Article summary by Laura Begieneman (UvaID:10782281)
A Framework for Resilience-based Governance of Social-Ecological Systems
Ahjond S. Garmestani United States Environmental Protection Agency, garmestani.ahjond@epa.gov
& Melinda Harm Benson University of New Mexico - 2013
In the last 50 years humans have changed the ecosystem quicker and more extensively then ever.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA 2005) declares that these changes have positively
improved the human wellbeing as well as economic developments. However, downside of these
changing environment conditions can be found in the increased costs of ecosystem services and the
difficulty to predict and manage the outcome of the relationship between cause and effect. To
achieve the Millennium Development goals, scholars emphasize the need for more flexible, iterative
and adaptive approached to governance. However, many systems of governance still lack flexibility
to accommodate dynamic systems. Also due to the lack of trained institutional hierarchies and
unfavorable legislation, cross scale problems within the US ecosystem management occurs.
Moreover, environmental laws tend to lock-in “fixes” because of the need for certainty in the legal
process. In most cases, federal law largely proscribes how State implementation will take place,
rather than allowing States to create their own processes and procedures. This limits the possibility
to anticipate in adaptive management decision-making and to optimally protect natural resources.
In order to become more elastic into adapting to changing environment conditions, a resiliencebased governance framework is proposed in this paper. This framework is build upon several
theoretical elements coming from the integration of resilience sciences, i.e., panarchy, adaptive
management and adaptive governance, which can be integrated with reflexive law.
Reflexive law serves as an alternative legal framework between law enforcement and the
democratic self-regulatory mechanisms. Reflexive law identifies the structures that allow regulation
to deal with environmental problems and provide procedural processes with room for innovation
thus suitable for managing resilience. Organizational structures and requirements could be
reworked to more creatively delegate management responsibilities between large and smaller
scales utilizing reflexive mechanisms. Elements from the reflexive law make uses of top-down and
bottom up of data communication exchanges. Since organizational learning is rarely incorporated
into natural resources management agencies and often lack an infrastructure for learning, this is
beneficial for effective system management as it enhance learning between experts and decision
makers in resilience-based governance. To improve environmental governance, federal and state
level natural resource organizations can improve their capacity to rapidly receive, digest, and act
upon communication and information from smaller scales as for example coming from science.
Scientific information must inform policy and management at multiple scales, but there is often also
a disconnection between science and management. Problems can be found in how to link
collaboration between different sources. This is where the adaptive capacity plays an important role
as it can foster sustained cultivation of intermediaries. The bridging function served by
intermediaries has the capacity to create improved policy options because of closer feedback
between science and managers. It moves the theoretical advancements of panarchy and resilience
into practical consideration by natural resource managers. Encouraging collaboration between
NGOs and government has the capacity to improve environmental management and in combination
with scientific evidence a more long-term policy choice is achieved.
Both adaptive management and adaptive governance are vehicles for putting resilience theory into
practice. However, adaptive management is unlikely to be effective without legal reform, and
without adaptive management, environmental governance is unlikely to succeed. The legal
framework would need to be reformed to accommodate dynamic processes as earlier described in
the reflexive law. Adaptive governance is a form of governance that is dependent upon adaptive
management and incorporates formal institutions, informal groups/networks, and individuals at
multiple scales for purposes of collaborative environmental management. Allowing for more
effective communication and information exchange as presented in the framework created
opportunities for innovation and change has been incremental. Thus, Resilience-based governance
will require organizational learning, cross-scale linkages, and adaptive capacity to govern in a more
flexible, iterative, and adaptive manner.
Keywords: Resilience-based governance, panarchy, adaptive management, adaptive governance,
reflexive law, Social-Ecological systems, resilience.
Virtual Organisation in a Dynamic content, November 2014
Article summary by Laura Begieneman (UvaID:10782281)
Reflection on the article
The framework presented in the paper is buildup on theoretical elements coming from the
integration of resilience sciences, i.e., panarchy, adaptive management and adaptive governance,
which can be integrated with reflexive law. The central idea in the article is about how systems of
governance can be adopted in order to react to the changing environmental condition with the aim
to protect natural resources and become resilience. The changes are taking place in natural resource
management and focus in the U.S in particular. This article is relevant to the theme that we study in
this course because the adaptive cycle coming from of panarchy plays an important role in
accommodating the changes described. Also the interactions between the different cycles in
panarchy enables enhance continuously learning. Moreover, the panarchy theory helps to
understand the changes that are transforming and are taking place in the systems that are adaptive.
I describe how these changes are taking place according to my interpretation of the adaptive cycle
and therefore the relevance of this article to the course. What could be said is that the article make
uses of the four phases, which are identified in the cycle theory.
These four dimensions are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Growth or exploitation
Conservation
Collapse or release
Reorganization
The adaptive cycle has two major phase the
for and back loop. The first is slow phase of
growth and accumulation. The second is the
rapid phase of reorganization leading to
renewal (Holling & Gunderson, 2002).
Figure 1: Adaptive cycle of panarchy
The fast changing growth dimensions are the humans who have changed the ecosystem quicker
then ever before. The slow conversation dimension can be found in the governance systems. These
systems are very static and can therefore not accommodate the changes, which is very problematic
as the natural resource will be damaged or even worse get lost. This could actually be seen as the
release dimension which is very vulnerable to change and will turn into a crises as it does not
become resilience. This is also called the release phase.
In order to overcome this new opportunities have to be created. Fostering communication and
enhancing the learning capabilities of all different institutions involved in natural resource
management such are governmental institutions, organizations, and universities, will do this. Also
revising the different hierarchical layers enables a better and more flexible way of working. Another
fundamental need is revision of the legal framework, which need to be reformed in order to
accommodate dynamic processes. After collecting all the strategic option the reorganization can
take place, which will lead to a new situation.
The outcome will be a more resilience-based governance, which has an adaptive capacity to govern
in a more flexible, iterative, and adaptive manner the changing environmental condition
(Garmestani & Benson, 2013). This is an ongoing learning process and will time over time go
through the same learning and adaptation phases, which enables the adaptive capability.
References
Garmestani, A. S., & Benson, M. H. (2013). A framework for resilience-based governance of socialecological systems. Ecology and Society, 18(1), 9.
Holling, C. S., & Gunderson, L. H. (2002). Resilience and adaptive cycles.Panarchy: Understanding
transformations in human and natural systems, 25-62.
Virtual Organisation in a Dynamic content, November 2014