Ecological-Economic Viability as a Criterion of Strong Sustainability under Uncertainty

Strong sustainability, according to the common definition, requires that different natural and economic capital stocks be maintained as physical quantities separately. Yet, in a world of uncertainty this cannot be guaranteed. To therefore define strong sustainability under uncertainty in an operational manner we propose to use the concept of viability. Viability means that the different components and functions of a dynamic, stochastic system at any time remain in a domain where the future existence of these components and functions is guaranteed with sufficiently high probability. We develop a unifying and general ecological-economic concept of viability that encompasses the traditional ecological and economic notions of viability as special cases. It provides an operational criterion of strong sustainability under a mild form of uncertainty and for medium spatial and temporal scales. We illustrate this concept and demonstrate its usefulness by applying it to livestock grazing management in semi-arid rangelands.

[1]  D. Pearce,et al.  Capital theory and the measurement of sustainable development: an indicator of “weak” sustainability , 1993 .

[2]  A. Shvidenko.  Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis , 2005 .

[3]  Luc Doyen,et al.  Sustainability of exploited marine ecosystems through protected areas: A viability model and a coral reef case study , 2007 .

[4]  Richard B. Norgaard,et al.  Sociosystem and ecosystem coevolution in the amazon , 1981 .

[5]  E. Sober.  7. Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism , 1988 .

[6]  N. Georgescu-Roegen.  The Entropy Law and the Economic Process , 1973 .

[7]  E. Barbier,et al.  Blueprint for a green economy , 1989 .

[8]  J. Tschirhart,et al.  Resource competition among plants: from maximizing individuals to community structure , 2002 .

[9]  Robert Costanza,et al.  Investing in natural capital , 1993 .

[10]  J. Proops,et al.  Humankind and the Environment: An Anatomy of Surprise and Ignorance , 1992, Environmental Values.

[11]  Stefan Baumgärtner,et al.  Joint Production And Responsibility in Ecological Economics: On the Foundations of Environmental Policy , 2006 .

[12]  S. Higgins,et al.  An ecological economic simulation model of a non-selective grazing system in the Nama Karoo, South Africa , 2002 .

[13]  Stefan Baumgärtner,et al.  Uncertainty and Sustainability in the Management of Rangelands , 2006 .

[14]  C. Perrings.  Stress, shock and the sustainability of resource use in semi-arid environments , 1994 .

[15]  Richard T Woodward.  Sustainability as Intergenerational Fairness: Efficiency, Uncertainty, and Numerical Methods , 2000 .

[16]  John G. Field,et al.  Network Analysis in Marine Ecology: Methods and Applications , 1990 .

[17]  Bernd Klauer,et al.  Defining and achieving sustainable development , 1999 .

[18]  Harvesting in an Eight Species Ecosystem , 2003 .

[19]  Konrad Ott,et al.  Theorie und Praxis starker Nachhaltigkeit , 2008 .

[20]  G. Brundtland,et al.  Our common future , 1987 .

[21]  Kirk Hamilton,et al.  Green adjustments to GDP , 1994 .

[22]  Malte Faber,et al.  Mensch - Natur - Wissen: Grundlagen der Umweltbildung , 2003 .

[23]  L. Kruse-Graumann.  Strategies for managing global environmental risks , 2000 .

[24]  S. Sullivan,et al.  On non‐equilibrium in arid and semi‐arid grazing systems , 2002 .

[25]  Marco P. Tucci,et al.  Stochastic Sustainability in the Presence of Unknown Parameters , 1998 .

[26]  A. Vercelli,et al.  Sustainability : dynamics and uncertainty , 1998 .

[27]  J Tschirhart,et al.  General equilibrium of an ecosystem. , 2000, Journal of theoretical biology.

[28]  S. Levin,et al.  Economic Pathways to Ecological Sustainability: Challenges for the New Millennium , 2000 .

