Resilience and how to build it

Resilience is the capacity of a social/ecological system to absorb or withstand perturbations such that the system remains within the same regime, essentially maintaining its structure and functions. In a world increasingly threatened by climate change, unsustainable resource use and biodiversity loss, society needs to better understand how resilience is lost, how it is maintained, and how it can be recovered and strengthened. In this seminar I will present three examples from my research on how ecological-, social-, and institutional- resilience have been lost, found, and regained. These vignettes focus on; 1) the ecological mechanisms that caused the catastrophic loss of tree species diversity from islands in Gatun Lake; 2) a landscape-level Randomized Control Trial that evaluated the impact of a community-based payments for ecosystem services program in Bolivia; and 3) a conservation capacity-building organization that developed resilience by enhancing its internal diversity. I end with a discussion of how I envision STRI might focus its resilience and sustainability initiative by addressing three questions: What are the priority issues to be investigated? How might such research be undertaken? How can the institute build its internal and external capacity in sustainability science?