Can We Manage for Resilience? The Integration of Resilience Thinking into Natural Resource Management in the United States
Environmental Management, Forthcoming
8 Pages Posted: 8 Jun 2011
Date Written: June 1, 2011
Abstract
The concept of resilience is now frequently invoked by natural resource agencies in the US. This reflects growing trends within ecology, conservation biology, and other disciplines acknowledging that social-ecological systems require management approaches recognizing their complexity. In this paper, we examine the concept of resilience and the manner in which some legal and regulatory frameworks governing federal natural resource agencies have difficulty accommodating it. We then use the U.S. Forest Service’s employment of resilience as an illustration of the challenges ahead.
Keywords: Resilience, Social-Ecological Systems, Natural Resource Management, Environmental Management, Governance, Agencies
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