The document proposes the Integrated Research And Development Networks For Ecological Security (IRDNES) to address the disaster of ecosystem collapses due to environmental degradation worldwide. IRDNES would establish e-intelligence based on ecological networking to share reliable data, information, and awareness about environmental issues globally in order to prevent and respond to ecological disasters. By networking research and development organizations worldwide to share scientific knowledge, technology, and financial assistance, IRDNES aims to develop a well-channeled flow of ecological relationships between science and society to sustain ecosystems and pave a path for a sustainable global green economy.

1. Integrated Research And
Development Networks For
Ecological Security(IRDNES)
Envisioned Disaster: Ecosystem Collapses Due To Environmental Degradation Around The World
Area: Disaster Prevention, Preparedness And Adaptation
Paras Tyagi
Self responsibility is the School Of Human Ecology
key to sustainability. Ambedkar University, Delhi
- M.K Gandhi India
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2. Which Disaster are we facing? Why to choose this
Disaster is an happening that results from interaction between humans and natural processes
resulting in damages and loss of life accompanied by significant damage to their natural
environment. Disasters have a limited time span and occurs within a defined geographic
area [1].
Disasters occurs either due to a natural origin or through human interventions.
Natural - earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami, drought, hurricane, floods and
landslides(also a man made disaster).
Anthropogenic or man made - famine, industrial pollution, oil spill , waste mismanagement
(non biodegradable and nuclear waste) that have environmental consequences.
But the real disaster that we face today is failure of understanding the ecosystem structure
and functioning at the local and global level where the social, environmental and economic
factors plays a significant role in propagating the chances of environmental disasters like the
unending and widening poverty gap, food insecurity, energy, economic and financial crises.
An ecosystem is an organized system of interrelationships between the human and the
nature. Due to lack of understanding of these interrelationships at the macro and micro levels
evolving through interactions of biotic and abiotic environment. We face different forms of
ecological breakdown which leads to a malicious cycle of natural and man made calamities
[2-22].
Therefore, I believe that the failure of our accepting the ecosystem and its functioning as the
in effect disaster of the 21st century and widely anticipated in the future background of social
and economic factors.
Be Environmentally
Aware 2

3. “Ecological networking is the
key to sustainability” 3

4. When And Under What Circumstances Do We Expect The
Disaster Will Occur ?
Some key events that had immediate environmental impacts in the past were:
1970 – The formation of Environment Protection Agency in U.S.A.
1982– Illegal dumping of PCB ( polychlorinated biphenyl ) in the African American community of the warren county,
in North Carolina, U.S raised the issue of environmental justice.
1984 --The Bhopal gas disaster as methyl isocyanide leaked from union carbide factory in Bhopal, India.
1986– Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine.
1990 – War in Kuwait and Iraq led to the biggest oil spills and environmental disaster in the history of mankind.
2010—The recent largest oil spill in the gulf of Mexico.
2011-- The fukushima daichi nuclear disaster following an earthquake and tsunami in japan.
Moreover the widespread poverty and hunger, malnutrition and lack of access to sanitation and safe drinking water
in the developing countries and the LDCs is also a result of environmental degradation and lack of valuing nature. In
this age of uncertainty, networking of any databank of information about the environmental intelligence, be it non
governmental or state controlled, must be shared for the collective good of the humanity. This can work parallel to
the negotiations for cheap energy solutions and financial assistance demanded by developing countries to counter
low carbon emissions in real time. Amidst this, unrewarding discussion about holding somebody else responsible for
the environmental crisis, If we follow a Eco systematic approach we can hold every single individual, every
community, every country and the whole world be accountable for the environmental crisis.
Ecosystems are under dangerous stress all over the world. The urgent need to sustain the ecological processes
on which all life forms depends has been widely recognized by the various international and national decision making bodies.
But the goals for such actions are always implicit or unclear. There is always lack of political will, absence of consensus
among the leaders due to geopolitics and the lack of interconnectivity among the scientific community.
I believe unless the ecological awareness, training and the relevant data and information about the environmental
issues is not equally shared around the world. We will be facing the calamities like floods in Thailand, famines in Somalia and ever
growing urgency of climate change which still lacks consensus among the scientific community [24,28]. With no time to prepare,
prevent and respond to such events we will create disasters now and in the future.
4

