2007年世界生态高峰会，来自70多个国家的1400多名生态学工作者欢聚一堂，针对如何运用生态学方法缓解全球气候变化，生态系统退化，以及如何实现联合国千年发展目标，改善人类福祉进行了富有成效的讨论。与会代表希望能够与全世界各国民众和决策管理人员共享他们掌握的生态知识。

　　生态学是许多我们日常关注问题的核心，是解决人与自然系统关系问题的关键。生态学能够帮助人们去设计、规划、管理及保护好环境，以确保我们所有人拥有健康的生命，让子孙后代拥有良好的生存环境。

　　生态学必须成为决策管理的重要工具。没有对生态关系的深刻理解，我们的决策就有可能在给未来造孽，遭遇从土地功能退化加剧、动植物生境消失到全球气候继续恶化等各种各样的风险。

　 人类未来的健康取决于空气、水和土壤质量以及微生物、植物和动物之间微妙的平衡关系。生态学有助于我们理解这种平衡的运行和受扰机制，理解如何利用自然生态系统控制和减少污染物，降低污染物的危害。

　　环境污染威胁了食物链，减少了河流和海洋里的生命，也扰乱了鱼类、动物和人类的繁衍。生态学揭示了污染物的迁移、影响、聚集的规律，并探讨了降低污染物危害的方法。

　　人类的食物供应依赖于集约型农业系统和化肥和杀虫剂的大量施用。降低化肥使用量、避免杀虫剂的副作用、利用自然调节的手段降低病虫害对作物生长和动物繁殖危害地秘诀，就在生态学手中。

　　温室气体排放正在造成的全球气候变化，其中大部分原因是由于人类不适宜的土地利用、农业和林业生产活动。生态学研究已经揭示出自然系统能固定和排放温室气体的关键过程，以及全球变暖对相关过程的影响。

　　印度洋海啸在有红树林保护的海岸带所造成的危害甚小。诸如恢复红树林的生态工程可以大大增强人类抵抗灾害的能力。上世纪30年代，在湿地种植盐草使得中国恢复、保护了大量的海岸线。

　　参加第三届世界生态高峰会专家学者呼吁人类社会立即行动起来，为防止地球生态的进一步退化而共同努力。这就需要建立健全环境法规，积极承诺和执行国际公约，并把生态学原理应用到日常生活中去，民众、政府及科学家之间最为广泛的合作。

　　人类的未来掌握在我们自己手上。生态学已成为人类建设一个更美好世界所必须使用的重要工具。

 

 

　　　　　　　　　　　　　Beijing Ecology Declaration

 

 

In Beijing 1400 leading environmental scientists from 70 countries met at EcoSummit 2007. They discussed how ecology can help mitigate global climate change, ecosystem degradation, and to find ways to improve human well-being in the context of the UN Millennium Development Goals. They sought ways of sharing their ecological knowledge with the world’s peoples and decision makers.

 

Ecology is at the heart of many of our everyday concerns. It is the key to solving many problems of human interactions with natural systems. Ecology can help us design, plan, manage and protect our environment to ensure that we can all enjoy healthier lives and pass on a good environment for our grandchildren to appreciate.

 

Ecology must be a factor in policy decision making. Without understanding ecology, we risk building up problems for the future, from increasing the rate of land degradation and the loss of plant and animal life, to worsening the present global climate change.

 

The future of our health depends on the delicate balance between the quality of air, water and soil and between microbes, plants and animals. Ecology enables us to understand how this balance works, what disturbs it, and how contaminants are held and released by natural systems.

 

Pollution threatens our food chains, reduces life in rivers and seas, and can disrupt reproductive systems of fish, animals and humans. Ecology reveals where pollutants go, how they affect different life forms, where they build up and what can be done to prevent their harmful effects.

 

Our food supplies depend on intensive farming systems and high inputs of fertilisers and pesticides. Ecology holds the key to discovering how to reduce fertiliser use, avoid the side-effects of pesticides and the use of natural controls of diseases and pests that affect crops and animal production.

 

Global climate change is being caused by the release of greenhouse gases, many of which come from human use of the land, from farming and forestry practices. Ecology has identified the key processes by which natural systems can hold gases and release them to the atmosphere and what would happen to those processes when the world gets warmer.

 

The impacts of the Indian Ocean Tsunami were far less severe in areas where the shoreline was protected by mangroves. Ecological engineering such as restoring mangrove forests can greatly reduce our vulnerability to disasters. The planting of salt grass marshes in the 1930s has enabled the Chinese to reclaim and protect large segments of their coast.

 

The scientists at the Eco Summit have called for human society to work together to prevent the further ecological deterioration of the Earth. This demands developing and enforcing environmental laws and regulations, and upholding and applying international conventions. It also requires the widest collaboration between civil society, government, and scientists in applying ecology to everyday life.

 

Our future is in our hands. Ecology is one of the tools we must use in our efforts to make this a better world.