Introduction

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511541957.003

1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2009

Johan Colding and

Edited by

Johan Colding and

Fikret Berkes: Affiliation:
Professor Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Canada
Johan Colding: Affiliation:
Centre for Research on Natural Resources and the Environment, Stockholm University; Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden
Carl Folke: Affiliation:
Director of the Centre for Research on Natural Resources and the Environment (CNM), and a Professor in the Department of Systems Ecology Stockholm University, Sweden; Professor at the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden
Fikret Berkes: Affiliation:
University of Manitoba, Canada
Johan Colding: Affiliation:
Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm
Carl Folke: Affiliation:
Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Building capacity to adapt to change: the context

A common perspective until recently was that our problem-solving abilities have been improving over the years. In the area of resource and environmental management, for example, there was a great deal of faith in our growing scientific understanding of ecosystems, our bag of increasingly sophisticated tools and technologies, and the application of market mechanisms to problems such as air pollution control and fishery management through individually allocated quotas. However, the experience over the last few decades does not support such optimism (e.g., Clark and Munn, 1986; Ludwig, Hilborn, and Walters, 1993; Gunderson, Holling, and Light, 1995). Many of our resource and environmental problems are proving resistant to solutions. A gap has developed between environmental problems and our lagging ability to solve them. This is coming at a time when the Earth has become an increasingly human-dominated system. Many of the changes in the biosphere, including the modification of landscapes, loss of biodiversity and, according to some, climate change, are driven by human activities. Furthermore, changes are occurring at an increasingly faster rate than previously experienced in human history.

There is an emerging consensus regarding the need to look for broader approaches and solutions, not only with resource and environmental issues but along a wide front of societal problems. A survey of senior American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) scientists revealed an intriguing insight.

Type: Chapter
Information: Navigating Social-Ecological Systems
Building Resilience for Complexity and Change
, pp. 1 - 30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511541957.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adger, W. N. 2000. Social and ecological resilience: are they related? Progress in Human Geography 24: 347–64CrossRef Google Scholar

Allen, T. F. H. and Starr, T. B. 1982. Hierarchy: Perspectives for Ecological Complexity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Anderson, E. N. 1996. Ecologies of the Heart. Emotion, Belief, and the Environment. New York: Oxford University Press

Arrow, K., Bolin, B., Costanza, R.et al. 1995. Economic growth, carrying capacity and the environment. Science 268: 520–1CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Balee, W., ed. 1998. Advances in Historical Ecology. New York: Columbia University Press

Barbier, E. B., Burgess, J., and Folke, C. 1994. Paradise Lost? The Ecological Economics of Biodiversity. London: Earthscan

Baskerville, G. 1995. The forestry problem: adaptive lurches of renewal. In Barriers and Bridges to the Renewal of Ecosystems and Institutions, pp. 37–102, ed. L. H. Gunderson, C. S. Holling, and S. S Light. New York: Columbia University Press

Bateson, G. 1979. Mind and Nature. A Necessary Unity. New York: Dutton

Berkes, F., ed. 1989. Common Property Resources. Ecology and Community-Based Sustainable Development. London: Belhaven

Berkes, F. 1999. Sacred Ecology: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Resource Management. Philadelphia and London: Taylor and Francis

Berkes, F. 2001. Religious traditions and biodiversity. Encyclopedia of Biodiversity 5: 109–20CrossRef Google Scholar

Berkes, F., Colding, J., and Folke, C. 2000. Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecological Applications 10: 1251–62CrossRef Google Scholar

Berkes, F. and Folke, C. 1994. Investing in cultural capital for a sustainable use of natural capital. In Investing in Natural Capital, pp. 128–49, ed. A. M. Jansson, M. Hammer, C. Folke, and R. Costanza. Washington DC: Island Press

Berkes, F. and Folke, C., eds. 1998. Linking Social and Ecological Systems. Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Berkes, F. and Folke, C. 2002. Back to the future: ecosystem dynamics and local knowledge. In Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature, pp. 121–46, ed. L. H. Gunderson and C. S. Holling. Washington DC: Island Press

Berkes, F., Kislalioglu, M., Folke, C., and Gadgil, M. 1998. Exploring the basic ecological unit: ecosystem-like concepts in traditional societies. Ecosystems 1: 409–15CrossRef Google Scholar

Berkes, F., Mahon, R., McConney, P., Pollnac, R. C., and Pomeroy, R. S. 2001. Managing Small-Scale Fisheries: Alternative Directions and Methods. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre

Blaikie, P. 1985. The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries. Harlow, UK: Longman

Blaikie, P. and Jeanrenaud, S. 1996. Biodiversity and human welfare. Discussion Paper No. 72. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)

Bromley, D. W. 1991. Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell

Bromley, D. W., ed. 1992. Making the Commons Work: Theory, Practice, and Policy. San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies

Callicott, J. B. 1994. Earth's Insights. A Survey of Ecological Ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback. Berkeley: University of California Press

