ADB: The Asia and Pacific region has some of the largest and most diverse ecosystems on earth. The Coral Triangle boasts an astonishing 3,000 species of fish and harbours 76% of the world’s coral species.
Maintaining natural capital such as forests, biodiversity, freshwater, and coastal and marine ecosystems is essential to making “green economies” a reality. Natural capital is the stock of natural assets and resources that provide ecosystem services, such as food, water, timber, pollination of crops and absorption of human waste products like carbon dioxide.
The challenge for countries of Asia and the Pacific is to manage their natural capital sustainably, so that they maintain these services in the interests of long-term development. Maintaining natural capital is particularly critical for the rural poor, whose livelihoods and ability to cope with natural disasters directly depend on the availability of local natural assets and resources.
In countries of Asia and the Pacific, the gap between the Ecological Footprint, or the demand for natural resources, and the environment’s ability to replenish those resources, or its bio capacity, is widening.
For the last 35 years, global demand on natural capital has exceeded the ability of many ecosystem services to regenerate. In Asia and the Pacific, each person currently uses an average of 1.6 global hectares (gha) of biologically productive area of land or sea annually for their consumption needs. However, only 0.9 gha of biocapacity is available per person in the region. The shortfall (0.8 gha per person) represents a “biocapacity deficit” that can only be made up by importing natural resources or by continuing to deplete natural capital. This deficit has significant economic and environmental implications, including rising commodity prices and shortages of key resources.
In the past two decades, the state of ecosystems in Asia and the Pacific has been declining. Conversion of primary forests to agricultural land or monoculture plantations has resulted in a marked decrease in so called “old growth” forests that are more biologically diverse. Old growth forests and other types of ecosystems provide essential services such as carbon storage and clean water. Extensive coastal development and unsustainable exploitation of marine resources have resulted in the destruction of many major coastal habitats, including corals, mangroves, seagrasses, wetlands and salt marshes. Freshwater ecosystems have been converted for agricultural use and polluted with agricultural and urban waste, and their natural flow has been disrupted by water storage for agriculture, domestic use and hydropower. This has resulted in lower Maintaining natural capital such as forests, biodiversity, freshwater, and coastal and marine ecosystems is essential to making “green economies” a reality. Natural capital is the stock of natural assets and resources that provide ecosystem services, such as food, water, timber, pollination of crops and absorption of human waste products like carbon dioxide.
The challenge for countries of Asia and the Pacific is to manage their natural capital sustainably, so that they maintain these services in the interests of long-term development. Maintaining natural capital is particularly critical for the rural poor, whose livelihoods and ability to cope with natural disasters directly depend on the availability of local natural assets and resources.
In countries of Asia and the Pacific, the gap between the Ecological Footprint, or the demand for natural resources, and the environment’s ability to replenish those resources, or its biocapacity, is widening. For the last 35 years, global demand on natural capital has exceeded the ability of many ecosystem services to regenerate. In Asia and the Pacific, each person currently uses an average of 1.6 global hectares (gha) of biologically productive area of land or sea annually for their consumption needs. However, only 0.9 gha of biocapacity is available per person in the region. The shortfall (0.8 gha per person) represents a “biocapacity deficit” that can only be made up by importing natural resources or by continuing to deplete natural capital. This deficit has significant economic and environmental implications, including rising commodity prices and shortages of key resources.
Source: ADB
