SOIL, SUSTAINABILITY AND SECURITY- The Importance of Ecosystem Integrity

摘要

These are disquieting times, as the nations of the world attempt to adjust to the new political, economic and cultural realities of a post-Soviet Union world. This is especially true in Russia, other former Soviet Republics, and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) where change since 1989 has been truly revolutionary. The people of this region have seen the demise of Communism as the definer of social, economic, and political order and its abrupt replacement by democracy movements, capitalism and market economies. Gone are the centralized, top--down bureaucracies that restricted participation in decision making and constrained dissent. Gone are repressive controls on speech, movement and assembly. Gone is the "Cold War" with all of its uncertainties and insecurities. Former enemies are now friends. Former Soviet Republics are now independent, free, and equal, and the countries of the former Warsaw Pact are setting their own courses in international affairs. At a different scale, citizens in these emerging market democracies are enjoying their newfound individual rights and freedoms, the right to real choice among political parties and candidates for office, the right to own property and to make a profit, the right to accumulate capital and possibly get rich, and the freedom to choose what is best for one's self and one's family. Choice also extends to the consumer arena where the variety and quality of consumer goods has expanded considerably. Industrialists can choose what they will manufacture and farmers can choose what they will produce. People can choose what they will purchase and who they will select to lead them. Does this not seem like the best of worlds? For the newborn capitalists of the CEECs and the former Soviet Republics with their newfound freedoms and access to resources and financing, this may very well be the best of worlds. But for many, if not most, citizens of these new democracies, the times are not so good. Gone are the old regimes that restricted freedoms but provided security, the security of jobs, pensions, cradle to grave health care and subsidies for agriculture and industry. Gone is the certainty of being able to afford to feed and house yourself and your family even if only modestly. For these citizens, the new world is in many ways less predictable with fewer real choices than the old one had been. Freedom is a primary human goal, but freedom without the resources required to exercise security it is useless, and freedom without security is meaningless. It is within this context of time and place that we came to Poland to examine one small but important ingredient of this process of social change ~ the quality of soil resources in the region - and to consider how those resources ultimately affect security in the region.