5. What is the Idea ?
My idea is of IRDNES which is established through E- intelligence based on Out of Poverty and Plastic [31].
ecological networking [23,25,26].
Intelligent networks like the information and technology connects different
spaces around the globe by wireless or wired networks that allows work or
data, trade and services to operate proficiently for instance, a well connected
organization of trade and industry shrinks the world into a global community.
Ecosystem is also like an networked system. It has its own intelligence and
specifically assigned roles for the living and non living matter through transfer
of genetic material, through adaptations and at the food webs and trophic
levels to sustain itself. Human beings also plays a major part in it, but we
seems to be either abstaining from passing the reliable data or manipulating it.
This is disturbing the ecological links of this network and this fouled data or
lack of information or awareness towards the ecosystem will lead to collapse Waste Mismanagement
of various ecosystems around the world and catastrophically lead to collapse
of the natural world.
Waste Management
Our e-intelligent choices will be the key to prevent and adapt to the ever-
changing ecological variations and prepare to overcome the ecological
disasters. Intelligence is not only involves logical thinking, but also an
integrated model of responding towards challenging circumstances.
Thinking like we are one with nature!
Networking of research and developmental organizations all over the world for
the purpose of knowledge sharing seems to be a tough task. But through this
global interconnectivity, we can pave a path for a global green economy based Due to lack of
on the principle of just and equity for instance, ecological awareness!
monitoring ecosystem functioning and training about payment for ecosystem
services will help in maintaining the overall balance of nature.
Fragmented Ecological links: social, economical and
environmental.
Some of the environmental issues may seem to have a limited regional cause.
But, they do have ill effects on the natural environment for instance,
A disturbance of abiotic and biotic link by human activities in the deep-water
horizon oil spill in gulf of Mexico in 2010. The causes of the oil spill were
universal but such oil spills had happened before ;But the information and
technical data to prevent or manage such spills hasn’t been shared around the
world. There is still a lack of communication gap between the developed
and developing nations on the environmental front [27].
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6. How will the idea work ?
My idea is to interconnect the research and development projects
around the world. The goal is the availability of scientific knowledge,
technology, financial assistance from the local and global developmental
agencies. This is productive because of its socio and economic benefits which
are possible, if we develop a well channelized flow of ecological relationships
between the science and the society.
A Simple Ecological relationship [29] :
Pottery is one of the earliest means of livelihood which is practiced in many parts
of the world. The earthen products are environment friendly and very much in
demand around the world. Technological advancement has been a boon for this
sector as now the capacity of production is very large, amount of physical labour
is also marginal. Science has empowered the poor with solutions in their problem
domain for the progress of the people.
But unfortunately, the technical knowledge shared around the world is not the
same.
In many parts of the world like India, pottery is an unorganized sector which is
the root cause of poverty, unskilled migration, ecological refugees, and the
vicious cycle of underdevelopment. The many other examples of such sectors
give rise to a ―informal economy” which is extremely harmful to the environment
and leads to problems like air, water and land pollution, waste mismanagement,
Data Base
Networking gender issues, child illiteracy and lack of opportunities to the marginalized people
living in the developing part of the world.
Some key methods to let IRDNES resolve these problems are :
Well
Functioning E-Science- Interconnected research networks for scientific and technological
Ecosystem
knowledge sharing.
The Society will e.g. ecosystem modeling, resource mapping, social mapping at community level
move from
ecological for CBNRM projects , biodiversity registers for conservation projects and
degradation to developing ecosystem database by the help of Eco informatics and data bits
ecological resources.
security
E-Regulations- Policy contributions to competently use the research data to deal
with the natural resource scarceness and build ecological security [32].
e.g. policy making for fair consumption of natural resources like land use
patterns( agricultural and non agricultural land mapping), water conservation(
“We can change the world with reuse grey water for other purposes than drinking, reduce fresh water
consumption and practice rainwater harvesting at local and global level-
our joint efforts” ―BE WATER SMART”
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7. E-Education- Energy is linked to everything. So the public must be encouraged to
use efficient sources of energy and adopt more energy saving means of transport,
electricity and connect with the renewable source of energy to make their
―consumerism‖ more ecologically intelligent [33].
E-Finance- The most significant part of any development project is financial
support. Considering the involvedness of the project and the mutual social and
economic benefits from the project, the investment shall come from international
and national financial aid agencies. Recently reports were published about setting
up of green investment banks for developing a low carbon economy.
E-Entrepreneurship- The concept of social responsibility has been delivering
notable success in reducing the underdevelopment in many parts of the world.
I believe with sincere efforts from the Youth in captivating the opportunity to be
responsible and lead the world towards the sustainable future will uproot the peril
of environmental degradation from our society. Dumping near a Marble Slurry in Udaipur (one
The government must provide incentives to the private sectors and social of the most beautiful city in the world),
entrepreneurs to let the idea of a low carbon growth and sustainable development Rajasthan, India
be a reality soon.
As a final point, the academic and practical
applications of this project can be identified in the
perceptiveness of “environmental accountability “
from all the backgrounds of science, policy and
management operational at the environmental front.
“Harness renewable energy and
follow a path to sustainability”
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8. How is it Innovative? What
about similar projects on local
and regional levels ?
Innovation is about creation of a new idea from experimentation
or introducing something different!
My idea is to make sure that authenticities about the structural
and functional information of any ecosystem and its network is
accessible around the world . For the conservational use
of ecosystem services in the society.
Comparable projects on ecosystem modeling, ecosystem services are
in practice, But mostly in the developed part of the world. Developing
nations still lack the accessibility of expertise and its application for
making ecological sound adoptions. The organizations supporting these
projects have been successful in maintaining the ecological integrity of
different ecosystems.
But, we still face the problems of ecological awareness all over the
world in preparing and adapting with the variations in the ecological
variables and social disorder in the ecosystem. The ecological
networking hasn’t been skillfully practiced where an integrated
approach towards ecological security has been in practice.
Therefore, i feel IRDNES is a innovative approach to move on a path
towards ―Green Economy‖ based on the moralities of ecological and
environmental justice to ensure sustainable development is a certainty
all over the world [34].
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9. Impacts of the project?
Achievements
The impacts of IRDNES will be seen in the realms of :
1. A well connected scientific community and its research for
ecological responsiveness.
2. A global network of eco awareness through different means
of communication like: media, NGOs, educational institutions
(schools, universities) and the most sensational form of
resource sharing “social networking”.
3. The database of information, scientific evidences and
knowledge about environmental issues will be widespread
across the world.
4. A global market of eco businesses will create millions of job
opportunities to maintain a balance between the market forces
and consumption levels through ecological intelligence.
5. With such opportunities accessible across the globe the
pace with which MDGs will be accomplished would be
astonishing.
Let’s be responsible for our environment
nature is at risk ! [30]
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