| 1. |
- Barraclough, Alicia D., et al.
(författare)
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Global knowledge-action networks at the frontlines of sustainability : Insights from five decades of science for action in UNESCO's World Network of biosphere reserves
- 2023
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Ingår i: People and Nature. - 2575-8314. ; 5:5, s. 1430-1444
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. Generating actionable knowledge to meet current sustainability challenges re- quires unprecedented collaboration across scales, geographies, cultures and knowledges. Intergovernmental programmes and place -based knowledge- action networks have much potential to mobilize sustainability transformation. Although many research fields have benefited from research networks and comparative sites, the potential of site -based research networks for generating knowledge at the people- nature interface has yet to be fully explored.2. This article presents the World Network of biosphere reserves (WNBR) of UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme, intentionally established for generating actionable knowledge through comparative sites envisioned as learning spaces for sustainable development. Drawing on experiences over five decades, and we offer six categories of insights. Our intent is to share the story of this network widely, distil the learnings from the network to enhance its potential to support both knowledge coproduction and collaborative action for sustainability and inform wider efforts to establish place -based sustainability networks aimed at improving human- environment relations through knowledge and action.3. The WNBR has generated insights on the challenges of creating and supporting an international and inter-governmental sustainability network to generate and mobilize place -based interdisciplinary knowledge in the long term. Despite the challenges, site-and place -based research facilitated by this network has been fundamental in creating space for sustainability science, knowledge coproduction and transdisciplinary research at the human- nature interface.4. We share insights on pathways to the implementation of global sustainability agendas through local networks, and the role of research in supporting learning and experimentation in local sites as they work to adapt global sustainability goals. Research in the WNBR has generated deeper understanding on social- ecological complexity and resilience in place -based sustainability initiatives, and how collaborative platforms might facilitate collective action across landscapes. The network continues to offer a fundamental learning space on operationalizing pluralistic approaches to biodiversity conservation, for example, through its focus on biocultural diversity, offering a key opportunity for the implementation of the post -2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.5. We conclude by arguing that WNBR, and similar place -based knowledge- action networks, can support interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research related to human- nature relationships and provide opportunities for comparative research that may yield more explanatory power than individual case studies.
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| 2. |
- Malmborg, Katja, 1988-, et al.
(författare)
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Embracing complexity in landscape management : Learning and impacts of a participatory resilience assessment
- 2022
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Ingår i: Ecosystems and People. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2639-5908 .- 2639-5916. ; 18:1, s. 241-257
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Landscapes and their management are at the center of many of the sustainability challenges that we face. Landscapes can be described as social-ecological systems shaped by a myriad of human activities and biophysical processes, interacting across space and time. Managing them sustainably requires considering this complexity. Resilience thinking offers ways to address complexity in decision-making. In this paper, we analyse the learning and impact on a diverse group of local actors from participating in a participatory resilience assessment. The assessment, focused on sustainable landscape management in the Helge a catchment, Sweden, produced concrete knowledge outputs, describing ecosystem service bundles, a future vision, conceptual system models, and a strategic action plan. Follow-up interviews indicate that the process and its outputs supported the participants' learning process and helped them to articulate complexity thinking in practice. The outputs, and the exercises to produce them, emerged as complementary in supporting this articulation. Furthermore, they helped build participants' capacity to communicate the diverse values of the landscape to others and to target leverage points more strategically. Thus, it supported the application of resilience thinking in landscape management, especially by generating learning and fostering complex adaptive systems thinking.
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| 3. |
- Norström, Albert V., 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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The programme on ecosystem change and society (PECS) - a decade of deepening social-ecological research through a place-based focus
- 2022
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Ingår i: Ecosystems and People. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2639-5908 .- 2639-5916. ; 18:1, s. 598-608
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) was established in 2011, and is now one of the major international social-ecological systems (SES) research networks. During this time, SES research has undergone a phase of rapid growth and has grown into an influential branch of sustainability science. In this Perspective, we argue that SES research has also deepened over the past decade, and helped to shed light on key dimensions of SES dynamics (e.g. system feedbacks, aspects of system design, goals and paradigms) that can lead to tangible action for solving the major sustainability challenges of our time. We suggest four ways in which the growth of place-based SES research, fostered by networks such as PECS, has contributed to these developments, namely by: 1) shedding light on transformational change, 2) revealing the social dynamics shaping SES, 3) bringing together diverse types of knowledge, and 4) encouraging reflexive researchers.
