Human Dominated Systems Directorate

Excerpted from the U.S. MAB Bulletin, Vol. 15, No. 3

 Funding for the core program proposal for the Human Dominated Systems Directorate was recently approved by the U.S. National Committee for the Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB). The Directorate focuses on ecological systems that are significantly affected by human activities, with a central theme of ecological sustainability. The project will explore issues in the context of some very real environmental problems within three U.S. Biosphere Reserves: the Everglades and surrounding areas of south Florida; the New Jersey Pinelands; and the Virginia Coastal Reserve.

The program goal will be to:

1. Define ecological sustainability for the ecosystems of the case study reserves and surrounding areas in terms of particular levels of selected ecological endpoints\
2. Evaluate patterns of human uses of environmental resources and other anthropogenic stresses imposed upon these systems
3. Examine societal and institutional factors influencing ecological sustainability
4. Assess their compatibility with essential characteristics of ecological sustainability

 Methodologies for defining ecological sustainability and understanding its causal relationships with an feedbacks from society will be developed for each case study. A control systems model of coupled human! ecological systems will provide the overall framework, the focal point for specific hypothesis testing and data integration and analyses, and the point-of-departure for a continual development and refinement of a conceptual model as the project proceeds.

For further information, contact, the U.S. MAB Secretariat, Human Dominated Systems, OES/EGC/MAB, Department of State, Washington, DC 20522-3706, 703-235-2946/294Z