Sustainability: can it last?: Sustainability means keeping a system working over the long term, without leaving future generations worse off.
Long term
- Keep it working for years to come.
People + nature
- Protect nature while meeting people’s needs.
Future generations
- Leave resources and healthy systems for people after us.
Example: fishing
Sustainable fishing
- Catch no more fish than the population replaces.
- Enough remain to breed → fishing can continue.
Unsustainable fishing
- Catch fish faster than the population replaces them.
- Fewer remain → the population shrinks.
The rule for renewable resources: Use them no faster than nature replaces them. A healthy fish population also needs suitable habitat and protection from pollution.
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Sustainability is about socio-ecological systems: people and nature linked together, such as a fishing village and its sea.
Long term
- Can it carry on for decades, not just this year?
Future generations
- Will they have the same chances we have?
Resilience
- Can the system resist, recover or adapt (1.2.16)?
Resilience helps: A more resilient system is usually more sustainable. A forest with many species survives a pest that would destroy a plantation of one.
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How this comes up: The last question on Paper 1: using the whole resource booklet, how sustainable is this place [6]?
How to judge a place
- Sort the evidence into for and against sustainability.
- Every point uses the figure and gives a reason.
- Up to [4] on each side.
- End with a balanced conclusion [1]: which side weighs more, and why.
Figure 1 gives information about the Lake Arden region.
Using all the information in Figure 1, to what extent is the Lake Arden region managing its resources sustainably?
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