D. Scott Slocombe

Environmental planning, ecosystem science, and ecosystem approaches for integrating environment and development

Currently popular concepts such as sustainable development and sustainability seek the integration of environment and development planning. However, there is little evidence that this integration is occurring in either mainstream development planning or environmental planning. This is a function of the history, philosophies, and evolved roles of both. A brief review of the experience and results of mainstream planning, environmental planning, and ecosystem science suggests there is much in past scientific and professional practice that is relevant to the goal of integrated planning for environment and development, but still such commonly recommended reforms as systems and multidisciplinary approaches, institutional integration, and participatory, goal-oriented processes are rarely achieved. “Ecosystem approaches,” as developed and applied in ecology, human ecology, environmental planning, anthropology, psychology, and other disciplines, may provide a more transdisciplinary route to successful integration of environment and development. Experience with ecosystem approaches is reviewed, their advantages and disadvantages are discussed, and they are compared to traditional urban and regional planning, environmental planning, and ecosystem science approaches. Ultimately a synthesis of desirable characteristics for a framework to integrate environment and development planning is presented as a guide for future work and a criterion for evaluating existing programs.

Lessons from experience with ecosystem-based management

Pushed by recognition of the problems of fragmented management and growing interest in synthetic management goals such as sustainable development, biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, ecosystem-based management is of growing intellectual and practical significance in North America and elsewhere. Ecosystem-based management has several roots: the ecosystem approaches developed in several disciplines in the 1960s and 1970s, and earlier; more general systems approaches; and regional, bioregional, watershed and integrated resource management approaches. Although building on these, ecosystem-based management is a distinct activity that also draws on and complements ecosystem science, conservation biology, and environmental planning. Ecosystem-based management seeks to transcend arbitrary political and administrative boundaries, to achieve more effective, integrated management of resources and ecosystems at regional and landscape scales. Several key components of ecosystem-based management can be identified: defining the management unit, developing understanding, and creating planning and management frameworks. This paper draws on case studies of progress toward ecosystem-based management in Canada, the USA, and Australia to highlight lessons for implementing ecosystem-based management, and the need for new goals for it, in order to foster further, future development.

Science for Place-based Socioecological Management: Lessons from the Maya Forest (Chiapas and Petén)

The role humans should play in conservation is a pervasive issue of debate in environmental thinking. Two long-established poles of this debate can be identified on a preservation-sustainable use continuum. At one extreme are use bans and natural science-based, top-down management for preservation. At the other extreme is community-based, multidisciplinary management for sustainable resource use and livelihoods. In this paper, we discuss and illustrate how these two strategies have competed and conflicted in conservation initiatives in the Maya forest (MF) of the Middle Usumacinta River watershed (Guatemala and Mexico). We further argue that both extremes have produced unconvincing results in terms of the regions sustainability. An alternative consists of sustainability initiatives based on place-based and integrated-knowledge approaches. These approaches imply a flexible combination of disciplines and types of knowledge in the context of nature-human interactions occurring in a place. They can be operationalized within the framework of sustainability science in three steps: 1) characterize the contextual circumstances that are most relevant for sustainability in a place; 2) identify the disciplines and knowledge(s) that need to be combined to appropriately address these contextual circumstances; and 3) decide how these disciplines and knowledge can be effectively combined and integrated. Epistemological flexibility in the design of analytic and implementation frameworks is key. Place-based and integrative-knowledge approaches strive to deal with local context and complexity, including that of human individuals and cultures. The success of any sustainability initiative will ultimately depend on its structural coupling with the context in which it is applied.

A Systems-Based Conceptual Framework for Assessing the Determinants of a Social License to Operate in the Mining Industry

The concept of a “social license to operate” (SLO) was coined in the 1990s and gained popularity as one way in which “social” considerations can be addressed in mineral development decision making. The need for a SLO implies that developers require the widespread approval of local community members for their projects to avoid exposure to potentially costly conflict and business risks. Only a limited amount of scholarship exists on the topic, and there is a need for research that specifically addresses the complex and changeable nature of SLO outcomes. In response to these challenges, this paper advances a novel, systems-based conceptual framework for assessing SLO determinants and outcomes in the mining industry. Two strands of systems theory are specifically highlighted—complex adaptive systems and resilience—and the roles of context, key system variables, emergence, change, uncertainty, feedbacks, cross-scale effects, multiple stable states, thresholds, and resilience are discussed. The framework was developed from the results of a multi-year research project which involved international mining case study investigations, a comprehensive literature review, and interviews conducted with mining stakeholders and observers. The framework can help guide SLO analysis and management efforts, by encouraging users to account for important contextual and complexity-oriented elements present in SLO settings. We apply the framework to a case study in Alaska, USA before discussing its merits and challenges. We also illustrate knowledge gaps associated with applications of complex adaptive systems and resilience theories to the study of SLO dynamics, and discuss opportunities for future research.

Environmental monitoring for protected areas: Review and prospect.

