Navigating Social-Ecological Systems: Building Resilience for Complexity and Change

by Fikret Berkes, Johan Colding (Editor), Carl Folke (Editor)

In the effort towards sustainability, it has become increasingly important to develop conceptual frames to understand the dynamics of social and ecological systems. Drawing on complex systems theory, this book investigates how human societies deal with change in linked social-ecological systems, and build capacity to adapt to change. The concept of resilience is central in this context. Resilient social-ecological systems have the potential to sustain development by responding to and shaping change in a manner that does not lead to loss of future options. Resilient systems also provide capacity for renewal and innovation in the face of rapid transformation and crisis. The term navigating in the title is meant to capture this dynamic process. Case studies and examples from several geographic areas, cultures and resource types are included, merging forefront research from natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities into a common framework for new insights on sustainability.

Genres: Environment

416 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 16, 1998

About the author

Dr. Berkes is an applied ecologist by background and works at the interface of natural and social sciences. He joined the University of Manitoba in 1991 as the Director of NRI, a position he occupied until 1996. He has served as the President of the International Association for the Study of Common Property (1996-98) and as the leader of a number of research groups. He has devoted most of his professional life to investigating the relations between societies and their resources, and to examining the conditions under which the "tragedy of the commons" may be avoided. He works on theoretical and practical aspects of community-based management, co-management, and traditional knowledge. His publications include the books, Sacred Ecology (Routledge, 2008), Breaking Ice (U Calgary Press, 2005), Navigating Social-Ecological Systems (Cambridge U Press, 2003), and Managing Small-Scale Fisheries (IDRC, 2001). See his list of publications and downloadable PDFs elsewhere on this web site. Dr. Berkes holds a Tier I Canada Research Chair (2002) and the title of Distinguished Professor (2003).


Dr. Berkes' main area of research is the commons, with current emphasis on adaptive co-management, complex systems/resilience, and indigenous knowledge. He works with Masters and PhD students who have an interdisciplinary orientation and an interest in combining social and ecological perspectives. Several of his national and international team projects involve NRI students. Five such projects were in progress in the past year: the SSHRC project, "Community-based resource management in a multi-level world", SSHRC/CURA project, "Protected area creation, culture and development at the Cree community of Wemindji, James Bay, Quebec" (with C. Scott, McGill, PI); the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) project, "Community-based conservation and UNDP Equator Initiative cases", the CIDA project, "Building environmental governance capacity in Bangladesh" (with C.E. Haque, NRI, PI); the Natural Resources Canada project, "Adaptation as resilience building: a policy study of climate change vulnerability and adaptation on the Canadian Prairies" (with H. Venema, IISD, PI).