The concept of ecosystem has undergone a series of paradigm shifts during the course of the development of ecological principles. Started off as an integrated viewpoint of the biophysical with the social as part of the discipline of Human Ecology, early on separation of the two led to a partial view in our understanding of the ecological principles, where humans got separated from ecosystem functioning. Viewed from an anthropocentric perspective, ecosystems were perceived to be exploited by the humans. With the recognition of perturbation as a component of ecosystem functioning, however, need for linking the ecological with the social was realised, though the anthropocentric view of ecosystem for exploitation remained unaltered.
The concept of sustainable development, which became well known through the now famous Brundtland Report, entitled Our Common Future, published in 1987, recognised that the natural resources are not inexhaustible and the development process should be aimed to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The resultant shift in the developmental paradigm led to a paradigm shift in ecological science. Humans were seen as part of the ecosystem functioning, impacting upon ecosystems to a greater or lesser extent. In this view of ecosystem/landscape level functions, traditional societies living close to nature and natural resources were viewed as being better integrated into the system than the industrialised societies. The author made an inter-disciplinary case study on shifting agriculture (jhum)-centred sustainable management of natural resources in north-eastern India, way back in the early 1970s. This was one of the first efforts to recognise the paradigm shift in ecology, even before the concept of sustainable development entered the ecological dictionary.
There is a greater realisation today than ever before about the need for working in the interphase area of ecological and social processes if we are to effectively manage our natural resources. This is particularly important for effectively managing the biodiversity-rich hot spots that are largely located in the developing tropics where the traditional societies act as the custodians of this biodiversity. These societies used the biodiversity to meet their livelihood concerns in a sustainable manner, until the industrialised humans interfered with their life patterns by exploiting them indiscriminately. There is an increasing concern amongst the scientific community that the text-book based 'formal knowledge' system alone is inadequate under many situations. Understanding and validating the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) which has always been the anchor for managing biodiversity by the local people is now seen important by many ecologists, for sustainbly managing/conserving biodiversity and the linked knowledge itself.
Concern for sustainable management of natural resources has assumed greater significance in the context of global change-a large variety of anthropogenic changes involving climate biological invasion land use and land cover including site desertification and biodiversity depletion, that are happening today at a rapid rate. 'Global change' has put a big question mark on our ability to sustainably manage our biosphere, with concerns for an improved quality of life for all the humans on this planet.
Globalisation of economies that has been initiated in a unipolar political world has also raised a number of issues about sustainable development of the biosphere, with equity considerations. It has also raised the likelihood of rapid erosion in human cultural diversity. There is a fear that homogenisation of societies may lead to loss of flexibility and our ability to chose pathways for development according to a value system based on the cultural heritage. Some feel that globalisation may create a whole range of opportunities and benefits for many, thus improving the environmental quality in some situations, but the impacts may not be uniform. It is in this context, that dangers involved in economic dominance by a few over a vast majority who are still struggling to have a reasonably good quality of life is becoming an issue for intense debate. For a changed perspective to emerge, we need to go through a series of reconciliations for sustainable development of our biosphere we need to reconcile between ecology, economics and ethics and connect the broken links between them, lest we fall prey to the kind of anthropocentred thinking that has been the bane of traditional ecological paradigm which dominated this millennium.
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