http://permaculture.org.au/2010/06/04/book-review-resilience-thinking-sustaining-ecosystems-and-people-in-a-changing-world/
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Book by Brian Walker and David Salt
Island Press – 2006
174 pages
Reviewed by Owen Hablutzel
When is the last time you were surprised? It might have been a brand
new volunteer plant in the garden, bizarre and beautiful fungi in the
pasture, an incredible storm on the horizon, or a blessed windfall on the
balance sheets! Given the inherent unpredictable nature of wholes –
complex
adaptive systems from cells, to bodies, to farms, societies and all
of nature – we can be sure that surprise and unexpected change will
happen quite frequently. If this is true at the home, farm or business
scale it is all the more so at the regional, national, and global scales
in today’s always changing and increasingly interconnected world.
In this shifting environment resilience – defined in
Resilience Thinking as
the capacity of a system to absorb change while still maintaining its
basic structure and function – becomes all the more critical. This
essential ability enables systems of all sizes, ecological and social, to
continue providing the goods and services humans value and need,
regardless of the inevitable surprises. As the book notes, the more
resilient a ranch, business, ecosystem, or planet the more flexible and
open it is to multiple options or uses, and the more forgiving of design
or management mistakes.
The book, Resilience Thinking (a slim volume from Island Press),
introduces the reader to a partly philosophical and partly practical,
whole-systems framework (which could also describe Permaculture, of
course) that has over 30 years of research and a library of scientific
literature behind it (much of that theory and case-study literature is
worth a look as well – for those with an interest in ecological
resilience – but the introductory Resilience Thinking is the place
to begin). Resilience concepts are explained clearly and concisely here,
and offer a variety of crucial insights with great potential to further
the creation of a sustainable future on many scales. Designers, managers,
watershed and policy groups, and others will find well developed
analytical tools and practical strategies for increasing the resilience
of the systems they interact with. Included here are regional,
resilience-based, case-studies from around the globe – stories about
encroaching salinity in an Australian Catchment system, policy in the
Florida Everglades, coral reef stability in the Caribbean, lakes in
Wisconsin, and land use in Sweden. All demonstrate a resilience framework
approach to the complex issues involved and help the reader extrapolate
the principles and approaches to their own situations.
For those already designing and managing their systems by using the
ethics, principles and directives of Permaculture, Resilience
Thinking will integrate almost seamlessly with your current practice.
It may also add a synergistic creative ‘juice’ to evolve and improve your
design strategies through its fresh insights, emerging and effective
ecological understanding, as well as novel analytical tools and design
approaches that can greatly improve flexibility, diversity, and the odds
of long-term success. Along with Permaculture thinking, resilience
thinking is a major step towards the resilience doing that the
planet, and its linked ecological-social systems, so urgently require!
Some key insights from this book:
- Change Happens! Ignoring or resisting the element of change
and surprise in systems only increases risks and vulnerabilities.
Resilience Thinking explains why the more a system is managed or designed
towards one factor alone – like ‘maximum yield,’ the conventional
mono-cultural, change-resisting strategy – the more that system’s
resilience is actually diminished. Conversely, the authors articulate
precisely how and why natural changes within systems actually function to
increase the overall resilience of those systems, as well as how to best
work with those changes.
- Systems have multiple stable states. A classic example of
alternative stable states in brittle, dryland environments is grassland
versus a shrub dominated system. Both states are in fact ecologically
stable, but they are otherwise quite different states – with different
rates of production, different responses to disturbance, different
effects on the hydrological, mineral, bio-geo-chemical and energy cycles,
and presenting different options and limitations to designers, managers
and users. An example, in an aquaculture system, would be a clear water
stable-state versus an algal bloom scenario, with effects of each right
up the entire aquatic food chain, and beyond. Both are stable states of
the system, yet completely different.
