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Principles of Ecosystem Stewardship: Resilience-Based Natural Resource Management in a Changing World
This is a textbook for Natural Resource Management, Resource Conservation and Ecosystem Management, as well as other related or more specialized courses.
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 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. Loss of resilience makes systems more vulnerable to both expected and unforeseen changes.
Achieving desirable outcomes for humanity, such as those of the UN Millennium Development Goals on poverty, food security, and environmental sustainability, will require new integrated and adaptive approaches to social and economic development, where the complex interconnectedness between humans and nature, at all scales, is considered and the existence of uncertainty and surprise accepted as the rule. The purpose of this textbook is to provide a new framework for resource management - a framework based on the necessity of managing resources in a world dominated by uncertainty and change. The book links recent advances in the theory of resilience, sustainability, and vulnerability with practical issues of resource management.
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 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. Loss of resilience makes systems more vulnerable to both expected and unforeseen changes.
Achieving desirable outcomes for humanity, such as those of the UN Millennium Development Goals on poverty, food security, and environmental sustainability, will require new integrated and adaptive approaches to social and economic development, where the complex interconnectedness between humans and nature, at all scales, is considered and the existence of uncertainty and surprise accepted as the rule. The purpose of this textbook is to provide a new framework for resource management - a framework based on the necessity of managing resources in a world dominated by uncertainty and change. The book links recent advances in the theory of resilience, sustainability, and vulnerability with practical issues of resource management.
420 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
2 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
F. Stuart Chapin III
12 books4 followersF. Stuart Chapin III, known to his friends as “Terry,” is an Alaskan ecologist who has written leading textbooks in ecosystem stewardship, ecosystem ecology, and plant physiological ecology. Based on his stewardship work, for which he was awarded the 2019 Volvo Environment Prize, he wrote “Grassroots Stewardship: Sustainability Within Our Reach” to explore stewardship with a general audience. This book presents a positive and pragmatic strategy by which individual citizens can shape a more sustainable future for nature and society.
Chapin’s research addresses the effects of changes in climate and wildfire on Alaskan ecology and rural communities. He explores ways that communities and agencies can increase sustainability of ecosystems and human communities over the long term despite rapid climatic and social changes. In this way, society can proactively shape changes toward a more sustainable future. He pursues this internationally through the Resilience Alliance, nationally through the Ecological Society of America, and in Alaska through partnerships with rural indigenous communities.
Chapin’s research addresses the effects of changes in climate and wildfire on Alaskan ecology and rural communities. He explores ways that communities and agencies can increase sustainability of ecosystems and human communities over the long term despite rapid climatic and social changes. In this way, society can proactively shape changes toward a more sustainable future. He pursues this internationally through the Resilience Alliance, nationally through the Ecological Society of America, and in Alaska through partnerships with rural indigenous communities.
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April 14, 2017
typical text book. dry, but informative...every once in a while there would be some really interesting information though.
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