Ecosystem goods and Services / Ecological Services

Ecosystem goods and Services / Ecological Services

Types of Succession

(1)    Primary succession: The succession process which starts in those base areas where there was no vegetation and animals earlier, is called primary succession. Such sites may be fresh lava flows, volcanic ash plains, newly formed sand dunes of flood plains, etc. it takes a very long period for the development of proper soil and arrival of pioneer vegetation communities. Slowly a vegetation community begins to develop passing through the seral stages such as herb community, scrub community, forest community or preclimax and finally climax community (climatic climax) . The vegetation supporting it is called climax vegetation. In the intervening stages all those rules of evolution such as intra and inter-specific competition, survival of fittest, natural selection, invasion of new plant and animal species, changes brought in by external forces etc work in full force.

(2)    Secondary succession: It refers to development of sequence of vegetation in those areas which had vegetation cover earlier but now have been rendered nude due to destruction of vegetation, either partly or completely, through either natural or manmade process e.g. Development of new forest on an abandoned land after shifting cultivation or jhum.

Ecosystem goods and Services / Ecological Services

Ecosystems provide many goods and services that are of vital importance for functioning of the biosphere, and provide basis for the delivery of tangible benefits to human society. These ecological services or benefits can be divided into following categories:

(1)    Supporting services: Such as primary and secondary production and biodiversity. A resource that is increasingly recognized to sustain many of the goods and services that human’s enjoy from ecosystems. These provide a basis for higher level categories of services.

(2)    Provisioning services: products like food (fruits, seeds, fodder, etc), fibre (wood, textiles) and medicinal and cosmetic products (including aromatic plants, pigments, etc).

(3)    Regulating services: These are of paramount importance such as ( a) regulation of biogeochemical cycles; (b) moderation and regulation of climate; (c) water and air purification; (d) carbon sequestration ; (e) creation and conservation of soils; (f)protection from natural hazards such as floods , avalanches or rock fall; (g) disease and pest regulation; (h) maintenance of ecosystem stability.

(4)    Cultural Services: Which satisfy human aesthetic and spiritual requirements and components such as natural sites for tourism, adventure sports?

Environments Management

The need for environmental management stems from the following facts:

(1)    Environmental or natural resources are finite.

(2)    Environmental is a closed system.

(3)    Environment is a natural gift and thus a public property.

(4)    Human induced environmental degradation is stretching the limits of ecological resilience and humans being the cause are responsible for solutions too.

There are following hurdles in environmental management:

--- Globalization, free market economy, regulation of WTO and denial to share the historical burden of environmental degradation by the developed countries.

----- Rapid growth of human population in developing and underdeveloped countries.

---- Irreversible and rapid rate of urbanization and industrialization and consequential increase in the consumption of natural resources.

----- Rapid change in social outlooks and values with consumption driven and use and throw culture.

---- Bad governance

----- Limitations in enforcing environmental laws and regulations.

----Social and religious impediments.