scholarly journals Firewood Collection in South Africa: Adaptive Behavior in Social-Ecological Models

Land ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulfia A. Lenfers ◽  
Julius Weyl ◽  
Thomas Clemen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Adaptive Behavior ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Landscape Management ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Firewood Collection

Due to the fact that the South Africa’s savanna landscapes are under changing conditions, the previously sustainable firewood collection system in rural areas has become a social-ecological factor in questions about landscape management. While the resilience of savannas in national parks such as Kruger National Park (KNP) in South Africa has been widely acknowledged in ecosystem management, the resilience of woody vegetation outside protected areas has been underappreciated. Collecting wood is the dominant source of energy for rural households, and there is an urgent need for land management to find sustainable solutions for this complex social-ecological system. However, the firewood collection scenario is only one example, and stands for all “human-ecosystem service” interactions under the topic of over-utilization, e.g., fishery, grazing, harvesting. Agent-based modeling combined with goal-oriented action planning (GOAP) can provide fresh insights into the relationship between individual needs of humans and changes in land use. At the same time, this modeling approach includes adaptive behavior under changing conditions. A firewood collection scenario was selected for a proof-of-concept comprising households, collectors, ecosystem services and firewood sites. Our results have shown that, even when it is predictable what a single human agent will do, massive up-scaling is needed in order to understand the whole complexity of social-ecological systems. Under changing conditions, such as climate and an increasing population, fair distribution of natural goods become an important issue.

scholarly journals Philanthropic Support of National Parks

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 134S-155S ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Yandle ◽  
Douglas S. Noonan ◽  
Beth Gazley
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Society Research

Ostrom’s social-ecological systems (SES) framework infrequently has been applied to civil society research. But its focus on collective action may help explain why some national parks are more successful at attracting philanthropic resources to supplement stagnant public funding. We examine two types of charitable supporting organizations: “Friends of” Groups (FOGs), which typically emphasize fundraising, and Cooperating Associations (CAs), which typically emphasize visitor support. We identify their partnership patterns across more than 300 national park units. Our findings suggest that FOGs and CAs fill different niches. CAs are drawn to more popular parks or memorials, and FOGs are found in parks with smaller budgets or offering fewer activities. Actor characteristics play a secondary role in explaining nonprofit incidence. The holistic approach of the SES perspective demonstrates the importance of connecting resource systems to institutional settings and actor attributes.

scholarly journals Mapping Social Ecological Systems Archetypes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Rocha ◽  
Katja Malmborg ◽  
Line Gordon ◽  
Kate Brauman ◽  
Fabrice DeClerk
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Local Case ◽  
Depth Analysis

AbstractWhile sustainable development goals are by their nature global, their achievement requires local action and thus targeting and monitoring sustainable solutions tailored to different social and ecological contexts. Ostrom stressed that there are no panaceas or universal solutions to environmental problems, and developed a social-ecological systems’ (SES) framework -a nested multi-tier set of variables- to help diagnose problems, identify complex interactions, and solutions tailored to each SES arena. The framework has been applied to over a hundred cases, typically reflecting in-depth analysis of local case studies, but with relatively small coverage in space and time. While case studies are context rich and necessary, it can be difficult to upscale their lessons to policy making realms. Here we develop a data driven method for upscaling Ostrom’s SES framework and apply it to a context where data is scarce, incomplete, but also where sustainable solutions are needed. The purpose of upscaling the framework is to create a tool that facilitates decision-making on data scarce contexts such as developing countries. We mapped SES by applying the SES framework to poverty alleviation and food security issues in the Volta River basin in Ghana and Burkina Faso. We found archetypical configurations of SES in space. Given data availability, we study their change over time, and discuss where agricultural innovations such as water reservoirs might have a stronger impact at increasing food security and therefore alleviating poverty and hunger. We conclude by outlining how the method can be used in other SES comparative studies.

scholarly journals Strategies for managing complex social-ecological systems in the face of uncertainty: examples from South Africa and beyond

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs ◽  
Clint Rhode ◽  
Sally Archibald ◽  
Lucky Makhosini Kunene ◽  
Shingirirai S. Mutanga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Face

scholarly journals Identifying Nature–Community Nexuses for Sustainably Managing Social and Ecological Systems: A Case Study of the Qianjiangyuan National Park Pilot Area

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 6182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wei ◽  
Siyuan He ◽  
Gang Li ◽  
Xutu Chen ◽  
Linlu Shi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Eastern China ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Soil Retention

Designing policies for the sustainable development of social-ecological systems with complex human–land relations requires integrated management and nexus thinking; China’s national parks are typical social-ecological systems. Ecosystem services and community livelihood are two essential components of sustainable management in the nature–community nexus (NCN). This study focuses on the Qianjiangyuan National Park Pilot Area in eastern China. Following a systems approach and integrating qualitative (causal analysis and systems but dynamic methods) and quantitative (InVEST model, Spearman’s correlation analysis, regression analysis, and multiple correspondence analysis) methods, we developed two causal mechanisms linking livelihood assets and ecosystem services, and verified them by exploring multi-dimensional linkages and revealing two types of NCNs. Results showed that the proportions of cropland and orchard areas have significant negative correlations with water and soil retention services, respectively, while forests significantly benefit both services. A positive NCN exists in areas where water and soil retention services perform well and the local community develops vibrantly with a considerable proportion of young, highly educated, or high-income (especially the income from secondary industries) residents. A negative NCN is seen in areas where the water and soil retention services values are low; a great many households do not have substantial income from secondary and tertiary industries, and few households have vast forest areas. These results can be used as scientific evidence for optimizing institutional arrangements and contributing to sustainable and harmonious development of national parks in China.

