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The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is a research program that focuses on Ecosystem changes over the course of decades, and projecting those changes into the future. It was launched in 2001 with support from the United Nations by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan . It cost 24 million USD .

In 2005 it released the results of its first four-year study of the use and depredation of a variety of the planet's Natural Resource s. The initial report warned that the world is degrading its natural resources across the board. "The harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years," it continued.


ISSUES


The assessment makes use of thorough studies and information to call attention to its topic. It highlights four issues that revolve around the fact that ecosystem degradation is fast reaching dangerous new levels:

  • The past 50 years have faced far more serious change to the world's ecosystems than has ever been seen before. The process is only accelerating as humanity's need for resources grows Exponentially .


  • While ecosystem services that have increased Human Development have grown, there are others that have been severely damaged as a result. The damage to these services will have future repercussions.


  • Degradation is a barrier to UN Development goals. Plans to eradicate Famine and Disease worldwide cannot be accomplished as expected with such environmental damage occurring.


  • There are possible changes which could resolve many of these problems and keep development on par with demand, but there is simply not enough effort made to include such policies.


The assessment demanded that changes be instituted firmly and quickly. It was recognized that, as humanity has the power and ability to prevent the damages to the planet, it is also our duty to do so. One of the most important issues brought up was the effects of Environmental damage to the underdeveloped and poor people of the world. The report urged the nations of the world to work harder to achieve a sustainable future.


MAIN FINDINGS

1. Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth.

2. The changes that have been made to ecosystems have contributed to substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development, but these gains have been achieved at growing costs in the form of:
  • the degradation of many ecosystem services

  • increased risks of nonlinear changes,

  • the exacerbation of poverty for some groups of people.


These problems, unless addressed, will substantially diminish the benefits that future generations obtain from ecosystems.

3. The degradation of ecosystem services could grow significantly worse during the first half of this century and is a barrier to reducing global poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals .

4. The challenge of reversing the degradation of ecosystem while meeting increasing demands for ecological services can be partially met under some scenarios considered by the MA, but will involve significant changes in policies, institutions and practices that are not currently under way.

Many options exist to conserve or enhance specific ecosystem services in ways that reduce negative trade-offs or that provide positive synergies with other ecosystem services. The bottom line of the MA findings is that human actions are depleting Earth’s natural capital, putting such strain on the environment that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted. At the same time, the assessment shows that with appropriate actions it is possible to reverse the degradation of many ecosystem services over the next 50 years, but the changes in policy and practice required are substantial and not currently underway.


Some specific findings

The MA is the most comprehensive survey of the ecological state of the planet. It concludes that the way society has caused irreversible changes that are degrading the ecological processes that support life on Earth. Some findings:

  • 60% of world ecosystem services have been degraded

  • Of 24 evaluated ecosystems, 15 are being damaged

  • About a quarter of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.

  • People now use between 40 percent and 50 percent of all available freshwater running off the land. Water withdrawals has doubled over the past 40 years.

  • Over a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested.

  • Since 1980, about 35 percent of mangroves have been lost

  • About 20% of corals were lost in just 20 years; 20% degraded

  • Nutrient pollution has led to eutrophication of waters and coastal dead zones

  • Species extinction rates are now 100-1,000 times above the background rate



SOME RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Remove subsidies to agriculture, fisheries and energy sources that harm the environment.

  • Encourage landowners to manage property in ways that enhancethe supply of ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, and the generation of fresh water.

  • Protect more areas from development, especially in the oceans.



SPINOFF PROJECTS

There is a related data portal, intended to be an interactive portal for the public, being launched jointly by the World Data Center For Biodiversity And Ecology (WDCBE), the United Nations Environment Programme , the Center For International Earth Science Information Network , UNEP's World Conservation Monitoring Centre , and the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), currently hosted on an NBII server. It aims to provide easy access to reports, maps and data collected during the course of the MA research. The United Nations is working to prevent further environmental decline through the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).


EXTERNAL LINKS



REFERENCES

  • Giles, J. (2005, March 31). Millennium group nails down the financial value of ecosystems. In ''Nature, 434'', 547.

  • Habitat for humanity. (2005, April 2). In ''The Economist, 375'', 75.

  • Mooney, H. & Cropper, A. & Reid, W. (2005, March 31). Confronting the human dilemma: How can ecosystems provide sustainable services to benefit society?. In ''Nature, 434'', 561.

  • Reid WV (2004) Bridging the Science–Policy Divide. PLoS Biol 2(2): e27.

  • Revkin, A. C. (2005, April 5). Report tallies hidden costs of human assault on nature. In ''The New York times, CLIV'', D2.

  • Stokstad, E. (2005, April 1). Taking the pulse of Earth's life-support systems. In ''Science, 308'', 41 – 43.