Introduction
Principles
Process
Community


For a more detailed discussion of how Silva approaches ecosystem-based planning, please see the document entitled Ecosystem-Based Planning-Principles and Process.


Check out some of our completed Ecosystem-based Planning Projects.

In the Projects section, you will find a brief summary of each project, links to maps that you can view online, and links to the library, where you can download the full project reports.

Introduction

Human cultures and economies depend on ecological health and biological diversity at all scales, from small land and water ecosystems to large landscapes. Planning human activities that protect, maintain, and, where necessary, restore ecosystem health and biodiversity is the basis for developing sustainable human economies and cultures. This ecosystem-based approach recognizes that inappropriate human use of ecosystems and landscapes can have serious and long-term negative ecological, social, economic, and cultural impacts. Ecosystem-based planning, therefore, does not start with a target for production - be it cubic meters of timber, person days of recreation, or tons of salmon - but instead seeks to understand the ecology of an area, and then to define how human uses and economies can fit sustainably within the ecological limits of the ecosystem.

Ecosystem-based planning is a system that may be effectively applied in unmodified to highly modified landscapes; and may be used for a wide range of purposes from conservation area design to resource development, settlement design, and urban planning.

Ecosystem-based planning is also based on the understanding that ecological landscapes and patches are not static and unchanging¾they contain a variety of ecosystem types and successional patterns through time that are tied to natural disturbance regimes. Natural changes diversify and maintain ecosystem composition, structures, and functions at all scales; are unpredictable in frequency and character; and focus on sustaining the whole, not on producing any one part. In other words, change due to succession and natural disturbance is part of natural ecosystem functioning. Natural patterns of ecological succession and disturbance interact in unpredictable ways that sustain ecosystem functioning and provide a diverse range of habitat for plants, animals, and other wild organisms.

"Natural" is defined as the composition, structure, and functioning of ecosystems and landscapes prior to industrial development. In North America this generally describes conditions "pre- European contact," and, therefore, "natural" conditions include Indigenous peoples' management systems.

In contrast, change and disturbance due to industrial development is often chronic and predictable, and results in the loss of natural ecosystem functioning at a variety of scales. Some types of industrial development fundamentally alter ecosystem functioning, and are neither conservational nor part of an ecosystem-based plan.