Ecosystem integrity

Ecosystem integrity

Ecosystem Integrity, built on biodiversity, underpins the multiple benefits of forests

'Ecosystem integrity' is a way of understanding how the composition, structure and functions of forest, and how these maintain the state of the forest. The Primary Forests & Climate Program has developed a new and more complete conceptual framework for ecosystem integrity. This improved understanding of forests will result in better forest management, and the Program has demonstrated its implications in policy and management.

Primary forests show the greater ecosystem integrity than secondary forests, with plantations having relatively low ecosystem integrity. Importantly, increased ecosystem integrity results in a greater number of high quality benefits forests from forests.

Project members working on ecosystem integrity

Dr Brendan Mackey

Brendan Mackey

Project Director and Director of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon at Griffith University, contributing to community planning and engagement in forest projects.
Brendan Rogers

Brendan Rogers

Dr. Rogers investigates how boreal forests are responding to climate change and land use, how this feeds back to climate change, and how management and policy can be used for mitigation and adaptation.
Heather Keith

Heather Keith

Heather is a Senior Research Fellow at Griffith University. Her research is aimed at understanding the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, particularly forests, to improve their management for conservation and climate change mitigation.
Virginia Young

Virginia Young

Virginia is a Director of the International Forests and Climate Programme for the Australian Rainforest Conservation Society (ARCS) working in the international policy arena on primary forests as part of a global collaborative research programme funded through Griffith University. 
Cyril Kormos

Cyril Kormos

Cyril is Founder and Executive Director of Wild Heritage, a project of Earth Island Institute. He also serves as IUCN-WCPA Vice-Chair for World Heritage, is a member of IUCN’s World Heritage Panel and chairs the IUCN-WCPA World Heritage Network.

Ecosystem integrity framework

The framework shows that ecosystem integrity is based on foundational elements including dissipative structures, ecosystem processes, and ecosystem stability. These are underpinned by biodiversity, natural selection, and adaptive capacity, and in turn generate a given ecosystem condition and benefits to people.

Ecosystem integrity framework

Using Ecosystem Integrity

The Program has shown how ecosystem integrity is one of the ‘three pillars’ of forest landscape management. The framework provides a way to categorise forest-based risks and protect ecosystem services. This supports:

  1. better investment in land carbon stocks and mitigation potential;
  2. identifying stocks that provide the best insurance against risk of loss; and
  3. ensuring the highest levels of benefits from ecosystem services, and thereby maximising ‘win-wins’ between mitigation, adaptation, and SDGs.

An ecosystem integrity-based approach emphasises continued and increased protection of primary forests, and combinations of primary forests and recovering secondary forests to create high carbon density strategic carbon and biodiversity reserves.

Ecosystem integrity publications

Using ecosystem integrity to maximise climate mitigation and minimise risk in international forest policy

Using ecosystem integrity to maximise climate mitigation and minimise risk in international forest policy

16/09/2022
Rules and guidelines that treat forests equally in key international policy frameworks regardless of their risk profiles limit their effectiveness and can facilitate forest degradation. Here we assess the potential for using a framework of ecosystem integrity to guide policy goals.