1. Introductory Chapter: An Interweaving to Be Formalized, the Biosphere Faced with the Relationship Between the Human and the Non-human

A geological period, in which human actions become a geophysical force and impact the planet: a geology of mankind (Crutzen 2002). More specifically, the Anthropocene is “an era of addiction, where producing means/goods has become the purpose of existence. It is an era of acceleration, where growth, based on the endless cycle of production and consumption, must continuously produce additional unnecessary objects for those who already have too much. This is the rationale of productivism” (Sinaï 2011).

In ecology, a critical point beyond which the system abruptly shifts from one state to another, or in social sciences the tolerance threshold or socio-dynamic critical point.

Online: http://​www.​parc-amazonien-guyane.​fr/​le-parc-amazonien-de-guyane/​la-charte-des-territoires/​

“Indigenous peoples have the right to observe and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. They includes the right to preserve, protect and develop past, present and future manifestations of their culture, such as archaeological and historical sites, crafts, designs, ceremonies, technologies, visual and performing arts and literature”; “Indigenous peoples have the right to promote, develop and maintain their institutional structures and their distinctive customs, spirituality, traditions, procedures; practices and, in the case where they exist, juridical systems or customs, in accordance with international human rights standards” (Articles 11-1 and 34 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, No. 61/295 adopted by the United Nations GA on 13/09/07).

Defined as “any natural or man-made functional system with internal integrity and distinct feature and behaviour enclosed within clear boundaries.”

“Panarchy is the hierarchical structure in which systems of nature and humans as well as combined human-nature systems and social-ecological systems are interlinked in never-ending adaptive cycles of growth, accumulation, restructuring, and renewal.” p. 392.

Law No. 2016-1087 of 8 August 2016 for the recovery of biodiversity, nature and landscapes: “The principle of ecological solidarity which calls for taking into consideration living organisms and natural or managed environments, in any public decision-making having a significant impact on the local environment, the interactions of ecosystems” (Article 2).

Instruction from the “High Natural Value” Impact Indicator, orientation document 2007–2013, European Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development & European Network “Evaluation of Rural Development”, p. 5.

Concept developed in the early 1990s by a group of experts from the London Institute of European Environmental Policy (IEEP), World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) and the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism (EFNCP), which observed that some agricultural systems had a positive impact on biodiversity, especially farms using extensive production techniques without the use of synthetic inputs. Progressively, the HNV concept was enriched with works describing different forms of HNV agriculture in Europe. In the early 2000s, the projects carried out at the request of the European Environment Agency (Andersen 2003) and the European Commission (IEEP 2007) led to defining three types of agricultural zones of high natural value: (1) those with a large proportion of semi-natural areas (very extensive valorization), (2) those based on a mosaic of low-input agricultural areas with a high proportion of landscape elements (e.g. grass strips between plots, hedges, wood and shrubs) (3) those harboring rare species or a large proportion of the European or world population of a species (the development of an indicator on agricultural zones of high natural value, European Environment Agency, Andersen 2003). In 1998, the European biodiversity strategy defined the objective of “conservation and sustainable usage of agro-ecosystems” whose sub-objective is promoting and supporting “low input agricultural systems especially in areas of high natural value”. In 2006, the European Community’s strategic orientation document for rural development, for the period 2007–2013, shows its commitment to “respect biodiversity” and “preserve ecosystems” and includes measures to “preserve agricultural and forest ecosystems with high natural value”. Rural Development Regulation No. 1698/2005, Axis2, provides aid for non-productive investments (art. 36-a-6) of which areas of high natural value benefit (Art. 41-b: investments in exploitation, as long as they enhance the public utility of a Natural zone 2000 or other areas of high natural value to be defined in the program”).

“The bias... is the result of the rhythm of the animals, of their habits, of their compulsion, and of the characteristics of the mountain ...” (Savini et al. 2010, 89).

