News Archive
Science article present reform measures that can improve global sustainability governance.
2012-03-16
With the wider acknowledgement that human pressure on the planet is propelling Earth into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, calls for improved governance of Earth´s resources is simultaneously gaining momentum. Structural change is needed, both inside and outside the UN system and involving both public and private actors.
In an article recently published in Science, Beijer Institute director Carl Folke, along with an international team of Earth System governance experts, presents seven reform measures that can improve global sustainability governance.
First, the environmental agencies and programmes of the United Nations must be reformed and potentially upgraded. Creating a governance body equivalent to the UN Security Council is largely believed to be too centralised and top-heavy, but turning the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) into a UN agency for environmental protection on par with the World Health Organization or the International Labour Organization is considered a better option.
"We need a strong, environmental organisation with a sizable role in agenda-setting, norm-development, science assessment and capacity-building," says Carl Folke, who is also Science director at Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Lead author Frank Biermann of VU University Amsterdam, continues:
"The most promising route is creating a high-level UN Sustainable Development Council directly under the UN General Assembly. To be effective, such a council should give special predominance to the 20 largest economies in the world but also welcome access for civil society representatives. Only such a strong novel role for these countries will allow the council to have a meaningful influence in areas such as economic and trade governance."
More information at the Stockholm Resilience Centre website
Full reference: Biermann, F., K. Abbott, S. Andresen, K. Bäckstrand, S. Bernstein, M.M. Betsill, H. Bulkeley, B. Cashore, J. Clapp, C. Folke, A. Gupta, J. Gupta, P.M. Haas, A. Jordan, N. Kanie, T. Kluvánková-Oravská, L. Lebel, D. Liverman, J. Meadowcroft, R.B. Mitchell, P. Newell, S. Oberthür, L. Olsson, P. Pattberg, R. Sánchez-Rodríguez, H. Schroeder, A. Underdal, S. Camargo Vieira, C. Vogel, O.R. Young., A. Brock, and R. Zondervan. 2012. Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance. Science 335: 13.06-1307
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
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 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium at http://globalsymposium2011.se
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.
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.
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 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium at http://globalsymposium2011.se
Contact
Please contact the following staff at the Symposium secretariat regarding questions on:
Invitations:Symposium Coordinator Christina Leijonhufvud
globalsymposium@kva.se
Press: Head of Communications Ellika Hermansson Török
ellika@stockholmresilience.su.
General enquiries: Symposium Manager Eva Krutmeijer
eva.krutmeijer@sei.se
Carl Folke and Johan Rockström Social Capitalists of the year
2010-08-20
Beijer Director Carl Folke has together with Johan Rockström, director of Stockholm Resilience Centre and Stockholm Environment Institute, been awarded Social Capitalists of the Year, by one of Sweden’s leading business magazines, Veckans Affärer. They receive the award in the category Personal contribution with the jury’s motivation: “Conciously working to raise debate, create education and meeting places, this years winners have internalized the externalities in the environmental work and made the business community a partner in the work for green capitalism.”
-The jury emphasizes the shift from viewing environmental issues as something threatening and limiting, to an economic reality, part of the profit and innovation strategies. This reflects the fruitful collaboration of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, the Stockholm Resilience Centre and SEI, responded Carl Folke, who is also Science Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, to the prize.
-This award is particularly gratifying since it shows positive response from the business community. If the science and business communities can gather around the major environmental issues it can mean a huge lever for society, commented Johan Rockström at the award ceremony in Stockholm on 18 August.
Urban gardens key in times of crisis
2010-05-28
New article by Beijer researchers investigates where and how ecological practices, knowledge and experience are retained and transmitted in allotment gardens.
The article in Global Environmental Change, by Beijer researchers Stephan Barthel, Carl Folke and Johan Colding, is the first study ever to really analyse in-depth the concept of “social-ecological memory" as the carrier of ecological knowledge and practices that enable sustainable stewardship of nature.
Allotment gardens have often been sources of local resilience during periods of crisis. During World War I the number of allotment gardens surged from 600,000 to 1,500,000 in Britain, supplying city people with food and other ecosystem services.
The gardens were planted in parks and sports fields, and even Buckingham Palace turned up the earth to grow vegetables. After declining abruptly in the 1920s and 1930s, World War II saw a new explosion in the numbers of allotment gardens in cities of Britain and other parts of Europe.
The specific aim of the new study has been to explore how management practices, which are linked to ecosystem services, are retained and stored among people, and modified and transmitted through time.
