生物多样性和生态系统服务：实现东亚热带和亚热带的生态安全

Biodiversity and ecosystem services: Towards ecological security in tropical and subtropical East Asia

东亚热带和亚热带地区拥有全球陆地生物多样性的15–25%,然而该区域大部分地区的生物多样性因经济的快速发展而面临威胁。实现与生物多样性保护相适应的经济发展需要对自然为人类、社会以及经济提供的惠益进行正确的理解和评价。这些惠益也被称为生态系统服务,且可以多种方式进行分类。大多数生态系统服务的产生依赖于野生物种和生态系统,尽管其质量和数量与野生物种的多样性之间往往没有简单的关联。许多全国范围内的生态系统服务评估已经进行,但这些评估往往过于简单,通常只针对少数几个易于量化的生态系统服务,并没有包括一些对当地居民来说最重要的生态系统服务,因此,依照该评估制定的政策往往是不恰当的。生态系统服务来源于自然资本,即自然资源总量,如果这个资本耗尽,它所能提供的生态系统服务就会减少。生态安全是通过保护或恢复地区重要生态系统服务所需的关键自然资本来实现的。尽管中国的一些生态系统服务有所改善,但东亚热带和亚热带地区大部分生态系统服务总体趋于恶化。要在以人类为主导的世界实现区域生态安全,需要在全球、区域、国家和地方各层面上采取行动。

Tropical and subtropical East Asia supports around 15–25% of global terrestrial biodiversity. This is now threatened in many areas by rapid economic development. Achieving development that is compatible with biodiversity conservation requires that the benefits of nature to people, to society, and to the economy are understood and correctly valued. These benefits are known as ecosystem services and have been classified in various ways. Most ecosystem services depend on wild species and ecosystems for their production, although there is often no simple relationship between their quality and quantity and the diversity of wild species. There have been many assessments of ecosystem services at the national scale, but these are necessarily very simplified, usually focusing on a few, easily quantified, services. As a result, they often fail to include the services which are of most importance to local people and can therefore lead to incorrect policy decisions. Ecosystem services are derived from natural capital, which is the total stock of natural resources, so if this capital is depleted the services it can produce decline. Ecological security is achieved by preserving or restoring the critical natural capital needed to maintain vital ecosystem services in the region. Although there have been recent improvements in some ecosystem services in China, the overall trends in most services in tropical and subtropical East Asia are negative. Achieving regional ecological security in a human-dominated world will require action at the global, regional, national, and local levels.