Foreword

Clearly, successful natural resource management can no longer be constrained to single resources like mineral ore, timber, or food, governed in a sectoral fashion. Humanity is at a stage where we are challenging the biophysical foundation of our own future at the global level. Environmental issues are shifting from a focus on saving the environment as if we were independent of it to finding pathways of sustaining our own development and even existence on a finite planet. How do we adapt to the new situation of global human imprint, in a democratic and respectful manner, sharing ecological, social, and economic burdens and benefits justly among people and nations? The challenge is broader than the climate issue and encompasses an active stewardship of critical processes of people and nature in dynamic landscapes and seascapes in a global context, and in a situation where more than 50% of the human population is living in urban areas.