- In the case of Stockholm, social-ecological memory in urban gardening is maintained and transmitted through imitation of practices, oral communication and collective rituals. It also resides in physical gardens, artefacts, metaphors and rules-in-use, Stephan Barthel explains.
Time to include citizens in stewardship
Barthel and his colleagues performed surveys and interviews with several hundreds of gardeners in the Stockholm urban area over a four-year period.
They found that the self-organised groups of allotment gardeners support critical ecosystem services that both underpin the production of crops and flowers and spill over to a much larger portion of the metropolitan landscape.
- This calls for policy makers to appreciate and actively include citizens that engage in the actual stewardship of urban ecosystem services, whether it is about sustaining urban green areas or designing new ones, Barthel says.
Pockets of social-ecological memory
Today the city of Stockholm contains about 10,000 individual allotment garden plots, occupying 210 ha of land and involving about 24,000 people.
As concluded in the study by Barthel, Folke and Colding, these allotment gardens serve as “pockets of social— ecological memory" in the urban landscape and constitute a source of resilience for generation of ecosystem services while counteracting ecological illiteracy.
Without such physical sites experiences of stewardship of ecosystem services, or “social-ecological memory" could easily dissolve. Now when we are entering the so-called urban millennium, with more than 50 % of the global population living in cities, planning for sustainability needs to take these green spaces — and the social-ecological memory they maintain — seriously into account.
The article Social–ecological memory in urban gardens—Retaining the capacity for management of ecosystem services is also published in the Beijer E-print series, click here to read abstract and request paper from author
Behavioral Economics and Nature Network – BENN
2010-05-27
Launch of the new research programme at the Beijer Institute.
A workshop bringing together leading scientists across several disciplines was held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences May 24-25, as a start up for the Beijer Institute’s new research programme Behavioral Economics and Nature Network – BENN. The purpose of BENN is to serve as a clearing house for behavioral research around the globe in economics and related disciplines for improved stewardship of our life-support ecosystems.
Over the past two decades, The Beijer Institute has had great success in bringing together small groups of leading scientists who have made significant strides in integrating economics and ecology to address essential global topics. The aim is now to bring more of the behavioral sciences into this productive atmosphere, including behavioral economics, psychology, institutional design, and decision making.
-We are very pleased with what we managed to achieve during these two days, says Therese Lindahl, Beijer researcher who together with programme director Jason Shogren organized the workshop. We are starting to identify key research topics that should exist in the BENN research agenda and network, and we drafted an outline for a joint paper, Doctor Lindahl continues.
The next step for BENN is to extend the network and initial plans were made for a conference in the fall of 2011.
Professor Jason Shogren Beijer Fellow
2010-03-11
The Beijer Institute is proud to introduce Professor Jason Shogren as a Beijer Fellow. He is Stroock Professor at the Department of Economics & Finance at the University of Wyoming, USA. http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/Shogren/
Elinor Ostrom awarded Prize in Economic Sciences
2009-10-13
Professor Elinor Ostrom has been awarded The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2009. She shares the prize with Oliver Williamson.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Professor Ostrom "for her analysis of economic governance," saying "her work had demonstrated how common property can be successfully managed by user associations".
Ostrom is considered one of the leading scholars in the study of common pool resources. Her work emphasizes how humans and ecosystems interact to provide for long run sustainable resource yields.
Forests, fisheries, oil fields, grazing lands, and irrigation systems, among others, all exhibit the characteristics of common pool resources and Ostrom's work has highlighted how humans have created diverse institutional arrangements over natural resources for thousands of years that have prevented ecosystem collapse.
Elinor Ostrom is a Beijer fellow and served on the Beijer Board between 1997 and 2002. She has attended several of the annual Askö meetings and was very active in the Beijer Institute’s Property Rights Research Programme. She currently serves on the Scientific Board of the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Carl Folke, Director of the Beijer Institute, praises Ostrom's work.
- Elinor Ostrom has long recognized the importance of collaborations across many disciplines for improved stewardship of the commons and our life-supporting environment. Her work on governing the commons illustrates the significance of collective action and trust and provides hope for the environmental challenges facing humanity, he says.
Watch Ostrom explain the concept thinking behind the tragedy of commons and how to go beyond it at the Stockholm Resilience Centre webpage.
For more information about the prize see the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences webpage
Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity
2009-09-25
New approaches are needed to help humanity deal with climate change and other global environmental threats that lie ahead in the 21st century. A group of 28 internationally renowned scientists propose that global biophysical boundaries, identified on the basis of the scientific understanding of the Earth System, can define a ‘safe planetary operating space’ that will allow humanity to continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. This new approach to sustainable development is conveyed in the coming issue of the scientific journal Nature where the scientists have made a first attempt to identify and quantify a set of nine planetary boundaries.
