News

New book - Green National Accounting and Sustainability
Sea cucumber farming has potential but caution is advised
Adapting Institutions: Governance, Complexity and Social-Ecological Resilience - new book
The Beijer Institute seeks two post-docs
The Stockholm Memorandum - Tipping the Scales towards Sustainability
Un Panel joins 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium
Bringing Ecologists and Economists together – new book on successful transdisciplinary meetings
M. Scott Taylor new Beijer Fellow
Taking resilience to the next level
Beijer Institute co-hosts 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability
News Archive

New book - Green National Accounting and Sustainability
2011-12-14

Concerns about natural resource scarcity, together with the increased awareness of environmental problems, have led to widespread interest in green accounting, which attempts to extend the standard national accounts to include the yields from natural and environmental resources.

In this new book, editors Chuan-Zhong Li, Uppsala University and the Beijer Insitute and Karl-Gustav Löfgren, Umeå University, have selected the classic articles in this rapidly growing area, with particular reference to sustainability. They have also written an authoritative new introduction which offers a comprehensive overview of the literature both from a historical and a formal theoretical perspective.

This volume, published by Edward Elgar Publishing, will be an invaluable reference source for scholars and practitioners seeking an in-depth understanding of the main issues in this important field. It includes 36 articles, dating from 1906 to 2003.
Contributors include: G. Chilchilnisky, P. Dasgupta, J.M. Hartwick, J.R Hicks, K-G. Mäler, W.D. Nordhaus, P.A. Samuelson, J.E. Stiglitz, M.L. Weitzman

ISBN: 978 1 84844 691 5

Sea cucumber farming has potential but caution is advised
2011-11-22

Conventional fisheries for sea cucumbers are in trouble and many stocks are slipping towards degradation. The rapid decline due to over-harvesting and growing market demand of this high-value commodity has prompted an increase in global sea cucumber aquaculture.

As part of this development, hatcheries have been established to supply communities with sea cucumbers for grow-out in village lagoons. These types of enterprises are often promoted as a livelihood to coastal communities and as a booster of depleted fisheries. Without knowledge on a range of social-ecological aspects it is too early to say whether this is proceeding in a desirable direction. But if social-ecological knowledge gaps can be overcome through research and dissemination of best-practice examples, there is scope for successful farming.

This is the conclusion of a recent AMBIO article co-written by Beijer Institute researcher Max Troell. Together with colleagues from Sweden, South Africa and the United Kingdom, Troell has looked at sea cucumber farming in the Western Indian Ocean and identified a number of critical issues that need to be considered for further expansion.

"The farming of sea cucumbers is an example of a relatively new coastal aquaculture activity and it is therefore important to get it right from the start by applying a broader governance perspective that includes linkages to fisheries and socio-economic dynamics", says Max Troell, also theme leader at Beijer Institute partner Stockholm Resilience Centre.

The authors stress the need for improved understanding of several aspects, ranging from genetic impacts on wild stocks to livelihood issues. For example, translocation and artificial breeding programmes within aquaculture generally constitute a genetic risk to natural populations, and sea cucumber farming makes no exception.

Click here to read longer popular science article on this research at the Stockholm Resilience Centre webpage

Request article from author

Full reference:

Eriksson, H. Robinson, G. Slater, M.J. and Troell, M. 2011. Sea Cucumber Aquaculture in the Western Indian Ocean: Challenges for Sustainable Livelihood and Stock Improvement. AMBIO, Published on line 20 October 2011. DOI: 10.1007/s13280-011-0195-8

Adapting Institutions: Governance, Complexity and Social-Ecological Resilience - new book
2011-11-02

Global environmental change is occurring at a rate faster than humans have ever experienced. Climate change and the loss of ecosystem services are the two main global environmental crises facing us today. As a result, there is a need for better understanding of the specific and general resilience of networked ecosystems, cities, organisations and institutions to cope with change.

In this book, edited by Beijer Institute director Carl Folke and Emily Boyd, Stockholm Resilience Centre and Leeds University, an international team of experts provide cutting-edge insights into building the resilience and adaptive governance of complex social-ecological systems. Through a set of case studies from around the world, it focuses on the social science dimension of ecosystem management in the context of global change, in a move to bridge existing gaps between resilience, sustainability and social science. Using empirical examples ranging from local to global levels, views from a variety of disciplines are integrated to provide an essential resource for scholars, policy-makers and students, seeking innovative approaches to governance.

Beijer Institute researcher Johan Colding and several researchers from Beijer Institute partner Stockholm Resilience Centre contributes with chapters and in her forword Economics Laureate and Beijer Fellow Elinor Ostrom writes that the book addresses one of the fundamental questions of our time: “We must recognize that all social-ecological systems face new challenges over time, and understand why some are adaptive and survive substantial threats of different origins, and others do not continue to generate positive outcomes and therefore collapse.”

