【作者】 牛海山； 欧阳华；

【Author】 Haishan Niu;Ouyang Hua Institute of geographical sciences and natural resources research, CAS, Beijing, 100101, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100039, China

【机构】 中国科学院地理科学与资源研究所；

【摘要】 “生态健康”、“土地健康”、“生态系统健康”、“生态系统完整性”等概念正在引起广泛的关注。人们期望它们能为环境管理提供明确的目标,为生态系统的状态评估提供客观的尺度,为决策者、大众以及专业人士之间的交流提供方便的“平台”。但是,对于如何理解“生态健康”或者“生态系统健康”这些概念,研究者们尚存在根本性的分歧,直到目前生态健康、生态系统健康还没有一个确切公允的定义。本文着重对“生态系统健康”概念进行了探讨。文中首先介绍了围绕生态系统健康概念的内涵而展开的相关争论,然后分析了“健康”概念之所以难于定义的原因。通过对“概念”的产生机制进行分析,本文认为“健康”是作为“疾病”的对立物而被建构出来的一个概念,因此,理解“生态系统健康”的切入角度不应该是“健康”,而应该是“疾病”。这个角度就是所谓“广义进化论”的角度,它是医学乃至整个自然科学之所以取得扎实进展的内在动力。更多还原

【Abstract】 Abstract: The notion of ECOSYSTEM HEALTH is attracting more and more Chinese ecologists’attention. It was highly expected to provide a well-defined aim for environmentalmanagement, to provide an objective benchmark for ecosystem assessment, and to provide a"platform" for the communication between decision makers, researchers and public.However, "ecosystem health" has yet not gotten a precise definition in consensus, partlybecause of the complications of an ecosystem and of the all-embracing nature of "ecosystemhealth." Here, four highly controversial issues were introduced firstly. They are: ①Does anecosystem have intrinsic value? ②Is there exist an objective benchmark for the healthdegree of ecosystems? ③The multiplicity of interests among groups of human being, and④ambiguity as a platform for public communication. Secondly, why ecosystem health isso ambiguous was explained, and social construction theory was involved to analyze the origin of the abstract concept "health". Why "ecosystem health" was hard to define arosefrom the difficulty of defining the concept "health", which was coined as a counterpoint tothe concrete concept "disease." A disease is concrete and easy to define because anyspecific "disease" was sensible for a sufferer, or could be measured with medicalinstruments in principle, while a "healthy" statue was achieved operationally only after all"diseases"--known or unknow--were excluded. Thirdly, why the medicine as a scienceachieved tangible and huge progress in history was analyzed. It was the process conqueringthe diseases one by one that promotes the medicine science moving ahead, and during theprocess a theoretical scheme was constructed to make a more general understanding aboutmore diseases. Surely during the process human being becoming more "healthy" than ever,but it is as the result rather than as the reason of the progress that made. The case wasdescribed by Karl Popper as: we are making progress because we know more and moreabout what’s wrong, rather than what’s right. This is the mechanism that similar with that ofthe evolution of life, and is named after "generalized evolution theory". We suggested thatthe generalized evolution theory should be used as the working theory in environmentmanagement and ecosystem assessment process. In short, ecosystem health could beunderstood in respect of "disease", instead of "health."更多还原