“Human pressure on the Earth System has reached a scale where abrupt global environmental change can no longer be excluded. To continue to live and operate safely, humanity has to stay away from critical ‘hard-wired’ thresholds in Earth’s environment, and respect the nature of planet's climatic, geophysical, atmospheric and ecological processes,” says lead author Professor Johan Rockström, Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University. “Transgressing planetary boundaries may be devastating for humanity, but if we respect them we have a bright future for centuries ahead,” he continues.
The group of scientists including Beijer Director Carl Folke; Beijer Fellows Stuart “Terry” Chapin, Marten Scheffer, Terry Hughes and Brian Walker, have attempted to quantify the safe biophysical boundaries outside which, they believe, the Earth System cannot function in a stable state, the state in which human civilizations have thrived.
The scientists first identified the Earth System processes and potential biophysical thresholds, which, if crossed, could generate unacceptable environmental change for humanity. They then proposed the boundaries that should be respected in order to reduce the risk of crossing these thresholds.
Nine boundaries were identified including climate change, stratospheric ozone, land use change, freshwater use, biological diversity, ocean acidification, nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to the biosphere and oceans, aerosol loading and chemical pollution. The study suggests that three of these boundaries (climate change, biological diversity and nitrogen input to the biosphere) may already have been transgressed. In addition, it emphasizes that the boundaries are strongly connected – crossing one boundary may seriously threaten the ability to stay within safe levels of the others.
The article in Nature as well as a full scientific article in Ecology and Society are available in the Beijer E-print Series.
More information at the Stockholm Resilience Centre webpage
Annual Report 2008/2009
2009-09-17
Read about the Beijer Institute's activities in the new Annual Report.
Science article: Compounding human-made crises outrun our ability to deal with them.
2009-09-15
The world faces a compounding series of crises driven by human activity, which existing governments and institutions are increasingly powerless to cope with, a group of eminent environmental scientists and economists warnes.
- The challenge of climate change is closely linked to the capacity of ecosystems worldwide to generate services and the wellbeing of the economy rests on this capacity. Such interdependencies have to be tackled through global cooperation. Local and national efforts are already failing, Folke says.
The scientists acknowledge that the main challenge is getting countries to agree to take part in global institutions designed to prevent destructive human practices. “Plainly, agreements must be designed such that countries are better off participating than not participating,” they say.
This article is available in the Beijer Institutes E-print series.
Golf courses can sustain wetland fauna – new article in Ecological Applications
2009-09-15
Golf courses are often considered to have negative impacts on fauna due to the volume of pesticides and fertilizers used to maintain the lawns. But golf-courses can in fact sustain amphibians and other wetland creatures just as well as nature reserves, in some cases even better.
This is revealed in a new study by Beijer Institute researcher Johan Colding, together with colleagues from the Stockholm Resilience Centre, The Swedish Museum of Natural History and the Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, recently published in the journal Ecological Applications.
New book on natural resource management
2009-06-18
The new book "Principles of Ecosystem Stewardship: Resilience-Based Natural Resource Management in a Changing World", is the first comprehensive textbook with a resilience focus for natural resource management, resource conservation and ecosystem based-management, as well as other related or more specialized courses of e.g. social-ecological systems and management of ecosystem services.
A new framework for resource management
Edited by Beijer Institute Director Carl Folke together with Beijer Fellow F. Stuart Chapin III and Gary P. Kofinas, the book links recent advances in the theory of resilience, sustainability, and vulnerability with practical issues of resource management, including ecosystem services, from a diverse set of social-ecological systems.
The book argues that in order to achieve desirable outcomes for humanity, such as those of the UN Millennium Development Goals on poverty, food security, and environmental sustainability, new integrated and adaptive approaches to social and economic development is urgently required.
- The purpose of this textbook is to provide a new framework for resource management - a framework based on the necessity of managing resources and ecosystem services as part of interdependent social-ecological in a complex world of directional change and uncertainty, Carl Folke says.
New approaches required
Together with his co-authors, Carl Folke argues that most textbooks on natural resource and ecosystem management are dominated by a steady-state view that interprets change as gradual and incremental and disregards interactions of social-ecological systems across scales.
- Management implementation of steady-state theory and policies tends to invest in controlling a few selected ecosystem processes, at the expense of long-term social-ecological resilience - i.e., the capacity of the system to cope with surprise and abrupt changes and continue to develop and even transform to more desired conditions, he says.
