Human behavior and sustainability

Fischer, Joern; Dyball, Robert; Fazey, Ioan; Gross, Catherine; Dovers, Stephen; Ehrlich, Paul R.; Brulle, Robert J.; Christensen, Carleton B.; Borden, Richard J.

doi:10.1890/110079

Cited by 176 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The integration of findings from a variety of regional social-ecological case studies (e.g., via the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society; Carpenter et al 2012) can then be used to guide regional, national, and supra-national policy more effectively. Moreover, engaging with people at local to regional scales may be our best chance yet to trigger behavioral and institutional changes that are the backbone of sustainable development (Reid et al 2009, Fischer et al 2012a). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A holistic approach to studying social-ecological systems and its application to southern Transylvania

Hanspach¹,

Hartel²,

Milcu³

et al. 2014

E&S

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107

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. 2014. A holistic approach to studying social-ecological systems and its application to southern Transylvania. Ecology and Society 19(4): 32. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES- ABSTRACT. Global change presents risks and opportunities for social-ecological systems worldwide. Key challenges for sustainability science are to identify plausible future changes in social-ecological systems and find ways to reach socially and environmentally desirable conditions. In this context, regional-scale studies are important, but to date, many such studies have focused on a narrow set of issues or applied a narrow set of tools. Here, we present a holistic approach to work through the complexity posed by cross-scale interactions, spatial heterogeneity, and multiple uncertainties facing regional social-ecological systems. Our approach is spatially explicit and involves assessments of social conditions and natural capital bundles, social-ecological system dynamics, and current development trends. The resulting understanding is used in combination with scenario planning to map how current development trends might be amplified or dampened in the future. We illustrate this approach via a detailed case study in southern Transylvania, Romania, one of Europe's most significant biocultural refugia. Our goal was to understand current social-ecological dynamics and assess risks and opportunities for sustainable development. Our findings show that historical events have strongly shaped current conditions and current development trends in southern Transylvania. Moreover, although external drivers (including EU policies) set the general direction of regional development trajectories, local factors, including education, leadership, and the presence of bridging organizations, can enhance or counteract their effects. Our holistic approach was useful for generating an in-depth understanding of a regional social-ecological system and could be transferred to other parts of the world.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A holistic approach to studying social-ecological systems and its application to southern Transylvania

Hanspach¹,

Hartel²,

Milcu³

et al. 2014

E&S

Self Cite

107

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“…The 1992 Population Summit of the World's Scientific Academies recognized that science and technology may not be able to prevent either irreversible degradation of the environment or continued poverty for much of the world (National Academy of Sciences USA 1993). To have any effect on how society operates in terms of sustainability requires a transformation of human behavior rather than "fiddling around the edges" (Fischer et al 2012) or "muddling through" (Lindblom 1959). This necessitates a realignment of societal values, i.e., the ideas, motivations, and actions of the actors in the system (Meadows et al 2004, Moore andNelson 2010).…”

Section: Unsustainable Pressures On the Earth Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Integrity builds a sense of purpose and conviction, which, combined with respect for others and personal responsibility, promotes ethical behavior. These qualities are currently lacking in many institutions (both private and public) and political systems today (Meadows et al 2004, Fischer et al 2012). The power of personal integrity is that this motivation transcends utilitarian calculation, whereby individuals do not act because they believe that their personal action does not change the world.…”

Section: Transforming Societal Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transformational change: creating a safe operating space for humanity

McAlpine¹,

Seabrook²,

Ryan³

et al. 2015

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ABSTRACT. Many ecologists and environmental scientists witnessing the scale of current environmental change are becoming increasingly alarmed about how humanity is pushing the boundaries of the Earth's systems beyond sustainable levels. The world urgently needs global society to redirect itself toward a more sustainable future: one that moves intergenerational equity and environmental sustainability to the top of the political agenda, and to the core of personal and societal belief systems. Scientific and technological innovations are not enough: the global community, individuals, civil society, corporations, and governments, need to adjust their values and beliefs to one in which sustainability becomes the new global paradigm society. We argue that the solution requires transformational change, driven by a realignment of societal values, where individuals act ethically as an integral part of an interconnected society and biosphere. Transition management provides a framework for achieving transformational change, by giving special attention to reflective learning, interaction, integration, and experimentation at the level of society, thereby identifying the system conditions and type of changes necessary for enabling sustainable transformation.

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“…Furthermore, given evidence supporting the need to include local stakeholders (Dawson et al 2008, Persha et al 2011, Fischer et al 2012, it is clear that farmers must be involved in the process of local management for biodiversity and ecosystem services, that tools need to be suitable for farmer use (Lightfoot and Noble 2001, Darnhofer et al 2010, Cerf et al 2012, and that management must consider suitable scales (Darnhofer et al 2010). Thus, we designed the HFI as a farm-scale assessment tool that aids individual landowners in monitoring and managing biodiversity and ecosystem services within a single farm system.…”

Section: Scale Of Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, planting of buffer strips is widely recognized to decrease runoff from crop fields, yet the quantified value of total soil loss or chemical capture is contingent on a wide variety of other field and landscape factors (Dosskey et al 2008). These points do not diminish the value of the HFI but rather reflect the status of ongoing research to clarify relationships between farm practices and ecosystem service outcomes and the need to act on existing knowledge (Fischer et al 2012).…”

Section: Metrics Of Ecosystem Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A farm-scale biodiversity and ecosystem services assessment tool: the healthy farm index

Quinn

Brandle

Johnson

2012

International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

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This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Natural Resources, School of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska -Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Papers in Natural Resources by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska -Lincoln.Quinn, John E.; Brandle, James R.; and Johnson, Ron J., "A farm-scale biodiversity and ecosystem services assessment tool: The healthy farm index" (2013 AbstractFarm management focused on maximizing biomass production results in biological simplification and ultimately a degraded production potential for the future. Despite the large and growing body of evidence pointing to the need to restore biodiversity to farm systems, incorporation of biodiversity and ecosystem services into local agricultural land use decision-making remains limited. The lack of planned and associated biodiversity may reduce resiliency of local managed ecosystems and add management costs; however, the tradeoff for individual landowners of greater diversity is increased management complexity and uncertainty. To assist farmers in managing biodiversity and to encourage ecological thinking, we developed the Healthy Farm Index, a farm-scale tool that complements existing farm assessment tools by integrating multiple metrics and outputs suitable for applied decision-making and annual evaluation. In this article, we describe the impetus for the index development and the structure of the index and through a case study apply the index and discuss its varied outputs and applications.

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Human behavior and sustainability

Abstract: Human behavior and sustainability J Fischer et al. 154www.frontiersinecology.org

Cited by 176 publications

References 42 publications

A holistic approach to studying social-ecological systems and its application to southern Transylvania

A holistic approach to studying social-ecological systems and its application to southern Transylvania

Transformational change: creating a safe operating space for humanity

A farm-scale biodiversity and ecosystem services assessment tool: the healthy farm index

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