Approaches to Ecological Integrity: Divergence, Convergence and Implementation

Today citizens of the richer countries live longer and are better housed, fed, educated, travelled and informed, on average, than in any previous age. Moreover, globally there is some progress in several welfare measures, such as increasing life expectancies, decreasing infant mortality, and rising incomes. Yet even as our lives improve, the world deteriorates. In fact Sieswerda (dy1999), in a study designed to identify negative health impacts correlated with the loss of ecological integrity, found instead that “conversion of natural areas to human use was associated with improving health…” If the integrity of a landscape is identified with its natural biodiversity and functionality, then clearly these conversions mark a loss of ecological integrity. Such gross correlations between human progress and a deteriorating world pose the question: If our lives are improving, then why worry about ecological integrity?