Critical consumption trends and implications: degrading earths ecosystems.

This report examines consumption trends and the associated impacts on natural ecosystems for three key resources--food (cereals and meat) wood fiber and fish. In the last 30 years world cereal consumption has more than doubled while meat consumption has tripled since 1961 and is increasing at a linear rate. Most agricultural experts believe that increasing global demand for cereals and meat can be met and forecast that grain production will rise by about 15% by 2010 and by 25 to 40% by 2020. Global wood consumption has risen by 64% since 1961. Demand for fuelwood and charcoal rose by nearly 80% and more than half the worlds wood fiber supply is now burned as fuel. For industrial wood fiber the demand is projected to rise by between 20% and 40% by 2010. Consumption of fish and fishery products has risen 240% since 1960 and more than five-fold since 1950. These three examples from the agriculture forestry and fisheries sectors demonstrate how existing practices are undermining the biological systems that support key renewable resources exploiting them in such a way that potentially everlasting supplies are being depleted. Policy interventions can be made at the point of resource production or at any point in the processing and distribution chain or they can target end-use behavior by the consumer.