Ecology, sustainability, and environment as capital

Abstract

The idea of environment as capital has found widespread support in both the economic and ecological literature. It is often suggested in a related sustainability literature that natural capital should remain intact if possible. The popularity of this approach to exploring the human-environment relationship is due, in part, to the way it is seemingly legitimised by ecological theory and practice. This legitimation is important for emerging areas of human-environment study, such as ecological economics, because ecology and other natural sciences have often dismissed economic constructions of the environment. However, a closer examination of the state of contemporary ecology suggests that there are problems with an ecological legitimation of the “environment as capital approach.” First, ecology itself is a troubled discipline and its ability to provide a comprehensive theory of human-environment interactions is limited. Second, emerging ecological discourse tends to undermine the ecological rationale for many natural-capital-related resource management recommendations. This does not mean that the environment as capital concept is without considerable heuristic power. It does imply, however, a need to return to a social construction of the environment in which different environmental possibilities are valued in terms of their potential contribution to human well-being.