Monitoring activities in protected areas have a long history. Internal planning and management needs early led to ecological inventories. More recently the increasing number and awareness of external threats to parks has led to a variety of monitoring programs. Efforts to use protected areas, and especially biosphere reserves, as ecological baselines, have reinforced this trend. And as protected areas are increasingly recognized to be islands with complex internal and regional interactions, holistic, systems approaches to inventory, monitoring, and assessment of their state are being developed. This paper begins by reviewing threats to parks and the origins and importance of inventory and monitoring activities. A review of resource survey methods follows. Ecosystem science and environmental monitoring are introduced as a foundation for consideration of several newer approaches to monitoring and assessing the state of natural environments. These newer approaches are stress/response frameworks, landscape ecology, ecosystem integrity, and state of the environment reporting. A final section presents some principles for monitoring the state of protected areas. Examples are drawn from experience with Canadian national parks.

REGIONAL ECOLOGY, ECOSYSTEM GEOGRAPHY, AND TRANSBOUNDARY PROTECTED AREAS IN THE ST. ELIAS MOUNTAINS

This study characterizes the broad-scale ecology of the St. Elias region of Yukon, Alaska, and British Columbia and assesses the implications for ecosystem-based management of the regions protected areas, including Kluane, Wrangell-St. Elias, and Glacier Bay National Parks, and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park. An interdisciplinary, map-based process was used to synthesize information, and the fields of regional ecology and ecosystem geography provided the foundation for analysis. Results illustrate that the protected areas share several regional-scale ecosystem components with each other and with surrounding areas, including globally significant populations of large mammals and other wildlife species as well as vegetation communities that experience a full suite of natural disturbances with little human intervention. The valleys of the Tatshenshini, Alsek, and Copper Rivers serve as important links between coastal and interior areas as well as conduits for the movement of biota. However, connectivity is not distributed equally across the region, and the four core national parks have linkages with adjacent areas that are as strong, and in many cases stronger, than among themselves. The management challenge is not a matter of linking separate protected areas to create networks. Instead, it lies in integrating existing protected areas with each other and with surrounding areas and resisting small changes that have incremental and cumulative impacts. Interagency cooperation is seen as a key component in facilitating this, and some success has been achieved on the scale of single issues and specific resources. The challenge ahead is to build on this success by strengthening existing institutional frameworks and working toward more comprehensive efforts. Similar lessons can be derived for other complex mountain landscapes and northern regions where large protected areas and multiple land management agencies exist.

Science and the St Elias: an evolving framework for sustainability in North America's highest mountains

The past, present, and future contributions of science in the St Elias Mountains, and its relationship with regional development, resource management, and traditional ecological knowledge is examined. Science has evolved from an early foundation of exploration, through stages of resource inventories and surveys, to deductive scientific research and, more recently, a promising reconnection with traditional knowledge. Directly and indirectly, events such as the Klondike Gold Rush, construction of the Alaska Highway, creation of the Arctic Institute of North Americas Kluane Lake Research Station, and establishment of protected areas have helped foster scientific activities in the region. In turn, this scientific perspective has influenced regional development by providing detailed information that has been utilized, to varying degrees, in resource use, planning, and decisionmaking. Over the past decade, management of the region has become less sectoral and more cooperative in nature, due partly to the implementation of co-management agreements, regional land use planning, and settlement of first nations’ land claims. Incorporating both science and traditional knowledge into this process through collaborative endeavours such as long-term ecological monitoring, adaptive management, and information integration will contribute to ecosystem-based management of the St Elias and ensure that both perspectives play an integral role in sustainable development of the region.

Seeking Substance in Sustainable Development

Abstract In this article, the authors discuss approaches for turning sustainable development rhetoric into individually recognizable alternatives that may contribute to achieving sustainable societies. They discuss geographic, historical, human-ecological, and simulation approaches and provide some detailed examples of reorientation of current human activities toward a sustainable society using “design criteria.”

Climate change collaboration among natural resource management agencies: lessons learned from two US regions

It has been argued that regional collaboration can facilitate adaptation to climate change impacts through integrated planning and management. In an attempt to understand the underlying institutional factors that either support or contest this assumption, this paper explores the institutional factors influencing adaptation to climate change at the regional scale, where multiple public land and natural resource management jurisdictions are involved. Insights from two mid-western US case studies reveal that several challenges to collaboration persist and prevent fully integrative multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning at a regional scale. We propose that some of these challenges, such as lack of adequate time, funding and communication channels, be reframed as opportunities to build interdependence, identify issue-linkages and collaboratively explore the nature and extent of organisational trade-offs with respect to regional climate change adaptation efforts. Such a reframing can better facilitate multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning and management of shared biophysical resources generally while simultaneously enhancing organisational capacity to mitigate negative effects and take advantage of potentially favourable future conditions in an era characterised by rapid climate change.

Climate and other Sources of Change in the St. Elias Region

Climate change is hypothesized to have both a greater effect and/or to be more visible in high latitudes and/or elevations. This is significant for both the peoples who live in these regions and scientists seeking evidence about the nature and magnitude of climate change. The Kluane National Park region of southwest Yukon and adjoining parks in Alaska and British Columbia, is one high-latitude, mountainous region well-suited to such studies. Many factors cause change and disturbance in mountainous regions. Thus important questions for research and management are distinguishing and understanding the interaction of climate related changes and changes due to other factors. This paper reviews the literature on the interaction of climate-related and other environmental change. It provides an initial assessment of the causes, nature and magnitude of environmental change in the broader St. Elias region as a basis for distinguishing climate-related changes. Key sources of change include resource management policies and practices, land use change, wildlife population fluctuations, long-range transport of pollutants, forestry and mining, and tourism activities.