Did you know that, if all the inhabitants of the Earth consumed as the inhabitants of Australia, we would need 5 planets to meet our needs? This figure is reduced to 4 planets if we consume as the inhabitants of the United States, and 3 planets if our consumption were like that of the Swiss. These alarming figures have caused the need to have sustainable indicators and strategies so that, from national and regional perspectives, we can have an ecological footprint that does not exceed the biocapacity of the different territories. In this way, we would get ecological balances to different scales to be positive or, at least, balanced.
If you want to deepen more in these concepts related to sustainability, in this Ecology Verde article you will find detailed information about the What is biocapacityas well as more examples of overconsumum from many countries in the world.
What is biocapacity
The Biocapacity, or biological capacityis the term used to define the availability of biologically productive surface within a certain territory. For its calculation, different categories of productive surfaces are valued, such as those dedicated to crops, pastures and forests, as well as those surfaces of productive marine ecosystems and surfaces that have been degraded by anthropic activities.
The way of expressing biocapacity can be, either in absolute terms of hectares (ha) or, either per capita, that is, considering the hectares per inhabitant (ha/cap). At present, more and more studies are and Sustainability analysis that use biocapacity as the main indicator of the sustainability of a study region. For this, it is necessary Compare biocapacity with the ecological footprint of said region, to know if it has been exceeded, thus producing an ecological or physical unsustainability situation.
In the next section we will deepen this comparison between biocapacity and ecological footprint, with the aim of learning to differentiate both concepts and know how to relate them to sustainability.
Biocapacity and ecological footprint
We have already defined in the previous section the term of biocapacity, let’s now talk about the Definition of ecological footprint to know how to distinguish both concepts easily. It is a Biophysical Sustainability Indicator in which different impacts of human communities on their surroundings are considered. This indicator express, on the one hand, the total productive surface in an ecological way to meet the needs of the resources consumed by an average inhabitant of a certain company, as well as the surface that is needed to absorb the waste that is generated after such consumption, regardless of the location of the surface. On the other hand, the ecological footprint is capable of monitoring in the time of the level of sustainability of a human community and comparing it with the sustainability of one and the other populations.
In this way, if we compare Ecological and Biocapacity Footprint Securities (both in absolute and perhabitant values), we can know the level of ecological deficit that characterizes the certain territory that is being analyzed, both at national, regional and local scales. Thus, if the value of the ecological footprint is greater than that of biocapacity, the territory presents a ecological deficit; while if the biocapacity is equal to or greater than the ecological footprint, the territory would have a Ecological surplus.
The comparison between both indicators and the resulting ecological balance, allows us to understand if a country or region consumes to a greater or lesser extent its ecological credit, that is, the renewable resources available to it. Thus, if we extrapolate these calculations to an international sustainability perspective, the ultimate goal of all countries would be to have an ecological footprint per inhabitant lower than the biocapacity per capita available at a planetary scale.
We recommend you consult these other ecology articles on the ecological footprint: simple definition and how to reduce the ecological footprint.
Biocapacity: examples
In this last section we will see some Examples of the value of per capita biocapacity (hectares/inhabitants) from different countries of the world, to analyze thus illustratively, the consumption that different countries make of their natural resources available within their total surfaces.
It highlights the idea of how these biocapacity values per capita have been directly reduced by the increase of the population, which causes more and more inhabitants to be divided by the natural resources existing into a limited land surface.
Considering that the value of the global biocapacity of the planet is about 1.8 hectares per capita, let’s see some concrete values of biocapacity (ha/hab) from different countries of the five continents:
Biocapacity by countries
- Canada 14.5
- Brazil 9.9
- Arab Emirates 9.8
- Qatar 8.0
- Russia 6.9
- United States 4.7
- Saudi Arabia 4.3
- Japan 4,1
- Germany 3.2
- Mexico 1.7
- Spain 1.7
- Italy 1.0
- China 0.8
- Afghanistan 0.7
- Philippines 0.7
- India 0.4
- Ethiopia 0.4
If you want to read more articles similar to Biocapacity: What is and exampleswe recommend that you enter our category of other environment.
- Government of Spain (2008). Analysis of the ecological footprint of Spain. Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs: Sustainability and Territory. Pages: 17-25.
- Government of Spain (2010). Update of the indicators of the ecological and carbon footprint in Spain in 2010: Document III of synthesis and conclusions. Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs. Pages: 23-27.