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| 4. |
- Schultz, Lisen, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Learning for resilience? : Exploring learning opportunities in Biosphere Reserves
- 2010
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Ingår i: Environmental Education Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1350-4622 .- 1469-5871. ; 16:5-6, s. 645-663
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- The interdependence of society and nature, the inherent complexity of social-ecological systems, and the global deterioration of ecosystem services provide the rationale for a growing body of literature focusing on social-ecological resilience - the capacity to cope with, adapt to and shape change - for sustainable development. Processes of learning-by-doing and multiple-loop social learning across knowledge systems and different levels of decision-making are envisioned to strengthen this capacity, combined in the concept of adaptive governance. This study explores how learning for resilience is stimulated in practice; investigating learning opportunities provided in UNESCO-designated biosphere reserves (BRs). A global survey (N = 148) and qualitative interviews with key informants of selected BRs (N = 10) reveal that a subset (79) of the BRs serve as 'potential learning sites' and: (1) provide platforms for mutual and collective learning through face-to-face interactions; (2) coordinate and support the generation of new social-ecological knowledge through research, monitoring and experimentation; and (3) frame information and education to local stewards, resource-based businesses, policy-makers, disadvantaged groups, students and the public. We identify three BRs that seem to combine, in practice, the theoretically parallel research areas of environmental education and adaptive governance. We conclude that BRs have the potential to provide insights on the practical dimension of nurturing learning for social-ecological resilience. However, for their full potential as learning sites for sustainability to be realized, both capacity and incentives for evaluation and communication of lessons learned need to be strengthened.
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| 5. |
- Schultz, Lisen, 1976-
(författare)
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Nurturing resilience in social-ecological systems : Lessons learned from bridging organizations
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In an increasingly complex, rapidly changing world, the capacity to cope with, adapt to, and shape change is vital. This thesis investigates how natural resource management can be organized and practiced to nurture this capacity, referred to as resilience, in social-ecological systems. Based on case studies and large-N data sets from UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs) and the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), it analyzes actors and social processes involved in adaptive co-management on the ground. Papers I & II use Kristianstads Vattenrike BR to analyze the roles of local stewards and bridging organizations. Here, local stewards, e.g. farmers and bird watchers, provide on-site management, detailed, long-term monitoring, and local ecological knowledge, build public support for ecosystem management, and hold unique links to specialized networks. A bridging organization strengthens their initiatives. Building and drawing on multi-level networks, it gathers different types of ecological knowledge, builds moral, political, legal and financial support from institutions and organizations, and identifies windows of opportunity for projects. Paper III synthesizes the MA community-based assessments and points to the importance of bridging organizations, leadership and vision, knowledge networks, institutions nested across scales, enabling policies, and high motivation among actors for adaptive co-management. Paper IV explores learning processes catalyzed by bridging organizations in BRs. 79 of the 148 BRs analyzed bridge local and scientific knowledge in efforts to conserve biodiversity and foster sustainable development, provide learning platforms, support knowledge generation (research, monitoring and experimentation), and frame information and education to target groups. Paper V tests the effects of participation and adaptive co-management in BRs. Local participation is positively linked to local support, successful integration of conservation and development, and effectiveness in achieving developmental goals. Participation of scientists is linked to effectiveness in achieving ‘conventional’ conservation goals and policy-makers enhance the integration of conservation and development. Adaptive co-management, found in 46 BRs, is positively linked to self-evaluated effectiveness in achieving developmental goals, but not at the expense of conservation. The thesis concludes that adaptive collaboration and learning processes can nurture resilience in social-ecological systems. Such processes often need to be catalyzed, supported and protected to survive. Therefore, bridging organizations are crucial in adaptive co-management.
