Managing Earth's Land: From Parcels to Planet
Abstract
Human societies have managed landscapes to sustain themselves for millennia, transforming Earth's biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and climate in the process. As Earth moves deeper into the Anthropocene, the future of the terrestrial biosphere and landscapes will be determined largely by processes of human social change, from economics and politics to long-term shifts in culture. Human societies operating as a globally networked "human system" now exchange matter, energy, biota and information across the entire Earth system and beyond. As a result, Earth's terrestrial surface is almost entirely managed by humans in some way, not only for agriculture, forestry, settlements, transport, mining and other infrastructure, but also to conserve, restore and sustain nonhuman natures. Despite the global scale of contemporary human systems, the social institutions and processes that shape Earth's landscapes, habitats, and ecosystems remain highly heterogeneous, differentiated, and complex in scale and operation, including indigenous traditional governance systems, global corporate enterprises, national land systems, conservation networks, small farms, collectives, conservation networks, informal land systems, rented parcels, individual homeowners and their yards. Given such complexity in social structure and process, what are the prospects for managing land towards better global outcomes? Can land be managed in support of broad and sustained improvements human livelihoods and well-being, while simultaneously expanding the area and quality of habitats capable of sustaining the rest of life on Earth? Is global governance of land a requirement for better outcomes, or can these outcomes emerge through coordinated efforts across scales, from local to global? The global development of human societies is creating both challenges and opportunities for efforts to guide Earth's land towards a better future. But ultimately, the planet we make will reflect the people we are, and the way we work - or don't work - together.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.U14A..03E
- Keywords:
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- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0485 Science policy;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 1622 Earth system modeling;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty;
- POLICY SCIENCES