Nick Abel

From metaphor to measurement: resilience of what to what?

Resilience is the magnitude of disturbance that can be tolerated before a socioecological system (SES) moves to a different region of state space controlled by a different set of processes. Resilience has multiple levels of meaning: as a metaphor related to sustainability, as a property of dynamic models, and as a measurable quantity that can be assessed in field studies of SES. The operational indicators of resilience have, however, received little attention in the literature. To assess a systems resilience, one must specify which system configuration and which disturbances are of interest. This paper compares resilience properties in two contrasting SES, lake districts and rangelands, with respect to the following three general features: (a) The ability of an SES to stay in the domain of attraction is related to slowly changing variables, or slowly changing disturbance regimes, which control the boundaries of the domain of attraction or the frequency of events that could push the system across the boundaries. Examples are soil phosphorus content in lake districts woody vegetation cover in rangelands, and property rights systems that affect land use in both lake districts and rangelands. (b) The ability of an SES to self-organize is related to the extent to which reorganization is endogenous rather than forced by external drivers. Self-organization is enhanced by coevolved ecosystem components and the presence of social networks that facilitate innovative problem solving. (c) The adaptive capacity of an SES is related to the existence of mechanisms for the evolution of novelty or learning. Examples include biodiversity at multiple scales and the existence of institutions that facilitate experimentation, discovery, and innovation.

Ecosystem Stewardship: Sustainability Strategies for a Rapidly Changing Planet

Ecosystem stewardship is an action-oriented framework intended to foster the social-ecological sustainability of a rapidly changing planet. Recent developments identify three strategies that make optimal use of current understanding in an environment of inevitable uncertainty and abrupt change: reducing the magnitude of, and exposure and sensitivity to, known stresses; focusing on proactive policies that shape change; and avoiding or escaping unsustainable social-ecological traps. As we discuss here, all social-ecological systems are vulnerable to recent and projected changes but have sources of adaptive capacity and resilience that can sustain ecosystem services and human well-being through active ecosystem stewardship.

Resilience, Adaptability, and Transformability in the Goulburn-Broken Catchment, Australia

We present a resilience-based approach for assessing sustainability in a sub-catchment of the Murray-Darling Basin in southeast Australia. We define the regional system and identify the main issues, drivers, and potential shocks, then assess both specified and general resilience. The current state of the system is a consequence of changes in resource use. We identify ten known or possible biophysical, economic, and social thresholds operating at different scales, with possible knock-on effects between them. Crossing those thresholds may result in irreversible changes in goods and services generated by the region. Changes in resilience, in general, reflect a pattern of past losses with some signs of recent improvements. Interventions in the system for managing resilience are constrained by current governance, and attention needs to be paid to the roles and capacities of the various institutions. An overview of the current state of the system and likely future trends suggests that transformational change in the region be seriously considered.

Collapse and Reorganization in Social-Ecological Systems: Questions, Some Ideas, and Policy Implications

We tested the explanatory usefulness and policy relevance of Holling’s (2001) “adaptive cycle” theory in exploring processes of “collapse,” also called “release,“ and recovery in regional socialecological systems (SESs) in Zimbabwe and Australia. We found that the adaptive cycle is useful in recognizing changes in system behavior during the various phases. However, our small sample of cases did not generally show either the sequential passage of stages or the prerelease decline in resilience that adaptive cycle theory implies. In all cases, however, the reasons for releases were apparent with hindsight. On the other hand, our examples mostly supported the proposition that resilience is controlled by slowly changing variables. Although we found the adaptive cycle, and complex system theory in general, to be useful integrating frameworks, disciplinary theories are required to explain causes and effects in specific cases. We used theories linking distribution of political power to institutional change; to investment in natural, human, social, and physical capitals; and to access to financial capital. We explored patterns of change of these capitals before, during, and after release and reorganization. Both the patterns of change and relative importance of the different capitals during reorganization varied widely, but the importation of resources from broader scales was often a key to recovery. We propose that the resilience of most regional or national SESs can be explained in these terms. The capacity to self-organize emerged from our studies as a critical source of resilience. Although rebuilding this capacity at times requires access to external resources, excessive subsidization can reduce the capacity to self-organize. The policy implication is that cross-scale subsidization should end when self-organization becomes apparent, because subsidization can increase the vulnerability of the system as a whole. When the aim is to recover without changing the system fundamentally, the focus should be upon conserving or investing in the elements of capital critical for this. If the current system is not viable, it is necessary to invest in forms of capital that will enable fundamental change. It will also be necessary to stop investing in the capitals that maintained the unviable regime. The political difficulty of doing this is why SESs so often remain maladapted to current conditions and opportunities and eventually reach the point of collapse.

An adaptive agent model for analysing co-evolution of management and policies in a complex rangeland system

This paper describes an adaptive agent model of rangelands based on concepts of complex adaptive systems. The behavioural and biological processes of pastoralists, regulators, livestock, grass and shrubs are modelled as well as the interactions between these components. The evolution of the rangeland system is studied under different policy and institutional regimes that affect the behaviour and learning of pastoralists, and hence the state of the ecological system. Adaptive agent models show that effective learning and effective ecosystem management do not necessarily coincide and can suggest potentially useful alternatives to the design of policies and institutions.

