Just ecosystem management: Linking ecosystem services with poverty alleviation

生态系统服务方法强调自然以多种方式维持和丰富人们的生活。评估生态系统服务可促进生态系统保护和人类福祉。然而，为了使这些努力能够缓解贫困，科学家必须从环境正义的角度来处理生态系统服务和福祉之间的关系。生态系统服务往往使一些利益相关者比其他利益相关者受益更多。生态系统管理中的决策可能涉及更多的因素。能否识别出赢家和输家，并预测他们的反应？能否绘制出相关的社会权衡，就像相互竞争的环境服务之间的生态权衡一样，以支持生态系统保护和减贫？对生态和社会权衡的认识是公正生态系统管理的关键前提，即公平分配生态系统服务并让所有利益攸关方参与决策的生态系统管理。拟议的研究服务于促进公正生态系统管理这一新的创新概念的总体目标。该项目将通过开发一个新的概念框架来指导研究和实践，从而有助于实现这一总体目标。其具体目标是：(1)将对多个利益攸关方和社会生态权衡的关注纳入生态系统服务办法；(2)分析水、健康、森林、生物多样性和沿海生态系统管理中生态系统服务重大变化的公正层面；(3)说明中国、印度和中部非洲选定的沿海和陆地生态系统管理中的关键公正层面。该项目旨在影响未来在多个学术领域就生态系统服务与人类福祉之间的反馈进行的研究。概念框架将向研究人员展示如何从新的、跨学科的角度处理各自领域中长期确立的主题，并指出与其他领域进行的研究相联系的具体机会。保护生物学家将认识到，通过研究生态系统服务在利益相关者之间的分配，以及通过关注不同利益相关者对生态系统决策的参与，将社会权衡整合到他们的分析中的新方法。政治经济学家将受益于对“自然”的系统理解和对生态权衡的关注。生态经济学家将在开发新的估值方法方面获得重要的见解，这些方法可以应对潜在的社会不平等，并捕捉生态权衡。通过这种方式，这项研究将对发展对生态系统和人类福祉之间关系的新的跨学科理解做出关键贡献，承认生态、社会和社会-生态权衡的重要性。公正的生态系统管理将直接惠及生活在发展中国家的依赖生态系统服务的穷人和被社会排斥的人。公平分配将加强生态系统服务对减贫的贡献，依赖这些服务的人将获得特别的好处。生态系统管理的包容性决策将允许通常因财富、种族、性别等差异而被排除在外的利益攸关方参与。公正的生态系统管理将促进利益攸关方共同认识、考虑和应对生态、社会和社会生态权衡。该项目将通过与英国和国际决策组织、中国、印度和中非的决策组织以及在云南、奥里萨邦和艾伯丁裂谷三个遗址实施保护和发展项目的组织合作，促进公正的生态系统管理。

The ecosystem services approach emphasises the many ways nature sustains and enriches people's lives. Valuation of ecosystem services can contribute to ecosystem conservation and human wellbeing. For these efforts to result in poverty alleviation, however, scientists must tackle the relationship between ecosystem services and wellbeing with reference to environmental justice. Ecosystem services tend to benefit some stakeholders more than others. Decision making in ecosystem management is likely to involve some more than others. Can those winner and losers be identified and their responses anticipated? Can the involved social tradeoffs be mapped, just as ecological tradeoffs between competing environmental services, to support ecosystem conservation and poverty alleviation? Recognition of ecological and social tradeoffs is a crucial precondition for just ecosystem management, i.e. ecosystem management that distributes ecosystem services fairly and includes all stakeholders in decision making. The proposed research serves the overarching goal to promote just ecosystem management as a new and innovative concept. The project will contribute to the overarching goal by developing a novel conceptual framework to guide research and practice. Its specific objectives are to (1) incorporate attention to multiple stakeholders and socio-ecological tradeoffs into the ecosystem services approach, (2) analyse the justice dimensions of critical changes in ecosystem services in the management of water, health, forests, biodiversity and coastal ecosystems, and (3) illustrate key justice dimensions in the management of selected coastal and terrestrial ecosystems in China, India and Central Africa. The project is intended to influence future research conducted in multiple academic fields on the feedbacks between ecosystem services and human wellbeing. The conceptual framework will show researchers how to approach long-established topics in their respective fields from new, interdisciplinary perspectives and point out concrete opportunities for linking up with research conducted in other fields. Conservation biologists will recognise new ways to integrate social tradeoffs into their analyses by looking at the distribution of ecosystem services among stakeholders, and by attending to the participation of different stakeholders in decisions over ecosystems. Political economists will benefit from the system-based understanding of 'nature' and the attention to ecological tradeoffs. Ecological economists will gain important insights for the development of new valuation methods which respond to underlying social inequalities and capture ecological tradeoffs. In this way, the research will make a critical contribution to the development of new interdisciplinary understanding of the relationship between ecosystems and human wellbeing that acknowledges the significance of ecological, social and socio-ecological tradeoffs equally. Just ecosystem management will directly benefit poor and socially excluded people dependent upon ecosystem services living in developing countries. Equitable distribution will strengthen the contributions of ecosystem services to poverty alleviation, with particular benefits accruing to people dependent on these services. Inclusive decision making in ecosystem management will allow participation by stakeholders typically excluded due to differences in wealth, race, gender, etc. Just ecosystem management will facilitate stakeholders to recognise, deliberate and respond to ecological, social and socio-ecological tradeoffs together. The project will promote just ecosystem management by engaging UK and international policy-making organisations, policy-making organisations in China, India and Central Africa and organisations implementing conservation and development projects in the three sites of Yunnan, Orissa and the Albertine Rift.