Mariana Ines Zilio

Based on a free energy approach, we propose the estimation of an ecosystem’s Inner Value, which is both non-instrumental and objective, reflecting the ecosystem’s value for itself as a natural entity, abstracted from any human valuation. The ecosystem services approach has become the dominant criterion for studying human and natural relationships, but this and similar approaches concentrate on the human advantage giving little or no regard for the well-being of the ecosystem. Although there is concern about preserving and recuperating damaged ecosystems, we seldom consider how much the ecosystem values itself. Then, we propose that Inner Value could be a tool to evaluate and model ecosystems’ health before any anthropic disturbance, allowing comparison with the impact these disturbances may have in the future. We also suggest that it should be a requirement for any Environmental Impact Assessment.

Ecosystem services are critical to sustaining human activity on freshwater systems since food, energy, and water provision directly depends on them. Identifying and monitoring ecosystem services can contribute to a better understanding of basin dynamics and, consequently, improve the results of resource management along the watersheds. In turn, ecosystem services provision is continuously subject to natural and anthropogenic stressors, among which land cover changes play a crucial role. The Negro is a river entirely located in Argentinean territory, and its basin constitutes one of the largest and most complex watersheds of the country. This paper characterized the Negro River basin, analyzed land cover changes in the area between the years 1992 and 2015, and determined its impact over the value of the ecosystem services in the watershed. Our results indicate that not only the land cover in the Negro River basin has remained relatively unchanged during the period under study, but also the value of ecosystem services exhibits only a slight decrease according to the traditional value transfer. Despite this, the contribution of nature to socioeconomic development in the area seems to be substantially higher when considering other factors excluded from the traditional analysis of ecosystem services, such as the exploitation of non-renewable resources and their production chains. In this context, we discussed the usefulness of the performed analysis in this particular basin, which has suffered a profound and fast socioeconomic transformation related to the oil and gas production during last years and pointed out some guidelines to assess better the contribution of nature to socioeconomic development in similar cases.

Este capítulo analiza los componentes de los indicadores de desempeño ambiental e indaga sobre su adaptación y aplicación al análisis de la sustentabilidad urbana. Se presentan algunas nociones generales sobre el concepto de sustentabilidad urbana y la necesidad de encontrar indicadores adecuados para evaluarla. Luego se describen los dos indicadores que mejor abarcan todos los aspectos de la sustentabilidad urbana y que resultan más fáciles de adaptar a la situación particular de las ciudades intermedias de países en desarrollo. A partir de descripciones de las variables relevantes de la problemática ambiental, en cada uno de los índices, se plantean posibles líneas de análisis para adaptarlos a la evaluación de sustentabilidad en el ámbito urbano.

The continuous interaction between human activities and environment leads to adopting a broad approach for studying watershed systems. Undoubtedly, designing an efficient but also sustainable river-basin management plan requires considering the ecosystem, the economic and social aspects related to the use of natural resources. Given the practical and theoretical relevance that stakeholders’ participation has achieved in the frame of new approaches for watershed management, this paper aims to identify the possibility of implementing a collaborative strategy in the particular case of the Sauce Grande River Basin (SGRB), Argentina. Such implementation requires the fulfilment of some key conditions that heighten or hinder their execution. Our results indicate that, although the complexity of the basin makes necessary the implementation of a collaborative plan, it is not plausible in the short term. Some issues, such as the engagement of all stakeholders (inside and outside the basin), and the simplification and coordination of the norms and levels of decision making, should be taken into account for implementing a collaborative management in the basin. Otherwise, the implementation could have a non-expected result on the socio-ecological system, generating an immediate reject to more participative strategies.

In this work, we develop and test proxy-based diagnostic tools for comparing freshwater ecosystem services (FWES) risks across an international array of freshwater ecosystems. FWES threats are increasing rapidly under pressure from population, climate change, pollution, land use change, and other factors. We identified spatially explicit FWES threats estimates (referred to as threat benchmarks) and extracted watershed-specific values for an array of aquatic ecosystems in the Western Hemisphere (Ramsar sites). We compared these benchmark values to values extracted for sites associated with an international FWES threat investigation. The resulting benchmark threats appeared to provide a meaningful context for the diagnostic assessment of study site selection by revealing gaps in coverage of the underlying socio-environmental problem. In an effort to simplify the method, we tested regularly updated environmental and socioeconomic metrics as potential proxies for the benchmark threats using regression analysis. Three category proxies, aggregated from (i) external (global to regional, climate-related), (ii) internal (watershed management-related), and (iii) socioeconomic and governance related proxies produced strong relationships with water supply threat benchmarks, but only weak relationships with biodiversity-related and nutrient regulation benchmark threats. Our results demonstrate the utility of advancing global FWES status and threat benchmarks for organizing coordinated research efforts and prioritizing decisions with regard to international socio-environmental problems.

Waylen, K. A., J. Martin-Ortega, K. L. Blackstock, I. Brown, B. E. Avendaño Uribe, S. Basurto Hernández, M. B. Bertoni, M. L. Bustos, A. X. Cruz Bayer, R. I. Escalante Semerena, M. A. Farah Quijano, F. Ferrelli, G. L. Fidalgo, I. Hernández López, M. A. Huamantinco Cisneros, S. London, D. L. Maya Vélez, P. N. Ocampo-Díaz, C. E. Ortiz Guerrero, J. C. Pascale, G. M. E. Perillo, M. C. Piccolo, L. N. Pinzón Martínez, M. L. Rojas, F. Scordo, V. Vitale, and M. Zilio. 2015. Can scenario-planning support community-based natural resource management? Experiences from three countries in Latin America. Ecology and Society 20(4):28.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-07926-200428