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Land use in relation to prosperity around 1995

Land use and prosperity


This indicator shows a connection between welfare levels (expressed in gross domestic product per inhabitant in purchasing power corrected dollars, ppp $), and total land use for the consumption of these countries, both at home and abroad (the ecological footprint): the more prosperous the country, the more land is used. As the distribution shows, this is far from being a simple relationship: it is influenced by a number of factors including efficiency, consumption patterns and technology.

Policy


There is no policy for directly influencing the ecological footprint. The report 'Mondiale duurzaamheid en de ecologische voetafdruk' ('Global sustainability and the ecological footprint') (VROM-raad, 1999) deals with the possibilities and problems in this area. In a certain sense, there is a policy for raising, indirectly, food yields in developing countries.

Relevance


The indicator shown is relevant for at least two reasons. First of all, the amount of land, and especially of land suitable for food production, is limited. Increasing land use results in further deforestation and this is not sustainable in the long term. In addition, the figure also shows the disproportionate global distribution of the use of natural resources.

Technical note


The diagram shows the relationship between prosperity and consumption-related land use for the production of goods from forestry, agriculture and fishing. Unlike the indicator Global land use by the Dutch, the diagram above is based on average global farming intensity. Because, in the other indicator, land use is partly calculated on the basis of the current intensive production methods in the Netherlands, the figure above shows a higher average per capita land use. The ecological footprint as shown here was calculated by Wackernagel et al. for the 'Living Planet Report' of the World Wildlife Fund (2002).

References


  • VROM-raad (1999). Mondiale duurzaamheid en de ecologische voetafdruk. Advies 016, september 1999. Council for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, The Hague.
  • Wackernagel, M., A.C. Linares, et al. (2000). The Ecological Footprint and ecological capacities of 52 Nations; 1996 update. Redefining Progress, Oakland, USA.
  • WWF (2002). Living Planet Report 2002. World Wildlife Fund, Zeist.
  • World Bank (1998). World Development Indicators. The World Bank, Washington.

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This page was last changed on November 25, 2005  (version 01).