Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Multiscale Assessments: Findings of the Sub-Global Assessments Working GroupOne of the major innovations of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is the incorporation of local and regional assessmentsù33 in allùin a global portrait of the planetÆs health. It is the first global assessment of ecosystems to include not only a diversity of ecosystems, but to draw on a wide range of cultural orientations and intellectual traditions, including those of indigenous peoples. The Sub-global Assessments Working Group integrated information from multiple sources and found that biophysical factors such as land-use change, climate change and variability, pollution, and invasive species have a significant effect on human well-being across cultures. For example, in places where there are no other social safety nets, diminished human well-being tends to increase immediate dependence on ecosystem services, which can damage the capacity of those local ecosystems, which in turn appears to increase the probability of natural disaster or conflict. Representing the baseline and framework for ongoing assessments of ecosystem and human well-being on a variety of scales around the world, Multiscale Assessments provides students, researchers, and policy-makers with the most comprehensive methodology for assessing ecosystems at local, national, and regional scales. |
Contents
Integrated Assessments at Multiple Scales | 2 |
Integrated Assessments at Multiple Scales | 3 |
Local communities are not mere spectators but active managers of | 8 |
Copyright | |
18 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
adaptive agricultural Altai-Sayan analysis areas assessment process assessment team benefits biodiversity capacity Caribbean Sea Chapter Chirripó climate change Coastal BC Colombia communities components conceptual framework decision-makers different scales diversity Downstream Mekong drivers of change drivers of ecosystem economic ecoregion ecosys ecosystem change ecosystem services environment environmental example factors Gariep global assessment groups Himalayas human well-being identified impacts important increased India indigenous indirect drivers institutions integrated interactions involved knowledge markets Kristianstad Laguna Lake Basin Livelihoods Mekong ment Millennium Ecosystem Assessment multiscale assessment needs Northern Range Papua New Guinea Paulo Pedro de Atacama population Portugal production Quechua regional responses SAfMA San Pedro scientific sector services and human sessment Sinai social social-ecological systems Southern Africa spatial scales species stakeholders sub-global assessments Sweden KW tion tourism trade-offs traditional knowledge Tropical Forest Margins urban users Vilcanota Western China Wetlands