1. What is an Ecological Footprint?
It’s like a nature budget sheet — it tells us how much biologically productive land and
water area is needed to:
1. Produce the resources a person, city, or country consumes (food, timber, energy,
etc.).
2. Absorb the waste they generate (especially CO₂ emissions).
This is measured in global hectares (gha) — one gha = 1 hectare of land/water with world-
average productivity.
2. Biocapacity
• Biocapacity = the amount of productive land and water available to provide resources
and absorb waste.
• It’s also measured in gha.
• Think of it as the nature supply side, while the footprint is the nature demand side.
3. Ecological Deficit & Overshoot
• Ecological deficit happens when:
Ecological Footprint > Biocapacity
This means a country (or the world) is consuming nature faster than it can regenerate.
• Ecological overshoot is the global version of this — right now, humanity uses
resources equivalent to about 1.7 Earths each year.
4. The Example
Footprint = 4 gha/person
Biocapacity = 1.8 gha/person
Interpretation:
• Each person in that country uses resources and generates waste requiring 4 global
hectares of productive land/water.
• But nature in that country can only sustainably supply 1.8 gha/person.
• This gap of 2.2 gha/person means:
o The country must import resources from elsewhere, and/or
o It is overusing its own ecosystems (e.g., overfishing, deforestation, soil
depletion).
In the long term, this leads to environmental degradation — like spending more money
from your bank account than your income every month.
5. Real-world example
• Japan: High ecological footprint (~4.8 gha/person) but low biocapacity (~0.6
gha/person).
→ Relies heavily on imports of food, timber, and energy; also puts pressure on global
commons.
• Brazil: Lower footprint (~2.8 gha/person) but high biocapacity (~9.4 gha/person) →
an ecological surplus (though threatened by deforestation).