A typology of Indigenous engagement in Australian environmental management: implications for knowledge integration and social-ecological system sustainability

Indigenous peoples now engage with many decentralized approaches to environmental management that offer opportunities for integration of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (IEK) and western science to promote cultural diversity in the management of social-ecological system sustainability. Nevertheless, processes of combining IEK with western science are diverse and affected by numerous factors, including the adaptive co-management context, the intrinsic characteristics of the natural resources, and the governance systems. We present a typology of Indigenous engagement in environmental management, derived through comparative analysis of 21 Australian case studies, and consider its implications for the integration of IEK with western science. Sociological and rational choice institutionalism underpin our analytical framework, which differentiates on three axes: (1) power sharing, incorporating decision making, rules definition, resource values and property rights; (2) participation, incorporating participatory processes, organizations engaged, and coordination approaches; (3) intercultural purpose, incorporating purposes of environmental management, Indigenous engagement, Indigenous development and capacity building. Our typology groups engagement into four types: Indigenous governed collaborations; Indigenous-driven co-governance; agency-driven co-governance; and agency governance. From our analysis of manifestations of knowledge integration across the types, we argue that Indigenous governance and Indigenous-driven co-governance provides better prospects for integration of IEK and western science for sustainability of social-ecological systems. Supporting Indigenous governance without, or with only a limited requirement for power sharing with other agencies sustains the distinct Indigenous cultural purposes underpinning IEK, and benefits knowledge integration. We conclude by advocating that the typology be applied to test its general effectiveness in guiding practitioners and researchers to develop robust governance for Indigenous knowledge integration in environmental management.

Pastoralists' responses to variation of rangeland resources in time and space

We explore the response of pastoralists to rangeland resource variation in time and space, focusing on regions where high variation makes it unlikely that an economically viable herd can be maintained on a single management unit. In such regions, the need to move stock to find forage in at least some years has led to the evolution of nomadism and transhumance, and reciprocal grazing agreements among the holders of common-property rangeland. The role of such informal institutions in buffering resource variation is well documented in some Asian and African rangelands, but in societies with formally established private-property regimes, where we focus, such institutions have received little attention. We examine agistment networks, which play an important role in buffering resource variation in modern-day Australia. Agistment is a commercial arrangement between pastoralists who have less forage than they believe they require and pastoralists who believe they have more. Agistment facilitates the movement of livestock via a network based largely on trust. We are concerned exclusively with the link between the characteristics of biophysical variation and human aspects of agistment networks, and we developed a model to test the hypothesis that such a link could exist. Our model builds on game theory literature, which explains cooperation between strangers based on the ability of players to learn whom they can trust. Our game is played on a highly stylized landscape that allows us to control and isolate the degree of spatial variation and spatial covariation. We found that agistment networks are more effective where spatial variation in resource availability is high, and generally more effective when spatial covariation is low. Policy design that seeks to work with existing social networks in rangelands has potential, but this potential varies depending on localized characteristics of the biophysical variability.

Australian rangelands as complex adaptive systems: A conceptual model and preliminary results

Abstract Models to support decisions on rangeland policy must address the close links between ecological, economic, and social processes, and the adaptation of participants through time. We used an agent-based modeling approach to implement a parsimonious conceptual model of rangelands that included biophysical processes central to the functioning of rangelands, commercial enterprises, and institutions. The model operated on a monthly time step, and used economic and biophysical conditions to stimulate changes in management policies and learning. Our simple model reproduced the general patterns of forage growth and livestock dynamics in north-east Australia, and results illustrate consequences of interactions between environmental heterogeneity and learning rate.

Mis-measurement of the productivity and sustainability of African communal rangelands: a case study and some principles from Botswana

Abstract Hypotheses about the relative productivities and impacts of current and officially recommended stocking rates were tested in a case study in southern Africa. They support the view that biased measurements of livestock productivity and inappropriate measurements of rangeland degradation can lead to under-estimates of the productivity of African communal rangelands, overestimates of the urgency of de-stocking, and misunderstanding of the strengths of measures required to effect it. By including the full range of livestock products in estimates of productivity and calculating output per unit of land area rather than per unit of livestock, more accurate estimates of productivity can be made. Estimates of degradation based on irreversible changes enable discrimination between trivial and important impacts of grazing. Modelling suggests de-stocking is not in general worthwhile at present in eastern Botswana. It may be necessary to regulate numbers of animals in the future. If livestock densities increase, grass cover could fall below the critical level and rates of degradation increase suddenly and rapidly. Adverse climatic change could reduce herbaceous productivity with the same effect. The approach used here should help decision making in those circumstaces. Choosing an appropriate stocking rate should be an ethical decision requiring negotiations among stakeholders. Practitioners should recognise that it is socially, not technically determined and that it is but one level among many possible densities.

Drylands: Coping with Uncertainty, Thresholds, and Changes in State

Drylands cover 40% of the terrestrial surface (Table 8.1, Plate 6) and are characterized by high ecological and cultural diversity. Although they are, by definition, of low productivity, they have been a source of biotic, social, and scientific innovation. A third of the global biodiversity hotspots are in drylands, with a diversity of large mammals in savannas, high diversity and endemism of vascular plants in shrublands, and a high diversity of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals in deserts. Succulence, the CAM photosynthetic pathway, and camels’ tolerance of changing blood water content are examples of biological innovations that arose in drylands. Drylands are culturally diverse and account for 24% of the world’s languages (Safriel et al. 2005). Traditionally, many social groups moved both seasonally and in response to prolonged droughts (e.g., Davidson 2006). The need to cope with harsh conditions and repeated episodes of scarcity have given rise to strong cultural traditions such as the invasive effectiveness of the Mongols, the rule base for several major religions, and traditional ecological knowledge backed by powerful sanctions as in Aboriginal cultures in Australia. In ecology, attention to the extreme conditions represented by drylands has helped create paradigm shifts of wider relevance, such as the development of disequilibrium concepts and state-and-transition models (Westoby et al. 1989, Vetter 2005) that were important drivers of the development of resilience theory (Walker 1993). Such concepts are especially pertinent as humans prepare for climatic change.