NATURAL RESOURCES AND

ENVIIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Envi. Mgt (second Semester SY:2019-2020)

Ms. Krizza Pearl Francisco-Ver

Part-time Instructor
College of Agriculture and Forestry
JOSE RIZAL MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY SIOCON CAMPUS

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 Ecological Agriculture: the future of food production
Time and again we have heard that business as usual is
compromising the health of our environment which then has a
profound impact on human health and well-being.  The way
humans have unceasingly poisoned our soils, water and air
through the use of synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides has
wrought so much damage to the very ecosystems that nurture life
on Earth.  And as if this is not enough, the use of GMOs in
agriculture further puts our environment in jeopardy with
irreversible contamination.
When scientists claim that the only choice to address food
security, control pests and diseases and get higher yields is
through the use of GMOs or chemical fertilizers and pesticides, I
cannot help but think of the disservice these scientists do to
farmers and consumers by not mentioning that there is a third
option:  ecological agriculture.  What’s even worse is when the
same scientists vouch for the safety of GMOs despite the lack of
scientific consensus and the fact that more and more countries are
rejecting GMOs.
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 • Food security is not about producing more
food because world food production is
greater than what is actually needed to feed
the present population.  What’s needed is
for people to have equitable access to these
foods, and for farmers to have access to
seeds and the right to develop new crops. 
But the sad fact is, under current
agricultural practices,
food production is now in the control of
only a few big agrochemical corporations.
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 • The use of GMOs in agriculture undermines the right
of farmers to choose what to plant and the right of
consumers to choose what they eat. Contamination
of conventional crops from patented genes owned by
corporations transfers ownership of these crops from
farmers to corporations, weakening sustainable
agriculture practices that rely on diversity and free
access to these diverse genetic resources. No matter
what they say, in the end there is no choice when
contamination occurs. Actually, it is already
happening every time a GMO crop is released into
the environment through field-testing or commercial
propagation.
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 Ecological agriculture
is about diversity, and diversity of crops leads to addressing not
only one type of problem whether it be pests, nutrient deficiency or
withstanding climatic conditions.  It is also about sustaining the
livelihood of the millions of farmers that have fed the world through
the ages without the use of synthetic chemicals or GMOs.

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 • An ecosystem consists of the plants and
animals of an area, and all the things
which make up their surroundings – like
soil, water and air. It can be a small area
such as a pond; a medium sized area such
as a forest; or a large area such as the
earth itself.
• Ecosystem is any geographic area that
includes all of the organisms and nonliving
parts of their physical environment.
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 Components of Ecosysem
• Abiotic – the non living factors of an ecosystem –
geology, water and soils
• Producers or Autotrophs – organisms which
manufacture their own food eg. green plants make
their own food using the sun’s energy
• Consumers or Heterotrophs - organisms that
cannot make their own food – they must obtain
energy from other animals and organisms
• Decomposers – organisms that break down other
organisms (eg. Bacteria)
• An ecosystem is formed by the interactions
between all living and non-living things.
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 Main Ecosystems
• Desert
• Rainforest
• Ocean
• Taiga
• Tundra
• Chaparral
• Grassland
• Temperate Forest

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 • Arid deserts generally occur at low
latitudes, and can be found in North-
America, South-America, Africa, and
Southern Asia.
• Seasons in the arid desert are generally
dry and hot, with few occurrences of rain
during the winter.
• The heat peaks to extremes during the
daytime because there are no clouds to
shield the earth from the sun's rays.
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 • Forest Biomes represent the largest and most
ecologically complex systems.

• They contain a wide assortment of trees, plants,

mammals, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates,
insects and micro-organisms which vary
depending on the zone's climates.

• Sadly, rainforest biomes are being cut down at an

alarming rate, with hundreds of species of plants
and animals disappearing from the planet on a
daily basis.
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 • Grassland biomes are unaltered areas of
land where grass is the dominant plant
life, as opposed to other terrestrial biomes
where trees occupy most of the land
surface. Grassland are found around the
globe and have served as grazing areas for
a large number of animals, and have been
exploited as farming grounds or
plantations by humans.

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 • Tundra, the "ice desert", "frozen prairie",
the cold plains of the Far North get their
name from the Finnish word "tunturia",
which means treeless land. The tundra
biome is the coldest of all terrestrial eco-
systems, and also the most chaotic. Still,
the tundra is host to a surprising number
of plants and animals, and represents a
fascinating testament to nature's
adaptability, and cruel beauty.

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 • The chaparral biome has flat plains, rocky hills and
mountain slopes.
•
• Chaparral is characterized as being very hot and dry.
•
• Droughts are very common Most of the plants have
small, hard leaves which hold moisture( Yucca and other
shrubs, trees and cacti)
•
• The animals are all mainly grassland and desert types
adapted to hot, dry weather (coyotes, jack rabbits, mule
deer, alligator lizards, horned toads, praying mantis,
honey bee and ladybugs).
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 • Taiga, also known as coniferous or boreal forest,
is the largest terrestrial biome on earth. It
extends in a broad band across North America,
Europe, and Asia to the southern border of the
arctic tundra. It is also found at cool, high
elevations in the more temperate latitudes, for
example, in much of the mountainous western
region of North America. Much of the taiga in
North America was once covered with glaciers.
As the glaciers receded, cuts and depressions
were left in the landscape that have since filled
with rain creating lakes and bogs.
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 • The ocean holds the largest of Earth’s
biomes. It covers 70% of the planet’s
surface. Life in the ocean is diverse.
•
• The smallest creatures that call the ocean
home are so tiny that they can only be seen
with a microscope.
•
• The largest creatures are blue whales, which
can be as much as 34 meters (110 feet) long.
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 • The temperate deciduous forest is a biome
that is always changing. It has four distinct
seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall.
Winters are cold and summers are warm.
Temperate deciduous forests get between
30 and 60 inches of precipitation a year.
Precipitation in this biome happens year
round. Because the soil is very fertile and
hardwood trees are good for building, this
biome has some of the world's largest
population centers in it.
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 • Ecosystem services are the goods and
services derived from natural and
managed ecosystems upon which human
welfare depends.
•
• Because of the global intensification of
land use, these services are declining,
especially in agricultural ecosystems.

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