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Environmental Governance 5th Nov CURRENT WIKI ENTRY: (change heading to: Resilience and Sustainability) There is increasing awareness and acceptance that ecosystem resilience is required to reach the goal of sustainable development[13][21][22]. These are conclusions drawn by Berkes et al who argue that survival of society is dependent on services and resources delivered by the ecosystem And as Folke et al note, there are practical examples that illustrate ‘the tight connection between resilience, diversity and sustainability of social-ecological systems’.

Academic perspectives The interdependence of ecological and social systems has gained renewed recognition since the late 1990’s in by academics such as Berkes et al {ref linking soc and eco syss…., /Folke sedish paper 2002} as the concept of sustainable development has evolved. The 3 pillars of Sustainable DevelopmentSustainable development{link} which were developed by Stavins et al {ref/limk to wiki page economic sustainability on sustainable development page19X} have been challenged by scholars in this field as placing economic development as first amongst equals or as Clive Hamilton puts it; ‘the growth fetish’ ref pg 32} Noteworthy writings of the significance of the environment and resilience is Folke et al stating that the likelihood of sustaining development is raised by ‘Managing for resilience’{p440/5ref} and Perman et al who propose that safeguarding the environment to ‘deliver a set of services’ should be a ‘necessary condition for an economy to be sustainable’ {ref}.

The purpose of ecological resilience as an alternative to sustainable development that is proposed is that ultimately it is about averting our extinction as Walker {pg 8 ref} cites Holling in his paper: “[..] resilience is concerned with [measuring] the probabilities of extinction.” (1973, p. 20). The conclusion that is increasingly reached by academics in this field therefore requires that resilience should underpin policy objectives for development. {ref Ross p32}.

Intrinsic to the discourse between economists and ecologists is the threat of catastrophic alterations of the global ecosystem change caused by anthropocentric climate change, the impacts of which have been summed up by {ref p 14} quotes James Hanson, head of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies; quoted by CH thus; ‘Continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions… practically eliminates the possibility of near-term return of atmospheric composition beneath the tipping level for catastrophic effects.’

M Lee {ref} refers to Andrew Dobson’s introduction of the terms ‘environmentalism’ and ‘ecologism’ to describe the discord between managerial approaches to problems of development typically referred to as ‘business as usual’. Environmentalism refers to approaches which presuppose a continuation of current consumption and production. ‘Radical’ and ‘reformist’ approaches by their very definition require an entirely new approach to environmental management. Ecologism advocates that ‘P433 safeguarding ecological services and resources is ‘essential to secure human wellbeing’.

(as a subsection?) The problem with the status quo (the flaw of the free market) The challenge of applying the concept of resilience to the context of sustainability is that it sits at odds with conventional economic ideology and policy making. Resilience questions the free market model within which global markets operate. Inherent to the successful operation of a free market is specialisation which is required to achieve efficiency and increase productivity. This very act of specialisation simultaneously weakens resilience by permitting systems to become accustomed to and dependent upon their surroundings and prevailing conditions. In the event of unanticipated shocks; this dependency or rigidity reduces the ability of the system to adapt to these changes. {{Ambio p438/3 ‘management/rigid control…erodes resilience’ ref}. Correspondingly; Perman et al note that; ‘Some economic activities appear to reduce resilience, so that the level of disturbance to which the ecosystem can be subjected to without parametric change taking place is reduced. {ref Perman et al p 26}

(as a subsection?) Moving beyond sustainable development Berkes et al table a set of principles to assist with ‘building resilience and sustainability’ {ref p429} which consolidate approaches of adaptive management {ref}, local knowledge-based management practices of resources {ref???} and conditions for institutional learning and self-organisaton. Table 16.2 Principles drawn from local social-ecological systems for building resilience

More recently, it has been suggested that the concept of sustainable development is no longer adequate in assisting policy development fit for today’s global challenges and objectives. This is because the concept of sustainable development is ‘based on weak sustainability’ which doesn’t take account of reality of  ‘limits to earth's resilience’ {ref Ross – and link to wiki entry}. Ross draws on the impact of climate change on the global agenda as a fundamental factor in the ‘shift towards ecological sustainability’ as an alternative approach to that of sustainable development.