Ecosystem Service Commodities

Photo: Prasad

Abstract: Nature is being redefined as a capitalist commodity to be traded and speculated on in the international market. The latest thinking is pushing for global enclosures of local commons that will lead to profound transformations of traditional and cultural values.

The author is a Lecturer in Environment and Development, at Birkbeck College, London. Email s.sullivan@bbk.ac.uk. This article is an edited version of a paper presented in The Land Winter 2008/09 (www.tlio.org.uk/The Land).


Term Power

What is ...

People who move across borders in search of protection are known as asylum seekers. Refugee is the term used to describe a person who has already been granted protection. Asylum seekers can become refugees if the local immigration authority deems them fit to grant protection.

The movement of people between places for a period of more than a season but less than a life-time, e.g., because of a shift in a person’s occupation or position in the hierarchical structure of a firm.

The net migration element in total population change of a given area, being the balance between immigration and emigration.

It is the cost to a migrant for moving. These include money costs—the costs of household removals, the costs of buying and selling non-movable assets, income loss in the interim period while searching for a new job, etc.

The relative length of time for which impulses or stimuli from the environment must be transmitted to a potential migrant before he/she makes the desired move.

A similar idea to migration chain, i.e., the tendency of migrants to follow the footsteps of previous generations of migrants.

A process by which migrants from one specific locality in the country of origin are attracted to emigrate by friends or relatives from their locality who have already emigrated. The links between immigrants and prospective immigrants frequently extend beyond the feedback of information: the former may give financial support for fares, as well as acting as agents of local adaptation for following migrants by providing initial accommodation and even securing employment.

When change in location of a person’s home disturbs only part of his reciprocal movement pattern because his place of work remains the same.

In which a person moves away from poor economic conditions, i.e., push factors are more important than pull factors.

This happens when a completely new pattern of reciprocal movement is established.

The concept of transnationalism refers to multiple ties and interactions linking people and institutions across the borders of nation-states. Transnational communities are groups whose identity is primarily based on attachment to a specific territory.

A distinctive geographical pattern is associated with retirement migration. This involves the change of residence by people at or shortly after retirement, since origin areas are spatially restricted and the destinations even more focused., i.e., there is a strong environmental preference in the flow.