1ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM Introduction Globalization is the process of improvement that helps governments, communities and countries by providing them with opportunities, so that they could achieve expansion, growth and development in their processes1. Globalization has always been associated with the land use related changes and human has always transformed the natural landscapes to agricultural fields, construction sites and other aspects due to which majority of the natural forest habitats has been destroyed2. As per recent global reports by European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research (2019), over the past 50 years, more than 17% of the forest coverage has been lost only in the Amazon and majority of these has been transformed for cattle ranching and agricultural fields. Further, as per Nelson et al. (2016), more than 40% of the ice covered land around the world has been transformed into crop fields over the past decades. These development and transformations has improved the present situation and has helped to satisfy hunger, shelter and clothing needs of humankind around the globe. However, the principles of sustainability are at stake due to extensive use of natural resources that threatens to compromise the needs of future generation3. Therefore, the primary aim of this paper is to understand the principles of sustainability and the way these transformations of forest lands into agricultural fields has affected the three primary principles of sustainable development. Further, this paper will emphasis on the aspects 1European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research. 2019. "How Agriculture And Forestry Change Climate, And How We Deal With It".Luc4c.Eu. http://luc4c.eu/public_files/uploads/2015-05/LUC4C %20booklet_web_How%20agriculture%20and%20forestry%20change%20climate.pdf. 2Ali, Akhter, and Olaf Erenstein. "Assessing farmer use of climate change adaptation practices and impacts on food security and poverty in Pakistan."Climate Risk Management16 (2017): 183-194. 3FoodandAgriculturalOrganisationofUnitedNations.2019."STATEOFTHEWORLD’S FORESTS".Fao.Org. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5588e.pdf.
2ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM ofsustainabilitynlandusagesandwillmentionthechallengesthatmaybefacedby communities while attaining the balance. Finally, it will provide an alternative by providing recommendations for sustainable land use and in this prospect, would mention about the Elinor Ostrom‘s alternative. The transformation of forest land to agricultural field As mentioned by Sirami et al. (2017), forests are in constant state of change as the human race is constantly replacing extended forest lands into fields, agricultural lands and cattle ranching places. As mentioned in a global report by European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research (2019), currently forests cover 31% of the lands on earth and this percentage has decreased by 17% over the past five decades. As mentioned in the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation report (2019), the maximum deforestation took place in 1990s as during this phase every year earth lost 19 hectares of forest lands, upon which agricultural fields, constrictions and other development took place. Further, reports of (2019) mentions that the total agricultural filed coverage in the world stands around 11% currently and the percentage of agricultural fields has increased at a sustainable pace. This is an important aspects as Levy, Barry and Jonathan (2015) mentioned about the increasing hunger and needs of the world population and to meet them, it is important to obtain crops, focus on infrastructure and provide the population with their fundamental rights. Land use changes and the effect on climate While discussing about the changes or transformation of forest lands into agricultural fields,thediscussionabouttheeffectthesetransformationbringsintheecosystemand
3ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM environment should be discussed4. As per Nelson et al. (2014), there are two primary aspects of ecosystem or environmental changes that is observed due to such transformation, land-coverage changerelatedandland-userelated.Thelandcoverchangesrelatedtransformationare associated with the replacement of any natural forest or grassland, with agricultural field. Whereas, the land use determines the way crop lands or forest lands are used, with application of fertilizers, or decreasing the density of animal grazing in the field. Despite the fact that both of these transformational changes affects the ecosystem and environment, their degree or severity helps to differentiate between these two5. Land use related modifications are associated with the greenhouse gas emission such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). As per Ali and Erenstein (2017), when humans transforms forest lands into agricultural fields and implements their modern agricultural means such as usage of fertilizers, chemicals and other aspects, then ample amount of natural greenhouse gases are emitted to the atmosphere and as mentioned in this research more than 50% of the N2O in the atmosphere has been emitted by the agricultural crops6. These greenhouse emission is responsible for global warming, and all the drastic and adverse effects associated with it. Another aspect that should be discussed in this section is harmful or adverse effects of land use related harmful effects on climate and as mentioned by Anguelovski et al. (2017), these changes are the biophysical changes due to which radiation and evapotranspiration related complications are observed. Further, in majority of the cases, it was observed that the critical 4Levy, Barry S., and Jonathan A. Patz. "Climate change, human rights, and social justice."Annals of global health81, no. 3 (2015): 310-322. 5Anguelovski, Isabelle, Linda Shi, Eric Chu, Daniel Gallagher, Kian Goh, Zachary Lamb, Kara Reeve, and Hannah Teicher. "Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation: Critical perspectives from the global north and south."Journal of Planning Education and Research36, no. 3 (2016): 333-348. 6Nelson, Gerald C., Hugo Valin, Ronald D. Sands, Petr Havlík, Helal Ahammad, Delphine Deryng, Joshua Elliott et al. "Climate change effects on agriculture: Economic responses to biophysical shocks."Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences111, no. 9 (2014): 3274-3279.
