ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS – DEFINITION

•Developed and quantified by William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel

in 1990’s as an elaboration of “carrying capacity’’ concept.
• Formally defined, Ecological Footprint (EF) is the total area of
productive land and water required continuously to produce all the
resources consumed and to assimilate all the wastes produced , by a
defined population , wherever on Earth that land is located.
•Rather than asking what population a particular region can
support sustainably, the critical question becomes- how large an
area of productive land is needed to sustain a defined population,
wherever on Earth that land is located.
•Also reveals the sustainability gap confronting society - the
difference between ecological production and human over
consumption.
•EF was considered an important educational tool in highlighting
the unsustainability of global consumption.
•Not the only accounting tool around – Life Cycle analysis,
Ecological Space, Ecological Rucksack, EIA, etc – each with its
advantages & shortcomings like EF.
•Ecological footprint determines how much natural resources is
consumed by an individual, city, region, state or all inhabitants
of our planet in order to ensure their requirements and needs.

• It includes all activities, from food consumption, housing,

transport to waste produced and allows us to compare
particular activities and their impacts on the environment and
natural resources.

•Ecological footprint is important for making sustainable

development issue more popular, using simplifications which
provide the public with basic information on situation on our
planet.
 ORIGINAL CONCEPT
•The original EF is defined as the land area that would be needed
to meet the consumption of a population and to absorb all their
waste.

•Land is divided into 8 categories:

Energy land, degraded or built land,
gardens, cropland, pastures &
managed forests,land of limited
availability and non productive
areas
like deserts.
•Consumption is divided into 5
categories: food, housing,
transportation, consumer goods and services.
Source: living planet report, 2012.
•The ecological footprint is calculated by compiling a matrix in
which a land area is allocated to each consumption category. In
order to calculate the per-capita ecological footprint, all land
areas are added up, and then divided by the population, giving a
result in hectares per capita.

•The total ecological footprint for a population can also be

subtracted from the ‘productive’ area that population inhabits. If
this gives a positive number, it is taken to indicate an ecological
‘remainder’, or remaining ecological capacity for that
population. A negative figure indicates that the population has an
ecological 'deficit'. According to Wackernagel and Rees (1995, p.
97), Canadians in 1991 had an ecological remainder of 10.94 ha
per capita.
ORIGIN:
•William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel brought the concept of
the Ecological Footprint to the public in 1996, in a book called
Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the
Earth.

•It was only with Ecological Footprint of Nations that

Wackernagel et al. (1997, p. 5) stated clearly the importance of
using worldwide productivity to express both the size of
footprints and the biocapacity of the nation under study.

•The authors then went on to explain the use of yield factors to

make the adjustment, but perhaps not enough to satisfy critics
and those who are trying to get to grips with the details of the
methodology, thus it should be beneficial to take a closer look
at the implications.
 WHY TRACK RESOURCE CONSUMPTION AND
NATURAL CAPITAL?
•To take care of our natural capital, we must know how much we
have and how much we use.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT AND BIOCAPACITY:
• The Ecological Footprint is a
measure of the demand that
populations and activities
place on the biosphere in a
given year - with prevailing
technology and resource
management of that year.

• The biocapacity is a measure

of the amount of biologically
productive land and sea area
available to provide the
ecosystem services that
humanity consumes – our
ecological budget or nature‘s
regenerative capacity.
( expressed in global hectares) .
•The WWF publishes annually a report on ecological footprint
of world states. On the basis of this report, total ecological
footprint of our planet is 2.2 gha, while biocapacity is only
1.8 gha.

•Ecological footprint and biocapacity are used to clearly and

understandably demonstrate:
• extent of requirements of human population to ensure its
existence under current needs and technology,
• whether average consumption per capita is sustainable and
fair in comparison to
the global, worldwide consumption and biocapacity
available.
 CARBON FOOTPRINT:
• “Carbon Footprint” is often used as shorthand for the amount of carbon (usually in
tonnes) being emitted by an activity or organization

•The carbon component of the EF takes a slightly differing approach, translating the
amount of carbon dioxide into the amount of productive land and sea area required
to sequester carbon dioxide emissions. This tells us the demand on the planet that
results from burning fossil fuels.

•The CF is 54 % of humanity’s overall EF and its most rapidly-growing component.

Humanity’s CF has increased 11-fold since 1961.
SIGNIFICANCE OF ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS:

•Valuable tool for sustainability analyses.

