How does mankind, responsible for climatic and other anthropogenic changes including geo-political and cultural processes, interact with biodiversity, ecosystems and the services they provide?

The widespread recognition of the considerable value of biodiversity and ecosystems for man kind has led to an increasing need to understand and assess the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services and to assess the changing state of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and public attitudes towards them. Understanding the changing state there is a need to analyse the impact of the most significant drivers, including human behaviour, and their interactions on biodiversity. Analysing options for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and evaluating the effectiveness of policy and communication instruments should help with what to do about the changing state of biodiversity and ecosystem services (quoted from the Common Research Strategy of ALTER-Net, a long-term biodiversity, ecosystem and awareness research network.

8 comments

1. PLeadley says:

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   An excellent way to pose the overarching question for the ISCU visioning process. However, the devil will be in the details of deciding how to deal with this in manageable pieces, while at the same time developing the science needed to put all the pieces together.
2. mrgc says:

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   Such a broad question as to be ultimately intractable.
3. rykongor says:

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   This question needs to be addressed if man kind hopes to survive for eternity on Eath
4. RDaanen says:

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   A very good question, but should this be the focus over the next 10 years? There are many components in the total scheme of the system that need to be resolved first.
5. Manuela Bassoi says:

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   Excellent question, with only one comment. I believe that for good results it should be treated regionally or locally (as each region, people or culture, respond differently). After understanding “how does mankind interact with biodiversity, ecosystems and the services they provide” in small scales, then we have better solutions: more realistic and easier to implement. I think this is the point of the Visioning Process.
6. collinan says:

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   Right, with emphasis on landscape-level function, resilience and restoration.
7. d.terrasson says:

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   This question should probably be linked with the question of the resilinece of this complex system
8. Jiskavandijk says:

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   Indeed the ultimate question!