Capturing emergent phenomena in social-ecological systems: an analytical framework

Social-ecological systems (SES) are complex adaptive systems. Social-ecological system phenomena, such as regime shifts, transformations, or traps, emerge from interactions among and between human and nonhuman entities within and across scales. Analyses of SES phenomena thus require approaches that can account for (1) the intertwinedness of social and ecological processes and (2) the ways they jointly give rise to emergent social-ecological patterns, structures, and dynamics that feedback on the entities and processes that generated them. We have developed a framework of linked action situations (AS) as a tool to capture those interactions that are hypothesized to have jointly and dynamically generated a social-ecological phenomenon of interest. The framework extends the concept of an action situation to provide a conceptualization of SES that focusses on social-ecological interactions and their links across levels. The aim of our SE-AS (social-ecological action situations) framework is to support a process of developing hypotheses about configurations of ASs that may explain an emergent social-ecological phenomenon. We suggest six social-ecological ASs along with social and ecological action situations that can commonly be found in natural resource or ecosystem management contexts. We test the ability of the framework to structure an analysis of processes of emergence by applying it to different case studies of regime shifts, traps, and sustainable resource use. The framework goes beyond existing frameworks and approaches, such as the SES framework or causal loop diagrams, by establishing a way of analyzing SES that focuses on the interplay of social-ecological interactions with the emergent outcomes they produce. We conclude by discussing the added value of the framework and discussing the different purposes it can serve: from supporting the development of theories of the emergence of social-ecological phenomena, enhancing transparency of SES understandings to serving as a boundary object for interdisciplinary knowledge integration

Ways to Help and Ways to Hinder: Governance for Effective Adaptation to an Uncertain Climate

This paper compares two case studies in Alaska, one on commercial fishers of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands region and the other on moose hunters of Interior Alaska, to identify how governance arrangements and management strategies enhance or limit people’s ability to respond effectively to changing climatic and environmental conditions. The two groups face similar challenges regarding the impacts of a changing climate on wild fish and game, but they tell very different stories regarding how and under what conditions these impacts challenge their harvest activities. In both regions, people describe dramatic changes in weather, land, and seascape conditions, and distributions of fish and game. A key finding is that the “command-and-control” model of governance in the Alaska Interior, as implemented through state and federal management tools such as registration hunts and short open seasons, limits effective local responses to environmental conditions, while the more decentralized model of governance created by the Limited Access Privilege systems of the Bering Sea allows fishers great flexibility to respond. We discuss ways to implement aspects of a decentralized decision-making model in the Interior that would benefit hunters by increasing their adaptability and success, while also improving conservation outcomes. Our findings also demonstrate the usefulness of the diagnostic framework employed here for facilitating comparative crossregional analyses of natural resource use and management.Ce document établit une comparaison entre deux études de cas effectuées en Alaska, l’une portant sur les pêcheurs commerciaux de la mer de Béring et de la région des Aléoutiennes et l’autre, sur les chasseurs d’orignaux de l’intérieur de l’Alaska. Cette comparaison avait pour but de déterminer comment les ententes de gouvernance et les stratégies de gestion rehaussent ou restreignent l’aptitude des gens à réagir de manière efficace au changement climatique et aux conditions environnementales. Dans le cas des deux groupes, les défis sont semblables en ce qui a trait aux incidences du changement climatique sur le poisson sauvage et le gibier, mais il n’en reste pas moins que les deux groupes témoignent d’histoires très différentes relativement à la façon dont les incidences influencent leurs activités de chasse ou de pêche, et les circonstances dans lesquelles les incidences présentent des défis à leurs activités de chasse ou de pêche. Dans les deux cas, les individus décrivent des changements dramatiques sur le plan des conditions météorologiques, du paysage terrestre et du paysage marin, ainsi que sur le plan de la répartition du poisson et du gibier. Une des grandes observations ayant émané de cette comparaison, c’est que le modèle de gouvernance consistant à « commander et contrôler » qui est en vigueur dans l’intérieur de l’Alaska, tel qu’imposé par les outils de gestion de l’État et du gouvernement fédéral, et qui se traduit notamment par l’enregistrement des chasses et par des saisons de chasse courtes, se trouve à restreindre l’efficacité des réactions locales vis-à-vis des conditions environnementales, tandis que le mode de gouvernance plus décentralisé créé par les systèmes de privilège à accès limité de la mer de Béring donne aux pêcheurs une plus grande souplesse pour réagir. Nous nous penchons sur diverses façons de mettre en oeuvre les aspects d’un modèle de prise de décisions décentralisé dans l’intérieur de manière à ce que les chasseurs en bénéficient en augmentant leur adaptabilité et leur succès, tout en améliorant les résultats de conservation. Nos constatations démontrent aussi l’utilité du cadre diagnostic employé ici pour faciliter les analyses inter-régionales en matière d’utilisation et de gestion des ressources naturelles

