Abstract
Building resilience in integrated human and nature systems or social–ecological systems (SES) is key for sustainability. Therefore, developing ways of assessing resilience is of practical as well as theoretical significance. We approached the issue by focusing on the local level and using five lagoon systems from various parts of the world for illustration. We used a framework based on four categories of factors for building resilience: (1) learning to live with change and uncertainty; (2) nurturing diversity for reorganization and renewal; (3) combining different kinds of knowledge; and (4) creating opportunity for self-organization. Under each category, the cases generated a number of items for building resilience, and potential surrogates of resilience, that is, variables through which the persistence of SES emerging through change can be assessed. The following factors were robust across all five lagoon SES cases: learning from crisis, responding to change, nurturing ecological memory, monitoring the environment, and building capacity for self-organization and conflict management.
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Acknowledgements
We thank members of the Resilience Alliance and the surrogates group for the stimulation; Upali Amarasinghe, Daniela Kalikoski and Kenton Lobe for lagoon management insights and suggestions for the paper; and Steve Carpenter and two anonymous referees for comments. The research was supported by the SSHRC and CRC for Berkes and the CNPq-Brazil for Seixas (Process: 200263/97-8).
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Berkes, F., Seixas, C.S. Building Resilience in Lagoon Social–Ecological Systems: A Local-level Perspective. Ecosystems 8, 967–974 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-005-0140-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-005-0140-4