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4ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM effects of land use changes has affected the total yield on the land and affects the fertility of it. Therefore, both of these effects are harmful if not managed or controlled properly. Besides these one of the primary benefits of controlled and sustainable use of forest and agricultural fields, the formation of ozone gases are also compromised due to the altered or improper use of agricultural and forest lands7. However, due to excess evapotranspiration and greenhouse emission, the traces of ozone are hampered and hence, increases the risk of global warming and depletion of ozone gases from the upper atmosphere. The effect of climate change on the land usage The previous section mentioned about the way land usage and altered land coverage affects the climate, however, there are incidents, in which altered climate affects the land usage of a particular location. As per Lipper et al. (2014), climate is an important aspect that helps to determine the type of grains and timber would grow in a particular region. However, climate change and its after effects such as flood, droughts and frosts affects the harvest pattern of any field drastically, both locally and regionally8. Therefore, both climate and improper land use has altered effects upon each other and has affected the political, social, economic and fundamental aspects of the societies. Principles of sustainability: 7Lipper, Leslie, Philip Thornton, Bruce M. Campbell, Tobias Baedeker, Ademola Braimoh, Martin Bwalya, Patrick Caron et al. "Climate-smart agriculture for food security."Nature climate change4, no. 12 (2014): 1068.8Lipper, Leslie, Philip Thornton, Bruce M. Campbell, Tobias Baedeker, Ademola Braimoh, Martin Bwalya, Patrick Caron et al. "Climate-smart agriculture for food security."Nature climate change4, no. 12 (2014): 1068.
5ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM AccordingtotheWorldCommissiononEnvironmentandDevelopment(2019)9, sustainable development can be defined as the process of continuous development without compromising on the resources for the future generation. It should further be noted in this regard that the Agenda 21 that was adapted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development focused on the creation of an economically and environmentally sustainable environment. It is integral to note in this regard that the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development defined sustainable development by emphasising on 18 important principles of sustainability10. The first principle stated that globally people are entitle to lead a healthy life that is in harmony with nature. The second principle states that continuous development must not undermine the developmental or the environmental needs of the present or the future generation. Further, it is also mentioned that nations possess the sovereign right to exploit the resources presentwithintheirlandbutappropriatemeasuresmustbeundertakentoensurethat environmental damage does not spread across the border. The next principle states that nations globally must develop international laws and policies in order to offer compensation for the environmental damage that could have possibly resulted due to development activities across the borders. Also, nations must make use of a precautionary approach to adapt measures to protect the environment. In adverse situations when there is threats of serious or irreversible damage, advanced scientific methods must be undertaken to mitigate the environmental damage that has been caused. In addition to this, it should also be noted that in order to acquire environmental 9Sustainabledevelopment.un.org.2019."WCED.:.SustainableDevelopmentKnowledgePlatform". Sustainabledevelopment.Un.Org. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/milestones/wced. 10Ramaswami, Anu, Armistead G. Russell, Patricia J. Culligan, Karnamadakala Rahul Sharma, and Emani Kumar. "Meta-principles for developing smart, sustainable, and healthy cities."Science352, no. 6288 (2016): 940- 943.
6ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM sustainability it is important to adapt measures for environmental protection as the environment forms an integral part of the development process. Also, one of the primary requisite to acquire sustainability is to eradicate the difference between the different economic categories of people and ensure that every individual irrespective of their economic background lead an improved standard of life. Also, globally nations must come together to conserve, protect and restore the quality of the nature’s ecosystem. It should also be stated in this regard that nations must adapt measures to reduce and eliminate the non-sustainable trend of production or consumption of resources so as to facilitate continuous and sustainable development. The principle further stress upon the mitigation of environmental issues by ensuring active participation from community members so as to integrate awareness about the seriousness of the issues and acquire positive outcome. In addition to this, it is also recommended that nations must enforce appropriate environment protection laws and policies so as to mitigate problems related to drastic environmental changes and pollution issues11. Also, globally nations must cooperate in order to foster an open international economic system so as to acquire sustainable development internationally. The principles of sustainability also suggests that the pollutermustbeartheburdenandthecostofpollution.Also,Nationsmustoperative collaboratively and appropriately warn one another about potential natural disaster that could elicit harmful trans-boundary effects. Research studies mention that sustainable development principles focus on improved scientific understanding of the problems and that nations must share knowledge and invent innovative technology in order to acquire sustainability12. The 11Epstein, Marc J.Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge, 2018. 12Seidel, Stefan, Leona Chandra Kruse, Nadine Székely, Michael Gau, and Daniel Stieger. "Design principles for sensemaking support systems in environmental sustainability transformations."European Journal of Information Systems27, no. 2 (2018): 221-247.
