Huella Ecologica

Ecological Indicators 24 (2013) 518–533

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Ecological Indicators
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind

Review

Accounting for demand and supply of the biosphere’s regenerative capacity: The National Footprint Accounts’ underlying methodology and framework
Michael Borucke a , David Moore b , Gemma Cranston b,c , Kyle Gracey a, Katsunori Iha a , Joy Larson a , Elias Lazarus a , Juan Carlos Morales a , Mathis Wackernagel a , Alessandro Galli b,∗
a

Global Footprint Network, 312 Clay Street, Oakland, CA 94607-3510, USA Global Footprint Network, International Environment House 2, 7-9 Chemin de Balexert, 1219 Geneva, Switzerland c University of Cambridge, Programme for Sustainability Leadership, UK
b

a r t i c l ei n f o

a b s t r a c t
Human demand on ecosystem services continues to increase, and evidence suggests that this demand is outpacing the regenerative and absorptive capacity of the biosphere. As a result, the productivity of natural capital may increasingly become a limiting factor for the human endeavor. Metrics tracking human demand on, and availability of, regenerative and wasteabsorptive capacity within the biosphere are therefore needed. Ecological Footprint analysis is such a metric; it measures human appropriation (Ecological Footprint) and the biosphere’s supply (biocapacity) of ecosystem products and services in terms of the amount of bioproductive land and sea area (ecological assets) needed to supply these products and services. This paper documents the latest methodfor estimating the Ecological Footprint and biocapacity of nations, using the National Footprint Accounts (NFA) applied to more than 200 countries and for the world overall. Results are also compared with those obtained from previous editions of the NFA. According to the 2011 Edition of the National Footprint Accounts, humanity demanded the resources and services of 1.5 planets in 2008; this humandemand was 0.7 planets in 1961. Situations in which total demand for ecological goods and services exceed the available supply for a given location, are called ‘overshoot’. ‘Global overshoot’ indicates that stocks of ecological capital are depleting and/or that waste is accumulating. As the methodology keeps being improved, each new edition of the NFA supports the findings of a global overshoot. ©2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 30 March 2012 Received in revised form 25 July 2012 Accepted 7 August 2012 Keywords: Ecological Footprint Biocapacity Resource accounting Planetary limits NFA editions comparison Sensitivity analysis

Contents 1. 2. 3. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . National Footprint Accounts: data sources and accounting framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Calculation methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1. Ecological Footprint and biocapacity: basic equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2. Yield factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3. Equivalence factors...