•EF analysis not only measures that sustainability gap, it also

provides insight into strategies for sustainable urban development.

•A major contribution of EF analysis is that urban policy should

strive to minimize the disruption of ecosystems processes and
massively reduce the energy and material consumption, associated
with cities.

•Illustrates the fact that Twentieth century, cities and industrial

region for survival and growth depend on a vat and increasingly
global hinterland of ecologically productive landscapes.
•A tool to compare the relative effectiveness of alternative urban
development patterns, transportation technologies etc in reducing
urban ecological impacts.

•EF becomes a tool for weighing the merits of potential policies and
developing effective strategies and scenarios for a sustainable
future.

•EF brings out the awareness that there are natural biological and
physical limits to what we take from nature and pinpoints that in
order to reduce our impact equitably those that take the most will
be required to scale back the most.
 CARYING CAPACITY AS MAXIMUM “HUMAN
LOAD’’
•Carrying capacity is usually defined as the maximum population
of a given species that can be supported indefinitely by a defined
habitat without permanently impairing the productivity of that
habitat.
 PRESSURE ON NATURE:
•Comparing the supply and demand, we see in 2002, humanity’s
EF exceeded the Earth’s biocapacity by more than 20%. In other
words, it took more than one year and two months to regenerate
the resources humanity consumed in that one year. Footprint
practitioners have named this phenomenon as “ ecological
overshoot.

•Today humanity uses equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the

resources and absorb our waste.

•It now takes the earth one year and six months to regenerate what
we use in a year.

•If current population and consumption trends continue, by the

2030s, we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us
Figure : Earth Overshoot Gauge for 2011 (Source: Global Footprint Network)
ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS AND BIODIVERSITY
•In 2002, under the auspices of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) the leaders of the world’s governments
committed to significantly halting the rate of biodiversity
loss by 2010. They adopted a suite of indicators, brought
together as the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (BIP), to
provide information on biodiversity trends and assess
progress toward their target. Global Footprint Network is a
BIP Key Indicator Partner, and the Ecological
Footprint has been officially adopted by the CBD to be
included among its biodiversity indicators.
•While not a direct measure of species populations, the
Ecological Footprint provides an indicator of the
pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity by measuring
the competing level of ecological demand that humans
place upon the biosphere.
NEED FOR MEASURING ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

❖ An individual, city, nation, or all of humanity—can assess pressure on the

planet.
❖ It will help us to manage our ecological assets more wisely.
❖ We can make some alternative to our life style.
❖ National governments using the Footprint are able to:
Assess the value of their country’s ecological assets
Monitor and manage their assets
Identify the risks associated with ecological deficits
Set policy that is informed by ecological reality and makes
safeguarding resources a top priority
❖ Identify who is contributing how much to the size of a footprint, it can help
us understand the potential trade offs in setting optimal scale at different
levels.
❖ Footprint analysis provides a means of assessing the impact of population,
affluence (consumption) and technology on Natural Capital
 MEASUREMENT OF ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

Global hectare
❖ The Ecological Footprint is usually measured in global hectares. Because
trade is global, an individual or country's Footprint can include land or sea
from all over the world.
❖ Global hectares, allows for different types of land to be compared using a
common denominator. Equivalence factors are used to convert physical
hectares of different types of land, such as cropland and pasture, into the
common unit of global hectares Using global hectares as a measurement
unit – which makes data and results globally comparable.
Number of planet
❖ Typically expressed in global hectares, the ecological footprint can also be
measured in number of planets, where by one planet represents the
biological capacity of the Earth in a given year.
❖ According to 2002 report, it took more than one year and two month to
regenerate the resources that human generated in one year. It is
equivalent to 1.2 Biological productive earth .
 MEASUREMENT OF ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

FORMULA

Ecological Footprint (Demand) =

(Population) X (Consumption per person) X (Footprint intensity)

Bio-Capacity (Supply) =
(Area) X (Bio-productivity per unit area)
 MEASUREMENT OF ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

Global-

At global level footprint is usually measured by measuring the consumption

perspective. As, globally the consumption footprint is equals to production
footprint.

CFP = PFP

National –
The consumption Footprint of a nation is calculated in the National Footprint
Accounts as a nation's primary production Footprint plus the Footprint of
imports minus the Footprint of exports. The national average or per capita
Consumption Footprint is equal to a country's Consumption Footprint divided
by its population.

