Lecture notes
Man & Nature - Present, Past and Future
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Man & NaturePresent, Past & Future
Ilona de Weert
,Inhoud
1. Demarcation of Terms ..................................................................................................................... 2
2. The present state of nature............................................................................................................. 3
3. Collecting and Interpreting Flora and Fauna Data .......................................................................... 4
4. Visions on Nature and Nature Management .................................................................................. 6
5. References for Nature Management ............................................................................................ 11
6. Dating technique’s......................................................................................................................... 14
7. Gathering historical data – Archaeology ....................................................................................... 16
8. Gathering Historical Data – Written Sources ................................................................................ 18
9. Reconstruction the past ................................................................................................................ 21
10. Geographical Genesis / Palaeogeography ................................................................................. 23
11. Northwestern Europe in the Holocene ..................................................................................... 25
12. World Colonization .................................................................................................................... 29
13. Domestication and Agriculture ................................................................................................. 32
14. The “Columbian exchange” ....................................................................................................... 33
15. The Anthropocene ..................................................................................................................... 35
16. Cultural-historical landscape ..................................................................................................... 37
17. Strategies for Nature Management – Target Images ................................................................ 39
, 1. Demarcation of Terms
Speaking the same language is an important condition for effective and efficient nature conservation.
In practice, there are often misunderstandings about the meaning of some key concepts, such as
nature conservation, nature management and nature development, which leads to confusion and false
expectations. But also the concept of nature itself is interpreted differently by the various actors in the
field of nature management.
- Nature
o Can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. Humans
are part of nature, but human activity is often understood as a separate category from
other natural phenomena.
- Landscape
o The whole of geological, biological/ecological and cultural-historical elements that
constitute a higher order entity in a given area and are visible in a single observation
o An area as observed by humans, of which the characteristics are determined by
natural and/or anthropogene factors and the interactions between them
o A complex of relationship systems together constituting a recognizable part of the
(terrestrial) earth surface, made and maintained by interactions of living and non-
living nature, including humans
- Nature conservation
o Conservation is the care and protection of resources (air, minerals, plants, soil, water
and wildlife). It includes maintaining diversity of species, genes and ecosystems.
o A philosophy of managing the environment in a manner that does not despoil, exhaust
or extinguish
o Nature conservation requires “nature management”
- Nature management
o The process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals working
together in groups efficiently accomplish selected aims.
o Anything that organizes and maintains itself, whether or not in connection with human
activity but not according to human objectives.
- Nature development
o Creating nature from scratch.
- Rewilding
o To give more space for natural processes.
- Internal vs External management
o Internal: actually takes measures in nature such as in nature conservation area
o External: measures outside nature or outside nature reserve.
o In order to change and keep conditions for nature
o For instance: regulating the plastic substances to keep the pollution away.
- Development management versus Restoration management versus Regular management
o Development: creating nature from scratch
o Restoration: to give more space for natural processes.
o Regular: mowing grasslands
- Mitigating measures vs Compensating measures
o Mitigating: consequences are restricted as much as possible, for instance a ecoduct
o Compensating: if lost natural values are replaced by similar or even different natural
values
- Species-based management vs Ecosystem-based management
o Species-based: taking measure that directly benefit a particular species or a group of
species.
o Ecosystem-based: keeping conditions to such a level that species that live there
benefits from measures.
, 2. The present state of nature
Nature is under pressure worldwide. At a global level, for example, the annihilation of tropical
rainforests, desertification, and pollution and overexploitation of the seas and oceans are central
issues of environmental concern. Also, or perhaps especially in the small and densely populated
Netherlands, there are many problems. Often, these problems are categorized and divided into themes
such as acidification, eutrophication, fragmentation and climate change, sometimes neglecting the
close links between these themes (e.g. acidification and eutrophication). In recent decades, there have
been successes in reducing threats and thus in rehabilitating nature (e.g. the return of the wolf in large
parts of Europe) but other threats are aggravating over time (e.g. the present nitrogen-crisis in the
Netherlands).This subject addresses the pressures to which nature and landscape are exposed and the
role of the human in this. Developments are substantiated with quantitative data. One of the ways to
express developments in the quality of nature are the so-called Living Planet Indices, which are
available for both the global level and the Netherlands.
Outline of the State
- Causes of nature’s decline
- Turning the tide
- Relationships between environmental themes
- Living planet index
- Underlaying causes
- Instructions assignment
Direct exploitation: rhino’s, elephants, tigers and snake get kilt for their teeth, skin etc.
Active persecution: form a threat to humans.
Hidden biodiversity destruction: humans are still trying to kill e.g. bacteria (Streptococcus, pestis).
Deforestation, capture fish production,
fishing down the food web, direct
exploitation, active persecution, hidden
biodiversity destruction, drainage, urban
effect on groundwater recharge, groynes,
dams, fragmentation by infrastructure, road
kills, growth of road network, landslides, salt
on the road, nitrogen fertilizers, nitrate
concentration in waters, SO2 emission,
energy consumption and CO2 emissions
(acidification of oceans).
Decreasing:
Ozon concentration, CFCs (hairspray), large
oil spills, metal content in rivers, SO2
emissions, Ozon concentration in cities and
dissolved oxygen in rivers.
Importance of this lecture: species get kilt by humans, because of infrastructure (road kills) and salt,
dams, landslides, increase of nutrients, energy consumption, etc.
Ozon, CFCs production (hairspray), oil spills, SO2-emissions are declining.
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