Download Ecosystem disservices and their impact on poverty

Biodiversity can be bad:
Ecosystem disservices
and their impact on poverty
Lykke E. Andersen
Institute for Advanced Development Studies
(Fundación INESAD)
La Paz, Bolivia
Definition of ecoystem disservices:
“The conditions and processes through
which natural ecosystems, and the species
that make them up, harm people and
reduce human well-being.”
Definition of ecoystem disservices:
Both ecosystem services and disservices are human
centered concepts.
Somebody somewhere has to benefit from the
underlying biophysical processes for them to turn into
ecosystem services, and, equivalently, somebody
would have to suffer from the biophysical processes
for them to turn into a disservice.
Thus, it is the interaction between humans and nature
that creates both ecosystem services and disservices.
Definition of ecoystem disservices:
Problem:
It is difficult to draw a clear line between
humans and nature and between ecosystem
services and disservices, as we all depend on a
myriad of other species for our basic survival.
Indeed, it has been estimated that about 90%
of the cells in and on our bodies are non-human,
and without those we could not survive.
Definition of ecoystem disservices:
Two main categories:
A) Ecosystem disservices that affect
human health and thus have a direct
effect on human wellbeing.
B) Ecosystem disservices that adversely
affect agricultural activities and thus
indirectly affect human well-being
through food security and income.
A) Ecoystem disservices
and human health:
The bacteria Yersinia pestis was behind the
Black Death, one of the most devastating
pandemics in human history, killing 30-60% of
Europe’s population in the 14th century.
About 90% of the original population of
South America died from epidemic diseases
in the few decades following European
colonization.
The H1N1
influenza virus
was behind the
1918 Flu
Pandemic
which infected
500 million
people across
the world and
killed more
than 50 million.
Almost 78 million people have been infected
with the HIV virus since the beginning of the
epidemic and about 39 million people have
died of HIV.
About a third of the world’s
population is infected by
Mycobacterium tuberculosis,
which may result in
tuberculosis, the secondmost common cause of
death from infectious
disease (after those due to
HIV/AIDS) resulting in
about 1.5 million deaths
every year.
Approximately 2
billion people are
infected with the
Hepatitis B virus,
and more
than 780,000
people die every
year due to the
acute or chronic
consequences of
hepatitis B.
Several hundred million people suffer from
malaria and about half a million children die
from it every year. Malaria is caused by
Plasmodium parasites, which are spread to
people through the bites of infected
Anopheles mosquitoes.
Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever is caused by a
mosquito borne virus, which has spread
dramatically in recent decades. More than
2.5 billion people – over 40% of the world's
population – are now at risk from dengue.
WHO currently estimates there may be 50–
100 million dengue infections worldwide
every year. About 2.5% of those affected die.
Smallpox was
responsible for an
estimated 300–500
million deaths during
the 20th century.
Eradicated 1980.
Pathogens constantly change their genetic
make-up, which challenges the development
of vaccines and treatments.
From an evolutionary perspective, viruses
and bacteria are extremely fit, and it is
unlikely that human ingenuity will ever get
the better of them.
Whenever we get one contagious disease
under control, another will pop up.
The latest scare is the Ebola virus, which has a
case fatality rate close to 90%.
Almost 20,000 cases have been reported by
now, mostly concentrated in Sierra Leone
and Liberia.
B) Ecoystem disservices
and agriculture:
The Irish Potato Famine, which killed about a
million persons in Ireland and caused another
million to emigrate around 1845, was caused
by a potato blight fungus.
The Irish population
was reduced by
20-25% during
the period 1845
-1852.
Rice is the most important crop in the world,
both in terms of quantity and value, but
researchers have estimated that farmers on
average lose 37% of their rice production to
pests and diseases ( USD 100 billion per
year).
Cattle-plague, caused by the rinderpest virus,
used to be the most dreaded bovine plague
causing widespread famine in cattle
dependent regions. For example, an outbreak
in the 1890s
killed 80 to 90%
of all cattle in
southern Africa.
Eradicated 2011.
Weeds are a universal problem in agriculture,
often economically more important than
insects, fungi or other pest organisms. Weeds
compete with crops to get access to vital
sunlight, water and soil nutrients.
Farmers worldwide spend about US$ 80
billion per year on pesticides.
Ecoystem disservices
and poverty:
Africa is the continent that suffers most from
health related ecosystem disservices.
More than 80% of all cases of malaria and
AIDS occur in Africa, although the African
population only constitutes about 15% of the
World population.
In the African region, 46% of all deaths are
children aged under 15 years, whereas in the
high-income countries, only 1% of deaths are
children.
The majority of child deaths can be attributed
to ecosystem disservices, as they are caused
principally by infectious and parasitic
diseases, such as pneumonia, diarrhea,
malaria, AIDS and measles.
Number of child
deaths due to
infectious and
parasitic diseases
(per million children)
High income
countries
Middle
income
countries
Low income
countries
35
679
4536
Strong correlation between
ecosystem disservices and poverty
Causal relationship?
Example 1:
Some ecosystem disservices can be controlled by
relatively simple measures that become possible, and even
standard, as populations become richer and escape
extreme poverty. Diarrheal diseases, for example, can be
almost completely controlled by a combination of safe
piped water, sanitation systems, basic education, and oral
re-hydration therapy, thus preventing millions of deaths
per year.
POVERTY
ECOSYSTEM
DISSERVICES
Causal relationship?
Example 2:
Gallup & Sachs (2001) found evidence of a malaria
causing poverty. They ran cross-country income
regressions for the 1965–1990 period and found
that countries with intensive malaria grew 1.3% less
per person per year (controlling for other factors
such as initial poverty, economic policy, tropical
location, and life expectancy).
ECOSYSTEM
DISSERVICES
POVERTY
Causal relationship?
Example 3:
Smallpox hit poor and rich indiscriminately. The fact that
smallpox also affected the rich may be one of the reasons
why it could be successfully eradicated.
Catherine the Great of Russia (ruling the Russian Empire
1762 to 1796) was so scared of smallpox that she decided
to have first herself inoculated, the her son, and then 2
million other russians (despite inoculation being
considered quite a controversial method at the time).
ECOSYSTEM
DISSERVICES

POVERTY
Causal relationship?
Example 4:
In some cases, increased prosperity may increase the
severity of some ecosystem services.
• Early stages of urbanization (high population density
without basic services) may facilitate the spread of
contagious diseases.
• The crowded animal living conditions implied by
industrial scale farming promote the spread of disease.
• Ubiquitous air travel may also promote the rapid spread
of contagious diseases across the globe.
PROSPERITY
ECOSYSTEM
DISSERVICES
Conclusions and recommendations
It is the interaction between humans and nature
that creates both ecosystem services and
disservices.
We need to manage that interaction in ways that
maximize the positive and vital services we receive
from nature while minimizing the ecosystem
disservices.
Conclusions and recommendations
Maximize ecosystem services:
• Take care of the oceans.
• Don’t contaminate the limited supply of fresh
water.
• Plant as many trees as possible.
Conclusions and recommendations
Minimize ecosystem disservices:
• Vaccinate against dreadful diseases.
• Take advantage of GMO technology to make
crops resistant to pests and diseases.
• Promote green, clean cities.
Thank you!
Comments and suggestions welcome:
[email protected]