Social-ecological systems

Adaptability and Transformability
for Resilience of
Social-Ecological Systems?
Carl Folke
Centre for Transdisciplinary Environmental Research (CTM)
and Department of Systems Ecology, Stockholm University
and
Resilience Alliance

Social-ecological co-evolution
Anthropocene – a biosphere
shaped by humanity
Photos: C.Folke and N.Kautsky
• Throughout history
humanity has shaped
nature and nature has
shaped the development
of human society
• Social-ecological coevolution
now takes place
also at the planetary level
and at a much more rapid
and unpredictable pace
than previously in human
history
e.g. Steffen et al. 2004.
Global Change and the Earth System:
A Planet Under Pressure
Springer-Verlag, Berlin

Pollination
Ecosystem services
Water filtering
Fish production
Vi behöver naturen
Carbon sinks
Climate connection
Climate connection
Seed dispersal
Photos C. Folke

Resilience
• Sustainable use of ecosystem services
(incl. food production) requires resilient
ecosystems and associated governance
systems

Resilience
The capacity of a
system to absorb
disturbance and
yet still retain
essentially the
same function,
structure identity,
and feedbacks
www.resalliance.org

Human-driven erosion of resilience
• impacting on ecosystem via emissions of waste,
pollutants and climate change
• removing biological diversity, whole functional
groups of species or whole trophic levels
• altering the magnitude, frequency and duration
of disturbance regimes
The combined effects of those pressures makes
social-ecological systems more vulnerable to
changes that previously could be absorbed
Folke, Carpenter, Walker, Scheffer, Elmqvist, Gunderson, Holling. 2004.
Ann.Rev.Ecol.Evol.Syst.35: 557-581

Erosion of resilience
• increases the likelihood for ecosystem
shifts
from desired to less desired states in their
capacity to generate natural resources and
ecosystem services
Impacts on livelihood and societal
development
Scheffer et al. 2001. Nature
Bellwood et al. 2004. Nature

From grazing land to shrub-bushland
Desirable
Undesirable
Photos D. Tongway Folke et al. 2002. Ambio

Savannization of tropical forests
Desirable Undesirable
Photos C. Folke

Regime shifts in lake ecosystems
oligotrophic (clear) eutrophic (turbid, dense algae)
Desirable Undesirable
Photos S. Carpenter Folke et al. 2002. Ambio

Adaptability and Transformability
• ADAPTABILITY is the capacity of people in a
social-ecological system to manage resilience
through collective action
• TRANSFORMABILITY is the capacity of people
in a social-ecological system to create a
fundamentally new SES when ecological,
political, social or economic conditions make the
existing system untenable
Walker et al. 2004. Ecology and Society

Social-ecological systems
• Loss of ecosystem resilience does not
imply a vulnerable social-ecological
system
• A good governance system does not imply
a resilient social-ecological system
Bodin and Norberg, 2005. Environmental Management;
Huitric. 2005. Ecology and Society

Landscape governance and Social-
Ecological Systems
• Build knowledge and
understanding of
ecosystem dynamics
• Develop management
that interpret and respond
to environmental
feedback
• Support the emergence
of flexible organizations
and institutions and
adaptive governance of
ecosystem processes
Berkes and Folke 1998. Linking volume; Berkes, Colding, Folke. 2003. Navigating volume

Lake Racken Catchment, Sweden
Local ecological knowledge and institutional
dynamics for ecosystem management
Olsson and Folke 2001. Ecosystems

Building capacity to adapt to change
Lake Racken Catchment Management
Crises
• Acidification
• Fish disease
• Overexploitation
Responses
• Generation of ecological knowledge, monitoring and
management practices from the species to the watershed level
• Local self-organization from liming group to fisheries
association
• Shared management, exchange of experience between local
steward associations and collaboration with municipality,
county and other organizational and institutional levels
Photo P. Olsson
Olsson and Folke 2001. Ecosystems

Adaptive co-management systems
• relies on the collaboration of a diverse set of
stakeholders operating at different levels, often
in networks, from local users, to municipalities,
to regional and national organizations, and also
international bodies
• sharing of management power and responsibility
may involve multiple institutional linkages among
user-groups or communities, government
agencies, and non-governmental organizations
Olsson, Folke, Berkes. 2004. Environmental Management

Kristianstads Vattenrike –
A Social-Ecological Transformation
Photo. P. Olofsson
Olsson, Folke, Hahn. 2004. Ecology and Society

Kristianstad Vattenrike
http://www.vattenriket.kristianstad.se/

Creating a shared vision
• Perceived ecological crises - overgrowth
of marsh lands, loss of wildlife, threats
from increased flooding, ground and river
water quality etc.
• Perception -from ’water sick’ to ’water rich’
area
• World view - humans a part of and not
apart from the land (cultural landscape)

Preparing the system for change
• Bottom-up initiative -’stewards of the land’, local selforganization
• Generating ecological knowledge of the landscape/
catchment (science, experience, practice, innovation)
• Forming collaboration networks and support networks
(local, regional, national and also international)
• Developing a comprehensive framework with visions
and goals for a new management approach
• Perceived crisis opened up a trajectory to reduce
resilience of the undesired state of the landscape
(break down structures that constrain adaptability)

