Abstract

The paper introduces and comments a sustainability indicator called Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP). HANPP calculation has a firm biological basis. The assessment of this indicator originated with the measurement of Net Primary Production (NPP). NPP is the amount of energy left after subtracting the respiration of primary producers (mostly plants) from the total amount of energy (mostly solar) that is fixed biologically.

HANPP is an aggregated indicator that reflects both the amount of area used by humans and the intensity of land use. This indicator measures to what extent land conversion and biomass harvest alter the availability of energy in ecosystems. HANPP provides a useful measure of human intervention into the biosphere. It is a prominent measure of the scale of human activities compared to natural processes. Thus, the HANPP indicator is relevant for policy making because its assessments are comparable across space and time.