Carrying capacity : sustainable use and demographic determinants of natural habitats and ecosystems management
Grimble, Robin
This paper was prepared for the "World Bank Handbook on Natural Habitats and Ecosystems Management." It provides an overview of the carrying capacity concept and assesses its value and use in practical management. It starts by reviewing the concept of carrying capacity and the natural limits to resource exploitation set by the environment. Making use of boxed examples, it introduces the concepts of thresholds, susceptibility, and resilience before discussing the question of land use change in the face of population growth and increased consumptive demands on resources. It shows that these changes may or may not improve land productivity depending largely on socioeconomic circumstances. However, these changes are likely to affect environmental services and functions. The paper highlights the need to recognize basic dichotomies between ecocentric and anthropocentric perspectives in viewing environmental issues; contrasts the Malthusian perspective, which focuses on limits to food supply and population growth, with the Boserupian tradition, which demonstrates how human activity can successfully adapt to increasing population densities; and discusses an environment-population model from the livestock sector, concluding that the optimal position on the trade-off curve between economic activity and the environmental state depends on management objectives and is subjectively determined. The paper concludes by reviewing the lessons of the analysis for practical policy and management.
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