REFERENCE: Waltner-Toews, David, Kay, James, Lister, Nina-Marie, (eds.) (2003?) "The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty, and Managing for Sustainability, (book under preparation)

The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty, and Managing for Sustainability

David Waltner-Toews, James Kay, Nina-Marie Lister (eds)

© COPYRIGHT 2002

After all the rhetoric of global conferences, we need to ask: is managing for sustainability possible? If so, how? Should we be focusing on better management, or better science? Without good theory, good management can only happen by accident. Without practice, all theories are suspect. Are there ways to combine science and management in a way that builds on the strengths of both? Can we learn our way into a sustainable (human) future on this planet? These issues cut across all areas of practice (health, urban planning, natural resource conservation, agriculture, international development) and a wide variety of areas of scholarly inquiry.

Ecosystems are diverse, complex, and dynamic systems that regularly undergo dramatic and unpredictable changes. These changes, while both inevitable and normal, are dramatically modified in nature, scale and speed in human-dominated systems. As such, there is considerable scientific uncertainty surrounding ecosystem change and the management of human activities. The high degree of uncertainty, coupled with an urgent need for more for sustainable development necessitates a fundamentally different and more creative approach to decision-making. Traditional (disciplinary) science, while necessary, is not by itself sufficient for understanding and dealing with ecosystems. Specifically, a new, broadened and interdisciplinary approach bridging science and management is essential.

This book presents an emerging approach and its application. Called "the ecosystem approach", it is based on the application of complex systems theories to the management of ecological systems. Through a series of integrated papers covering theory, key challenges, and cases in practice, this collaborative work brings together in one cohesive volume the most recent theory and practice on decision-making in the context of uncertainty and complexity. We present a specific suite of methods and tools for a model ecosystem approach, tailored for decision-making in planning and management for ecosystems and their interactions with human society. The theory presented in the book has grown out of, and feeds back into, case studies from around the world, ranging geographically from Canada and New Zealand to India, Latin America and Africa, and in focus from urban & community planning, and public health, to agriculture and management of natural areas.

Table of contents

Part I. The problematique of complexity

1. An introduction - David Waltner-Toews, James Kay

2. The scientific context: Post normal science: a science commensurate to the questions asked?- Jerry Ravetz & Silvio Funtowicz

3. The Cultural Context: Ethnic pluralism and global goals: finding a place for cultural diversity in the quest for global sustainability - David Waltner-Toews, Ellen Wall

Part II. The Ecosystem Approach as Ecology

4. The Historical Context: Where did "the ecosystem approach" come from? A history of the ecosystem approach. - Steve Bocking

5. The Ecosystem Approach: An overview of current thinking - James Kay

6. Scale and Type: Describing complex systems - Tim Allen

7. Ecosystems as complex systems - James Kay

8. Bridging Science and Values: The Challenge of Biodiversity N-L Lister.

Part III. The Ecosystem Approach as a Human Activity

9. Governance in complex systems - George Francis

10. Environmental Valuation and European Governance -Bruna de Marchi

11. People in ecosystems: emergent complexity Funtowicz & Ravetz

12:The emergence of epistemic communities: virtual governance. Henry Regier and George Francis

13. Linking hard and soft systems - Reg Noble, Ricardo Ramirez et al

14. The cultural basis for an ecosystem approach. - Fikret Berkes and Ian Davidson-Hunt

14.5 Summary of the implications of the societal-cultural issuess for an ecosystem approach

Part IV. Meeting the Challenges

15a. Guiding Principles: What is different about a complex adaptive ecosystem approach. David Waltner-Toews, James Kay

15b: Framing and describing the situation

15c: AMESH and Her Siblings: A Family of Processes for Implementing Post Normal Science.

16. What kind of goals? - David Waltner-Toews, James Kay

17. Using the goals: indicators, monitoring and collaborative learning. James Kay and Michelle Boyle

Part V. Case studies

18. Conserving nature in an suburban setting: Lessons from the Huron Natural Area. James and V. Rynnimeri

19. The Chesapeake Bay, dealing with urbanization. D. McCarthy

20. An Ecosystem Approach to Eco-Regional Planning and its application in Saskatchewan, L. Baschak

21. Human Activity and the Ecosystem Approach: The contribution of Soft Systems Methodology to managing the Cooum River in Chennai, India - Martin Bunch

22. Sustainable poverty: the conundrum of low-resource smallholder farms in Kenya - Thomas Gitau

23. Landscape-scale perspectives on livestock, stream health and economic wellbeing in the Great Lakes Basin - Dominique Charron

24. Health, Biodiversity, and Natural Resource Use on the Peruvian Amazon frontier - Tamsyn Murray et al

25. Ecosystem Health in Kathmandu: using an ecosystem approach to make sense out of a mess. Cynthia Neudoerrfer, D. Waltner-Toews, James Kay.

26. An Ecosystem Approach to Natural Areas Planning in Ontario: Lessons in Adaptive Design N-M Lister

Part VII. Where to from here?

27. Where to from here: Developing the practice of the ecosystem approach. - David Waltner-Toews, James Kay

28. Where to from here: Improving our use of complexity theory -James Kay

29. Political economy in eco-paradise - E. Raez-Luna

Appendix: a Glossary - James Kay

For more about the family of methodologies see: A collection of schematics of the ecosystem approach.

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