Here, we retain Walter Cannon’s definition of homeostasis which dates back to 1915: “the set of organic processes which act to maintain the stationary state of the organism, in its morphology and in its internal conditions, despite external disturbances” in Durand 1994, 21. See also Rosnay (de), 1975. And finally “for a return to stability, the adaptive response must correspond as exactly as possible to the disturbance. In a simple system, a specific detector is connected directly to a response. In a complex system, an “image” of the disturbance is constructed, compared to a reference corpus, which leads to a secondary choice of a response. (...) At the base of homeostasis, there is regulation, but a regulation operates only in a very limited area. Therefore, multiple regulation operations are necessary, but they must be mutually coupled between themselves”(Tabary 1993).

Homeostasis is intrinsic to the system: “Changes in the environment trigger reactions in the system or affect it directly, resulting in internal system disturbances. Such disturbances are normally kept within narrow limits, because automatic adjustments within the system take effect and, in this way, ample oscillations are avoided, the internal conditions being kept more or less constant” (Aubin 2010, 98 quoting Walter Cannon).

Stability or homeostasis is the result of a retroactive process that is situated in the relationships between the elements that produce and delimit them: “the idea of autopoiesis is based on the idea of homeostasis and develops it in two important directions: by transforming all the references of homeostasis into internal references to the system itself, and conversely by asserting that the identity of the system, which we understand as a physical unity, stems from the interdependence of processes. These systems produce their identity. They distinguish themselves from their environment: that is why we call them autopoietic, the Greek autos (oneself) and poiein (to produce)” (Varela 1989, 45).

As, for instance, in temperature regulation which influences the characteristics of the future bee, or the feedback loops related to nectar harvesting and honey consumption, (cf. Seeley 2010, 2014).

principally: Varroa ectoparasitosis (varroa destructor), wax moth (Achroia grisella and Galleria mellonella), the small hive beetle (SHB Aethina tumida), and the parasitic fly (Tachinidae and Phoridae).

These are Noséma apis Zander, the CBPV virus (Chronic bee paralysis virus, the black illness), chalk brood (calcified brood or ascophaerosis or mycosis), chilled brood, American foulbrood (Paenibacillus Larvae), European foulbrood (several Bacteria: Streptococcus pluton, Bacillus alvei, Streptococcus faecalis…), saccade brood, acariosis (Acarapis woodi Rennie).

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) results in the unexplainable loss of workers noticed since 1998 in Europe and 2006 in the USA with a loss of 50–90% of hives across the United States (Johnson 2007).

“the worldwide losses of honey bee colonies continue to puzzle researchers and the beekeeping industry” (Ratnieks Francis and Carreck 2010); “what is clear is that researchers must look beyond simple one-factor causes of bee decline and losses. This research is multifactoral and more challenging” (CCD Steering Committee 2012, 7); “(…) a combination of existing stresses that may compromise the immune system of bees and disrupt their social system, making colonies more susceptible to disease and collapse” (Johnson 2010).

Systemic pesticides are absorbed by the plant by penetrating into its tissues contrarily to other pesticides that remain on the treated surface of the foliage. They are carried by the sap: the molecules of the product release their active substances as the plant grows to protect it from pests; they are also found in the nectar and pollen of the flower causing the death of foragers. These systemic insecticides have become the most widely used group of insecticides worldwide, with a market share now estimated at around 40% of the world market (The task force of Systemics pesticides: http://​www.​tfsp.​info). Their long-term persistence (several years) and low-dose toxicity (Bonmatin et al. 2015) expose non-targeted organisms such as invertebrates (Pisa et al. 2015) and have serious environmental consequences: “a growing body of evidence that persistent, low concentrations of these insecticides pose serious risks of undesirable environmental impacts” (Simon-Delso et al. 2015).

“we conclude that non-lethal doses of the three neonicotinoids tested either block the retrieval of exploratory navigation memory or alter this form of navigation memory” (Fischer et al. 2014).

“we do not know why colonies transition so rapidly from a state of apparent health to failure. It is well known that individual bees react to nutritional and pathogen stresses by foraging precociously: our study explains how colony failure arises from the social responses of individual bees to stress. We used radio tracking to monitor performance of bees and found that workers who begin foraging prematurely perform very poorly” (Perry et al. 2015).

