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| Volume 109(2) 2009, pages: 119-130. | | Helmut Haberl, Karl-Heinz Erb, Fridolin Krausmann, Stefan Berecz, Nikolaus Ludwiczek, Joan Martínez-Alier, Annabella Musel & Anke Schaffartzik: | Using embodied HANPP to analyze teleconnections in the global land system: Conceptual considerations | | In our rapidly globalizing world economy activities in one region
have increasingly important effects on ecological, economic or social
processes elsewhere, an effect which we here denote as ‘teleconnections’
between different regions. Biomass trade, one of the causes
behind such teleconnections, is currently growing exponentially.
Integrated analyses of changes in the global land system are high on
the agenda of sustainability science, but a methodological framework
for a consistent allocation of environmental burdens related to the
consumption and production of biomass between regions has not
been put forth to date. The concept of the ‘embodied human appropriation
of net primary production’ (abbreviated ‘embodied HANPP’
or ‘eHANPP’) allows for the assessment of the ‘upstream’ effects on
ecosystem energetics associated with a particular level of biomass
consumption or with a given biomass-based product. This concept is
based on HANPP and its two components: (1) productivity changes
resulting from land conversion (?NPPLC), and (2) harvest of biomass
in ecosystems (NPPh). HANPP, defined as the sum of ?NPPLC and
NPPh in any given territory, is indicative of the intensity with which
humans use the land for their purposes. eHANPP is defined as the
NPP appropriated in the course of biomass production, encompassing
losses along the production chain as well as productivity changes
induced through land conversion or harvest. By making the pressure
exerted on ecosystems associated with imports and exports visible,
eHANPP allows for the analysis of teleconnections between producing
and consuming regions. This article puts forward the eHANPP
concept, illustrates its utility for integrated socioecological landchange
research based on top-down data on global HANPP and
biomass consumption, and discusses the possibilities and challenges
related to its quantification in bottom-up approaches. | | >> download as pdf |
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