[29]  G. Heal,et al.  Interpreting Sustainability , 1996 .

[30]  S. Levin,et al.  Economic Pathways to Ecological Sustainability , 2000 .

[31]  G. Chichilnisky.  Uncertain Future Preferences and Conservation , 1998 .

[32]  C. Perrings.  Economics of Ecological Resources , 1997 .

[33]  K. Mäler,et al.  Modeling Complex Ecological Economic Systems: Toward an Evolutionary, Dynamic Understanding of People and Nature , 1993 .

[34]  Luc Doyen,et al.  Sustainability of an economy with an exhaustible resource: A viable control approach , 2007 .

[35]  D. Freidel,et al.  An interim report , 1986 .

[36]  Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen.  Conservation and sustainable use of the biosphere , 2001 .

[37]  J. Scheffran,et al.  Viability analysis of management frameworks for fisheries , 2005, math/0510115.

[38]  G. Daily.  Nature's services: societal dependence on natural ecosystems. , 1998 .

[39]  T. Eichner,et al.  Economic Land Use, Ecosystem Services and Microfounded Species Dynamics , 2004, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[40]  M. Westoby,et al.  Opportunistic management for rangelands not at equilibrium. , 1989 .

[41]  Stefan Baumgärtner,et al.  The Private and Public Insurance Value of Conservative Biodiversity Management , 2006 .

[42]  Robert Costanza,et al.  Economic Reasons for Conserving Wild Nature , 2002, Science.

[43]  John C. V. Pezzey,et al.  Sustainable Development Concepts: An Economic Analysis , 1992 .

[44]  T. Sargent,et al.  Robust Control and Model Uncertainty , 2001 .

[45]  Richard B. Howarth,et al.  Sustainability under Uncertainty: A Deontological Approach , 1995 .

[46]  Luc Doyen,et al.  Defining viable recovery path toward sustainable fisheries , 2007 .

[47]  T. Bruckner,et al.  Climate change decision-support and the tolerable windows approach , 1999 .

[48]  Perspectives on rangeland ecology and management. , 1999 .

[49]  C. S. Holling,et al.  Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment , 1995, Environment and Development Economics.

[50]  John L. R. Proops,et al.  Ecological Economics: Concepts and Methods , 1998 .

[51]  Muriel Tichit,et al.  A viability model to assess the sustainability of mixed herds under climatic uncertainty , 2004 .

[52]  M. Soulé,et al.  Viable Populations for Conservation , 1987 .

[53]  Geir B. Asheim,et al.  Sustainability when capital management has stochastic consequences , 2002, Soc. Choice Welf..

[54]  John L. R. Proops,et al.  On the conceptual foundations of ecological economics: A teleological approach , 1995 .

[55]  R. Bishop.  Endangered Species, Irreversibility, and Uncertainty: A Reply , 1979 .

[56]  Thomas Bruckner,et al.  Methodological Aspects of the Tolerable Windows Approach , 2003 .

[57]  John V. Krutilla,et al.  Endangered Species, Irreversibilities, and Uncertainty: A Comment , 1979 .

[58]  W. Reid,et al.  Millennium Ecosystem Assessment , 2005 .

[59]  Cees Withagen,et al.  The Rise, Fall and Sustainability of Capital-resource Economies , 1998 .

[60]  C. Wissel,et al.  On the foundation of a general theory of stocks , 2005 .

[61]  J. Last.  Our common future. , 1987, Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique.

[62]  Charles Perrings,et al.  Conservation in the optimal use of rangelands , 2004 .

[63]  Thomas Kleinen,et al.  The probabilistic tolerable windows approach , 2006 .

[64]  M. Langemeier,et al.  Farmers' Marginal Propensity to Consume: An Application to Illinois Grain Farms , 1990 .

[65]  G. Dangelmayer.  Economic Analysis , 2020, Economic Analysis.