“The circular economy is a generic term for an industrial economy that is, by design or intention, restorative and in which material flows are of two types, biological nutrients, designed to reenter the biosphere safely, and technical nutrients, which are designed to circulate at high quality without entering the biosphere”. Available online: http://​www.​ellenmacarthurfo​undation.​org

Value is the amount that customers are willing to pay to obtain the product or service. The value chain allows a company to build its competitive advantage (see Chaptal de Chanteloup C., 2015, “La chaîne de valeur de l’offre”, De Boeck).

The idea of an endless, sustainable growth is not sustainable (sic). According to René Passet “a development based on a simple economic logic is self-destructive by destroying the environment that carries it. This situation requires a co-operation of economic development and the biosphere” (Passet 1992, 397).

Goals n°7 for 2015: ensure environmental sustainability (United Nations 2015).

The clean development mechanism was established in the article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol to help developing countries achieve their greenhouse gas reduction targets in relation to the 1990 level between 2008 and 2012.

Norvège, Suisse et Luxembourg. Cf. Porto-Gonçalves 2006, p. 338.

As Jean-Pierre Aubin points out in this chapter (below: Mathematical viability and coviability; and in the Chap.​ 3), “no one is the owner of the terms of viability and co-viability, or of their synonyms, which became polysemic. We therefore add the adjective “mathematical” to clarify the meaning given to this term in mathematics.

“(…) much of what is interesting and important about the character of risk tends to be lost by the generalising, decontextualising and reductionist tendencies of discipline-based research”.

Of the French Research Institute for Development, IRD-UMR GRED.

Cf. For a formulation in terms of mathematical viability, see Sophie Martin 2004.

Examples of viability constraints as quoted above by the author, inthe example of a socio-ecological viability model of/for grazing: food constraint related to productive grazing, food constraints related to ecological grazing, trampling constraint, constraint of grass height, constraints of usage proportion (ibid.).

For Baumgärtner Stefan, Quaas Martin F., 2009, p. 2 008, the concept of viability has a different meaning: “viability means that the different components and functions of a dynamic, stochastic system at any time remain in a domain where the future existence of these components and functions is guaranteed with sufficiently high probability”.

“This emphasizes that viability is not a purely objective property of some system that could be determined on purely scientific grounds, as it appears to be in some ecological applications. Rather, viability is a normative criterion specified for a given ecological-economic system, reflecting societal norms and values” (Baumgärtner, Quaas 2007). Let’s also quote the stochastic viability theory (Aubin 1991), which is one case of tychastic viabilityn and better describes uncertainties without any statistical pattens.

Seen locally as an ecological niche and globally as what surrounds man.

and legal socio-ecology: Barrière 2008.

Defined as “an interactive system between two sets constituted by one or more natural and/or artificial ecosystem(s) and one or more sociosystem(s) within a given geographical area and evolving over time; this allows interactions between human societies and natural environments. (Lévêque et al. 2003).

“This perspective sees the nature-culture split as arbitrary, a distinction that masks a continuum of lower to higher order processes, an artefact of the human brain, that is itself natural” (Westley et al. 2002, 104). According to the authors, this is possible because Man is able to construct abstract hierarchy (symbolic constructions), is capable of self-reflexivity and is able of some technological grasp onto the planet.

“Most so-called “natural” systems can be called socio-ecological systems …” (Décamps 2007).

For Cumming and Collier (2005), “a complex system is a network of components connected by various dynamical relations that include inputs, outputs, and external constraints”.

Retroactive loops also called reflexive interactions: when a component interacts with itself either directly or indirectly through the chain of interactions with other components. This feedback induces a non-linearity of the system’s behavior.

According to Holling 2001: “Potential, or wealth, determines the degree to which a system can control its own destiny, as distinct from being caught by the whims of external variability. Resilience, as achieved by adaptive capacity, determines how vulnerable the system is to unexpected disturbances and surprises that can exceed or break that control”.

