Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic: Perspectives from the Barents Area

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Chapter 8 · A resilien cepproac h to adaptat ion act

8.2.2 Social-ecological systems Many scientists investigating complex social-ecological challenges such as the consequences of climate change, chemical pollutants, or biodiversity loss, have concluded that these issues cannot adequately be understood without proper attention to interactions that play out both within social and ecological systems, and between them. Among the variety of analytical frameworks that seek to consider all three types of interaction,most treat either environmental/ecological factors or social factors as a source of drivers of change, but do not analyze each of the sides of this equation with comparable depth (Binder et al., 2013).The social-ecological systems (SES) framework has attracted the attention of a variety of scholars and practitioners seeking to ensure proper attention is accorded to both social and ecological components (Miller et al., 2010; Brown, 2014; Standish et al., 2014; Stone-Jovicich, 2015). The social-ecological systems framework conceptualizes humans and nature as integral parts in a system of nested, interconnected and interacting elements, linked in a complex web of causal relationships that includes reinforcing and mitigating feedbacks (Figure 8.1).These sub-systems are often referred to as‘linked’or‘closely coupled’systems that constitute a larger whole, but the distinction between social and ecological is largely analytical. Owing to its systemic orientation, resilience research is attentive to the interactions that play out both within the social and biophysical spheres, and across the interfaces where the social and the biophysical meet.These interactions are influenced by feedbacks and non-linear processes that sometimes produce rapid and irreversible change (Berkes and Folke, 1998).The web of mitigating and amplifying feedbacks extends not only across social and ecological sub-systems, but also across spatial scales from local to global, and across a wider range of time scales. It is these multiple interactions which make accurate prediction such a challenge (Allen et al., 2014).

8.2.3 Co-evolution of social-ecological systems

Change occurs through processes in which “ evolving socio- cultural systems are increasingly affecting their biophysical environment… ”and“ evolving ecological systems are increasingly affecting socio-cultural change ” (Gual and Norgaard, 2008). There are many examples of such co-evolution. As just one example, recent research has identified a genetic change among the Inuit in Greenland that has helped them adapt both to cold and to the high fat diet available from locally available foods such as seal and whale (Fumagalli et al., 2015). Outside the Arctic, the domestication of animals over the past 10,000 years has shaped the evolution of the most important agricultural species – goat, pig, sheep, chicken, horse, and dog (and in the Arctic also reindeer) (Paul Thompson, 2001).At the same time, the development and distribution of these species has helped shape the evolution of cultural and economic systems. Socio- cultural evolution has also influenced human genetic evolution; most adult humans worldwide lack the enzyme (lactase) that enables people to metabolize milk (in most populations the relevant gene is switched off in adolescence). The ability to digest milk as an adult is found primarily in regions with a long history of dairy farming (Bersaglieri et al., 2004). An important example of social-ecological co-evolution at a regional and global scale is the burning of the fossil fuels that remain the hallmark of modern industrial societies. A myriad of social and economic activities have developed in conjunction with substituting human or animal muscle power with fossil energy.At the same time, humans have altered both the geophysical and ecological systems of the planet through the activities required to secure these resources and through the side-effect pollution generated by their use (Rockström et al., 2009; Zalasiewicz et al., 2010). Research on socio-cultural and/or socio-economic evolution emphasizes that such processes are by no means deterministic,

Human activities

Ecosystem structure and processes

Individual and collective choices

Societal institutions and values

SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM

Agency

Ecosystem functions

Well-being

Ecosystem services

Figure 8.1 Conceptual model of a social-ecological system (Carson and Sommerkorn et al., 2016).