Geography 454

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Geography 454 Presentation By Greg Pitre
Ecological Footprint Analysis
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• What is the Ecological Footprint Analysis?
• Also known as the Human Footprint
• Relatively similar to Carrying Capacity
• Measurement of the amount of renewable and
  non-renewable ecologically productive land area
  required to support the resource demands and
  absorb the wastes of a given population or
  specific activities.
• Usually expressed as a figure amount of land per
  person

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• Why is this important?
• From a sustainability perspective, when
  humanity's Footprint exceeds the amount of
  renewable biocapacity a draw down in natural
  capital is required and this is considered
  unsustainable.
• Global Footprint accounts over the last forty
  years indicate a twenty-five year growth trend
  beyond the amount of renewable biocapacity.
  Basically, humanity's Ecological Footprint
  appears to have breached ecological limits and is
  thus unsustainable.

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• What is the history of Ecological Footprint?
• The concept was first created by William Rees,
  was further developed by William Rees and Mathis
  Wackernagel and the Task Force on Healthy
  Sustainable Communities at the University of
  British Columbia.

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• How Is a Figure or Measurement Determined?
• The total amount of ecologically productive land
  area included in EFA is divided by the human
  population, Therefore, there is approximately 4.5
  acres (1.89 hectares) available for each person.
• A person's ecological footprint can be computed
  using a "top-down approach," by dividing the
  regional or national total consumption by its
  population size.
• The total amount of ecologically productive land
  area in EFA is actually less than one-quarter of
  the planet's surface
• Note 1 hectare 2.5 acres, 1 acre 3/4 football
  field

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• Results suggest the City of Toronto impacts an
  area over 280 times its size

Source www.city.toronto.on.ca/ eia/footprint/
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• How does this relate to sustainability?
• On a global scale, humanitys entire Ecological
  Footprint can be compared to the total available
  natural capital and services. When humanitys
  Footprint is within the annual regenerative
  capabilities of nature, its Footprint is
  sustainable.

How does Canada compare Globally?
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What would my Ecological Footprint be living in
Nanaimo?
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Source http//www.earthday.net/footprint/index.as
p
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Source http//www.earthday.net/footprint/index.as
p
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If you lived eco-friendly, green, ate organic,
took the bus or walked, and were environmentally
conscious in Nanaimo
Note 1 acre is ¾ football field, 2.5 acres 1
hectare
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Source http//www.mec.ca/Apps/ecoCalc/ecoCalc.jsp
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What would happen if the factors leading to
population growth changed? This illustrates how
the number of children per family have effects on
the global population.
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Source http//www.rprogress.org/newpubs/2004/foot
printnations2004.pdf
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Reasons for decrease areas of production have
become more efficient (footprint declined
approx.0.5 hectare/person)
Source http//www.rprogress.org/newpubs/2004/foot
printnations2004.pdf
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Source http//www.rprogress.org/newpubs/2004/foot
printnations2004.pdf
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Source http//www.rprogress.org/newpubs/2004/foot
printnations2004.pdf
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Source http//www.rprogress.org/newpubs/2004/foot
printnations2004.pdf
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Source http//www.rprogress.org/newpubs/2004/foot
printnations2004.pdf
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Are there other interesting Measure of Ecological
Footprint? Ecological FishPrint (UBC Study)

• The footprint concept are almost always tied to
  land areas.
• There is no large-scale application of this
  concept to the oceans.
• This method proposes the extension of the
  footprint concept to the oceans, or FishPrint.
  Also utilizes Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
• (area of the ocean to which it has exclusive use
  within the constraints of the International
  Convention on the Law of the Sea).
• A country endowed with lots of good arable land
  enabling it to support a large pop.,
• while a country might have a large EEZ enabling
  it to rely on large marine resources. 
• Produces a FishPrint for maritime countries.

Source http//www.gis.fisheries.ubc.ca/trophiclev
el/FootprintCatch.aspx?eez124RegionIDNcountry
Canada
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How does this relate to the Cowichan Valley?
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• The City of Duncan Statement We are committed
  to achieving our community's target of
  zero-waste. Already our collective recycling
  efforts have reduced the amount of garbage being
  trucked to the Cache Creek landfill by 50.
  Please continue to help us reduce, reuse and
  recycle.

• There is a new Valley-wide initiative in place
  designed to reduce backyard burning - Cowichan
  Valley residents can now dump their yard waste
  for free at the Bing's Creek site.

• The City of Duncan currently has a recycling
  contract with Salish Disposal, a local firm.
  Recyclables will be picked up every other week on
  a specified garbage collection day.

• For entrepreneurs about to start a new business
  and for those businesses looking to expand, the
  Cowichan offers a dynamic business environment as
  well as a great place to live. In fact, the
  region has always presented opportunities based
  on an abundance of natural resources.

Source http//www.city.duncan.bc.ca/citizens/inde
x_citizens.htm
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Cowichan Valley Relevance (Contd)

• The City has begun a Boundary Restructure Study
  that will explore the potential advantages and
  disadvantages of including portions of the
  surrounding area within the City boundaries.

• On an ongoing basis we work to support the
  initiatives of the Downtown Business Improvement
  Association, such as their thriving and renowned
  Farmer's Market

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Sources1. www.city.toronto.on.ca/
eia/footprint/ 2. http//www.earthday.net/footpr
int/index.asp 3. http//www.rprogress.org/newpubs
/2004/footprintnations2004.pdf 4.http//www.gis.
fisheries.ubc.ca/trophiclevel/FootprintCatch.aspx?
eez124RegionIDNcountryCanada5.
http//www.city.duncan.bc.ca/citizens/index_citize
ns.htm
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The End Be the change you want to see in the
world Mahatma Gandhi