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Resilience governance of social-ecological systems
Citation:
Garmestani, A. Resilience governance of social-ecological systems. Social-Ecological Resilience Workshop at Utrecht University, Utrecht, NETHERLANDS, September 13, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
· This study advances understanding of how to improve environmental governance for linked social-ecological systems, which has critical ramifications for improving environmental outcomes. This presentation moves the research on environmental governance forward by analyzing the issue, and providing guidance for moving forward. In the long-term, improving environmental governance has broad-scale implications for the environment in the United States, with particular interest for Regions, communities and the general public.
Description:
Law determines the boundaries and rules of the game for environmental governance. Unfortunately, many environmental laws (in the U.S.) were developed around the prevailing scientific understanding that there is a “balance of nature” that could be managed and sustained; a dated conception of social-ecological systems that is at odds with resilience principles (sensu Holling). Accelerating environmental change will likely result in more frequent non-linear change in social-ecological systems (e.g., regime shifts in grasslands, lakes, coral reefs), and thus formal institutions are now just one piece of the puzzle for governing social-ecological systems. In order to better account for cross-scale dynamics of social-ecological systems, governance should further tap adaptive and transformative approaches to governance, as well as subsidiarity principles in order to improve environmental governance.
