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Towards a global sustainable development agenda built on social–ecological resilience
Citation:
Scown, M., R. Craig, C. Allen, D. Angeler, L. Gunderson, J. Garcia, AND A. Garmestani. Towards a global sustainable development agenda built on social–ecological resilience. Global Sustainability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Uk, 6(e8):1-14, (2023). https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2023.8
Impact/Purpose:
· This study advances understanding of how to improve environmental governance for social-ecological systems, which has critical ramifications for improving environmental outcomes. This paper 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 (2,4), communities (Puerto Rico, USVI, Florida) and the general public.
Description:
The United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) are past their halfway point and the next global development agenda will soon need to be developed. While laudable, the SDGs have received strong criticism from many, and scholars have proposed that adopting complex adaptive or social–ecological system approaches would increase the effectiveness of the agenda. Here we dive deeper into these discussions to explore how the theory of social–ecological resilience could serve as a strong foundation for the next global sustainable development agenda.We identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current SDGs by determining which of the 169 targets address each of 43 factors affecting social–ecological resilience that we have compiled from the literature. The SDGs with the strongest connections to social–ecological resilience are the environment-focus goals (SDGs 2, 6, 13, 14, 15), which are also the goals consistently under-prioritised in the implementation of the current agenda. In terms of the 43 factors affecting social–ecological resilience, the SDG strengths lie in their communication, inclusive decision making, financial support, regulatory incentives, economic diversity, and transparency in governance and law. On the contrary, ecological factors of resilience are seriously lacking in the SDGs, particularly with regards to scale, cross-scale interactions, and non-stationarity.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Towards a global sustainable development agenda built on social–ecological resilience