Emerging recognition of two fundamental errors underpinning
past polices for natural resource issues heralds
awareness of the need for a worldwide fundamental
change in thinking and in practice of environmental management.
The first error has been an implicit assumption
that ecosystem responses to human use are linear,
predictable and controllable. The second has been an
assumption that human and natural systems can be
treated independently. However, evidence that has been
accumulating in diverse regions all over the world suggests
that natural and social systems behave in nonlinear ways,
exhibit marked thresholds in their dynamics, and that
social-ecological systems act as strongly coupled, complex
and evolving integrated systems. This article is a summary
of a report prepared on behalf of the Environmental
Advisory Council to the Swedish Government, as input to
the process of the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa in 26
August 4 September 2002. We use the concept of resilience—the
capacity to buffer change, learn and develop—
as a framework for understanding how to sustain and
enhance adaptive capacity in a complex world of rapid
transformations. Two useful tools for resilience-building in
social-ecological systems are structured scenarios and
active adaptive management. These tools require and
facilitate a social context with flexible and open institutions
and multi-level governance systems that allow for learning
and increase adaptive capacity without foreclosing future
development options