Using a window-of-opportunity
• Shift in political power and people at the
municipality level
• Local politicians impressed by the selforganization,
broad vision presented with
potential for regional development
• Ecomuseum Kristianstads Vattenrike (EKV)
was created – a ‘bridging organization’ – within
the existing institutions, with the role to initiate
and coordinate projects

Transformation of the social-ecological system
Declining values
Perceived by individuals
Preparing the system
for change
Olsson, Folke, Hahn. 2004. Ecology and Society

Making the new system resilient
Picture by S-E. Magnusson
• Fostering motivation and
values for ecosystem and
landscape management
• Directing the local context
through adaptive
collaborate management
and collective action
• Navigating the larger
environment
Olsson, Folke, Hahn. 2004. Ecology and Society

Photo C. Folke
Strengthening adaptability
• The social capacity to
respond to ecosystem
change has increased
• Trust-building through
dialogue has been crucial,
social networks have
emerged slowly,
organically face-to-face
• Collaborative learning for
landscape management
thrives under informal
networks in multi-level
governance
Hahn, Olsson, Folke, Johansson, in revision. Human Ecology

Leaders and Stewards
Stewards of
Kristianstads Vattenrike
Photo C. Folke
• serve as key players in
social networks,
institution building, and
organizational change
• facilitate horizontal and
vertical linkages
• provide vision, sense
making, conflict
resolution and build
trust in the adaptive comanagement
process
Olsson, Folke, Hahn. 2004. Ecology and Society

Conclusions
• Resilience is required to absorb change
• Transformability is required to move into a
more desired social-ecological trajectory
• Adaptability among actors is required to
reinforce and sustain desired socialecological
states

Conclusions
• Not top down or bottom up, but collaborative
and flexible, cross-level governance
• Within existing legal and institutional framework
• Stakeholder mobilization before new conflicts
• Leadership and stewards, trust, dialogue,
informal institutions
• Bridging organizations
• Social networks for collaboration and support

References
• Bellwood, D., T. Hughes, C. Folke and M. Nyström. 2004. Confronting the Coral Reef Crisis. Nature 429:827-833.
• Berkes, F. and C. Folke (eds.). 1998. Linking Social and Ecological Systems: Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building
Resilience. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK. 459 pp. Paperback edition in 2000.
• Berkes, F., J. Colding and C. Folke (eds.). 2003. Navigating Social-Ecological Systems: Building Resilience for Complexity and Change.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK. 393 pp.
• Bodin, Ö and J. Norberg, 2005. The role of information network topology for robust local adaptive management. Environmental
Management in press.
• Folke, C., S. Carpenter, T. Elmqvist, L. Gunderson, C.S. Holling and B. Walker. 2002. Resilience and Sustainable Development: Building
Adaptive Capacity in a World of Transformations. Ambio 31:437-440.
• Folke, C., S. Carpenter, T. Elmqvist, L. Gunderson, C.S. Holling, B. Walker, J. Bengtsson, F. Berkes, J. Colding, K. Danell, M.
Falkenmark, L. Gordon, R. Kaspersson, N. Kautsky, A. Kinzig, S.A. Levin, K.-G. Mäler, F. Moberg, L. Ohlsson, P. Olsson, E. Ostrom, W.
Reid, J. Rockström, S. Savenije and U. Svedin. 2002. Resilience and Sustainable Development: Building Adaptive Capacity in a World of
Transformations. Report for the Swedish Environmental Advisory Council 2002:1. Ministry of the Environment, Stockholm,
www.mvb.gov.se. Also available from ICSU Series on Science for Sustainable Development No. 3, 2002. International Council for
Science, Paris.
• Folke, C., S.R. Carpenter, B. Walker, M. Scheffer, T. Elmqvist, L. Gunderson and C.S. Holling. 2004. Regime Shifts, Resilience and
Biodiversity in Ecosystem Management. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 35:557-581.
• Hahn, T., P. Olsson, C. Folke and K. Johansson. In revision. Informal Institutions, Knowledge Generation and Organizational Innovations
in Adaptive Co-Management of a Wetland Landscape around Kristianstad, Sweden. Human Ecology
• Huitric, M. 2005. Lobster and conch fisheries of Belize: a history of sequential exploitation. Ecology and Society 10(1): 21. [online] URL:
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol10/iss1/art21/
Olsson, P. and C. Folke. 2001. Local Ecological Knowledge and Institutional Dynamics for Ecosystem Management: A Study of Lake
Racken Watershed, Sweden. Ecosystems 4: 85-104.
• Olsson, P., C. Folke and F. Berkes. 2004. Adaptive Co-Management for Building Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems. Environmental
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• Olsson, P., C. Folke and T. Hahn. 2004. Social-Ecological Transformation for Ecosystem Management: The Development of Adaptive Co-
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http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss4/art2
• Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S., Foley, J., Folke, C. and Walker, B. 2001. Catastrophic Shifts in Ecosystems. Nature 413:591-596.
• Steffen, W. et al. 2004. Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2003. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: a framework for assessment. Island Press, Washington
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• Walker, B., C. S. Holling, S. R. Carpenter, and A. Kinzig. 2004. Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social–ecological systems.
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