Capra, F. 1996. The Web of Life. New York: Anchor Books

Clark, W. C. and Munn, R. E., eds. 1986. Sustainable Development of the Biosphere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Colding, J. and Folke, C. 1997. The relations among threatened species, their protection, and taboos. Conservation Ecology 1 (1): 6. [online] URL:http://www.consecol.org/vol1/iss1/art6

Costanza, R., ed. 1991. Ecological Economics: the Science and Management of Sustainability. New York: Columbia University Press

Costanza, R., Norton, B. G., and Haskell, B. D., eds. 1992. Ecosystem Health: New Goals for Environmental Management. Washington DC: Island Press

Costanza, R., Waigner, L., Folke, C., and Mäler, K.-G. 1993. Modeling complex ecological economic systems: towards an evolutionary dynamic understanding of people and nature. BioScience 43: 545–55CrossRef Google Scholar

Cronon, W. 1983. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang

Feeny, D., Berkes, F., McCay, B. J., and Acheson, J. M. 1990. The tragedy of the commons: twenty-two years later. Human Ecology 18: 1–19CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Folke, C., Berkes, F., and Colding, J. 1998a. Ecological practices and social mechanisms for building resilience and sustainability. In Linking Social and Ecological Systems, pp. 414–36, ed. F. Berkes and C. Folke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Folke, C. and Colding, J. 2001. Traditional conservation practices. Encyclopedia of Biodiversity 5: 681–93CrossRef Google Scholar

Gadgil, M. and Guha, R. 1992. This Fissured Land. An Ecological History of India. Delhi: Oxford University Press

Greenberg, J. B. and Park, T. K. 1994. Political ecology. Journal of Political Ecology 1: 1–12CrossRef Google Scholar

Gunderson, L. H. 1999. Resilience, flexibility and adaptive management: antidotes for spurious certitude? Conservation Ecology 3: 7. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol3/iss1/art7

Gunderson, L. H. 2000. Ecological resilience – in theory and application. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 31: 425–39CrossRef Google Scholar

Gunderson, L. H. and Holling, C. S., eds. 2002. Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature. Washington, DC: Island Press

Gunderson, L. H., Holling, C. S., and Light, S., eds. 1995. Barriers and Bridges to the Renewal of Ecosystems and Institutions. New York: Columbia University Press

Hanna, S., Folke, C., and Mäler, K.-G., eds. 1996. Rights to Nature. Washington DC: Island Press

Holland, J. H. 1995. Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley

Holling, C. S. 1973. Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 4: 1–23CrossRef Google Scholar

Holling, C. S., ed. 1978. Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management. London: Wiley

Holling, C. S. 1986. The resilience of terrestrial ecosystems: local surprise and global change. In Sustainable Development of the Biosphere, pp. 292–317, ed. W. C. Clark and R. E. Munn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Holling, C. S. 1988. Temperate forest insect outbreaks, tropical deforestation and migratory birds. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 146: 21–32CrossRef Google Scholar

Holling, C. S. 2001. Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosystems 4(5): 390–405CrossRef Google Scholar

Holling, C. S., Berkes, F., and Folke, C. 1998. Science, sustainability, and resource management. In Linking Social and Ecological Systems, pp. 342–62, ed. F. Berkes and C. Folke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Holling, C. S. and Meffe, G. K. 1996. Command and control and the pathology of natural resource management. Conservation Biology 10: 328–37CrossRef Google Scholar

Holling, C. S., Schindler, D. W., Walker, B. W., and Roughgarden, J. 1995. Biodiversity in the functioning of ecosystems: an ecological synthesis. In Biodiversity Loss, pp. 44–83, ed. C. A. Perrings, K.-G. Mäler, C. Folke, C. S. Holling, and B.-O. Jansson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Jackson, J. B. C., Kirby, M. X., Berher, W. H.et al. 2001. Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems. Science 293: 629–38CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Jansson, A. M., Hammer, M., Folke, C., and Costanza, R., eds. 1994. Investing in Natural Capital: the Ecological Economics Approach to Sustainability. Washington, DC: Island Press

Jasanoff, S., Colwell, R., Dresselhaus, S.et al. 1997. Conversations with the community: AAAS at the millennium. Science 278: 2066–7CrossRef Google Scholar

Jentoft, S., McCay, B. J., and Wilson, D. C. 1998. Social theory and fisheries co-management. Marine Policy 22: 423–36CrossRef Google Scholar

Johannes, R. E. 1981. Words of the Lagoon. Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palau District of Micronesia. Berkeley: University of California Press

Kates, R. W., Clark, W. C., Corell, R.et al. 2001. Sustainability science. Science 292: 641–2. Statement of the Friibergh Workshop on Sustainability Science. Available from the Internet. URL: http://sustsci.harvard.edu/keydocs/friibergh.htmCrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Kauffman, S. 1993. The Origins of Order. New York: Oxford University Press

