A biosphere shaped by humanity

OPERAS

• range of options available for the reliable production of ecosystem services in social-ecological systems

• (i) a systematic comparison of a set of multi-scale, place-based social-ecological case studies, and

• (ii) the development of shared learning platforms for the co-production of knowledge between scientists, decision-makers and practitioners.

OPERAS

• will address the need stressed by the MA to better understand

• how multiple ecosystem services are co-produced by social and ecological factors,

• how management and governance of ecosystem services can support sustainable development and the fostering of social-ecological resilience

“Welcome to the Anthropocene

Humans have changed the way the world works. Now they have to change the way they think about it, too

Humans have become a force of nature reshaping the planet on a geological scale—but at a far-faster-than-geological speed.”

May 28th, 2011

Reconnecting to the Biosphere

Social-ecological systems

part of ecosystems and shape them, from local to global scales, from the past to the future and at the same time fundamentally dependent on the capacity of these systems to provide services for human wellbeing and societal development.

• ecosystem services are not generated by ecosystems alone, but by social-ecological systems.

• social-ecological systems are interdependent complex systems of people and nature that are nested across scales

• an interconnected global society with new cross-scale interactions (land-, seascapes)

“The challenge of the Anthropocene is to use human ingenuity to set things up so that the planet can accomplish its 21st-century task.

Increasing the planet’s resilience will probably involve a few dramatic changes and a lot of fiddling,…. often through simple and piecemeal actions, if they are well thought through. And one of the messages of the Anthropocene is that piecemeal actions can quickly add up to planetary change.”

The Economist May 28, 2011

Resilience thinking: Persistence, Adaptability and

Transformability• Resilience as persistence - capacity of a SES

to continually change and adapt yet remain within critical thresholds.

• Adaptability - part of SES resilience, the capacity to adjust responses to changing external drivers and internal processes and thereby allow for development along the current trajectory (stability domain).

• Transformability is the capacity to shift and cross thresholds into new development trajectories.

• interrelate across multiple scales.Folke et al. 2010. E&S

Three governance challenges

the existence of potential tipping points (thresholds) and regime shifts and the challenges that implies, the adaptive (creative) capacity of social-ecological systems to deal with such changes, uncertainty and surprise, the ability to steer away from undesired regimes, innovate and possibly even transform social-ecological systems into new improved trajectories that sustain and enhance ecosystem services and human wellbeing.

A rigidity trapGoulburn-Broken agriculture

• Economically lucrative - thriving • Dryland cropping, grazing, irrigated dairy

and fruit production, connecting the region to global markets - one quarter of the State of Victoria's export earnings

• Thresholds with possible knock-on effects between them

• widespread clearing of native vegetation and high levels of water use for irrigation have resulted in rising water tables, with severe salinization problems

• Breaking the agricultural path transform, requires changing deep values and creating a new identity Walker et al. 2009. E&S