Golf Environment Organization

Ecosystems are the earth's real 'natural capital' and are increasingly recognised and valued for the crucial 'life supporting' services they provide.

Healthy ecosystems provide the essential resources upon which all life depends. They directly influence our quality of life and well being, and are responsible for the provision of almost all basic human needs.

From food and medicines, regulation of climate and disease, provision of productive soils, clean water and air, and landscapes for recreation and release, balanced and 'functioning' ecosystems provide all this.

Such is the core importance of ecosystem functioning, the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warns that the continued destruction, fragmentation and over-exploitation of ecosystems places human well-being at risk: "Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted."

The word “ecosystem” describes a system of living communities and their dynamic interaction with the physical (non-living) environment of the air, water, rocks and soils. An ecosystem can be a small area, such as a pond or garden, or it can be enormous in extent, such as the coral communities on the Great Barrier Reef. The whole earth's surface can be described by a series of interconnected ecosystems. Within an ecosystem, all aspects of the environment (biodiversity and the non-living surroundings) interact and affect one another. Every species has some relationship with or effect on the lives of those around them. Large ecosystems can contain smaller ecosystems, such as the small aquatic or wetland habitats in a rainforest, or the wooded areas in a farmland or peatland landscape.

Golf courses both interact with ecosystems and can also be considered as ecosystems in their own right.  All golf courses comprise managed or modified living communities and assemblages of plants and animals.  Whilst many golf courses are valued for the role they play in conserving larger, or housing smaller, ecosystems, it is equally true that modern golf courses can have negative impacts.  

Perhaps uniquely in sport and certainly in contrast to many other 'exploitative' land uses, the very essence of golf should be about interaction with the natural world, about subtle modification of landscape and vegetation to create a synthesis of sport and environment.  It should not be about domination of natural processes or the creation of heavily man modified environments, artificial in character and worthless as functioning ecosystems.

It is very important that golf plays its part in conserving and enhancing ecosystems, fulfilling its unique potential to create new dynamic ecosystems in degraded landscapes, and protecting existing valuable habitats where they exist.  

All golf courses have the opportunity to enrich their local environment by maximising their role within the wider ecosystem framework, and by working to increase the internal ecosystem richness of courses themselves.

And surely we can equate ecosystem rich golf courses with great golf?

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