Ecological Footprint, environmental performance and biodiversity: A cross-national comparison

The Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity have been compared with several commonly used environmental indices measuring various aspects of ecological sustainability and biodiversity. We found that the Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity are closely related especially to the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP). On the other hand, the Ecological Footprint is negatively related to other measures of ecosystem health and biodiversity such as the Ecosystem Wellbeing Index (EWI). We explored patterns of correlation between the Ecological Footprint and ecosystem and biodiversity measures, including threatened species numbers. Our results support previous findings that human economic activity and environmental pressures are related to threats to biodiversity. This analysis provides evidence that the Ecological Footprint is a meaningful ecological indicator which can be compared to equivalent measures of the appropriation of ecosystem productive capacity and land use pressures.

► We examine relationships between Ecological Footprint and biodiversity indicators.
► Ecological Footprint is positively related to other indicators of human pressures.
► Ecological Footprint is negatively related to ecosystem wellbeing and biodiversity.
► Ecological Footprint is a promising composite for analyzing human pressures.