Statement of the MA Board
Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human
Well-being
Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human Well-being
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This statement was developed by the Board governing the
MA process, whose membership includes representatives from
U.N. organizations, governments through a number of
international conventions, nongovernmental organizations,
academia, business, and indigenous peoples.
See full list of Board
members.
The statement from the Board identifies 10 key messages
and conclusions that can be drawn from the assessment:
- Everyone in the world depends on nature and
ecosystem services to provide the conditions for a
decent, healthy, and secure life.
- Humans have made unprecedented changes to ecosystems
in recent decades to meet growing demands for food,
fresh water, fiber, and energy.
- These changes have helped to improve the lives of
billions, but at the same time they weakened nature’s
ability to deliver other key services such as
purification of air and water, protection from
disasters, and the provision of medicines.
- Among the outstanding problems identified by this
assessment are the dire state of many of the world’s
fish stocks; the intense vulnerability of the 2 billion
people living in dry regions to the loss of ecosystem
services, including water supply; and the growing threat
to ecosystems from climate change and nutrient
pollution.
- Human activities have taken the planet to the edge
of a massive wave of species extinctions, further
threatening our own well-being.
- The loss of services derived from ecosystems is a
significant barrier to the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals to reduce poverty, hunger, and
disease.
- The pressures on ecosystems will increase globally
in coming decades unless human attitudes and actions
change.
- Measures to conserve natural resources are more
likely to succeed if local communities are given
ownership of them, share the benefits, and are involved
in decisions.
- Even today’s technology and knowledge can reduce
considerably the human impact on ecosystems. They are
unlikely to be deployed fully, however, until ecosystem
services cease to be perceived as free and limitless,
and their full value is taken into account.
- Better protection of natural assets will require
coordinated efforts across all sections of governments,
businesses, and international institutions. The
productivity of ecosystems depends on policy choices on
investment, trade, subsidy, taxation, and regulation,
among others.
* Unedited, unformatted draft