Book details
Chapin, F.S., Kofinas, G.P., Folke, C. 2009. Principles of Ecosystem Stewardship: Resilience-Based Natural Resource Management in a Changing World. Springer; 1 edition. ISBN-10: 038773032X. ISBN-13: 978-0387730325
Resilience: Accounting for the Noncomputable
2009-05-08
Why are elements of surprise often neglected when trying to solve complex environmental problems, and how can they be dealt with better? This is discussed in a new article in the Beijer E-print series.
Reliance on statistical extrapolation of the past and on dominant but incomplete models is part of the problem, according to the authors of the article “Resilience: Accounting for the Noncomputable”, first published in Ecology and Society. By putting together a diverse problem solving team and using processes that stimulate a wide range of models and allow for transparency, there is a better chance of uncovering, rather than masking, the uncertainty, which would increase resilience.
Click to read this article and abstracts of other new articles in the Beijer E-print series.
The article is a product of The Surprise Project, a collaborative project of the Resilience Alliance with Beijer Fellows Buz Brock, Steve Carpenter, Marten Scheffer, Frances Westley and Beijer Director Carl Folke. This small project investigates three main questions (1) What do we know about the probability distributions of big important changes in social-ecological systems? (2) What are the characteristics of unpredictable changes in social-ecological systems? (3) How can diverse forms of knowledge be integrated to ask the questions that evoke resilience thinking? To address these questions, the group is evaluating case studies, analyzing models of extreme nonlinear and stochastic events, and exploring new approaches for integrating knowledge.
Governance and Management of Ecosystem Services in Africa under Scenarios of Change
2009-04-27
Science –Policy Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya , May 25-27, 2009. Upon invitation.
The Beijer Institute is together with the Stockholm Resilience Centre, bioSUSTAINABILITY of DIVERSITAS and Tropical Biology Association, organizing a Science-Policy workshop in Nairobi, Kenya.
This workshop will assemble experts from Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere to address the challenge of designing governance institutions to achieve sustainable provision of ecosystem services and poverty alleviation.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to some of the richest concentrations of biodiversity and some of the poorest people in the world. Ecosystem services are probably of greater importance to human well-being in Sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere because of the large fraction of rural poor whose livelihoods depend directly on their surrounding ecosystems. Yet fewer existing institutions ensure the conservation of ecosystems on which the provision of services depends. Challenges for governance of ecosystem services range from lack of local institutions to prevent the overexploitation of resources (“tragedy of the commons”), to pressures from global market forces, to an almost total lack of governance institutions in some war-torn parts of Africa.
Some of the specific issues that the symposium will address are:
• What institutions are required to “mainstream” ecosystem services so that effects on ecosystem services are incorporated into everyday decision-making of individuals, companies and governments?
• What are the main impediments to mainstreaming ecosystem services?
• How would the conservation of ecosystem services or the failure to do so affect the well-being of the poor?
• How will climate change, globalization, or other large-scale global changes affect efforts to conserve ecosystem services or the well-being of the poor?
• What kinds of institutions will make socio-ecological systems more resilient in the face of shocks emanating either from economic, political or social spheres or from natural systems?
Climate, Ecosystems and Development - The 100th Stockholm Seminar
2009-03-19
Thursday April 30th, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm
The Global challenges of climate change, ecosystem management and human welfare are interlinked. In the end human development is dependent on services from healthy ecosystems, which are being eroded by climate change. The interaction between climate and ecosystems are complex, yet the climate issue in itself may be more complex than the IPCC has been able to cope with. Glaciers are one area where complexity issues like tipping points, risk assessment and risk management are studied and evaluated. Given this complexity of ecosystems and climate, can we understand enough to allow for development, like ending hunger and malnutrition? And what are the possibilities that these complex issues will be addressed at the climate change world summit in Copenhagen (COP 15) in December?
Debate article by Johan Colding in the magazine Stockholms Fria Tidning
2009-03-09
Johan Colding's contribution to the current debate on the future development of Stockholm between advocates of a densly developed city with urban parks, and those who want to protect the connected "wild" green areas of Stockholm. Johan Colding wants to broaden the debate to include a wider range of green areas and the ecosystem services they provide. Read the article in Swedish.
Integrating ecosystem services in urban planning
2009-01-29
Spatial planning processes that more purposefully integrate socio-cultural and ecological considerations into urban development are required if cities are to navigate towards more sustainable development.
Beijer researcher Johan Colding is project leader for a new research project with the aim to explore how integration of the concept of ‘ecosystem services’ into urban spatial planning efforts could increase urban resilience. Ecosystem services are the full range of benefits society obtains from ecosystems. Resilience is the ability of a system to maintain capacity to lead a continued existence by incorporating change.
