Ecosystems and Poverty

There have been two really great publications come out in the past couple of months which bridge the gap between the concept of pristine habitats (are there any left anymore?) and human constructed landscapes.  The first is a paper calling for a new “human-centric”view of ecosystems based on the fact practically the whole face of the earth has in some way been modified by anthropogenic activity.  Authors Ellis and Ramankutty even create a map (see image) of a new definition of global ecosystems, aptly termed ”anthromes“.  Very good stuff.  You have at least one disciple in me.  Thanks Luigi for the tip.

The second study, also co-authored by Ramankutty (where does he find the time?) but lead by Foley, produces a map of human appropriated terrestrial ecosystem productivity.  They have combined all sorts of datasets to grasp just how much humans are affecting the terrestrial land surface.  Again, great stuff, and a dataset I hope to use in our situation analysis on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in th Andes/Amazon.  Thanks Resilience Science for this one.

A paper just out has observed a sharp decrease in the burning of biomass over the Amazon in 2006, attributing it to tri-national policies.  Something seems to be working to reverse what was a very damaging practice that until 2006 was on the increase.  This is a potentially significant result for those predicting doomsday dieback fo the Amazon through climate change.