- Between stable states are thresholds that can be crossed. A
system can shift quickly from one stable state into another, often with
unwelcome surprises (grass to shrubs, clear pond to murky, or forest to
desert on longer time scales). The more diminished the resilience of a
system the closer that system is to a threshold. Being closer to a
threshold, the system is far more likely to cross that threshold into an
undesired state. Also, the closer a system is to a threshold the smaller
the disturbance needed to cause a system transition (usually quite rapid)
to an alternative stable state. Think ‘the straw that broke the camel’s
back.’ Additionally, once a threshold is crossed it becomes far more
difficult to manage the system back to its previous and often more
desirable stable state. Think Humpty-Dumpty.
- Cross-Scale interactions are very important to how the whole
system operates. Interactions across different scales affect the
entire system. One example, a policy or legislative decision at the state
scale can affect a policy or operations decision at the farm scale. Think
‘Noxious Weeds,’ or ‘Building Codes.’ Likewise, if enough land holders in
a watershed adopt Permaculture, or resilience enhancing models of
operation, those actions and their cumulative positive effects have much
improved potential to link-up with scales beyond that region, and trigger
changes in practice and policy for a much wider area (Quail Springs
Permaculture Farm’s natural building work that is creating serious policy
discussion at wider scales, for example). Another way to think about this
is in terms of Permaculture Zones. What you learn in Zone 5 affects your
evolving design strategies in Zone 1, and vice versa, making this a
cross-scale relationship that affects the entire system. Or, birds (and
other wildlife) with territories of a far larger scale than your backyard
or small farm influence your system by dropping seeds and nutrient into
your system, and likewise by taking seeds, microorganisms, etc, from your
system out into the wider territory starting mini-groves, guilds, and new
microbe colonies all over the place! These are all interactions across
scales that impact our systems all the time and are key components of the
resilience-creating dynamics.
- Change happens in an Adaptive Cycle. This is among the more
novel and potentially useful insights of this framework. Not only does
‘change happen,’ but it tends to occur in a specific cycle called the
Adaptive Cycle. This typically has four phases. 1. Rapid Growth
phase. In a recently burned patch of forest this phase could be the
explosive re-growth that can occur, characterized by pioneer plants and
organisms. Next, 2. the Conservation phase. In our forest patch we
would eventually see later successional species emerging, leading
ultimately to a more mature forest ‘climax.’ 3. The Release phase
follows and is often a very rapid phase. A new fire sweeps through the
now overgrown (if never grazed or thinned) matured forested patch. The
fire disturbance unlocks and releases all the nutrient and biomass built
up during the Rapid Growth and Conservation phases, freeing these
materials for new assignments in the next phase of the cycle, 4.
Re-Organization. During the Re-Organization phase chance events and
changes often play the largest role in defining the system’s new
trajectory. In our forest patch this could be determined by which new
seeds, fungi or organisms happen to establish a foothold first. Once this
foothold is gained the Adaptive Cycle begins again, with a new Rapid
Growth phase. Understanding the basic dynamics of this cycle provides
insight into how and why systems change, as well as where and when
different design or management options would and would not be likely to
work. Knowing what phase of the
Adaptive Cycle a system is currently in, and how the system’s
resilience and responses will vary in accordance with those phases, is
likewise, useful knowledge for many kinds of vital decisions.
- Managing for resilience does not require any fancy degree in
Science. A basic and general understanding of the essential concepts
elaborated in the book is plenty to begin using the resilience
perspective in design planning, observing system feedbacks, and everyday
activity.
So how resilient is your Permaculture system? And what of your local
community? Your bioregion? Your watershed? This short introduction to
thinking resiliently gives you the tools to decide. In these times of
rapidly decreasing regional and global resilience, Resilience Thinking is
a valuable addition to the library and toolbox of Permaculture designers,
teachers, land managers, transition organizations, policy folk, and
people everywhere working for a healthier, more regenerative, adaptive
and resilient world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Owen Hablutzel performs international work in Permaculture systems
design, consultation, speaking, and education. He is a director of the
Permaculture Research
Institute, USA, and can be reached at owen (at) permacultureusa.org
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