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Box 3.1 The Ecosystem Approach

The Ecosystem Approach is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. It is based on the application of scientific methodologies focused on levels of biological organization which encompass the essential processes, functions and interactions among organisms and their environment. It recognizes that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of ecosystems. The Ecosystem Approach can be understood in terms of its 12 Principles and five points of operational guidance.

12 PRINCIPLES

1. The objectives of management of land, water and living resources are a matter of societal choices.
2. Management should be decentralized to the lowest appropriate level.
3. Ecosystem managers should consider the effects (actual or potential) of their activities on adjacent and other ecosystems.
4. Recognizing potential gains from management, there is usually a need to understand and manage the ecosystem in an economic context. Any such ecosystem-management programme should:
   1. Reduce those market distortions that adversely affect biological diversity;
   2. Align incentives to promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable use;
   3. Internalize costs and benefits in the given ecosystem to the extent feasible.
5. Conservation of ecosystem structure and functioning, in order to maintain ecosystem services, should be a priority target of the Ecosystem Approach.
6. Ecosystems must be managed within the limits of their functioning.
7. The Ecosystem Approach should be undertaken at the appropriate spatial and temporal scales.
8. Recognizing the varying temporal scales and lag-effects that characterize ecosystem processes, objectives for ecosystem management should be set for the long term.
9. Management must recognize that change is inevitable.
10. The ecosystem approach should seek the appropriate balance between, and integration of, conservation and use of biological diversity.
11. The ecosystem approach should consider all forms of relevant information, including scientific and indigenous and local knowledge, innovations and practices.
12. The Ecosystem Approach should involve all relevant sectors of society and scientific disciplines.

FIVE POINTS OF OPERATIONAL GUIDANCE

1. Focus on the relationships and processes within ecosystem.
2. Enhance benefit-sharing.
3. Use adaptive management practices.
4. Carry out management actions at the scale appropriate for the issue being addressed, withdecentralization to lowest level, as appropriate.
5. Ensure inter-sectoral cooperation.

Source & © CBD  Global Biodiversity Outlook 2 (2006),
Chapter 3: Implementing the convention on biological diversity, p.47

Biodiversity A Global Outlook

Table 3.1 Strategic Plan scorecard

Table 4.1 Prospects for achieving the targets of the framework for assessing progress towards the 2010 Biodiversity Target

Table 2.1 Headline indicators for assessing progress towards the 2010 Biodiversity Target †

Figure 1.1 Biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services, and drivers of change

Figure 2.2 Locations reported by various studies as undergoing high rates of change in forest cover in the past few decades

Figure 2.8 Degree of protection of terrestrial ecoregions and large marine ecosystems (all IUCN Protected Areas Management Categories combined)

Figure 2.9 Frequency distribution of terrestrial ecoregions by percentage surface area under protection

Figure 2.11 Change the Marine Trophic Index (early 1950s to the present)

Figure 2.12 Impact classification based on river channel fragmentation and water flow regulation by dams on 292 of the world’s large river systems

Figure 2.13 Estimates of forest fragmentation due to anthropogenic causes

Figure 2.14 Status and trends in biological oxygen demand (BOD) of major rivers in five regions (1980-2005)

Figure 2.16 Estimated total reactive nitrogen deposition from the atmosphere (wet and dry) (early 1990s)

Figure 2.17 Number of alien species recorded in the Nordic terrestrial, freshwater and marine environment

Figure 2.19 Intensity of ecological footprint

Figure 4.1 Main direct drivers of change in biodiversity and ecosystems

Box 3.3 Principles, guidelines and other tools developed under the Convention

Box 1.1 The role of biodiversity in mitigating the impacts of natural disasters

Box 1.2 Contribution of ecosystem goods and services to national economies

Box 1.3 Millennium Development Goals

Box 2.1 Headline indicators for assessing progress towards the 2010 Biodiversity Target

Box 3.1 The Ecosystem Approach

Box 3.2 Programmes of work of the Convention

Box 3.4 The biodiversity-related conventions

Box 3.5 The business case for biodiversity

Box 4.1Summary of the main findings on biodiversity of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Box 4.2 Policy options for the 2010 Biodiversity Target and beyond

Box 4.3 Elements of a strategy to reduce biodiversity loss

Box 5.1 Checklist of key actions for 2010

Figure 1.2 Economic benefits under alternative management practices

Figure 2.1 Annual net change in forest area by region (1990–2005)

Figure 2.3 Change in live coral cover across the Caribbean basin (1977-2002)

Figure 2.4 The Living Planet Index: trends in populations of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine species worldwide

Figure 2.5 Trends in European common birds in farmland and forest habitats

Figure 2.6 Red List Index for birds in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, and in forest and shrubland/grassland habitats (1988-2004)

Figure 2.7 Trends in terrestrial surface under protected areas

Figure 2.10 Trends in mean trophic levels of fisheries landings (1950-2000)

Figure 2.15 Global trends in the creation of reactive nitrogen on Earth by human activity

Figure 2.18 Global Ecological Footprint

Figure 2.20 Aid activities targeting CBD objectives from 16 developed countries (1998-2003)

Figure 3.1 Participation in Convention processes

Figure 4.2 Links between food, energy and biodiversity loss

Figure 4.4 Outcomes for hunger reduction and biodiversity loss under the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios.