Simron Jit Singh

Conceptualising Long-Term Socio-ecological Research (LTSER): Integrating the Social Dimension

In order to support the emerging network of long-term ecological research (LTER) sites across Europe, the European Union has launched ALTER-Net, a network aiming at lasting integration of long-term socio-economic, ecological and biodiversity research. Due to its high population density and long history of human habitation, however, Europe’s ecosystems are generally intensively used. Social and natural drivers are so inextricably intertwined that the notion of ‘socio-ecological’ systems is appropriate. Traditional natural science-based approaches are insufficient to understand these integrated systems, as they cannot adequately capture their relevant socio-economic dimensions. This is particularly relevant because the EU launched ALTER-Net has an explicit aim to support sustainability, a goal that requires integration of socio-economic and ecological dimensions. As such, LTER is challenged to significantly expand its focus from ecological to socio-ecological systems, thus transforming itself from LTER to long-term socio-ecological research or LTSER. In order to support this transformation, this chapter explores several approaches for conceptualising socio-economic dimensions of LTSER. It discusses how the socio-economic metabolism approach can be combined with theories of complex adaptive systems to generate heuristic models of society–nature interaction which can then be used to integrate concepts from the social sciences. In particular, the chapter discusses possible contributions from the fields of ecological anthropology and ecological economics and shows how participatory approaches can be integrated with innovative agent-based modelling concepts to arrive at an integrated representation of socio-ecological systems that can help to support local communities to move towards sustainability.

From the Ashes into the Fire? Institutional Change in the Post-Tsunami Nicobar Islands, India

This article critically analyzes institutional change as a consequence of humanitarian intervention in the tsunami-affected Nicobar Islands in India. It shows that the state and aid agencies distributed resources on the basis of formal rules and norms different from those observed by the Nicobarese. This has created social upheaval by diminishing the stature of the joint family system and imparting greater agency to political representatives. Written communication has overridden the sanctity of the spoken word. Younger, educated Nicobarese, especially men, have been privileged by the new institutional arrangements and are active participants in social change. Thus, humanitarian intervention has resulted in shifting relationships of power and equity. Moreover, the ecological consequences appear to be unsustainable. The article suggests the need for enhanced sensitivity to cultural specificities and inherent human capacity in designing humanitarian intervention.

Socioeconomic Metabolism and the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production: What Promise Do They Hold for LTSER?

This chapter reviews approaches to analysing the ‘metabolism’ of socioeconomic systems consistently across space and time. Socioeconomic metabolism refers to the material, substance or energy throughput of socioeconomic systems, i.e. all the biophysical resources required for production, consumption, trade and transportation. We also introduce the broader concept of socio-ecological metabolism, which additionally considers human-induced changes in material, substance or energy flows in ecosystems. An indicator related to this broader approach is the human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP). We discuss how these approaches can be used to analyse society-nature interaction at different spatial and temporal scales, thereby representing one indispensible part of the methodological tool box of LTSER. These approaches are complimentary to other methods from the social sciences and humanities, as well as to genuinely transdisciplinary approaches. Using Austria’s sociometabolic transition from agrarian to industrial society from 1830 to 2000 as an example, we demonstrate the necessity of including a comprehensive stock-flow framework in order to use the full potential of the socio-ecological metabolism approach in LTSER studies. We demonstrate how this approach can be implemented in integrated socio-ecological models that can improve understanding of changes in society-nature interrelations through time, another highly important objective of LTSER.

Integrated Monitoring and Sustainability Assessment in the Tyrolean Alps: Experiences in Transdisciplinarity

The chapter is an experience in transdisciplinarity illustrated by the case of the Upper Otztal, part of the Tyrolean LTSER Platform in the Austrian Alps. In this effort, the search was for an effective framework for integrated monitoring that would not be limited to observing and monitoring the state of nature alone, but one that would assess and guide overall (regional) sustainability with a focus on the interaction between the natural and the social realms. To this end, the chapter proposes an integrated monitoring and sustainability assessment scheme that has been developed in the context of biosphere reserves by our team and might potentially be useful for many LTSER Sites. Applying this scheme to the Upper Otztal, this chapter offers various scientific insights into the social, interaction and natural sphere of the study area. The transdisciplinary component is captured in the scenario workshop where these insights were discussed with local stakeholders to better understand their views, interests and developmental perspectives. Despite challenges that underlie transdisciplinary processes, the chapter highlights the relevance of engaging local communities as part of a self-organising and self-maintaining socio-ecological system when it comes to addressing questions of regional sustainability.

Complex Disasters on the Nicobar Islands

This chapter is a case study of a local rural system affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The Asian tsunami clearly revealed the vulnerability of coastal communities with respect to dealing with ecological hazards. An area that was greatly affected was the Nicobar Islands, an archipelago belonging to India and located in the Bay of Bengal. Critiquing disaster management and humanitarian aid structures, the chapter considers how an indigenous, subsistence, island community of hunter-gatherers was transformed into an aid-dependent monetary economy embedded in the regional market. Drawing on the concept of social metabolism and transitions, the chapter presents various scenarios of consumption and the consequences these will have on future material and energy demand, land use and time use for the local population. The case reveals the inherent metabolic traps in terms of the islands’ sustainable future, both ecologically and socially, and the role of disaster response in driving them to their biophysical limits as islands in the aftermath.

‘Society Can’t Move So Much As a Chair!’—Systems, Structures and Actors in Social Ecology

From the socioecological perspective, society is conceived as a symbolic system that is coupled with biophysical elements. The biophysical and the symbolic components of society are considered to be coevolving. The expansion of the fossil energy regime, for example, was the result of changes in the symbolic systems of proto-industrial societies. At the same time, these systems were themselves transformed by the material dynamics the new energy regime released. Social Ecology has adopted complex systems theory as a metatheoretical framework to integrate the analysis of both symbolic and biophysical systems and their coevolution. This emphasis on systems in socioecological theory is balanced, to some extent, by a focus on actors in empirical socioecological research. The concept of actors and their agency plays an important role in transdisciplinary research, in local studies and in Environmental History. How are these actor-centered areas of research connected to the systems-centered theoretical framework of Social Ecology? How is agency accommodated in systems, and to what extent can systems and their structures be influenced by actors? This chapter explores these questions both theoretically and in relation to concrete research examples. In doing so, it highlights some of the unresolved theoretical questions in Social Ecology and suggests possible ways they can be answered.

Critical Scales for Long-Term Socio-ecological Biodiversity Research

One challenge in the implementation of Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) is the consideration of relevant spatial and temporal scales. Mismatches between the scale(s) on which biodiversity is monitored and analysed, the scale(s) on which biodiversity is managed, and the scale(s) on which conservation policies are implemented have been identified as major obstacles towards halting or reducing biodiversity loss. Based on a meta-analysis of 18 biodiversity studies and a literature review, we discuss here a set of methods suitable to bridge the various scales of socio-ecological systems. For LTSER, multifunctionality of landscapes provides an inevitable link between natural and social sciences. Upscaling approaches from small-scale domains of classical long-term biodiversity research to the broad landscape scale include landscape metrics and spatial modelling. Multidisciplinary, integrated models are tools not only for linking disciplines but also for bridging scales. Models that are capable of analysing societal impacts on landscapes are particularly suitable for interdisciplinary biodiversity research. The involvement of stakeholders should be an integral part of these methods in order to minimise conflicts over local and regional management interventions implementing broad-scale policies. Participatory approaches allow the linkages between the specific scale domains of biodiversity, its management and policies.

The Sustainability of Humanitarian Aid: The Nicobar Islands as a Case of ‘Complex Disaster’

By virtue of being close to the epicentre, the Nicobar Islands located in the Bay of Bengal were severely affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Overwhelming aid followed, transforming an indigenous community of hunters-and-gatherers and coconut growers into a consumer society in a matter of months. Based on several years of fieldwork, this chapter describes the tsunami and its aftermath, the role of aid organizations, the media, and the government in driving the islanders from being self-reliant to becoming an aid dependent society, plagued with social conflicts. We call this a ‘complex disaster’, a situation that has fundamentally challenged the socio-ecological system to reproduce itself, an effect more severe and longer lasting than what the disaster itself had accomplished. In other words, a complex disaster is a consequence of inappropriate interventions following a ‘simple’ disaster, which affects the social system’s ability to regenerate, to govern its own recovery, by interfering with its cultural, economic, and political regulation. This, in turn, affects the environmental relations of the society. The case of the Nicobar Islands is discussed in the context of sustainability to reveal the inherent paradox between humanitarian aid and community resilience, asking the question: What is good help?

Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development Practice: Can the Concept of PES Deliver?:

Given the intricate link between biodiversity and poverty, this article critically reflects on the role of mainstreaming biodiversity in development policy and practice. In order to better understand the operational challenges ‘on the ground’, we present some of the dominant development frameworks within which development organizations operate, all with a view to better understand how aid ‘thinks’ and ‘works’. The article then examines the concept of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) as a potential avenue to mainstream biodiversity into development.

Conclusions: Promises and Challenges for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems

This chapter summarizes the main sustainability challenges (in terms of science and policy) of the current dominant agri-food system and presents insights derived from the cases in the volume. We return to the two main questions asked in the introductory chapter of the book. How useful is the socio-metabolic approach in studying the sustainability of local food systems (LFS)? To this, we identify three main methodological contributions: (1) That classic indicators (of material and energy flows) derived from the sociometabolic approach offers greater insights as well as lend power and rigour when combined with social, ecological, political and other dimensions; (2) Multi-dimensional and multi-scalar analyses can contribute not only to sustainability assessment of a particular LFS but also to broader theoretical and conceptual debates regarding sustainability and potential localisation of LFS; (3) Socio-metabolic studies on the local level provide detailed understanding of the particular LFS while revealing potential leverage points for intervention for improved system performance with respect to sustainability. Besides methodological insights, the chapter derives key lessons from the cases in the book, in particular the promising characteristics of both the historical and current local food system. We identify the following points as important: (1) A close proximity between the producers and consumers holds a very strong potential for systemic change of the current dominant agri-food system, but also the other way round, the growing distance obscures the sustainability challenges; (2) LFS proves better in closing nutrient cycles on local and regional levels. This issue is also related to the importance of the multifunctionality of land use, and livestock use, in both the historical and the current LFS. As seen in our case studies, LFS cannot be seen as a panacea to address all sustainability challenges of the current dominant agri-food system, however, they hold great potential and therefore deserve further exploration.