BOX 9.
HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS

The demographic prospect for individual nations is widely variable. In some countries, populations are projected to decline somewhat over the next half-century, while other nations will experience a tripling of population. Humans have always played a large role in forming and modifying the environment. Environmental degradation, in turn, usually carries a high human cost.

Historical ecology is emerging as a field of study capable of providing lessons applicable to current problems. Researchers in this area trace sequences of mutual causation between human acts and acts of nature (e,g, DieffenbacherKrall 1996, Crumley 1993, Hammett 1992). Studies in Europe have drawn from 10,000 years of human occupation to illuminate human and environmental causes for increased erosion and desertification of the northern Mediterranean region. As social, physical and natural scientists develop a common language and shared concepts, they can more effectively address the distinct historical and geographical distributions of particular conditions, and their periodicity, duration, and severity. Historical evidence records past human choice and response in which the effects of environmental change can be understood. While unfamiliarity with environmental patterns and processes can lead to disastrous choices and actions, local knowledge about the environment, culture, and history can serve both as a practical basis for regionally appropriate solutions, and as a means of increasing familiarity with and support for eventual policies.

Studies of the biosphere and society also reach to the future to address such topics as system dynamics; growth, regulation, and sustainable consumption; and participatory processes in the management of natural resources. For example, to understand better the human dimensions of deforestation and reforestation, an interdisciplinary team of demographers, geographers, earth scientists, ecologists, anthropologists, and political scientists has combined theories of human decision making about land cover conditions with detailed analyses of field sites. In a careful empirical design focusing on a delimited range of forest biomes with three major types of forest ownership, the researchers can identify the differential impact of social processes on sites. Preliminary findings range from the identification of key biophysical and behavioral variables associated with differences in rates of forest regrowth to further understanding of the relationship between forest conditions and property rights systems. Expanding support for global and regional studies of land use and land cover change, employing remote-sensing and geographic information systems technologies with anthropological, ecological, and survey research, can advance our understanding and forecasting of socio-environmental interactions.

All societies face decisions about the relationship between environmental protection and economic development, and all societies differ in the cultural, historical, and political context in which those decisions must occur. Attempts to generalize across systems have been illuminating but inconclusive, in part because study designs often have focused on comparisons across similar systems, or because underlying theory was poorly addressed. To complement and energize interdisciplinary empirical studies of society and biosphere, attention is needed to developing a strong theoretical framework for this research.

REFERENCES

Crumley, C. L. 1993. Analyzing historic ecotonal shifts. Ecological Applications. 3:377-384.

DieffenbacherKrall, A. C. 1996. Paleo- and historical ecology of the Cutler grasslands, Cutler, Maine (USA): Implications for future management. Natural Areas Journal 16:3-13.

Hammett, J. E. 1992. The shapes of adaptation – historical ecology of anthropogenic landscapes in the Southeastern United States. Landscape Ecology 7:121-135.