Ecosystem Conflicts

Ecological conflicts are often premised on competing needs, resources and power structures. In terms of needs, ecological systems are sites of innumerable resources. How these resources will be divided, employed and controlled are central issues to ecological conflict. Additionally, rights to the land and its use must harmonize with the needs of the environment and practices and protections that may ensure its healthy sustainment.

Identification

• The term "ecosystem conflict" may refer to many different relationships that an ecological space has to local residents, structures, law and authority figures. In many cases, a party's interests call for land use or exploitation that harms wildlife and vegetation in a given area. In still others, there are conflicts regarding where the authority to make decisions lies and who is to enforce environmental laws and ordinances. The underlying premise of most ecological conflicts, however, is often whose interests will prevail: those of human beings or those of the natural world.

The Cause of Dam Removal

• Several dam removal scenarios studied in the United States illustrate the dynamics at play in an ecological conflict. While the removal of the dams offered chances for ecological renewal -- providing a more natural environment for the movement and migration of local wildlife -- dam removal was often strongly opposed by local farmers and other stakeholders due to their financial, agricultural and safety concerns. A study of 14 projected dam removals in Wisconsin in the 1990s found that only two of the dams were actually torn down; the remaining 12 were restored.

Jurisdiction

• In a thesis, Wendy Marie Zirngibl of Montana State University studied jurisdictional authority and the management of elk populations in Yellowstone National Park. Ms. Zirngibl suggests that lines marking areas of state and federal authority were nebulous at best. To make matters yet more confusing, there were legally valid claims of the "common public ownership" of the park's "features" and its interstate geographical expanse. In the end, each party has the ability to construe its own definitions of elk conservation and what implications those definitions hold for practices like hunting.

Habitat

• A foremost ecosystem conflict occurs when human practices either interfere with or endanger the habitat an animal depends on for feeding, reproduction and overall survival. From elephants in Indonesia to leopards in Florida, animals are at increased risk of losing their native ecosystems as a result of residential and industrial expansion as well as the aggravated felling of indigenous forests for timber and other initiatives.