Johan Colding and Stephan Barthel from the Beijer Institute together with a group of urban scholars and practitioners in systems ecology and spatial planning from Stockholm, Istanbul and Wageningen will carry out trans-disciplinary research through case study analyses in each of their respective urban landscapes. The research project will address two overarching questions: 1. How might a trans-disciplinary practice of spatial planning and governance based on ecosystem services contribute to the emergence of resilient urban landscapes? 2. What can resilience theory contribute to urban spatial planning processes?
Using the common framework of ecosystem services two themes of analytic inquiries will be pursued: (I) limitations and constraints in current modes of spatial planning and governance, and (II) examples of integrative urban spatial designs. The project’s scientific relevance lies in generating both theoretical contributions and practice innovations.
Click here to see a film produced by Formas about the project
New Mäler Scholarship
2009-01-26
The Beijer Institute is together with the Regional Networks in Environmental Economics and the Swedish Research Council Sida introducing the Mäler Scholarship. The Mäler Scholarship will allow promising young researchers from developing countries to travel to Sweden and work on their research at the Beijer Institute under supervision by Beijer senior researchers for up to six months.
Collective effort for a sustainable Stellenbosch
2009-01-26
Researchers from the Beijer Institute and Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) visited South Africa in December to assist local researchers, politicians and NGO’s in forming a Sustainable Development Plan for the university town of Stellenbosch in the Cape wine district.
In a town marked by its colonial and apartheid past, the University and Municipality together with the local Sustainability Institute have joined forces in a quest for greater social equity and well-being, increased levels of economic development and sustainability.The team from Sweden was invited to a workshop intended to create a broad vision for the town, based on the needs of the different stakeholders, where groups and individuals from all walks of life participated.
-We can contribute with our joint competence in creating sustainability in integrated social-ecological systems, says Beijer researcher Åsa Jansson, who together with Stephan Barthel, Thomas Elmqvist, Henrik Ernstson, Lisen Schultz and Magnus Tuvendal from SRC and the Dep. of Systems Ecology at Stockholm University led an exercise to create a model for how the social-ecological system of Stellenbosch looks today and how it can be developed.
-The challenge from an ecological perspective lays in building resilience in the urban farming landscape that Stellenbosch entails, with an urban expansion in mind. Key issues such as water quality, pollination, productivity and preserving the local native ecosystem need to be addressed. The Fynbos, a unique shrubland vegetation with a great plant diversity and a high percentage of endemic species, is for instance threatened by non indigenous pines that provides timber but requires large quantities of water, says Åsa Jansson.
The aim for the Swedish researchers is now to find funding for further cooperation with the South African group and Åsa Jansson concludes:
The Beijer Institute among top ten strongest research environments
2009-01-26
The Beijer Institute has been acknowledged as one of the ten strongest research environments for strategic environmental research in Sweden, in a report byThe Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, Mistra.
One hundred senior researchers within the field environmental research were asked in a survey to nominate five candidates and forty strategic environmental research environments were identified.
The Crown of Knowledge – Kunskapens krona
2008-11-01
Despite the fact that our economy is dependent on vigorous ecosystems, prognoses of economic development and growth do not include the value of nature’s capital. It has been mentally lost in an urbanized world where more than 50 percent of the earth’s inhabitants live in urban environments.
This was one reflection by Professor Carl Folke, Director for the Beijer Institute and SRC Science Director, at a seminar held at the Stockholm Royal Castle 13-14 November. The theme for the seminar Kunskapens krona, or the Crown of Knowledge in English, this year was: Our Changing Nature – The nature that we have inherited from earlier generations is changing rapidly. What is our conception of nature today? And how are we and the human nature changing?
These questions were discussed by representatives from the ten Royal Swedish Academies during two days, and in his second appearance Carl Folke also underlined that the issue now is to make a positive development possible in an interconnected world in transformation, where our planet sets the boundaries for human expansion.
-We have to have cooperation between nations and with nature, and what we need to build is resilience – the ability to deal with disturbances and crises, and make use of those in continuing to develop, Professor Folke concluded.
The seminars are broadcasted in Swedish the 18th of November by Swedish Television channels SVT2, 9.30 to 15.05 and SVT24, 9.30 to 16.00.
You can read both Carl Folke’s contributions to the discussion here, in Swedish.
Talk by Carl Folke and Olle Granath, the Royal Swedish Academy for Fine Arts.
Talk by Carl Folke representing The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