[66]  J. Wagner.  Exporte und Produktivität in mittelständischen Betrieben Befunde aus der niedersächsischen Industrie (1995 – 2004) , 2005 .

[67]  Bryan G. Norton,et al.  The Preservation of Species , 1986 .

[68]  Charles Perrings,et al.  Resilience in the Dynamics of Economy-Environment Systems , 1998 .

[69]  Richard C. Bishop,et al.  Endangered Species and the Safe Minimum Standard , 1991 .

[70]  T. Crowards,et al.  Safe Minimum Standards: costs and opportunities , 1998 .

[71]  I. Scoones,et al.  Range Ecology At Disequilibrium: New Models Of Natural Variability And Pastoral Adaptation In African Savannas , 1994 .

[72]  J. Wagner,et al.  Who are the Workers Who Never Joined a Union? Empirical Evidence from Germany , 2005, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[73]  Thomas D. Crocker,et al.  On the joint determination of biological and economic systems , 2002 .

[74]  Christophe Béné,et al.  Storage and Viability of a Fishery with Resource and Market Dephased Seasonalities , 2000 .

[75]  H. Daly,et al.  For the Common Good , 1999 .

[76]  Anastasios Xepapadeas,et al.  Robust Control in Water Management , 2004 .

[77]  Stefan Baumgärtner,et al.  Relative and Absolute Scarcity of Nature: Assessing the Roles of Economics and Ecology for Biodiversity Conservation , 2006 .

[78]  Rüdiger Pethig,et al.  Ecosystem and Economy: An Integrated Dynamic General Equilibrium Approach , 2005 .

[79]  Karin Frank,et al.  Relevance of rest periods in non-equilibrium rangeland systems - A modelling analysis , 2007 .

[80]  R. L. Costanz,et al.  Modeling complex ecological economic systems , 1993 .

[81]  Robert Costanza,et al.  Investing in natural capital: the ecological economics approach to sustainability. , 1994 .

[82]  Partha Dasgupta,et al.  Evaluating Projects and Assessing Sustainable Development in Imperfect Economies , 2003 .

[83]  Thomas Bruckner,et al.  Exploring Options for Global Climate Policy. A New Analytical Framework , 2002 .

[84]  L Doyen,et al.  Sustainability of fisheries through marine reserves: a robust modeling analysis. , 2003, Journal of environmental management.

[85]  J. Anderies,et al.  Robust strategies for managing rangelands with multiple stable attractors , 2004 .

[86]  Kenneth E. Parsons.  Employment, Growth and Basic Needs: A One World Problem , 1976, The Journal of Modern African Studies.

[87]  Christophe Béné,et al.  A viability analysis for a bio-economic model , 2001 .

[88]  Paul Beier,et al.  Population viability analysis. , 2016 .

[89]  Karin Frank,et al.  Metapopulation Persistence in Heterogeneous Landscapes: Lessons about the Effect of Stochasticity , 2005, The American Naturalist.

[90]  C. Perrings,et al.  Biodiversity, resilience and the control of ecological-economic systems: the case of fire-driven rangelands , 1997 .

[91]  P. Kareiva,et al.  Ecosystem services , 2005, Current Biology.

[92]  Geir B. Asheim,et al.  Net National Product as an Indicator of Sustainability , 1994 .

[93]  J. Boyd,et al.  What Are Ecosystem Services , 2006 .

[94]  F. Knight.  The economic nature of the firm: From Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit , 2009 .

[95]  Michael C. Farmer,et al.  The Rationality of a Safe Minimum Standard , 1998 .

[96]  J. Boltvinik.  Poverty Measurement Methods — An Overview , 1999 .

[97]  T. Eichner,et al.  Harvesting in an integrated general equilibrium model , 2007 .

[98]  Jean-Pierre Aubin,et al.  Viability theory , 1991 .

[99]  Richard C. Bishop,et al.  Endangered Species and Uncertainty: The Economics of a Safe Minimum Standard , 1978 .