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| 6. |
- Schultz, Lisen, 1976-
(författare)
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Participation and management performance in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves
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Annan publikation (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Studies that evaluate the effects of stakeholder participation on conservation outcomes and sustainability are rare. In this article we use the World Network of Biosphere Reserves to analyze the effects of participation and adaptive co-management in this context. Analyzing survey-responses from 146 Biosphere Reserves in 55 countries we investigate how different degrees of participation of a range of actors relate to management performance in reaching the objectives stated in UNESCO's Statutory framework for Biosphere Reserves. The analysis is based on survey respondents' self-evaluation of effectiveness. We also test to what extent stakeholder participation is linked to increased support for Biosphere Reserve objectives and management, and the effect of adaptive co-management on management performance. The analysis suggests that there is a weak, but significant linkage between the involvement of local inhabitants in decision making and implementation, and the support from people living in the Biosphere Reserve. No other effects of participation on support were found. Furthermore, involving local inhabitants in one additional implementation process increases the likelihood of finding a successful project that integrates conservation and development with about 1.4 times, and the participation of politicians and governmental administrators in one additional decision-making process increases the likelihood with about 1.3 times. No other effects of stakeholders' participation on successful integration were found. Turning to the issue of effectiveness, a factor analysis revealed two clusters among the objectives. One had strong loadings on effectiveness in conservation, research, monitoring and education, and was interpreted as related to 'conventional' biodiversity conservation. The other had strong loadings on fostering social and economic development, and facilitating dialogue, collaboration and integration of different objectives, and was interpreted as related to conservation for sustainable development. Conventional conservation was positively affected by participation of scientists, but negatively affected by participation of volunteers. Effectiveness in sustainable development goals was associated to participation by local inhabitants. Adaptive co-management practices were associated with a higher level of effectiveness in achieving developmental goals, and this higher effectiveness did not seem to be at the expense of biodiversity conservation. A total of 46 Biosphere Reserves fulfilled the adaptive co-management criteria and provide an interesting set of cases to follow systematically in the search for deeper understanding of social-ecological systems dynamics.
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| 7. |
- Wieland, Andreas, et al.
(författare)
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Thinking differently about supply chain resilience : what we can learn from social-ecological systems thinking
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Journal of Operations & Production Management. - 0144-3577 .- 1758-6593. ; 43:1, s. 1-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – This article seeks to broaden how researchers in supply chain management view supply chain resilience by drawing on and integrating insights from other disciplines – in particular, the literature on the resilience of social-ecological systems.Design/methodology/approach – Before the authors import new notions of resilience from outside the discipline, the current state of the art in supply chain resilience research is first briefly reviewed and summarized. Drawing on five practical examples of disruptive events and challenges to supply chain practice, the authors assess how these examples expose gaps in the current theoretical lenses. These examples are used to motivate and justify the need to expand our theoretical frameworks by drawing on insights from the literature on social-ecological systems.Findings – The supply chain resilience literature has predominantly focused on minimizing the consequences of a disruption and on returning to some form of steady state (often assumed to be identical to the state that existed prior to the disruption) implicitly assuming the supply chain behaves like an engineered system. This article broadens the debate around supply chain resilience using literature on social-ecological systems that puts forward three manifestations of resilience: (1) persistence, which is akin to an engineering-based view, (2) adaptation and (3) transformation. Furthermore, it introduces seven principles of resilience thinking that can be readily applied to supply chains.Research limitations/implications – A social-ecological interpretation of supply chains presents many new avenues of research, which may rely on the use of innovative research methods to further our understanding of supply chain resilience.Practical implications – The article encourages managers to think differently about supply chains and to consider what this means for their resilience. The three manifestations of resilience are not mutually exclusive. For example, while persistence may be needed in the initial aftermath of a disruption, adaptation and transformation may be required in the longer term.Originality/value – The article challenges traditional assumptions about supply chains behaving like engineered systems and puts forward an alternative perspective of supply chains as being dynamic and complex social-ecological systems that are impossible to entirely control.
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| 8. |
- Österblom, Henrik, et al.
(författare)
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Scientific mobilization of keystone actors for biosphere stewardship
- 2022
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The biosphere crisis requires changes to existing business practices. We ask how corporations can become sustainability leaders, when constrained by multiple barriers to collaboration for biosphere stewardship. We describe how scientists motivated, inspired and engaged with ten of the world’s largest seafood companies, in a collaborative process aimed to enable science-based and systemic transformations (2015–2021). CEOs faced multiple industry crises in 2015 that incentivized novel approaches. New scientific insights, an invitation to collaborate, and a bold vision of transformative change towards ocean stewardship, created new opportunities and direction. Co-creation of solutions resulted in new knowledge and trust, a joint agenda for action, new capacities, international recognition, formalization of an organization, increased policy influence, time-bound goals, and convergence of corporate change. Independently funded scientists helped remove barriers to cooperation, provided means for reflection, and guided corporate strategies and actions toward ocean stewardship. By 2021, multiple individuals exercised leadership and the initiative had transitioned from preliminary and uncomfortable conversations, to a dynamic, operational organization, with capacity to perform global leadership in the seafood industry. Mobilizing transformational agency through learning, collaboration, and innovation represents a cultural evolution with potential to redirect and accelerate corporate action, to the benefit of business, people and the planet.
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