scholarly journals How the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us to tackle the climate crisis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan R. Baiker ◽  
Nadia Castro-Izaguirre ◽  
Christian Huggel ◽  
Simon Allen ◽  
Fabian Drenkhan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Climate Crisis

<p>More than one year after its first appearance, COVID-19 has spread to almost all territories around the world –including more than 93 million confirmed infections and 2 million reported deaths. The real numbers are probably substantially higher as unreported cases remain particularly high in countries with weak state welfare and institutions. To date the COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on social, cultural and economic life, stretching from physical isolation to the exacerbation of global famines, and to the largest global economic recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. It is therefore important to analyse and monitor in detail how this pandemic is being approached and managed by the different governments and in their specific environmental and socio-cultural contexts. Given the slow-onset character of climate change in developing clearly visible effects on a short term, the respective actions to tackle multiple impacts on natural and social systems lack priority and are often delayed. Nonetheless, the climate crisis is considered to be a comparatively fundamental existential threat to humanity.</p><p>Based on an extensive literature review, here we analyse the interactions between the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis as compound impacts, i.e. systemic risks that have to be taken into consideration in national emergency programs and in disaster risk management. Human populations with limited resources and capacities tend to be more vulnerable to such exceptional crisis, and as such COVID-19 is exacerbating existing inequalities at national, regional and global levels. Nevertheless, the national responses to the pandemic and their accuracy are not only related to resources and capacities; there are also important political and social factors at play. For instance, the pandemic spread has triggered migration from cities to rural areas and, as a consequence, could lead to higher social-ecological pressures and accelerated land-use change dynamics including e.g. deforestation, changes in water provision and wetland loss in the rural areas. In turn, these impacts would most likely exacerbate the climate crisis. However, some of these risks can be transformed into long-term opportunities, such as a growing implementation of Nature-based Solutions in order to increase the resilience of ecosystems, virtual solutions that reduce travel and emissions (changing working conditions), renovation and diversification of the tourism sector towards more sustainability, and an increase in uptake of sustainable solutions (e.g., car-free days, improved / less energy consuming material and food supply-chains, agroecological production, etc.).</p><p>As a “stress test” this pandemic outbreak and ongoing crisis has already taught us several important lessons that should be considered for dealing with the climate crisis. These include the need and opportunity to redesign social-ecological systems as a whole, aiming for transformational change as a globally coordinated and locally implemented effort at all socio-political levels, in the framework of actions based on the principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.</p>

scholarly journals Prawns, justice, and relationships of care in Stilbaai, South Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke Norton
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Access Point ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Everyday

Abstract This story is concerned with the intersection of governance, stewardship, care taking, and extraction. It is centred on insights gained through repeated encounters with bait prawns during 7 years of fieldwork in Stilbaai, South Africa. These prawns are intended as angling bait, but they are entangled in a host of complications—or relations—the discovery of which eventually led me see them differently than before. More recently, I have looked into the role of marine protected areas in the everyday lives of residents, researching conservation management in Stilbaai in connection with the Southern Cape Interdisciplinary Fisheries Research project. In that work, I use the idea of relationality, as understood from an anthropological perspective, to speak about what long-term stewardship needs to take into account. Understanding more about the mudprawn and where it lives in the ecosystem, how people extract it, what it is used for, and how it is thought of has provided an access point for me into thinking about coastal social–ecological systems and how to communicate their needs. In this story, I reflect on these creatures as they live in my research, showing what this species can teach about coastal sustainability more generically.

scholarly journals The meaning and practice of stewardship in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 115 (5/6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Cockburn ◽  
Georgina Cundill ◽  
Sheona Shackleton ◽  
Mathieu Rouget
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Landscape Management ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Sustainable Landscape Management ◽  
Sustainability Challenges ◽  
Ecological Stewardship ◽  
Sustainable Landscape

Stewardship offers a means of addressing social-ecological sustainability challenges, from the local to the global level. The concept of stewardship has had various meanings attached to it over time, and the links between the theory and practice of stewardship are not well understood. We sought to characterise the practice of stewardship in South Africa, to better understand the relationship between theory and practice. We found that practitioners’ understandings of stewardship coalesce around two core notions: the idea of stewardship as ‘responsible use and care’ of nature, and stewardship as a ‘balancing act’ between stewards’ use of natural resources for agricultural production and their responsibility to protect and manage the wider ecosystem. Stewardship practice in South Africa is strongly influenced by the biodiversity stewardship tool; however, many practitioners are integrating biodiversity stewardship with other approaches. These emerging social-ecological stewardship initiatives operate at landscape-level and work towards integrated social and ecological stewardship outcomes, by facilitating collaboration among diverse stakeholders. Further research is needed to better understand what is required to support these integrated, collaborative and cross-sectoral initiatives. Policy mechanisms that facilitate integrated place-based stewardship practice can contribute to expanding the practice of biodiversity stewardship in South Africa. Significance: Our findings contribute to a growing understanding of what stewardship looks like in South Africa and how it is put into practice. We show that biodiversity stewardship is a prevalent understanding of stewardship practice in South Africa and is often combined with other approaches for sustainable landscape management. A broader understanding of stewardship, for example through the concept of social-ecological stewardship, can enable more integrated, collaborative approaches to landscape management, addressing the wide range of environmental and social development challenges faced in rural landscapes across South Africa.

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