Anthropogenic global changes are altering properties and functions of social and ecological systems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. In addition to climate change, the Peruvian Southern Andes has also experienced dramatic political and social change. This dissertation addresses the responses of plants, humans, communities and sub-national governments to the impacts of these changes. Methods from both the social and natural sciences were used at three levels: 1) on the forelands of the Quelccaya ice cap a chronosequence approach was used and 113 quadrats (1m2) sampled the vegetation covering an altitudinal range from 5113 to 4830 m.a.s.l.; 2) with the households of herders in the Quelcaya community surveys, interviews, participant observation, and archival research were employed; and 3) with the three Regional Governments (Arequipa, Cusco, and Puno) interviews with officials and stakeholders were conducted. The results show an upward displacement of the elevational limit of plants and a trend towards homogenization of vegetation. Warming climate, a shortened rainy season, and longer dry and cold spells are the most relevant impacts of climate change in the study area. Responses to these changes occur within households, supra-household units and communities, through dynamic institutions, traditional knowledge, and flexible polycentric social organization. These responses originate from path dependencies generated by human-environment interactions in the Peruvian Southern Andes. For instance, pastoralists increased livestock mobility within their pastures, created wetlands through irrigation, and introduced agriculture of bitter potatoes. The women agriculturalists modified the productive calendar to adjust agricultural tasks to changes in the rainfall regime; they replaced maize for wheat and fava bean, because these crops are more resistant to cold spells. Agro-pastoralists increase institutional water governance and demand infrastructure to improve efficient water use. Synergies between local and regional adaptive responses to climate change may be led by projects like building irrigation infrastructure and strengthening local resource governance, although there are also disjunctions that limit adaption. Local social ecological systems are adaptive and resilient to multi-scale social environmental disturbances by a malleable forging of former strategies to face change, innovation, polycentric social organization, and a dynamic institutional body that promptly response to change. / text

Irrigation plays an extremely important role in agriculture but climate change is predicted to modify climate patterns with potentially devastating consequences for irrigation. Potential impacts and adaptations are known, but not how implementation strategies may be implemented at the individual irrigation scheme level. Using a case study approach and qualitative research methods this thesis describes the Bwanje Valley Irrigation Scheme (BVIS), Malawi in order to explain how water is managed. Subsequently, historical adaptations are described in order to draw conclusions concerning the vulnerability of the BVIS under normal and extreme hydrological conditions. The BVIS is vulnerable in all conditions because it utilizes a common pool resource. As water supply decreases, irrigation water management becomes less and less equitable which makes the system extremely sensitive to changes in water supply. Capacity to adapt to climate change is limited to funding provided by external agencies which currently limit adaptations to reactive changes

Social-ecological systems of traditional pastoralists are adapted to deal with shocks and stresses such as droughts and livestock disease that characterize their environment. However, inappropriate policies have undermined the resilience of pastoralist social-ecological systems at a time when stresses from new challenges, such as growth in the human population and global climate change are increasing. Many pastoralist groups such as the Gabra of north-central Kenya now regularly require emergency relief. There is an urgent need to take deliberate steps to rebuild the resilience of pastoralist social-ecological systems. One lever that external actors such as NGOs and government agencies have that could help them to do so relates to structures and processes of participation and decision-making. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to examine ways in which the approaches to public participation used by agencies involved in water resources management can affect the collective capacity of pastoralist institutions and communities to influence social-ecological resilience. The research revolved around a single case study: the Kenyan NGO Pastoralist Integrated Support Programme (PISP) together with the Gabra communities where PISP works. The research found that the capacity to influence resilience resides in the network of vertical and horizontal institutional linkages as much as it does in any particular organization or institution. This implies the need for a radical paradigm shift in the way that NGOs and other formal sector actors think of participation and of their role. An examination of the Gabra approach to decision-making and PISP's approach to participation point to an alternative way of thinking about participation. This alternative rationale for participation would call on formal sector actors to promote participation and inclusivity of decision-making at multiple levels of social organization through an array of interconnected processes and institutions, to foster deliberation processes that are nested across levels, and to help create and strengthen vertical institutional linkages for their beneficiary communities. These proposed strategies relate to a key contribution of this research, which is to suggest building a resilience-based theory of participation and to provide a glimpse of what such a theory might entail.

The shift from management and governance of ecosystems to relational complex adaptive social-ecological systems (SES) emphasizes a dynamic and integrated humans-in-nature perspective. Such a shift also needs to investigate how diversity and differences in cultures and morals relate to the existence of SES. The papers of this thesis relate these dimensions to SES resilience theory. Paper I analyzes cultural and landscape ecological aspects of trees and tree planting in Androy, Madagascar. Culturally, planting trees serves as a symbol of renewal, purification, agreement and boundary-making. Ecologically, planting trees contributes to the generation of ecosystem services in an otherwise fragmented landscape. Paper II tests the role of forest patches for generating pollination services to local beans that constitute an important protein staple in Androy. The results indicate a significant effect of insect pollination on bean yields and a strong spatial pattern of locating bean plots closer to forests than expected by chance, improving rural food security. Paper III addresses the adaptive capacity of the indigenous forest management in Androy with regard to religious and climatic drivers of change. Paper IV is concerned with cultural analysis of the robustness of provisioning ecosystem services in Androy and the interdependence of morality, cultural practices and generated ecosystem services. Paper V explores how social-ecological memory (SEM) can be seen both as a source of inertia and path dependence and a source of adaptive capacity for renewal and reorganization in the emerging theory about social-ecological systems. Paper VI analyses the film Avatar and discusses ethical–epistemic obligations of researchers as cross-scale knowledge brokers in emerging forms of global environmental politics. The thesis has interdependencies between the social and the ecological and shown that cultural and moral analyses bring important insights and challenges to resilience thinking. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 5: Submitted. Paper 6: In press.</p>

