Ecological Resilience as a Systemic Property of Social‐ecological Systems

Over the past several decades, environmental governance has made substantial progress in addressing environmental change, but emerging environmental problems require new innovations in law, policy, and governance. While expansive legal reform is unlikely to occur soon, there is untapped potential in existing laws to address environmental change, both by leveraging adaptive and transformative capacities within the law itself to enhance social-ecological resilience and by using those laws to allow social-ecological systems to adapt and transform. Legal and policy research to date has largely overlooked this potential, even though it offers a more expedient approach to addressing environmental change than waiting for full-scale environmental law reform. We highlight examples from the United States and the European Union of untapped capacity in existing laws for fostering resilience in social-ecological systems. We show that governments and other governance agents can make substantial advances in addressing environmental change in the short term—without major legal reform—by exploiting those untapped capacities, and we offer principles and strategies to guide such initiatives.

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An education approach for the Anthropocene epoch

Research Society and Development ◽

10.33448/rsd-v10i11.19780 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. e448101119780

Author(s):

Cristiane Mansur de Moraes Souza

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Social Learning ◽

Methodological Approach ◽

Ecological Systems ◽

Ecological Resilience ◽

Considerable Uncertainty ◽

Social Ecological Systems ◽

Social Ecological ◽

The Social

It is now well established in the literature that there is a need to incorporate the concept of sustainability into education at all study levels. However, there is considerable uncertainty expressed concerning how it could best be achieved and how the resilience concept would enhance this idea. This article aims to address this gap. The objective is to explore aspects of socio-ecological resilience, that underlies a university case study. The methodology is exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory. Results demonstrate that civil engagement university activities are an education approach that provides students with experiences that build skills necessary for addressing the challenges of the Anthropocene Epoch. The conclusion of the article emphasizes that the education for the Anthropocene epoch should consider the enhancement of ecosystem services by demonstrating that humans are part of the social-ecological systems; considering interdisciplinarity as a methodological approach; demonstrating the variety of potentials on participation of stakeholders by civil engagement as developing autonomy both on students and stakeholders and developing the ability for proactive attitudes. Is also enhance learning and social learning by civil engagement and participation.

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Using a social-ecological systems perspective to understand tourism and landscape interactions in coastal areas

Journal of Tourism Futures ◽

10.1108/jtf-10-2015-0047 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 23-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Jasper Hessel Heslinga ◽

Peter Groote ◽

Frank Vanclay

Keyword(s):

Landscape Planning ◽

Coastal Areas ◽

Ecological Systems ◽

Ecological Resilience ◽

Potential Contribution ◽

Content Type ◽

Social Ecological Systems ◽

Systems Perspective ◽

Social Ecological ◽

The Social

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to look at the potential synergies between tourism and landscapes and examine the potential contribution of tourism to build social-ecological resilience in the Dutch Wadden. Design/methodology/approach The authors reveal how a social-ecological systems perspective can be used to conceptualize the Wadden as a coupled and dynamic system. This paper is a conceptual analysis that applies this approach to the Dutch Wadden. The data used for the inquiry primarily comes from a literature review. Findings The authors argue that the social-ecological systems perspective is a useful approach and could be used to improve the governance of multi-functional socio-ecological systems in coastal areas. Opportunities for synergies between tourism and landscapes have been overlooked. The authors consider that tourism and nature protection are potentially compatible and that the synergies should be identified. Research limitations/implications This paper is only a conceptual application rather than an empirical case study. Further research to actually apply the methodology is needed. Practical implications Managers of protected areas should consider applying a social-ecological systems approach. Social implications The views of a wide variety of stakeholders should be considered in landscape planning. Originality/value The value of this paper lies in the articulation of the social-ecological systems perspective as a way to identify and understand the complex interactions between tourism and landscape, and the potential synergies between them.

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Adaptive Management of Ecosystem Services for Multisystemic Resilience

Multisystemic Resilience ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190095888.003.0038 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 725-743

Author(s):

Katharine F. E. Hogan ◽

Kirsty L. Nash ◽

Elena Bennett

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Global Change ◽

Adaptive Management ◽

Multiple Scales ◽

Ecological Systems ◽

Ecological Resilience ◽

Research And Practice ◽

Social Ecological Systems ◽

Social Ecological ◽

Key Topics

Globally, ecosystems provide the equivalent of trillions of dollars every year in the form ecosystem services. These include provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. People are dependent on ecosystem services, yet their sustainability is at risk due to increasingly rapid global change that impacts the resilience of social-ecological systems at multiple scales. In this chapter, the authors outline the concepts and theory of multisystemic social-ecological resilience. They discuss management principles that embrace cycles of change in social-ecological systems and work with these systems toward sustainability rather than pushing for increased efficiency and stability, which tends to undermine resilience across systems and scales. They explore adaptive management as a framework that supports improved understanding and management of ecosystem services for resilience in light of global change, outlining key topics for questions of research and practice.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Marine reserves as linked social-ecological systems.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.2998960.2676058 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Ferdinando Boero ◽

Joachim Claudet

Keyword(s):

Marine Reserves ◽

Ecological Systems ◽

Social Ecological Systems ◽

Social Ecological

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Systems theories

10.1093/oso/9780198793182.003.0008 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Marc J. Stern

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Problem Solving ◽

Natural Resources ◽

Real World ◽

Common Pool Resources ◽

Ecological Systems ◽

Effective Governance ◽

Social Ecological Systems ◽

Social Ecological ◽

Real World Problem

This chapter covers systems theories relevant to understanding and working to enhance the resilience of social-ecological systems. Social-ecological systems contain natural resources, users of those resources, and the interactions between each. The theories in the chapter share lessons about how to build effective governance structures for common pool resources, how to facilitate the spread of worthwhile ideas across social networks, and how to promote collaboration for greater collective impacts than any one organization alone could achieve. Each theory is summarized succinctly and followed by guidance on how to apply it to real world problem solving.

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