Conceptualizing values as part of a dynamic multilevel world

Includes bibliographical references.2015 Summer.Humans are engaged in complex relationships of adaptation and change with the environment, each affecting one another. These relationships (i.e., feedback loops) necessitate an increased understanding of the different components of social-ecological systems. However, these systems appear to operate differently depending on the levels and scales under investigation, making it difficult to fully conceptualize these interconnected phenomena as well as raising important questions. We narrow our focus on two specific areas of inquiry in the interest of explicating factors that influence social values, which in turn lead to the attitudes and behaviors that can either drive or alleviate the many environmental challenges we face. First, how might macro processes of social change at different levels affect individual-level thought, and what might this mean for biodiversity conservation and environmental protection? Second, can internal human cognitions transform into widespread societal beliefs about how the environment, including wildlife, should be treated? This dissertation presents two manuscripts designed to contribute to these areas of inquiry by considering how values are influenced by processes at different levels on a geopolitical scale, and how those values shape levels of cognition within individuals (an internal cognitive scale). The first chapter specifically focuses on understanding how socioeconomic advances at the county-level within the state of Washington are influencing new value priorities, and how these values lead to support for biodiversity conservation of species irrespective of human needs. For example, higher levels of income, education, and urbanization at both individual and county levels were associated with higher degrees of mutualism, a value orientation that prioritizes the needs of wildlife as similar to the needs of humans. Indeed, we found mutualism to be positively associated with support for wolves (Canis lupis) recolonizing the state despite the potential for livestock predation and concern for human safety. Results also indicate that these new value priorities can lead to social conflict among different segments of the public based on beliefs about how wildlife should be managed. This work demonstrates several key findings. First, broad changes in social systems lead to a fundamental shift in social values in such a way that clearly indicates social-ecological context matters. Second, these values lead to predictable patterns of response to actions that promote biodiversity conservation. However, those patterns of response vary across the landscape, providing further evidence of cross-level and cross-scale dynamics within systems. The second article casts social values as actors in a different, but equally important systems view complete with feedback loops. Specifically, social values are depicted as subject to the upward processes of emergence (micro-to-macro level) and the downward processes of immergence (macro-to-micro level). Our conceptualization acknowledges values as phenomena that emerge from individuals who are in turn shaped by pervasive social-ecological conditions (e.g., warfare, mass migrations, disease spread). Although processes of emergence are not directly studied in this manuscript, immergence is explored in two ways: (1) the effect of socioeconomic advances at a state level on individual expressions of postmaterialist values (values that tend to focus on the needs of others outside of self), and (2) the existence of widespread environmental attitudes associated with a prevalence of postmaterialist values. Only support for the second pathway of immergence was found, suggesting that individuals with postmaterialist values do indeed support protection of the environment, including wildlife, even at the expense of human interests such as economic development and recreation behaviors. In total, this dissertation is intended to provide a deeper look at the feedback loops between different levels of cognition and the world in which we live in the hopes of informing solutions to the grave environmental challenges we face

Resilient livelihoods and food security in coastal aquatic agricultural systems: Investing in transformational change

Aquatic agricultural systems (AAS) are diverse production and livelihood systems where families cultivate a range of crops, raise livestock, farm or catch fish, gather fruits and other tree crops, and harness natural resources such as timber, reeds, and wildlife. Aquatic agricultural systems occur along freshwater floodplains, coastal deltas, and inshore marine waters, and are characterized by dependence on seasonal changes in productivity, driven by seasonal variation in rainfall, river flow, and/or coastal and marine processes. Despite this natural productivity, the farming, fishing, and herding communities who live in these systems are among the poorest and most vulnerable in their countries and regions. This report provides an overview of the scale and scope of development challenges in coastal aquatic agricultural systems, their significance for poor and vulnerable communities, and the opportunities for partnership and investment that support efforts of these communities to secure resilient livelihoods in the face of multiple risks