The book is divided into three parts: Adapting local institutions, networks, leadership and learning; Adapting and governing public institutions for uncertainty and complexity; Adapting multi-level institutions to environmental crises.

Using empirical examples ranging from local to global levels, views from a variety of disciplines are integrated to provide an essential resource for scholars, policy-makers and students, seeking innovative approaches to governance.

Reference:

Folke Carl and Boyd Emily (eds.). 2011. Adapting Institutions: Governance, Complexity and Social-Ecological Resilience. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 290 pp.

The Beijer Institute seeks two post-docs
2011-08-18

The Beijer Institute is pleased to announce two one year post-doctoral posts in Economics, with possibilities of extension. One position will be placed within the Beijer Insitute program Global Dynamics and Resilience and the other within the Behavioural Economics and Nature Network.

Human societies are integral parts of the Earth system. We shape it and at the same time
depend on it for social and economic development and well-being. With this overall
perspective, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics provides a forum for researchers in
economics and ecology and related disciplines to interact and develop joint research, seeking
a deeper understanding of social-ecological systems.

In the Global Dynamics and Resilience programme we are exploring critical unrecognised
or ignored social-ecological interactions, feedbacks and potential tipping points of relevance
for human wellbeing. We are looking at the kind of governance structures and economic
incentives that can deal with new global interactions and help transform societal development
towards global sustainability.

The Behavioral Economics and Nature Network (BENN) aims to serve as a clearing house
for behavioural research around the world in economics, ecology and other disciplines for
improved stewardship of our life-supporting ecosystems. BENN pushes for more work
integrating behavioural sciences with life sciences and how understanding feedbacks between
the two can generate better advice than either alone.

The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics is an international research institute under the
auspices of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, operating in networks with leading
scholars.. The Institute hosts three other research programmes: Aquaculture and Sustainable
Seafood Production, Complex Systems, and Urban Social-Ecological Systems. The Beijer
Institute is founding partner of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the organizations
collaborate closely.

The institute is accepting applications from PhDs in Economics who wish to conduct research
in a stimulating, and friendly environment, in close collaboration with other disciplines. We
are looking for candidates with exceptional scholarly promise and a rigorous approach to
problem solving. Previous research experience on modeling, global issues, behavioral issues
and research across disciplinary boundaries is highly valued as well as research experience
within the areas of other research programmes of the Beijer Institute.

Applicants should submit a single document containing a short letter of interest (1 page)
and a curriculum vitae including relevant publications (max 3 pages). In addition the
applicants should ask a person of their choice to send a letter of recommendation to
Christina Leijonhufvud (Beijer administrator; chris@beijer.kva.se) by September 15,
2011.
Salary will depend on the merits of the candidate.

Click here to download the call for applications

The Stockholm Memorandum - Tipping the Scales towards Sustainability
2011-05-24

The Stockholm Memorandum concludes that the planet has entered a new geological age, the Anthropocene. It recommends a suite of urgent and far-reaching actions for decision makers and societies to become active stewards of the planet for future generations.

The verdict from the trial of humanity, which opened the 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium, has been incorporated into the Stockholm Memorandum: Tipping the Scales towards Sustainability (pdf). The jury of Nobel Laureates concluded that humans are now the most significant driver of global change, and that our collective actions could have abrupt and irreversible consequences for human communities and ecological systems.

“We are the first generation with the insight of the new global risks facing humanity, that people and societies are the biggest drivers of global change. The basic analysis is not in question: we cannot continue on our current path and need to take action quickly. Science can guide us in identifying the pathway to global sustainability, provided that it also engages in an open dialogue with society,” says Professor Mario Molina, who acted as judge and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995.

Some of the other key messages of the Stockholm Memorandum are:
- Environmental sustainability is a precondition for poverty eradication, economic development, and social justice.
- With almost a third of the world living on less than $2 per day, we must, as a priority, achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
- Develop new welfare indicators that address the shortcomings of GDP.
- Keep global warming below 2oC, implying a peak in global CO2 emissions no later than 2015 and carrying with it a very high risk of serious impacts and the need for major adaptation efforts.
- Foster a new agricultural revolution where more food is produced in a sustainable way on current agricultural land.
- Inspire and encourage scientific literacy especially among the young.

About the Memorandum
The Stockholm Memorandum was signed by Nobel Laureates on May 18th and handed over in person to the UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, which is preparing the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro (Rio +20).
The Stockholm Memorandum consists of a synthesis of the discussions by Symposium delegates on how economic, political and social systems can be governed within the boundaries of the planet using a transdisciplinary approach and adopting a systems perspective on climate change and deteriorating ecosystems.

