Goals, agenda, and policy recommendations for ecological economics

This introductory chapter: 1) Summarizes the state and goals of the emerging transdisciplinary field of ecological economics, particularly as regards issues of sustainability; 2) provides a working agenda for research, education and policy for the coming decade to ensure sustainability; 3) provides some policy guidelines and recommendations for achieving these goals. This chapter represents, to the extent possible, the "sense of the meeting" or consensus of the workshop which produced it. This does not mean that all the workshop participants agree with all that is said here; we can only offer one perspective. The following chapters by individual workshop participants elaborate the themes we describe and give more detailed and varied perspectives. OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK The book is divided into three major parts following this introductory chapter. Part I focuses on defining the basic world view of ecological economics, along with how (and 1 2 Goals, Agenda, and Policy Recommendations for Ecological Economics why) it differs from conventional approaches. The ten papers in the section cover a broad range of perspectives. Boulding, Daly, and Hardin set the stage with incisive discussions of the root causes of the problems facing humanity and definitions of some basic ecological economic principles to build on. Page, Christensen, Norgaard and Howarth, and Norton offer perceptive insights into the problems of sustainability, discounting, and valuation. Martinez-Alier outlines some of the historical precedents for ecological economics. Funtowicz and Ravetz, and Perrings round out the section with their unique contributions on the role of uncertainty in an ecological economic world view and develop appropriate ways to deal with this uncertainty. Part II of the book focuses on accounting, modeling, and analysis of ecological economic systems. It begins with El Serafy's discussion of the environment as capital. Peskin, Hueting, and Faber and Proops offer different perspectives on and methods for incorporating natural capital and services into national income accounting. Hannon and Ulanowicz extend and generalize these concepts to deal with ecosystems and combined ecological economic systems. Braat and Steetskamp offer a more elaborate modeling system for regional analysis and Cleveland rounds out the section with an analysis of resource scarcity from an ecological economics perspective. Part III of the book deals with institutional changes necessary to achieve sustainability, and includes case studies. The first five papers in the section deal with incentives and instruments. Colin Clark offers an analysis of the perverse incentives that work against sustainability, while Costanza and Farber deal with methods to alter incentives to assure sustainability. Cumberland, and d'Arge and Spash apply these concepts to intergenerational transfers, while Zylicz attacks international transfers. Following the papers on transfers, two papers, by Mary Clark and Zucchetto, discuss the role of education in furthering the goals of ecological economics and sustainability. The section ends with five papers that offer case studies of ecological economic problems and approaches. Mitsch defines the field of ecological engineering and compares the experiences of the United States and China. Jansson takes an ecological economic look at the Baltic Sea region, Tiezzi et al. look at integrated agro-industrial ecosystems, and Cavalcanti looks at the Brazilian situation. Finally Goodland et al. offer a detailed analysis and policy recommendations for the management of moist tropical forests. While the chapters overlap to some degree in their coverage of certain basic themes, the multiple perspectives enrich the reader's understanding of the pluralistic nature of ecological economics. AN ECOLOGICAL ECONOMIC WORLD VIEW Increasing awareness that our global ecological life support system is endangered is forcing us to realize that decisions made on the basis of local, narrow, short-term criteria can produce disastrous results globally and in the long run. We are also beginning to realize that traditional economic and ecological models and concepts fall short in their ability to deal with global ecological problems. Ecological Economics 3 Ecological economics is a new transdisciplinary field of study that addresses the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense. These relationships are central to many of humanity's current problems and to building a sustainable future but are not well covered by any existing scientific discipline. By transdisciplinary we mean that ecological economics goes beyond our normal conceptions of scientific disciplines and tries to integrate and synthesize many different disciplinary perspectives. One way it does this is by focusing more directly on the problems, rather than the particular intellectual tools and models used to solve them, and by ignoring arbitrary intellectual turf boundaries. No discipline has intellectual precedence in an endeavor as important as achieving sustainability. While the intellectual tools we use in this quest are important, they are secondary to the goal of solving the critical problems of managing our use of the planet. We must transcend the focus on tools and techniques so that we avoid being "a person with a hammer to whom everything looks like a nail." Rather we should consider the task, evaluate existing tools' abilities to handle the job, and design new ones if the existing tools are ineffective. Ecological economics will use the tools of conventional economics and ecology as appropriate. The need for new intellectual tools and models may emerge where the coupling of economics and ecology is not possible with the existing tools. How Is Ecological Economics Different from Conventional Approaches? Ecological economics (EE) differs from both conventional economics and conventional ecology in terms of the breadth of its perception of the problem, and the importance it attaches to environment-economy interactions. It takes this wider and longer view in terms of space, time and the parts of the system to be studied. Figure 1.1 illustrates one aspect of the relationship: the domains of the different subdisciplines. The upper left box represents the domain of "conventional" economics, the interactions of economic sectors (like mining, manufacturing, or households) with each other. The domain of "conventional" ecology is the lower right box, the interactions of ecosystems and their components with each other. The lower left box represents the inputs from ecological sectors to economic sectors. This is the usual domain of resource economics and environmental impact analysis: the use of renewable and nonrenewable natural resources by the economy. The upper right box represents the "use" by ecological sectors of economic "products." The products of interest in this box are usually unwanted by-products of production and the ultimate wastes from consumption. This is the usual domain of environmental economics and environmental impact analysis: pollution and its mitigation, prevention and mediation. Ecological economics encompasses and transcends these disciplinary boundaries. Ecological economics sees the human economy as part of a larger whole. Its domain is the entire web of interactions between economic and ecological sectors. Table 1.1 presents some of the other major differences between ecological economics (EE) and conventional economics (CEcon) and conventional ecology (CEcol). These issues are covered in more detail and from a number of different perspectives in Part I of TABLE 1.1 Comparison of "Conventional" Economics and Ecology with Ecological