About ecosystems and human well-being
Connected challenges
How can we enhance the well-being and security of all people and
boost social and economic development while sustaining the Earth’s
biodiversity and life support systems?
How do we feed a growing human population, sustain fresh water supplies and maintain biodiversity against a background of climate change and declining ecosystems and natural resources?
These are some of the greatest challenges of our time. Human well-being starts with sufficient income or resources to obtain adequate food and shelter, but also includes security, health, social acceptance, access to opportunities and freedom of choice. Poverty means lacking some or all of these aspects.
Almost half of the world’s population - 2.6 billion people - lives on US$2 a day or less and one billion of them on US$1 a day or less. Three quarters of the poorest families live in rural areas and depend on natural resources for their daily existence. Where opportunities or rights are limited, people and their livelihoods are increasingly vulnerable in the face of climate change, population growth and declining natural resources.
In the last 50 years we have successfully used and transformed ecosystems to bring about considerable gains for human well-being and economic development. However, not all regions and people have benefited equally, and the costs of these gains are borne disproportionately by the poor.
The Earth’s ecosystems continue to provide life sustaining services and valuable products. But the natural resource bank is gradually being drawn down toward bankruptcy and becoming less able to support human life: 60% of key ecosystem services are being degraded or used unsustainably. As a result, we are already witnessing food and water insecurity; increased vulnerability to hazards like droughts and floods, health problems, dwindling fuel supplies, climate change, conflict over limited resources, poverty, social inequities and forced migrations.
We can no longer take nature’s goods and services for granted. The degradation of ecosystems and failure to account for their vital services is jeopardizing economic development goals, people’s livelihoods and human well-being. The challenges we face are urgent. Concerted and collaborative action is required.
How do we feed a growing human population, sustain fresh water supplies and maintain biodiversity against a background of climate change and declining ecosystems and natural resources?
These are some of the greatest challenges of our time. Human well-being starts with sufficient income or resources to obtain adequate food and shelter, but also includes security, health, social acceptance, access to opportunities and freedom of choice. Poverty means lacking some or all of these aspects.
Almost half of the world’s population - 2.6 billion people - lives on US$2 a day or less and one billion of them on US$1 a day or less. Three quarters of the poorest families live in rural areas and depend on natural resources for their daily existence. Where opportunities or rights are limited, people and their livelihoods are increasingly vulnerable in the face of climate change, population growth and declining natural resources.
In the last 50 years we have successfully used and transformed ecosystems to bring about considerable gains for human well-being and economic development. However, not all regions and people have benefited equally, and the costs of these gains are borne disproportionately by the poor.
The Earth’s ecosystems continue to provide life sustaining services and valuable products. But the natural resource bank is gradually being drawn down toward bankruptcy and becoming less able to support human life: 60% of key ecosystem services are being degraded or used unsustainably. As a result, we are already witnessing food and water insecurity; increased vulnerability to hazards like droughts and floods, health problems, dwindling fuel supplies, climate change, conflict over limited resources, poverty, social inequities and forced migrations.
We can no longer take nature’s goods and services for granted. The degradation of ecosystems and failure to account for their vital services is jeopardizing economic development goals, people’s livelihoods and human well-being. The challenges we face are urgent. Concerted and collaborative action is required.
Some facts
- Three quarters of the world’s poorest people – those living on less than $2 a day – depend on natural resources for their daily existence.
- The world’s poor depend on plants for as much as 90% of their needs -- food, fuel, medicine, shelter etc.
- Declining ecosystems are one of the main drivers that increase global risk to disasters
- 1 billion people (one sixth of humanity) are currently undernourished, while one in six countries faces food shortages each year because of severe droughts that will worsen with climate change.
- The majority of the world’s resource-poor farmers are women, and women produce more than half of all the food that is grown around the world, in some regions as much as 80%.
- During the next 50 years demand for food crops is projected to grow by 70-85%, and demand for water by 30-50%
- Fish accounts for at least half of the animal protein and mineral intake for 400 million people in the poorest African and South Asian countries.
- Some 1.6 billion people rely on forests and non-timber forest products for their livelihoods
- 75% of the world’s population relies for their health care on traditional medicines derived directly from natural resources
Ecosystem: An ecosystem is a complex and dynamic set of relationships amongst living and non-living resources, habitats, and the people living in an area. Examples include a rainforest, a coral reef, a river basin and a cultivated agricultural system. Ecosystems vary in size and the elements that make them; they range from systems that are relatively undisturbed by human activity, such as virgin rainforests, to highly modified areas where people and nature interact, such as in agricultural landscapes. Ecosystem goods and services: These are the benefits that people derive from nature, or more specifically, an ecosystem. Examples include freshwater, food, timber, fuel, soil formation, disease regulation, flood regulation, recreation, aesthetic values and spiritual fulfillment.
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