About the Symposium
The 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability brought together more than twenty Nobel Laureates, a number of leading policy makers and some of the world's most renowned thinkers and experts on global sustainability.
The Symposium was organised by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Read more about the symposium and see videos from key parts of the symposium.

Un Panel joins 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium
2011-05-15

The High-level Panel on Global Sustainability appointed by the UN Secretary General represented by the co-chair, President Tarja Halonen of the Republic of Finland will come to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm for the presentation of the results from 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability on 18 May at 2 pm CET.

The results will be presented in the document titled “Stockholm Memorandum: Planetary Opportunities — Transforming the World in an Era of Global Change" which will be signed by Nobel Laureates and handed over to the High-level Panel´s co-chair President of Finland Tarja Halonen.

Feeds into 2012 RIO +20 UN Conference
The Stockholm Memorandum will synthesise the discussions by Symposium delegates on how economic, political and social systems can be governed within the boundaries of the planet.

The Stockholm Memorandum and the conclusions of the High-level Panel will feed into the preparations for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro (Rio +20) and into the ongoing climate negotiations.

About the Memorandum
The Stockholm Memorandum will consist of a synthesis of the discussions by Symposium delegates on how economic, political and social systems can be governed within the boundaries of the planet using a transdisciplinary approach and adopting a systems perspective on climate change and deteriorating ecosystems.

“The human pressure on the Earth system has reached a scale which challenges the resilience and the biophysical boundaries of the Earth. By deepening the dialogue around climate and environmental issues from an ecological, economic, social and political perspective among Nobel Laureates and high-level decision makers from business and political life, we seek planetary opportunities and stewardship for global sustainable development", says Symposium Chair, Johan Rockström

Follow key parts of the Symposium live

About the Symposium
The 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability will bring together more than twenty Nobel Laureates, a number of leading policy makers and some of the world's most renowned thinkers and experts on global sustainability.

The Symposium is organised by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

It will take place at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm between 16-18 May 2011 and will include a mix of plenary presentations, panel discussions and working group sessions. An open event dedicated to the themes of the Symposium, The Stockholm dialogue on Global Sustainability, will be held at the Royal Dramatic Theatre May 19.

Symposium themes

Beijer Director Carl Folke is Chairman of the Scientific Committee and the discussions will be concentrated to three themes:

Ecosystems and human development - this theme focuses on the role of ecosystems and the services they provide as the basis for societal development and human well-being.

Human dominated planet: where are the boundaries? - this theme focuses on the great acceleration of the human enterprise and on recent attempts to identify the safe operating space for humanity to continue to develop within a stable planet Earth.

The great transformation towards sustainable development - this theme will explore the links between crisis, opportunity, and innovation for navigating shifts and large-scale transformations towards global sustainability.

Download the Executive Summary of the background papers for the three themes.

About the symposia series
In 2007 the German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the First Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability entitled 'Global Sustainability: a Nobel Cause'. The symposium was held in Potsdam,Germany , and convened by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Two years later it was followed by the 'St. James´s Palace Symposium: the Fierce Urgency of Now' in London under the auspices of HRH The Prince of Wales.

The Nobel Laureate Symposia on Global Sustainability have attracted much attention around the world and have significantly advanced our understanding of the magnitude and complexity of the challenges humanity faces in global sustainability.

Read more about the 3^rd Nobel Laureate Symposium at http://globalsymposium2011.se

Contact

Please contact the following staff at the Symposium secretariat regarding questions on:

General enquiries:Symposium Manager Eva Krutmeijer
eva.krutmeijer@sei.se

Press:Head of Communications Ellika Hermansson Török
ellika@stockholmresilience.su.se

Bringing Ecologists and Economists together – new book on successful transdisciplinary meetings
2011-02-02

The Askö meetings are an annual forum, organized by the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, where internationally leading economists and ecologists come together to discuss issues and challenges surrounding sustainable development. The meetings are held on the island of Askö off the Swedish east coast, and facilitate a dialogue in which various players with differing perspectives can arrive at common conclusions and solutions that benefit us all.

The new book, Bringing Ecologists and Economists together – The Askö Papers and Meetings, with a foreword by Economics Laureate Kenneth Arrow, a regular participant at Askö, showcases ten papers chosen from Askö meetings held from 1993 to 2002. Most of them were written for a wide audience and published in well-renowned scientific journals, and each one is introduced by an ecologist and an economist who place the papers in a contemporary context.