For a more detailed definition: “The term coevolution is used to describe cases where two (or more) species reciprocally affect each other’s evolution. So for example, an evolutionary change in the morphology of a plant, might affect the morphology of an herbivore that eats the plant, which in turn might affect the evolution of the plant, which might affect the evolution of the herbivore...and so on”. (http://​evolution.​berkeley.​edu/​evolibrary/​article/​evo_​33)

The case of food networks, for example or “above ground communities” of living organisms that communicate and interact with “below ground communities” via the plant unit (and the communication of its airial and underground organs).

“Human diversity is inseparable from natural diversity. These are goods that guarantee the prosperity of present and future generations and that of the planet. They constitute the foundations of sustainable development “(...) “It is nowadays widely recognized that a homology exists between biodiversity and cultural diversity”.

“Subject to the provisions of its national legislation, (each party) shall respect, preserve and maintain the knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities that embody traditional lifestyles which are relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and fostering its wider application, with the agreement and participation of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices, and encouraging the equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of such knowledge, innovations and practices” (Art. 8j of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB), 1992).

“[...] autopoietic systems are systems that are defined as unities, as networks of productions of components that recursively, through their interactions, generate and realize the network that produces them and constitute, in the space in which they exist, the boundaries of the network as components that participate in the realization of the network” (Luhmann 1990: 3).

and the web site: https://​inra-dam-front-pad.​brainsonic.​com/​index.​php/​player-html5-e86bfea 832775953b76407f​0877a6112.​html

“Ecological resilience is the amount of disturbance that a system can absorb before it changes state” (Gunderson et al. 2002, 530).

“Adaptability is a part of resilience. Adaptability is the capacity of a SES to ajust its responses to changing external drivers and internal processes and thereby allow for development within the current stability domain, along the current trajectory” (Folke et al. 2010).

According to the authors it even becomes central in 2007, through the adoption by 168 countries of the policy framework 2005–2015 “Building the resilience of Nations and communities to disasters” (ONU World Conference on Disaster Reduction (2005, Hyogo-Japan) (Online: http://​www.​unisdr.​org/​2005/​wcdr/​wcdr-index.​htm.)

“state-Adaptation” and “process-adaptation,” Piaget (1967), quoted by Simonet (2009, 394). “Adaptation refers to a process whereby a subject, when recording a variation in the environment, modifies the parameters of an object refering to a specific model in order to accomplish a specific task” (Vieville 2005).

Defined by Lambert and Rezsöhazy (2004, 319) as the “characteristic of systems that are able to coherently and autonomously distort themselves to respond to internal or external demands” quoted by Simonet (2009, 394).

As the IPCC (Intergouvernemental panel on climate change) report defines it (2001 Report, page 173) “an adjustment of human and natural systems to a new and changing environment”.

Behaviors can be neurobiological responses or reactions to environmental stimuli.

One of the key elements of the adaptation process is biological or behavioral variation, which involves/implies chosing and decision-making (Bates 2005).

Adaptation must be understood as “a long-term process able to reduce the vulnerability of social systems to crises” (Burton et al. 1993), cited by Simonet (2009, 397), adapatation is a determinant of vulnerability (Adger and Vincent 2005).

Vulnerability is a probabilistic concept that tells about the proximity of a subject with a damage (Schröder-Butterfill and Marianti 2006, 11). It reflects the fragility of a system as a whole and concerns the chance/uncertainty (Veyret and Reghezza 2006). Social vulnerability, also known as “organizational vulnerability”, expresses a society’s ability to anticipate hazard, deal with emergency, adapt its behavior in times of crisis, and rebuild itself. It is directly linked to the resilience and functioning of societies (Wisner et al. 2004), cited by Barroca et al. 2013.

“However, evidence that has been accumulating in diverse regions all over the world suggests that natural and social systems behave in nonlinear ways, exhibit marked thresholds in their dynamics, and that social-ecological systems act as strongly coupled, complex and evolving integrated systems” (Folke et al. 2002).

“ecosystem management is neither local nor central in origin, but requires multi-level management and matching of social and ecological dynamics across scales. The findings indicate that the adaptive co-management approach have the potential to serve this need and build capacity for resilience in social-ecological systems. We conclude that such management may contribute to expanding desirable stability domains of social-ecological systems, making them more robust to change (Olsson 2003).