Biodiversity, biocapacity and better choices

EcologicalFootprint: Futurescenarios(continued)EcosystemEcosystemservicesProvisioningservicesRegulatingservicesSupportingserviceswith the scenarios in food and energy were combined with the estimatesof the IPCC (IPCC, 2007b) and a land suitability model (Global Agro-Ecological Zones – GAEZ) to predict changes in the area and suitabilityof land for growing crops (Fischer et al., 2008).A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communitiesand their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit.The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment distinguished supporting,provisioning, regulating and cultural services that contribute to humanwell-being (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005a; b). Theseservices are defined in the four panels below:Goods obtained directly from ecosystems (e.g., food, medicine, timber,fibre and bioenergy).Benefits obtained from the regulation of natural processes (e.g., waterfiltration, waste decomposition, climate regulation, crop pollination andregulation of some human diseases).Regulation of basic ecological functions and processes that are necessaryfor the provision of all other ecosystem services (e.g. nutrient cycling,photosynthesis and soil formation).HDIsimply not available and many opportunities remain inaccessible. Butthe realm of human development goes further: Essential areas of choice,highly valued by people, range from political, economic and socialopportunities for being creative and productive; to enjoying self-respect,empowerment and a sense of belonging to a community. The concept ofhuman development is a holistic one, putting people at the centre of allaspects of the development process. (Source: Human DevelopmentReport webpage).The HDI – Human Development Index – is a summary composite indexthat measures a country’s average achievements in three basic aspects ofhuman development: health, knowledge and a decent standard of living.The HDI contains three components:1. Health: Life expectancy at birth (number of years a newborn infantwould live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of birthwere to stay the same throughout the child’s life).2. Knowledge: A combination of the adult literacy rate andthe combined primary, secondary and tertiary grossenrolment ratio.3. Standard of living: GDP per capita (PPP US$).(Source: Human Development Report webpage).Cultural servicesGlobal hectare(gha)HumandevelopmentPsychological and emotional benefits gained from human relationswith ecosystems (e.g., enriching recreational, aesthetic and spiritualexperiences).A productivity weighted area used to report both the biocapacity of theEarth, and the demand on biocapacity (the Ecological Footprint). Theglobal hectare is normalized to the area-weighted average productivity ofbiologically productive land and water in a given year. Because differentland types have different productivity, a global hectare of, for example,cropland, would occupy a smaller physical area than the much lessbiologically productive pasture land, as more pasture would be needed toprovide the same biocapacity as one hectare of cropland. Because worldbioproductivity varies slightly from year to year, the value of a gha maychange slightly from year to year (Global Footprint Network, 2012).Human development is a process of “enlarging” people’s choices.Enlarging people’s choices is achieved by expanding human capabilitiesand functioning. At all levels of development the three essentialcapabilities for human development are for people to lead long andhealthy lives; to be knowledgeable; and to have a decent standard ofliving. If these basic capabilities are not achieved, many choices aresimply not available and many opportunities remain inaccessible. ButHuman development is a process of “enlarging” people’s choices.Enlarging people’s choices is achieved by expanding human capabilitiesand functioning. At all levels of development the three essentialcapabilities for human development are for people to lead long andhealthy lives; to be knowledgeable; and to have a decent standard ofliving. If these basic capabilities are not achieved, many choices areInequalityadjustedHumanDevelopmentIndex (IHDI)Living PlanetIndex (LPI)The IHDI is a measure of the level of human development of people ina society that accounts for inequality. Under perfect equality, the IHDIis equal to the HDI; but it falls below the HDI when inequality rises. Inthis sense, the IHDI is the actual level of human development while theHDI can be viewed as an index of the potential human developmentthat could be achieved if there is no inequality. The IHDI accounts forinequality in HDI dimensions by “discounting” each dimension’s averagevalue according to its level of inequality.The average loss in the HDI due to inequality is about 23 percent – that is, adjusted for inequality, the global HDI of 0.682 in 2011would fall to 0.525. Countries with less human development tend to havegreater inequality in more dimensions – and thus larger losses in humandevelopment.This new version of the HDI was developed for the 2011 HumanDevelopment Report (UNDP, 2011) and at the time of publication, theadjustment has been applied to 134 countries. For this definition andmore information, see the IHDI homepage.The LPI reflects changes in the health of the planet’s ecosystems bytracking trends in over 9,000 populations of vertebrate species. Muchas a stock market index tracks the value of a set of shares over time asthe sum of its daily change, the LPI first calculates the annual rate ofchange for each species’ population in the dataset (example populationsare shown in Figures 4-6). The index then calculates the average changeacross all populations for each year from 1970, when data collectionbegan, to 2008, the latest date for which data is available (Collen et al.,2009 and see Annex 1 for more details).WWF Living Planet Report 2012 page 148 Annex: Technical notes and data tables page 149