“The Askö meetings have created a collaborative platform for long-term interaction between scholars from diverse disciplines that otherwise would not have collaborated and they have created a change of mindsets”, says Beijer Institute Director Carl Folke, one of the editors together with Tore Söderqvist, Anna Sundbaum and Karl-Göran Mäler. He continues: “This is an exiting set of papers on sustainability issues placed in an interesting context. The book also gives an insight in how to make transdisciplinary cooperation successful.”

Jane Lubchenco, Professor of Marine Biology and Oregon State University Distinguished Professor of Zoology and the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), comments:

"Meeting the sustainability challenge on our human-dominated planet requires creative, interdisciplinary collaborations like those that take place at the Askö meetings. The results of such collaborations, like this collection of Askö-essays and commentaries, represent a significant contribution to our future."

The theme for the 2010 meeting was Fat-tail generating mechanisms and their implications for planetary stewardship and the work on a paper on that theme is in its final stage. In later years scientists from other disciplines such as political science and earth science have been invited and Carl Folke points to the future: “The Askö meetings will continue to play an inspiring role in transdisciplinary collaboration.”

Bringing Ecologists and Economists Together - The Askö Meetings and Papers, Söderqvist, T., Sundbaum, A., Folke, C., Mäler, K.-G. (Eds.), Springer. 2010.

M. Scott Taylor new Beijer Fellow
2011-01-18

The Beijer Institute is proud to announce the Economics Professor, M. Scott Taylor as a new Beijer Fellow.

Scott Taylor is the Canada Research Chair in International, Energy and Environmental Economics at the University of Calgary, Canada. His research is focused on the links between international trade, economic growth and the environment. In the area of natural resources, he has investigated how property rights regimes affect trade flows and how trade and technology affect the incentives to protect natural resources.

Although originally trained as a theory based international trade economist he now does empirical work and has widened his field to both history and archaeology.

Scott Taylor is involved in the Beijer Institute’s Global Dynamics and Resilience program and participated in last year’s Askö meeting.

“Scott will be a great addition to our network of Beijer Fellows with his innovative way of combining applied and theoretical work when addressing environmental issues”, comments Anne-Sophie Crépin, Deputy Director of the Beijer Institute. “And like all Beijer Fellows he is used to look outside the boundaries of his own discipline, a nice person and a positive addition also on the personal level.”

Taking resilience to the next level
2010-12-03

In a new Ecology and Society article Resilience Thinking: Integrating Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability, Beijer Director Carl Folke and colleagues take the resilience concept to the next step.

Based on recent year’s research and discussions the authors explain how adaptation and transformation are essential to global resilience and why society must find ways to foster resilience of smaller social-ecological systems that contribute to resilience of the Earth system.

Click here to read article

Beijer Institute co-hosts 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability
2010-10-25

3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability

Transforming the world in an era of global change

May 16-19 2011, Stockholm, Sweden

Following up from previous meetings in Potsdam and London, the Beijer Institute is co-host when Stockholm welcomes some of the world’s most renowned thinkers and experts on global sustainability to come and discuss new and innovative approaches to the way we govern the world’s social and ecological systems.

This third Nobel Laureate Symposium will focus on the need for integrated approaches that deal with the synergies, conflicts and trade-offs between the individual components of climate change.

Climate change, decreasing biodiversity, deteriorating ecosystems, poverty and a continuously growing population all contribute to reducing the planet’s resilience and may have catastrophic implications for humanity.

Each of these problems has attracted great attention from the international community, but they have invariably been considered in isolation, with little or no regard to the interactions between them.

It is time to change this approach.

An informal setting

The Symposium is organized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, Stockholm Environment Institute, Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics and Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research, with the participation and support of HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

It will take place at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm between 16-19 May 2011 and will include a mix of plenary presentations, panel discussions and working group sessions.

Symposium themes

Beijer Director Carl Folke is Chairman of the Scientific Committee and the discussions will be concentrated to three themes:

1.Ecosystems and human development
2.Human dominated planet: where are the boundaries?
3.The great transformation towards sustainable development

The memorandum

The Symposium will conclude with a memorandum signed by key Nobel Laureates. This will be communicated and handed over to the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability appointed by the UN Secretary General.

The Memorandum will formulate a new vision for sustainable development and prosperity, along with mechanisms for achieving this vision.

The conclusions of the Panel will also feed into the preparations for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro and into the ongoing climate negotiations.

About the symposia series

In 2007 the German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the First Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability entitled 'Global Sustainability: a Nobel Cause'. The symposium was held in Potsdam,Germany , and convened by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Two years later it was followed by the 'St. James´s Palace Symposium: the Fierce Urgency of Now' in London under the auspices of HRH The Prince of Wales.