Dynamic Simulation Models and Participatory Approaches to Support the Sustainable Management of Social-Ecological Systems in Natural Protected Areas

2020 ◽  
pp. 121-131
Author(s):  
Alicia Tenza-Peral ◽  
Vianney Beraud-Macías ◽  
Julia Martínez-Fernández ◽  
Irene Pérez-Ibarra ◽  
Aurora Breceda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Dynamic Simulation ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Participatory Approaches ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

Navigating protected areas as social-ecological systems: integration pathways of French nature reserves

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 607-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Therville ◽  
Raphaël Mathevet ◽  
Frédéric Bioret ◽  
Martine Antona
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Systems Integration ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Nature Reserves ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

Transdisciplinary science for improved conservation outcomes

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 224-233
Author(s):  
Chris Margules ◽  
Agni K Boedhihartono ◽  
James D Langston ◽  
Rebecca A Riggs ◽  
Dwi Amalia Sari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Conservation Projects ◽  
Theories Of Change

SummaryMajor advances in biology and ecology have sharpened our understanding of what the goals of biodiversity conservation might be, but less progress has been made on how to achieve conservation in the complex, multi-sectoral world of human affairs. The failure to deliver conservation outcomes is especially severe in the rapidly changing landscapes of tropical low-income countries. We describe five techniques we have used to complement and strengthen long-term attempts to achieve conservation outcomes in the landscapes and seascapes of such regions; these are complex social-ecological systems shaped by interactions between biological, ecological and physical features mediated by the actions of people. Conservation outcomes occur as a result of human decisions and the governance arrangements that guide change. However, much conservation science in these countries is not rooted in a deep understanding of how these social-ecological systems work and what really determines the behaviour of the people whose decisions shape the future of landscapes. We describe five scientific practices that we have found to be effective in building relationships with actors in landscapes and influencing their behaviour in ways that reconcile conservation and development. We have used open-ended inductive enquiry, theories of change, simulation models, network analysis and multi-criteria analysis. These techniques are all widely known and well tested, but seldom figure in externally funded conservation projects. We have used these techniques to complement and strengthen existing interventions of international conservation agencies. These five techniques have proven effective in achieving deeper understanding of context, engagement with all stakeholders, negotiation of shared goals and continuous learning and adaptation.

scholarly journals Rethinking Sustainable Development Using Deep Ecology and Adaptive Governance of Social-Ecological Systems: Implications for Protected Areas Management

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kofi Akamani
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Deep Ecology ◽  
Adaptive Governance ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

Since the late 1980s the idea of sustainable development has been gaining widespread recognition as a guiding framework for policies on development and the environment. However, the concept of sustainable development has received a number of criticisms, including its over-emphasis on meeting human needs through economic growth, as well as its failure to recognize dynamic human-environment interactions. In response to these shortfalls, the concepts of resilience and adaptive governance have emerged as alternative perspectives for pursuing sustainable development. Resilience in social-ecological systems emphasizes the capacity of coupled human-environment systems to deal with change while continuing to develop. Adaptive governance relies on diverse and nested institutional mechanisms for connecting actors across multiple scales to manage conflicts and uncertainties in ecosystem management processes. However, the ethical dimensions of resilience and adaptive governance have not received enough attention. A promising ethical perspective for guiding policies on human-environment interactions is the philosophy of deep ecology which highlights the need for recognition of the intrinsic values of all living things, as well as the nurturing of ecological and cultural diversity. We argue that an integration of the principles of deep ecology and adaptive governance provides a complementary set of ethical principles and institutional attributes that offers better prospects for pursuing sustainable development in the era of the Anthropocene. The implications of this integrative agenda include: adoption of a holistic conception of dynamic human-environment interactions; recognition of diverse knowledge systems through an anti-reductionist approach to knowledge; promotion of long term sustainability through respect for ecological and cultural diversity; and embracing decentralization and local autonomy. We further illustrate this integrative agenda using the management of protected areas as a case study.

Sustainability of wildlife harvest in stochastic social-ecological systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Law ◽  
John D C Linnell ◽  
Bram Van Moorter ◽  
Erlend B. Nilsen
Keyword(s):  
Simulation Models ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Multiple Objectives ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Singular Optimum ◽  
Wildlife Harvest ◽  
Ethical Perspectives

1.Sustainable wildlife harvest is challenged by complex and uncertain social-ecological systems, and diverse stakeholder perspectives. Heuristics could provide one avenue to integrate scientific principles and understand potential conflict in data-poor harvest systems. Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) can be a useful tool to explore harvest options and implications from diverse perspectives, and aid in heuristic development.2.We ran 176,910 stochastic simulation models to develop heuristics for sustainability in wildlife harvest systems. Environmental contexts included three simulated species distributed across the slow-fast life-history gradient (the great-unicorn, lesser-unicorn, and phoenix), two variability/uncertainty levels, and three starting population sizes. Optimal outcomes from four harvest strategies (constant, proportional, threshold-proportional, and threshold-increasing-proportional) were assessed under evaluation contexts reflecting multiple environmental, harvester, manager and societal sustainability objectives and ethical perspectives.3.The results reveal fundamental challenges in obtaining sustainable outcomes in harvest systems: few scenarios produced good scores across all evaluation metrics and ethical perspectives. Composite evaluation metric sets and ethical perspectives strongly influenced perceived outcomes. Rawlsian ethical perspectives (considering the minimum score of multiple objectives) often revealed severe trade-offs between individual metrics, even when Utilitarian ethical perspectives (averaging scores of multiple objectives) view the same scenarios positively. Simple composite metrics popular in the theoretical literature often diverged from the holistic metrics that better reflect applied contexts.4.Threshold and proportional systems performed better than constant harvest under Utilitarian ethics in 79-90% of cases, and 34-39% of cases with Rawlsian ethics. However, no strategy was optimal overall: each harvest system tested was near-optimal in at least one evaluation context in every environmental context.5.Synthesis and applications. Given a lack of a singular optimum strategy, we recommend harvest systems should be chosen with clear reference to contextually appropriate metrics and ethics of interest when optimizing harvest systems for sustainability. Importantly, management recommendations focused on maximizing harvest should be treated with skepticism if this is not explicitly identified as a key value for that socio-ecological system.

scholarly journals Evaluating Linked Social-Ecological Systems in Marine Protected Areas

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana López-Angarita ◽  
Rocío Moreno-Sánchez ◽  
Jorge Higinio Maldonado ◽  
Juan A. Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological
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