Ecological Integrity: Conceptual Foundations and Applications

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Alpine Meadow ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
Ecological Sustainability ◽  
Biological Integrity ◽  
Ecological Health ◽  
Wilderness Areas ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conceptual Foundations

As the term suggests, ecological integrity refers to the pristineness, undiminished wholeness, or completeness of an entire ecosystem, whether it be a planet, an ecoregion, a preserve, a pond, or an alpine meadow. The concept of protecting large natural areas from development is the basis for marine and terrestrial national parks, biological reserves, and wilderness areas distributed globally. Nonetheless, how one defines, determines, and assesses ecological integrity remains unclear, if not controversial, to many scientists, managers, politicians, and concerned citizens. Part of this ambiguity arises from the multiplicity of terms associated with ecological integrity, such as ecological health, ecological sustainability, ecosystem services, environmental health, biological integrity, biological diversity, and natural. Therefore, any comprehensive discussion of ecological integrity must incorporate discussion and clarification of those terms as well as a brief history of the use of the concept.

Place-Based Environmentalism and Global Warming: Conceptual Contradictions of American Environmentalism

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Somers Smith
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Private Protected Areas ◽  
The World ◽  
Wilderness Areas ◽  
History Of

Until recently, the history of environmentalism was primarily a history of attention to place. In the United States, environmentalists have gotten rather good at protecting and managing particular places such as mountains, forests, and watersheds and specific resources such as trees, soil, wildlife, air, and water. Environmentalism has become an enormously popular social movement, with, by some measures, more than 80 percent of Americans considering themselves environmentalists. Thousands of organizations, ranging from local volunteer groups to national nonprofits, address issues as diverse as open space, air and water pollution, biological diversity, environmental justice, and environmental effects on human health. The successes of this movement have been striking. Our National Parks, National Forests, and wilderness areas are touted as models for the world and are well complemented by state, municipal, and private protected areas. The Endangered Species Act successfully resolves many conflicts between rare creatures and development. Rivers have been cleaned up, and once-spurned urban waterfronts now draw real estate and tourism development. Americans drink cleaner water and breathe cleaner air than much of the rest of the world, and attempts to weaken regulatory frameworks are consistently met with public disapproval.

The National Parks

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Worster
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
John Muir ◽  
Park Service ◽  
History Of ◽  
Federal Initiatives ◽  
Historical Sites

The national parks of the United States have been one of the country’s most popular federal initiatives, and popular not only within the nation but across the globe. The first park was Yellowstone, established in 1872, and since then almost sixty national parks have been added, along with hundreds of monuments, protected rivers and seashores, and important historical sites as well as natural preserves. In 1916 the parks were put under the National Park Service, which has managed them primarily as scenic treasures for growing numbers of tourists. Ecologically minded scientists, however, have challenged that stewardship and called for restoration of parks to their natural conditions, defined as their ecological integrity before white Europeans intervened. The most influential voice in the history of park philosophy remains John Muir, the California naturalist and Yosemite enthusiast and himself a proto-ecologist, who saw the parks as sacred places for a modern nation, where reverence for nature and respect for science might coexist and where tourists could be educated in environmental values. As other nations have created their own park systems, similar debates have occurred. While parks may seem like a great modern idea, this idea has always been embedded in cultural and social change—and subject to struggles over what that “idea” should be.

La valorisation des prestations non-bois: particularités genevoises (essai) | Commercialization of non-wood forest services: the case of Geneva (essay)

2009 ◽  
Vol 160 (8) ◽  
pp. 232-234
Author(s):  
Patrik Fouvy
Keyword(s):  
Forest Regeneration ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
The State ◽  
Forest Land ◽  
Private Forests ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Body ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
History Of ◽  
Near Future

The history of the forests in canton Geneva, having led to these being disconnected from productive functions, provides a symptomatic demonstration that the services provided by the forest eco-system are common goods. Having no hope of financial returns in the near future and faced with increasing social demands, the state has invested in the purchase of forest land, financed projects for forest regeneration and improvement of biological diversity and developed infrastructures for visitors. In doing this the state as a public body takes on the provision of services in the public interest. But the further funding for this and for expenses for the private forests, which must be taken into account, are not secured for the future.

From Competition to Cooperation: A History of Canada–US National Park Relations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Young ◽  
Alan MacEachern ◽  
Lary Dilsaver
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Park Service ◽  
Settler Societies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
The Relationship

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.

Into Russian Nature

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. Roe
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
National Parks ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
National Park ◽  
World War ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
Development Goals

Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.

A Fierce Green Fire

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marybeth Lorbiecki
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Environmental Literature ◽  
Aldo Leopold ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Ripple Effects ◽  
Ecological Vision ◽  
As Species ◽  
Wilderness Areas ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of

For anyone interested in wildlife, birds, wilderness areas, parks, ecology, conservation, environmental literature, and ethics, the name Aldo Leopold is sure to pop up. Since first publication, Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire has remained the classic short, inspiring biography of Leopold--the perfect companion to reading his ever popular A Sand County Almanac. Winning numerous awards, this comprehensive account of his life story is dynamic and readable, written in the context of the history of American conservation and illustrated with historic photographs. Marybeth Lorbiecki has now enriched A Fierce Green Fire in a way no other biography on Leopold has, adding numerous chapters on the ripple effects of his ideas, books, ecological vision, land ethic, and Shack, as well as of the ecological contributions of his children, graduate students, contemporary scholars, and organizations--and the wilderness lands he helped preserve. Lorbiecki weaves these stories and factual information into the biography in a compelling way that keeps both lay and academic readers engaged. In the introduction to this edition, Lorbiecki makes it clear how much better our lives are because Leopold lived and why today we so radically need what he left us to bring about paradigm shifts in our ethical, economic, and cultural thinking. Instead of losing relevance, Leopold's legacy has gained ever more necessity and traction in the face of contemporary national and world challenges, such as species loss and climate change. Even the phenological studies he started at as a hobby are proving valuable, showing the climatic shifts that have occurred at the Shack lands since the 1930s, recognized by the plants and animals.

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