Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Biosphere - WBGU

144 E Diversity of landscapes and ecosystems
and use strategies (Döring, 1998; Fromm, 1999;
Lerch, 1996; Kiss, 1990; Section E 3.9).These theoretical
arguments are supported by empirical experience,
for example within the context of the Campfire
Project, where the participatory and democratic
involvement of the local population in Campfire
activities is an important condition for the success of
the project (Miller, 1996). Other case studies also
show that local communities are mostly capable of
using their biological resources sustainably, and that
the establishment of strong and powerful institutions
at local level to monitor adherence to conservation
and use targets is an important prerequisite for establishing
effective incentives to protect the biosphere
(McNeely, 1988).
E 3.3.3.7
Required research and action
The action-oriented statements on the questions
relating to ‘conservation through use’ can be kept
brief. A concept is called for which – where it is
applicable – has advantages both for the biosphere
and for people’s use interests. For situations where
improvements are simultaneously possible for two
objectives, there can only be one recommendation:
more of them.
This entails identifying those situations in which
such advantageous conditions are latent. In this section
two examples are discussed and many others can
be found in the literature. Research should now concentrate
on developing typologies that make it possible
to discover such situations. This is a difficult task
because, depending on the landscape-use form, social
organization, government organizational power (eg
assignment and safeguarding of property rights) different
solutions are needed.
German development policy should consolidate
the existing approaches which firmly place the valuation
of nature, and thus conservation through use, at
the service of integrated promotion of economic
development and the protection of the biosphere.
E 3.3.4
Conservation despite use: sustainable production
of biological resources
Increasingly productive land use – basis for
the conservation of biodiversity
The use of terrestrial ecosystems for the production
of food of plant and animal origin, fodder, regenerative
raw materials such as wood, fibres, oils, waxes, etc
as well as biomass as a fuel is not only the foundation
which sustains human life today; it will play an even
greater role in the future when there will not only be
a further 3–5 thousand million people to feed but
also a need to substitute renewable for non-renewable
resources.
To accomplish the adequate nourishment of an
estimated world population of 8.25 thousand million
people in the year 2025 (United Nations, 1993), the
FAO is assuming a required increase in food production
of 75 per cent.At this point in time around 83 per
cent of the world population will be living in developing
countries. Even today around 800 million people
there are affected by hunger and malnutrition.At the
same time, ever increasing quantities of grain, which
used to feed people directly, are now used for animal
production with less energy efficiency.Around 21 per
cent of the world grain acreage is used to produce
fodder and around 22 million km 2 , or some 17 per
cent of land surface, is dedicated to grazing systems
(Steinfeld et al, 1997). Furthermore, around 100 million
people in developing countries cannot currently
meet their daily firewood needs. Another 1.3 thousand
million people are facing increasing fuel bottlenecks
because they consume more firewood than is
grown (Lean et al, 1990). In 1994 the worldwide consumption
of firewood was around 1.9 thousand million
m 3 , of which over 85 per cent was consumed in
developing countries. The potential per capita firewood
supply in developing countries will halve by the
year 2025 (Schulte-Bisping et al, 1999).
There are the following three options for meeting
the increasing demand for usable biomass in the next
25–30 years:
1. The production level remains the same or falls.As
a consequence, agricultural land would have to be
considerably extended at the expense of natural or
semi-natural ecosystems (such as forests and
grasslands).
2. If the agricultural land area remains the same,
productivity per unit area will have to be
increased.This would require almost a doubling of
yields.
3. By substituting the products of land use, future
needs are secured on the available land within the
given productivity.This could be done by reducing
the consumption of meat, by acquiring more food
from the sea (Section E 3.4) or by using biotechnology
in food production.
These options apply to the globe as a whole. From the
point of view of biodiversity and the conservation of
biological resources, options two and three should be
implemented with priority. There will be no uniform
worldwide solution. Much rather, regionally varied
combinations of these options will have to be developed
in order to cover the growing demand. This
results from the fact that the starting positions with