide diverse ecosystem services and functions. However, low species diversity would make the species more vulnerable to catastrophic hazards or associated forms of environmental degradation. Therefore, proper management of ecosystem monitoring and review of biodiversity trends and patterns become highly important [23, 24].

1.2 Ecosystem Management

Ecosystem is a functional unit that provides a diversified form of goods and services upon which existence and well-being of human civilization is dependent. The centralized theme of ecosystem management includes establishing a balance between positive outputs from ecosystem and its services followed by capacity building for producing these positive outputs on sustainable basis. Some examples of effective ecosystem management include the establishment of national park, conservation areas, and protection biomes. At a broader level, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural resources (IUCN) is performing the task with bioregional approach that encompasses more than one ecosystem at landscape level. Apart from this, developmental projects such as sustainable fisheries, agriculture and forest management, and coastal zone regulation activities, are aimed for their positive outputs in terms of goods and services given by them. Proper association of these developmental projects with policies and programs both at the national and regional levels is yet to be functional properly.

Ecosystem management is a broad term that encompasses sustainability approach in natural resource conservation as well as maintaining ecosystem structure and functioning with due care of the needs of the local community stakeholders. Major environmental processes such as ecorestoration and reforestation activities come under the arena of ecosystem management to reduce the hazards associated with natural disasters. Nature-based solution to reduce...