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7ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM principles also stress upon the participation of women, youth and the indigenous to acquire sustainable development and at the same time expects nations to identify and acknowledge the diversity existing in different cultures. The principles of sustainability identify warfare as a destructive factor that deteriorates sustainable development and expects nations to cooperate with one another in order to acquire sustainable development. Further, the components of peace, development and environmental protection are considered indivisible and are regarded as integral elements that contribute to sustainable development. In this regard it is integral to note that environmental sustainability refers to the maintenance of the quality and quantity of the available natural resources. The resources are integral to offer substantial life support, thus appropriate measures must be undertaken to ensure that the quality of the resources are maintained and the availability of the resources are not depleted due to the intensive human activities. The principles of environmental sustainability critically focus on the areas of conservation of the biodiversity hotspots as well as adaption of measurestoincreaseforestcover.Inadditiontothis,theprinciplesofenvironmental sustainability also focuses on watershed protection and implementation of a holistic approach to save the resources13. In addition to this, other important factors that form the principles of environment sustainability includes reduction of environmental threats, environmental pollution and the use of eco-friendly cleaner and greener technology to resolve environmental issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution hampering the quality of environment. 13Emas, Rachel. "The concept of sustainable development: definition and defining principles."Brief for GSDR2015 (2015).
8ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM Sustainable Land Use: Research studies mention that land use directly affects the quality of environment and is responsible for the drastic change of climate. In order to mitigate the problem there is a need to adapt innovative measures so as to preserve the quality of the environment. A remedial solution to the problem has been propounded by Elinor Ostrom who has specifically focused on the mentioned 8 principles to preserve the quality of the environment and at the same time ensure effective land use. The principles include inclusion of clearly defined boundaries, alignment with the local needs and condition, continuous monitoring of the resource use, integration of efficient conflict resolution process, appropriate recognition of rights, collective decision making and integration of the polycentric structure of governance within accountable institutions. The primary assumption of Ostrum centres on the fact that individuals stringently abide by the rules and regulations specific to local context. Collaborative effort is expected to enhance the quality of consequences and yield successful outcome. For instance, considering the massive deforestation of rainforests, it can be said that undertaking local effort to switch to environment friendly alternatives can help to combat the problem of depletion of forests14. However, the primary challenge with the implementation of the sustainable alternative can be explained as lack of an appropriate opportunity to implement a sustainable initiative. Research studies further state that the integration of intensive cropping systems can help to acquire high productivity within the humid tropical areas which comprise of resource rich lands15. Intensive cropping help generate maximal productivity but not at the cost of compromising with the quality of the environment. In 14Szeto, W. Y., Yu Jiang, D. Z. W. Wang, and A. Sumalee. "A sustainable road network design problem with land use transportation interaction over time."Networks and Spatial Economics15, no. 3 (2015): 791-822. 15Deng, Xiangzheng, Zhihui Li, and John Gibson. "A review on trade-off analysis of ecosystem services for sustainable land-use management."Journal of Geographical Sciences26, no. 7 (2016): 953-968.
9ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM addition to this, research studies also suggest that intensive cropping methods help to foster positive ecological relationships and biological processes16. It is integral to note in this regard that forest boundary stabilization can also be achieved with the incorporation of the intensive cropping method. Further, the use of shifting cultivation, low input cropping, and use of Agropastoral farms can help to acquire maximum productivity and at the same time ensure prevention of the quality of the environment. In addition to this, implementation of sustainable methods such as agroforestry systems and techniques such as cattle ranching can help to acquire efficientoutcome.Inadditiontothis,agroforestrytechniquehelpstoacquireimproved ecological harmony between different ecosystems which helps to acquire improved outcome. Also, alley cropping systems helps to acquire higher productivity in the form of multiple products such as fodder and grains as well as building materials which subsequently help to improve the quality of the soil structure17. Therefore, with the use of the discussed technological innovation, improved productivity can be acquired and at the same time the quality of the environment would also not be affected. Conclusion All these previous sections mentions about the adverse effects of improper usage of agricultural lands, especially its effect of human growth and development by changing the ecosystem. These sections also mentioned about the principles of sustainable changes and principles depending upon which the social structure has been developed. However, while leading life and surviving in 16Thangasamy, A., M. V. S. Naidu, N. Ramavatharam, and C. Raghava Reddy. "Characterisation, classification and evaluation of soil resources in Sivagiri micro-watershed of Chittoor District in Andhra Pradesh for sustainable land use planning." (2015). 17Zitti, Marco, Carlotta Ferrara, Luigi Perini, Margherita Carlucci, and Luca Salvati. "Long-term urban growth and land use efficiency in Southern Europe: Implications for sustainable land management."Sustainability7, no. 3 (2015): 3359-3385.
