Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Multiscale Assessments
Findings of the Sub-Global Assessments Working Group
One of the major innovations of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is the incorporation of local and regional assessments—33 in all—in a global portrait of the planet’s health. It is the first global assessment of ecosystems to include not only a diversity of ecosystems, but to draw on a wide range of cultural orientations and intellectual traditions, including those of indigenous peoples.
The Sub-global Assessments Working Group integrated information from multiple sources and found that biophysical factors such as land-use change, climate change and variability, pollution, and invasive species have a significant effect on human well-being across cultures. For example, in places where there are no other social safety nets, diminished human well-being tends to increase immediate dependence on ecosystem services, which can damage the capacity of those local ecosystems, which in turn appears to increase the probability of natural disaster or conflict.
Representing the baseline and framework for ongoing assessments of ecosystem and human well-being on a variety of scales around the world, Multiscale Assessments provides students, researchers, and policy-makers with the most comprehensive methodology for assessing ecosystems at local, national, and regional scales.
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Reader’s Guide
Summary: Integrated Assessments at Multiple Scales
Chapter 1. MA Conceptual Framework
Chapter 2. Overview of the MA Sub-global Assessments
Chapter 3. Linking Ecosystem Services and Human Well-being in the
Sub-global Assessments
Chapter 4. The Multiscale Approach
Chapter 5. Using Multiple Knowledge Systems in Sub-global Assessments:
Benefits and Challenges
Chapter 6. Assessment Process
Chapter 7. Drivers of Ecosystem Change
Chapter 8. Condition and Trends of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity
Chapter 9. Responses to Ecosystem Changes and their Impacts on Human
Well-being: Lessons from Sub-global Assessments
Chapter 10. Sub-global Scenarios
Chapter 11. Communities, Ecosystems, and Livelihoods
Chapter 12. Reflections and Lessons Learned
Appendix A: Color Mapsand Figures
Appendix B: Brief Summaries of the Sub-global Assessments
Appendix C: Authors
Appendix D: Abbreviations and Acronyms
Appendix E: Glossary
Index
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