Ecological Footprint

Definition

Ecological Footprint is the global ecological footprint as humanity’s demands on the biosphere per unit of time (also referred to as ‘impact’ and ‘demand’).

The ecological footprint is affected by the size and composition of our individual demands, the size of the human population, and the efficiency with which we both convert Nature’s services to meet our demands and return our waste back into Nature (Review definition). The Global Footprint Network defines ecological footprint as a measure of how much area of biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates, using prevailing technology and resource management practices .