CFP = PFP + IMPORTS - EXPOTS

 ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT RESULTS

The ecological footprint data so obtained shows 2 major results, either there is Surplus
or there is Deficit of biocapicity.

The 2002 report entitled “Global footprint accounts” shows that global average
demand is 2.2 global hectares per person ,in contrast the current supply of biologically
productive land and sea on this planet is 1.8 hectares per person . Even less will be
available if we allocate some of this area to the other species that also depends on it.

Comparing supply and demand we see that in 2002, human ecological footprint
exceeded the earths biocapicity by more than 20%
i.e. (2.2 global hectares/person / 1.8 global hectares/person = 1.2)
 ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT AT GLOBAL CONTEXT

World Average – 2.2 hectares

Biggest Footprint – United States – 9.6 hectares

Smallest Footprint – Bangladesh – 0.5 hectares

Average Canadian Footprint – 8.6 hectares

NATIOANL ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT AND BIOCAPACITY
For 2007/NFA2010 EF BC ED OR ER
WORLD 2.7 1.8 0.9
HIC 6.1 3.1 3.0
MIC 2.0 1.7 0.2
LIC 1.2 1.1 0.1
Africa 1.4 1.5 0.1
Gabon 1.4 29.3 27.9
mauritius 4.3 0.6 3.7

Asia 1.8 0.8 1.0

India 0.9 0.5 0.4
UAE 10.7 0.8 9.8
MONGOLIA 5.5 15.1 9.6
Europe 4.7 2.9 1.8
Belgium 8.0 1.3 6.7
finland 6.2 12.5 6.3
La and the caribbean 2.6 5.5 2.9
USA AND CANDA 7.9 4.9 3.0
CANDA 7.0 14.9 7.9
USA 8.0 3.9 4.1
OCEANIA 5.4 11.1 5.8
An “ecological camera”
takes a snapshot of our current demands on
nature,,,,…..
Regional Footprints
ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT

• Also referred as ecological deficit, Global overshoot

occurs when a population’s demand on an ecosystem
exceeds the capacity of that ecosystem to supply or
regenerate the resources it consumes and to absorb its
carbon dioxide emission made by him.
• Overshoot leads to a depletion of the planet’s life
supporting biological capital and/or to an accumulation
of carbon dioxide emissions.
• Overshoot is measured by the difference (gap) between
the Biocapacity and ecological Footprint of a region or
country.
Overshoot = EFP (Demand) – Bio-Capacity(Supply)
Ex. India which has -0.4 , USA which has -5.1 , UAE -9.83
ECOLOGICAL DEFICIT OR RESERVE OF SELECTED
COUNTREIS
OVERSHOOT AND THE NEED FOR GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY

• Ecological Footprint accounting

Footprint accounts document the extent to which human
society stays within or exceeds the regenerative capacity
of the planet.

This type of biophysical resource accounting is possible

because resources and waste flows can be tracked and
associated with the amount of ecological capacity they
require.

An Ecological Footprint measures the area of

biologically productive land and water that a population
(an individual, a city, a country or all of humanity) uses
to generate the resources it consumes and absorb its
wastes under prevailing technology.
OVERSHOOT AND THE NEED FOR GLOBAL
SUSTAINABILITY
Ecological Footprint accounting

Figure: Humanity's global footprint: although the ecological capacity of the planet has increased
over time due to changes in technology and management, human demand has grown faster, from
half of the biosphere's total capacity in 1961 to 123% of its capacity in 2002. In the long term, this
overshoot leads to the degradation and liquidation of ecological capital. Overshoot is depicted in: (a)
units of 2002 global hectares and (b) as the ratio of global Ecological Footprint to available
biocapacity.
OVERSHOOT AND THE NEED FOR GLOBAL
SUSTAINABILITY
• Global overshoot:
Global Ecological Footprint accounts shows that, at a global
scale, humanity is currently operating in a state of overshoot,
with demand on the biosphere exceeding the bio sphere's
regenerative capacity by approximately 23% in 2002.

A dramatic increase from 1961, when humanity demanded

only one-half of the biosphere's total capacity. Humanity
entered into global overshoot in the mid 1980s, and the
demand has been growing faster than increases in
biocapacity.
 OVERSHOOT AND THE NEED FOR GLOBAL
SUSTAINABILITY
• Ecological Footprint of regions
The Footprint and biocapacity story becomes considerably more varied at
the level of regions. Residents of North America and Western Europe, for
example, live at levels of ecological demand that exceed the biocapacity
available within those geographical areas

Figure: Per-person Ecological Footprint and biocapacity of world regions in 2002.