Larkin, P. A. 1977. An epitaph for the concept of maximum sustained yield. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 106: 1–112.0.CO;2>CrossRef Google Scholar

Levin, S. A. 1999a. Fragile Dominion: Complexity and the Commons. Reading, MA: Perseus Books

Levin, S. A. 1999b. Towards a science of ecological management. Conservation Ecology 3 (2): 6. [online] URL:http://www.consecol.org/vol3/iss2/art6CrossRef Google Scholar

Levin, S. A., Barrett, S., Aniyar, S.et al. 1998. Resilience in natural and socioeconomic systems. Environment and Development Economics 3: 225–36CrossRef Google Scholar

Ludwig, D., Hilborn, R., and Walters, C. 1993. Uncertainty, resource exploitation and conservation: lessons from history. Science 260: 17, 36CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Lugo, A. 1995. Management of tropical biodiversity. Ecological Applications 5: 956–61CrossRef Google Scholar

Mäler, K.-G. 2000. Development, ecological resources and their management: a study of complex dynamic systems. European Economic Review 44: 645–65CrossRef Google Scholar

McCay, B. J. and Acheson, J. M., eds. 1987. The Question of the Commons. The Culture and Ecology of Communal Resources. Tucson: University of Arizona Press

McIntosh, R. J. 2000. Climate, history and human action. In The Way the Wind Blows: Climate, History and Human Action, pp. 1–42, ed. R. J. McIntosh, J. A. Tainter, and S. K. McIntosh. New York: Columbia University Press

McIntosh, R. J., Tainter, J. A., and McIntosh, S. K., eds. 2000. The Way the Wind Blows: Climate, History and Human Action. New York: Columbia University Press

Naess, A. 1989. Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy, translated and edited by D. Rothenberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Norgaard, R. B. 1994. Development Betrayed: the End of Progress and a Coevolutionary Revisioning of the Future. New York: Routledge

North, D. C. 1994. Economic performance through time. American Economic Review 84: 359–68Google Scholar

Nyström, M. and Folke, C. 2001. Spatial resilience of coral reefs. Ecosystems 4: 406–17Google Scholar

Olsson, P. and Folke, C. 2001. Local ecological knowledge and institutional dynamics for ecosystem management: a study of Lake Racken watershed, Sweden. Ecosystems 4: 85–104CrossRef Google Scholar

Ostrom, E. 1990. Governing the Commons: the Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Ostrom, E. 1992. Crafting Institutions for Self-Governing Irrigation Systems. San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies Press

Ostrom, E., Burger, J., Field, C. B., Norgaard, R. B., and Policansky, D. 1999. Revisiting the commons: local lessons, global challenges. Science 284: 278–82CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Perrings, C. A., Mäler, K. G., Folke, C., Holling, C. S., and Jansson, B.-O., eds. 1995. Biodiversity Loss: Ecological and Economic Issues. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Perrings, C. A. and Walker, B. W. 1995. Biodiversity loss and the economics of discontinuous change in semi-arid grasslands. In Biodiversity Loss, pp. 190–210, ed. C. A. Perrings, K.-G. Mäler, C. Folke, C. S. Holling, and B.-O. Jansson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Resilience Alliance 2002. www.resalliance.org/programdescription

Riedlinger, D. and Berkes, F. 2001. Contributions of traditional knowledge to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic. Polar Record 37: 315–28CrossRef Google Scholar

Santa Fe Institute 2002. www.santafe.edu

Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S., Foley, J., Folke, C., and Walker, B. 2001. Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems. Nature 413: 591–6CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Schumpeter, J. A. 1950. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York: Harper and Row

Sen, A. K. 1999. Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Turner, B. L., Clark, W. C., Kates, R. W., Richards, J. F., Mathews, J. T., and Meyer, W. B., eds. 1990. The Earth as Transformed by Human Action. Global and Regional Changes in the Biosphere over the Past 300 Years. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

van der Leeuw, S. E. 2000. Land degradation as a socionatural process. In The Way the Wind Blows: Climate, History and Human Action, pp. 190–210, ed. R. J. McIntosh, J. A. Tainter, and S. K. McIntosh. New York: Columbia University Press

von Bertalanffy, L. 1968. General Systems Theory. New York: George Brazilier

Walters, C. J. 1986. Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources. New York: McGraw-Hill

Warren, D. M., Slikkerveer, L. J., and Brokensha, D., eds. 1995. The Cultural Dimension of Development. Indigenous Knowledge Systems. London: Intermediate Technology Publications

Wilson, J. 2000. Scientific uncertainty and institutional scale: ocean fisheries. Papers of the International Association for the Study of Common Property (IASCP), Bloomington, Indiana, June 2000. www.indiana.edu/∼iascp2000.htm

Worster, D., ed. 1988. The Ends of the Earth. Perspectives on Modern Environmental History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Book contents

1 - Introduction

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive