An ecosystem approach for sustainability: addressing the challenge of complexity

Kay, James J.; Regier, Henry A.; Boyle, Michelle J.; Francis, George

doi:10.1016/s0016-3287(99)00029-4

Cited by 360 publications

(277 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

221

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…These new modes emphasize that it is not just the resource but the capacity of natural capital to sustain it that requires monitoring, understanding and stewardship ). Ecosystem-based management for example, recognizes that people shape natural capital and its capacity to sustain resource flows in any ecosystem directly or indirectly, now and through history, from local groups to globalized urban dwellers (Kay et al 1999;Waltner-Toews et al 2003). Ecosystem-based management in any place operates in a global context and requires collaboration and collective action in much more complex institutional and actor settings than previously acknowledged in studies of local natural resource management institutions (Mahon et al 2009;Galaz et al 2008).…”

Section: Ecosystem-based Management and Adaptive Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Reconnecting to the Biosphere

Folke

Jansson

Rockström

et al. 2011

AMBIO

498

320

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humanity has emerged as a major force in the operation of the biosphere, with a significant imprint on the Earth System, challenging social-ecological resilience. This new situation calls for a fundamental shift in perspectives, world views, and institutions. Human development and progress must be reconnected to the capacity of the biosphere and essential ecosystem services to be sustained. Governance challenges include a highly interconnected and faster world, cascading social-ecological interactions and planetary boundaries that create vulnerabilities but also opportunities for social-ecological change and transformation. Tipping points and thresholds highlight the importance of understanding and managing resilience. New modes of flexible governance are emerging. A central challenge is to reconnect these efforts to the changing preconditions for societal development as active stewards of the Earth System. We suggest that the Millennium Development Goals need to be reframed in such a planetary stewardship context combined with a call for a new social contract on global sustainability. The ongoing mind shift in human relations with Earth and its boundaries provides exciting opportunities for societal development in collaboration with the biosphere-a global sustainability agenda for humanity.

show abstract

Section: Ecosystem-based Management and Adaptive Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Reconnecting to the Biosphere

Folke

Jansson

Rockström

et al. 2011

AMBIO

498

320

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Convention for Biological Diversity; Kay et al, 1999). In particular, there is the need for environmental restoration involving the need of dealing with problems such as: (a) losses of habitats and species diversity, as well as a decrease in habitats size and heterogeneity; (b) decrease of population size and changes in dynamics and distribution of many species; (c) habitat fragmentation and inherent increase in the vulnerability of the remaining isolated pockets; (d) decrease of economically relevant services and goods naturally provided by ecosystems (e.g.…”

Section: Ecological Sustainability and Sustainable Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecological sustainability trigon – A proposed conceptual framework for creating and testing management scenarios

Marques

Basset

Brey

et al. 2009

Marine Pollution Bulletin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tThe ability to achieve ecological sustainability and the sustainable development of marine and estuarine ecosystems constitutes a complex major challenge and depends on many driving forces, often conflicting with each other. In particular, there are three major drivers: (a) the search for human well-being, health and safety, (b) the maintenance of ecological sustainability and environmental equilibrium, and (c) the tolerance of an increasing human population pressure and demand for wealth creation.We propose here the use of a conceptual guidance tool -the ecological sustainability trigon (EST) -as a means of building and testing environmental management scenarios. Although it requires further testing, the EST allows us to (a) address those three major drivers using human society view as a common currency, and (b) describe our behaviour, energetics (economy) and dynamics through ecological theory. Moreover, the EST appears promising for gap analysis and the means to address new research questions.

show abstract

“…As high quality energy enters a system, it pushes the system away from equilibrium (Kay et al 1999). In response, the system builds new internal structures that make use of the energy by dissipating it (Abel and Stepp 2003, Hornborg 1998, Kay et al 1999, Kay and Schneider 1994. Hence, open systems export entropy in order to maintain internal negentropy, or order (Naveh 2000).…”

Section: Systems Theories: Abstract Conceptualizations Of Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, open systems export entropy in order to maintain internal negentropy, or order (Naveh 2000). The emergent self-organizing structures that dissipate energy often take the form of hierarchies (Kay et al 1999). Moreover, open systems have a state space of overall behavior within which are attractors, or sets of behaviors, that the dissipative structures organize themselves around (Kay et al 1999).…”

Section: Systems Theories: Abstract Conceptualizations Of Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The emergent self-organizing structures that dissipate energy often take the form of hierarchies (Kay et al 1999). Moreover, open systems have a state space of overall behavior within which are attractors, or sets of behaviors, that the dissipative structures organize themselves around (Kay et al 1999). Reorganizations that allow for shifts between attractors are often abrupt, à la punctuated equilibrium (covered later) (Kay et al 1999).…”

Section: Systems Theories: Abstract Conceptualizations Of Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Systems Thinking in the Forest Service: a Framework to Guide Practical Application for Social-Ecological Management in the Enterprise Program

Kmon¹

2000

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Enterprise Program (EP), which provides fee-forservice consulting services to the USFS, is interested in integrating systems thinking into its service offerings. Despite there being several excellent sources on the range and diversity of systems thinking, no single framework exists that thoroughly yet concisely outlines what systems thinking is along with its deep history, theoretical tenets, and soft and hard approaches. This thesis is an attempt to create such a framework, aimed specifically at practical application in a land management agency, through literature synthesis injected with original analysis. The usefulness of the framework is then tested using three case studies within the EP and the agency as a whole.The framework highlights several important aspects of systems thinking, both generally and related specifically to social-ecological management. First, systems thinking is the transdisciplinary study of complex phenomena from a holistic, rather than reductionist, perspective. The world can be viewed as a massive set of embedded systems -elements with relations that lead to nonlinear behavior -making the role of the observer essential in identifying scales of interest and interactions amongst them. Second, the deep history of holistic thinking suggests that its modern scientific study could benefit from exploring the East's long-standing cultural and spiritual approaches to holism through cognitive unity and oneness with mankind and nature. Third, categorizations of systems approaches as "soft" versus "hard" are helpful but can distract us from the ultimate goal of systems thinking, which is to understand the various tools in the systems thinking toolbox so as to apply them critically and creatively to make a meaningful difference in the world. Fourth, I see the soft systems approaches as having a distinct systems thinking orientation and the hard systems ii approaches as overlapping substantially with operations research, the close cousin of systems thinking. Fifth, I identify a spectrum of complexity, contending that systems thinking tends to be concerned with what I call subjectively and computationally complex systems, as well as complex adaptive systems, leaving simple systems for other approaches. Finally, I contend that it is the soft systems approaches and the two theoretical pillars of hierarchy theory and cooperation theory that will aid wicked social-ecological problem solving the most.The framework is applied to three case studies. Examination of the EP reorganization using a hard systems approach revealed two critical high-level functions that were absent in the current structure, paving the way for new designs that could take those functions into account. Analysis of an initiative to increase citizen recreation on USFS lands showed that a systems approach had been improperly applied and how the application of a soft approach at the onset could have systematically framed the problem and offered unique normative insights for giving voice to relevant ...

show abstract

An ecosystem approach for sustainability: addressing the challenge of complexity

Cited by 360 publications

References 14 publications

Reconnecting to the Biosphere

Reconnecting to the Biosphere

The ecological sustainability trigon – A proposed conceptual framework for creating and testing management scenarios

Systems Thinking in the Forest Service: a Framework to Guide Practical Application for Social-Ecological Management in the Enterprise Program

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About