UNCERTAINTY, COMPLEXITY, AND ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY: INSIGHTS FROM AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH

摘要

Ecological integrity pertains to the integrity of the self-organization of ecological systems, including human societal systems. The concepts of self-organization, attractors, propensities, and canon provide a theoretical reference frame for defining ecological integrity. Ecological integrity is about three facets of self-organization of ecological systems: a) current well being, b) resiliency, c) capacity to develop, regenerate and evolve. Given the nature of ecological systems as self-organizing holarchic open systems, a definition of ecological integrity is hierarchical and requires choosing a restricted set of attractors from the possible set in the given circumstances. This reality, in principle, negates the possibility of a strictly science based definition of integrity. We have presented an alternative basis for discussing integrity, an adaptive ecosystem approach which integrates human issues with ecological reality. This position on ecological integrity is quite different from those that are based exclusively on the notion that maintaining ecological integrity is about rehabilitating and maintaining ecological systems in their pristine state, that is maintaining nature in the wild. The danger of this notion of integrity is that it portrays humans as separate and apart from natural ecosystems. It suggests that we can isolate natural systems from the influence of humanity and by implication vice versa. We cannot afford this illusion as it denies the fundamental reality that humans now effect the context of all ecosystems on this planet. We must deal with the reality that human socio-economic systems and ecosystems are intimately interconnected on this planet. In the final analysis human socio-economic systems are utterly dependant on natural systems for their context. As McHarg (1970) put it so eloquently 30 years ago, human society must fit in with nature. Humans must understand that the integrity of human societal ecosystems are inextricably linked to the integrity of natural ecosystems. Maintaining the integrity of the biosphere is necessary for the continuation of our society. We must modify our behaviour, so as to maintain the context for the integrity of the self-organizing process of natural ecosystems that are necessary for the continued existence, on this planet, of self-organizing human ecosystems. An adaptive ecosystem approach is the cornerstone for understanding and managing the integrity of the intertwined ecological-societal system which is emerging on this planet.