The following is a blog related to the organic science cluster 4 project: Promoting an Integrative Landscape Approach in Vineyards for Greater Resilience in the Face of Climatic and Environmental Changes. Follow along with updates as the project progresses, and learn more about the research HERE.
By: Matthew Summerville
The place where we, humans and nonhumans, live is called an ecosystem. An ecosystem includes the living organisms (including plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms like bacteria) interacting with each other and with their non-living environments. Ecosystems are functional and complex systems. They can be natural or managed by humans.
We generally don’t think of the possibility of “ecosystems” being endangered or extinct, but that is far from the truth. In many instances around the world, ecosystems are being threatened with collapse by human activities. In fact, two ecosystems, the Aral Sea in Central Asia and the Central Ayeyarwady palm savanna in Southeast Asia, are considered to be officially collapsed, according to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List of Ecosystems. This means that they are non-functional and species, including humans, cannot really benefit from them.
In Southern Ontario, urban and rural land development threatens biodiverse natural ecosystems such as forests and prairies, displacing local native animals and plant populations. Agriculture, along with urbanization, is one such human development that can greatly impact natural systems. We need to grow crops, but we must find a way to do so in a sustainable manner to mainly at least some of these natural ecosystem components.
This is where the ecosystem approach comes up. It is a framework first adopted at the Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2000. If the term COP sounds familiar but you just aren’t sure what it means, don’t feel bad, I myself just learned more about it while researching for this blog post. The Conference of Parties is the meeting of all the signatory nations governing and implementing international conventions, such as the CBD and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was first introduced in 1992 at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in Brazil and the COPs are held every two years since 1994. The next COP meeting will be in October 2026 in Armenia.
The CBD ecosystem approach of management is formally defined as “a strategy for the integrated management of land, water, and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way” (https://www.cbd.int/decision/cop?id=7148). The definition of this approach is further broken down into twelve principles, but for the sake of this blog post, here are the first five principles (https://www.cbd.int/ecosystem/principles.shtml):
“Principle 1: The objectives of management of land, water and living resources are a matter of societal choices.”
Ecosystems should be managed matching the rights and interests of the Indigenous people and landowners inhabiting these lands. Therefore, economic, societal, and cultural elements have to be considered in conjunction with biological diversity.
Principle 2: Management should be decentralized to the lowest appropriate level.
Decentralized systems may lead to greater efficiency, effectiveness and equity. Management should involve all stakeholders and balance local interests with the wider public interest. The closer management is to the ecosystem, the greater the responsibility, ownership, accountability, participation, and use of local knowledge.
Principle 3: Ecosystem managers should consider the effects (actual or potential) of their activities on adjacent and other ecosystems.
Management interventions in ecosystems often have unknown or unpredictable effects on other ecosystems; therefore, possible impacts need careful consideration and analysis. This may require new arrangements or ways of organization for institutions involved in decision-making to make, if necessary, appropriate compromises.
“Principle 4: Recognizing potential gains from management, there is usually a need to understand and manage the ecosystem in an economic context.”
Economics plays an important role in land management. There will always be a way to maximize profit with land use, but this generally has disproportionately negative impact on ecosystems and biological diversity. Incentives that provide benefit must be considered to promote sustainable land use for landowners.
“Principle 5: Conservation of ecosystem structure and functioning, in order to maintain ecosystem services, should be a priority target of the ecosystem approach.”
In order to protect an ecosystem, its key parts, including both living and non-living environment must be protected. This means that management must consider solutions that protect and, in some cases, restore ecosystem function.
Dr. Vasseur’s lab collaborates with farmers in Canada (and even throughout the world) and engages each of the twelve principles of the ecosystem approach when conducting ecological research. For example, considering Principle 1, it is important to remind ourselves that the ecosystem where we do research belongs to a farmer or owner. Therefore, the lab must continue to consider their interests when suggesting ecological solutions. This ties into Principle 4: it is important to ensure that ecological solutions do not impact farming but still providing incentives to promote their implementation. Finally, ecological solutions need to contribute to conservation and restoration of ecosystem structure and function, meaning biological diversity has to be reintroduced in agricultural spaces to provide greater ecosystem services (nature’s contributions to people).
Tying these principles together may be challenging, especially when working with agroecosystems. However, there are ways to improve biodiversity in managed systems through reintroducing native species, without disrupting farming practices. In vineyards, this can be done between rows of grapevines where there is no crop being grown. The idea behind introducing native flowers is to increase diversity at the plant level, which will hopefully entice other organisms, including bees, butterflies, and even insects that can contribute to natural pest control, to take up residence. This not only has the potential to increase biodiversity in these agricultural spaces but can contribute benefits to farmers (such as increased pollination of crops or the control of pest species).