DEFINING “SHRINK AND
SHARE”
• Contraction and convergence :

First described by the Global Commons Institute (Meyer

2000), contraction and convergence proposes a framework
for stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations
through two complementary approaches:

Contraction -The need to reduce humanity's carbon

dioxide emissions to a level that will result in the eventual
stabilization of atmospheric carbon dioxide at an
agreed-upon level (e.g. 550 ppm).

Convergence - The need to collectively negotiate how this

reduction in green house gas emissions will be allocated
between nations.
DEFINING “SHRINK AND
SHARE”
• Towards shrink and share

Shrink means reducing Ecological Footprints, so that

consumption of renewable resources does not exceed
the regenerative capacity of Earth's productive
ecosystems.

Share refers to the way the Earth's biologically

productive capacity is divided among individuals,
nations or regions.

The need for shrinking is evidenced by the current state

of global overshoot. Sharing implies that some regions
or nations will need to reduce their Footprints,
ECOLOGICAL
DEBT

Ecological Debt has been used to describe the consumption of

resources from within an ecosystem that exceeds the system's
regenerative capacity.

In a general sense, it can be used refer to the overall depletion

of global resources beyond the Earth's ability to regenerate
them.

The concept in this sense is based on the bio-physical carrying

capacity of an ecosystem; through measuring ecological
footprints human society can determine the rate at which it is
depleting natural resources.
ECOLOGICAL
DEBT
WORLD ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT DURING 1961-2001

Ecological deficit / overshoot

Optimum population
Ecological reserve
 August 22,2012 was Earth Overshoot Day
•In 8 Months, Humanity Exhausted Earth's Budget for the Year.

•August 22 was Earth Overshoot Day, marking the date

when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the
year.

•Earth Overshoot Day, a concept originally developed by Global

Footprint Network partner and U.K. think tank new economics
foundation, is the annual marker of when we begin living
beyond our means in a given year.

•In 1992, Earth Overshoot Day —the approximate date our

resource consumption for a given year exceeds the planet’s
ability to replenish—fell on October 21. In 2002, Overshoot Day
was on October 3. Given current trends in consumption, one
thing is clear: Earth Overshoot Day tends to arrive a few days
earlier each year.
 APPLICATION OF ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

❖ Use resource-efficient technology to reduce the demand on natural capital.

❖ Reduce human consumption while preserving quality of life. For example,

reduce the need for fossil fuels by making cities pedestrian friendly.

❖ Lower the size of the human family in equitable and humane ways, so that
total consumption decrease even if capita demand remains unchanged; and

❖ Invest in natural capital. For example, implement resource extraction

methods that increase rather than compromise the land’s biological
productivity, thereby increasing supply.
 Limitations of eco-footprinting
•The ecological footprint is one indication of unsustainability

Eco-footprints don't account for:-

• Any economic, political or cultural factors such as well-being

• Most part of the earth, which is deemed to lack any biocapacity (ex. deep
oceans, deserts, mountains)
• Water and waste, except insofar as they affect the biocapacity of a region.
• Non-renewable resources and their depletion. (ex. pollution from mineral
mining reducing the biocapacity of a fishery)
• Biodiversity, toxicity, pollution and other traditional environmental
concerns
•Unsustainable management of the biosphere. (ex. clear-cutting a rainforest
for agriculture would seem to increase biocapacity because the yield factor
of cropland is higher than that of forestry)
 References:
•WWF,2012. Living Planet Report.
•Rees, William E.1992. Ecological footprints and Appropriated
Carrying Capacity:121-130, Royal Society Publications.
•Justin Kitzes,2008. Shrink and Share: Humanity’s Present and Future
Ecological Footprint.
•Andrew R.B., 2000.The Assumptions underlying
Eco-Footprinting,Springer Publications.
•Holden Erling, 2004. Ecological footprints and sustainable urban
form, Springer Publications.
•Rees, Williams and Mathus Wackernagel.2008. Urban Ecological
Footprints. New York: Springer Publications.
•Petric, Jasna. Sustainability of the city and its ecological Footprint.
•Cole, Victoria and John Sinclair. 2002. Measuring the ecological
footprint of a Himalayan Tourist Center. Mountain Research and
Development.
•http://www.ecologicalfootprint.org