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10ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM the world, these sustainability principles becomes difficult to implement. The population of earth in increasing drastically and the available resources are not appropriate to meet the need of populations. Majority of the developed countries has already reached their saturation level of transforming forest and grasslands into agriculture fields and more depletion of these could hamper their natural ecosystem as well. Developing nations are also depleting their forests and constructing organisations factories and agricultural fields so that they could survive and thrive in this fast paced lifestyle. Hence, maintaining sustainability principles could affect the present situation of these countries as they are unable to meet their present population, hence, restoring resources for the future generation would violate the fundamental right of the present population. These are the moral and practical challenges that are faced while implementing sustainability principles in land usage.
11ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM Bibliography Ali, Akhter, and Olaf Erenstein. "Assessing farmer use of climate change adaptation practices and impacts on food security and poverty in Pakistan."Climate Risk Management16 (2017): 183-194. Anguelovski, Isabelle, Linda Shi, Eric Chu, Daniel Gallagher, Kian Goh, Zachary Lamb, Kara Reeve, and Hannah Teicher. "Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation: Critical perspectives from the global north and south."Journal of Planning Education and Research36, no. 3 (2016): 333-348. Anguelovski, Isabelle, Linda Shi, Eric Chu, Daniel Gallagher, Kian Goh, Zachary Lamb, Kara Reeve, and Hannah Teicher. "Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation: Critical perspectives from the global north and south."Journal of Planning Education and Research36, no. 3 (2016): 333-348. Deng, Xiangzheng, Zhihui Li, and John Gibson. "A review on trade-off analysis of ecosystem services for sustainable land-use management."Journal of Geographical Sciences26, no. 7 (2016): 953-968. Emas,Rachel."Theconceptofsustainabledevelopment:definitionanddefining principles."Brief for GSDR2015 (2015). Epstein, Marc J.Making sustainabilitywork: Best practicesin managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge, 2018.
12ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research. 2019. "How Agriculture And ForestryChangeClimate,AndHowWeDealWithIt".Luc4c.Eu. http://luc4c.eu/public_files/uploads/2015-05/LUC4C%20booklet_web_How%20agriculture %20and%20forestry%20change%20climate.pdf. Food and Agricultural Organisation of United Nations. 2019. "STATE OF THE WORLD’S FORESTS".Fao.Org. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5588e.pdf. Levy, Barry S., and Jonathan A. Patz. "Climate change, human rights, and social justice."Annals of global health81, no. 3 (2015): 310-322. Lipper, Leslie, Philip Thornton, Bruce M. Campbell, Tobias Baedeker, Ademola Braimoh, Martin Bwalya, Patrick Caron et al. "Climate-smart agriculture for food security."Nature climate change4, no. 12 (2014): 1068. Nelson, Gerald C., Hugo Valin, Ronald D. Sands, Petr Havlík, Helal Ahammad, Delphine Deryng, Joshua Elliott et al. "Climate change effects on agriculture: Economic responses to biophysical shocks."Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences111, no. 9 (2014): 3274- 3279. Ramaswami, Anu, Armistead G. Russell, Patricia J. Culligan, Karnamadakala Rahul Sharma, andEmaniKumar."Meta-principlesfordevelopingsmart,sustainable,andhealthy cities."Science352, no. 6288 (2016): 940-943. Seidel, Stefan, Leona Chandra Kruse, Nadine Székely, Michael Gau, and Daniel Stieger. "Designprinciplesforsensemakingsupportsystemsinenvironmentalsustainability transformations."European Journal of Information Systems27, no. 2 (2018): 221-247.
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13ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM Sirami, Clélia, Paul Caplat, Simon Popy, Alex Clamens, Raphaël Arlettaz, Frédéric Jiguet, Lluís Brotons, and Jean‐Louis Martin. "Impacts of global change on species distributions: obstacles and solutions to integrate climate and land use."Global Ecology and Biogeography26, no. 4 (2017): 385-394. Sustainabledevelopment.un.org.2019."WCED.:.SustainableDevelopmentKnowledge Platform".Sustainabledevelopment.Un.Org. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/milestones/wced. Szeto, W. Y., Yu Jiang, D. Z. W. Wang, and A. Sumalee. "A sustainable road network design problem with land use transportation interaction over time."Networks and Spatial Economics15, no. 3 (2015): 791-822. Thangasamy, A., M. V. S. Naidu, N. Ramavatharam, and C. Raghava Reddy. "Characterisation, classification and evaluation of soil resources in Sivagiri micro-watershed of Chittoor District in Andhra Pradesh for sustainable land use planning." (2015). Zitti, Marco, Carlotta Ferrara, Luigi Perini, Margherita Carlucci, and Luca Salvati. "Long-term urban growth and land use efficiency in Southern Europe: Implications for sustainable land management."Sustainability7, no. 3 (2015): 3359-3385.