Wildlife Crime and Other Challenges to Resource System Resilience

Although wildlife crime has exploded in Africa over the past decade —“commercial poaching” now kills an estimated eight percent of the continent’s elephant population each year—some governments have proven more successful than others at protecting wildlife and preserving habitats. To explain this variation, this study examines how the policies of three states (Kenya, Tanzania, and Botswana) have enhanced or undermined the resilience of the continent’s elephant ecosystem. Using the social-ecological system framework, the study illustrates how each state’s changing practices have either exacerbated the stresses wrought by wildlife crime or successfully protected local populations from poaching. The study finds that monocausal explanations cannot explain social-ecological systems outcomes. Cross-level and cross-scale dynamics, including temporal, geospatial, epistemological, and institutional linkages, explain variation in system functionality. These dynamics include colonial policies, governance practices, the international conservation community, and resource use decisions

Transitions of social-ecological subsistence systems in the Arctic

Transitions of social-ecological systems (SES) expose governance systems to new challenges. This is particularly so in the Arctic where resource systems are increasingly subjected to global warming, industrial development and globalization which subsequently alter the local SES dynamics. Based on common-pool resource theory, we developed a dynamic conceptual model explaining how exogenous drivers might alter a traditional subsistence system from a provisioning to an appropriation actions situation. In a provisioning action situation the resource users do not control the resource level but adapt to the fluctuating availability of resources, and the collective challenge revolve around securing the subsistence in the community. An increased harvest pressure enabled by exogenous drivers could transform the SES to an appropriation action situation where the collective challenge has changed to avoid overuse of a common-pool resource. The model was used as a focal lens to investigate the premises for broad-scale transitions of subsistence-oriented SESs in Arctic Alaska, Canada and Greenland. We synthesized data from documents, official statistics and grey and scientific literature to explore the different components of our model. Our synthesis suggests that the traditional Arctic subsistence SESs mostly comply with a provisioning action situation. Despite population growth and available technology; urbanization, increased wage labor and importation of food have reduced the resource demand, and we find no evidence for a broad-scale transition to an appropriation action situation throughout the Western Arctic. However, appropriation challenges have emerged in some cases either as a consequence of commercialization of the resource or by severely reduced resource stocks due to various exogenous drivers. Future transitions of SESs could be triggered by the emergence of commercial local food markets and Arctic warming. In particular, Arctic warming is an intensifying exogenous driver that is threatening many important Arctic wildlife resources inflicting increased appropriation challenges to the governance of local harvest.Ye

Managing the wildlife tourism commons

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) and their support is gratefully acknowledged.MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. This work was stimulated by discussions with the Moray Firth Dolphin Space Programme and we particularly thank Ben Leyshon (Scottish Natural Heritage) for fruitful discussions. The authors would like to thank K. Barton and C. Konrad for their advice on biased random walks and correlated random fields, D.Murphy for useful discussions during the development of the simulations, and M. Marcoux for important comments on an earlier version of this work. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers, whose comments have greatly improved the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Merging Subsistence Perspective and \u3ci\u3eBuen Vivir\u3c/i\u3e: An Alternative to Damming the Mekong

This paper will examine the planned development on the Mekong by looking at the historical, political, and economic reasons why largescale hydroelectric dams are now being pushed upon the river. It will then critique the international state sovereignty system focusing directly on the Mekong River Commission and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) for their inabilities to mitigate environmental impact while pursuing development. I analyze how the “global city” discourse cannot rationally be applied to Southeast Asia and how the urban-rural divide in Southeast Asia creates only greater problems as dam production on the Mekong accelerates. I propose an alternative vision for the future on the Mekong that recalibrates development into an ecologically sustainable and attainable form by using historical context from James C. Scott in conversation with the theoretical visions championed by Maria Mies on subsistence and the conception of Buen Vivir. I will then use the theories on social change from George Katsiaficas and Felix Guattari with examples of resistance in the region to showcase how this can be attained