Social-ecological systems of traditional pastoralists are adapted to deal with shocks and stresses such as droughts and livestock disease that characterize their environment. However, inappropriate policies have undermined the resilience of pastoralist social-ecological systems at a time when stresses from new challenges, such as growth in the human population and global climate change are increasing. Many pastoralist groups such as the Gabra of north-central Kenya now regularly require emergency relief. There is an urgent need to take deliberate steps to rebuild the resilience of pastoralist social-ecological systems. One lever that external actors such as NGOs and government agencies have that could help them to do so relates to structures and processes of participation and decision-making. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to examine ways in which the approaches to public participation used by agencies involved in water resources management can affect the collective capacity of pastoralist institutions and communities to influence social-ecological resilience. The research revolved around a single case study: the Kenyan NGO Pastoralist Integrated Support Programme (PISP) together with the Gabra communities where PISP works. The research found that the capacity to influence resilience resides in the network of vertical and horizontal institutional linkages as much as it does in any particular organization or institution. This implies the need for a radical paradigm shift in the way that NGOs and other formal sector actors think of participation and of their role. An examination of the Gabra approach to decision-making and PISP's approach to participation point to an alternative way of thinking about participation. This alternative rationale for participation would call on formal sector actors to promote participation and inclusivity of decision-making at multiple levels of social organization through an array of interconnected processes and institutions, to foster deliberation processes that are nested across levels, and to help create and strengthen vertical institutional linkages for their beneficiary communities. These proposed strategies relate to a key contribution of this research, which is to suggest building a resilience-based theory of participation and to provide a glimpse of what such a theory might entail.

abstract: Urban sustainability is a critical component of sustainable human societies. Urban riparian parks are used here as a case study seeking to understand the social-ecological relationships between the subjective evaluation of ecosystem services and the vision and management of one kind of green infrastructure. This study explored attitudes towards ecosystem services, asking whether 1) the tripartite model is an effective framing to measure attitudes towards ecosystem services; 2) what the attitudes towards ecosystem services are and whether they differ between two types of park space; and 3) what the relationship is between management and the attitudinal assessment of ecosystem services by park users. A questionnaire was administered to 104 urban riparian park users in Phoenix, AZ evaluating their attitudes towards refugia, aesthetics, microclimate and stormwater regulation, and recreational and educational opportunities. The operationalization of the tripartite model was validated and found reliable, but may not be the whole story in determining attitudes towards ecosystem services. All components of attitude were positive, but attitudes were stronger in a habitat rehabilitation area with densely planted native species and low flows, than in a more classic park with mowed lawns and scattered vegetation, a mix of native and non-native species, and open water. Park users were more positive towards refugia, stormwater regulation, recreation, and educational opportunities in the habitat rehabilitation area. On the other hand, microclimate regulation and aesthetic qualities were valued similarly between the two parks. Most attitudes supported management goals, however park users valued stormwater regulation less than managers. Qualitative answers suggest that the quality of human interactions differ between the parks and park users consider both elements of society and the physical environment in their subjective evaluations. These findings reveal that park users highly value ecosystem services and that park design and management mediates social-ecological relationships, which should at least underlie the context of economic discussions of service value. This study supports the provision of ecosystem services through green infrastructure and suggests that an integration of park designs throughout urban areas could provide both necessary services as well as expand the platform for social-ecological interactions. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Sustainability 2012

The academic community and government agencies are increasingly recognizing how Indigenous knowledge can enrich environmental monitoring and inform adaptation in complex social-ecological systems. Indeed, Indigenous peoples have been monitoring, managing, and adapting to their environments for thousands of years. Despite the impacts of ongoing colonialism, many Indigenous peoples continue to monitor and exert their knowledge and governance systems through ongoing use and relationship with their traditional territories. This Master’s research grew from the Gitga’at First Nation’s Oceans and Lands Department desire to formally include the knowledge and observations of their land and sea users as part of contemporary stewardship initiatives. The primary objective of this research was to provide a framework for an ongoing monitoring system based in the observations and knowledge of Gitga’at harvesters. In order to meet this objective, I asked three main research questions: 1. How has Indigenous knowledge interacted with environmental monitoring initiatives, and what are characteristics of effective and self-sustaining monitoring initiatives that engage Indigenous knowledge?; 2. What methods of Indigenous knowledge documentation and communication are best suited to the needs and objectives of the Gitga’at First Nation?; and 3. How does ongoing use and occupancy of Gitga’at territory inform community-based monitoring? I first conducted a review of the literature on Indigenous knowledge and environmental monitoring to explore the ways in which Indigenous peoples and their knowledges have been engaged in other monitoring initiatives. I found that Indigenous knowledge has been engaged in a number of ways ranging from traditional land-based activities providing holistic social-ecological monitoring indicators, to the employment of Indigenous field technicians for externally-drive monitoring initiatives. Effective projects involved high degrees of community participation or direction; were built on partnerships based on trust and respect for various knowledge systems; used multiple methods to document and communicate Indigenous knowledge; and had institutional links between monitoring and management bodies. To answer my second research question, I followed a participatory case study approach in partnership with Gitga’at co-researchers. We began with informal interviews with 36 knowledge holders to gauge interest in the project and to establish monitoring objectives. These were followed by two community meetings and 12 workshops to design methods for documenting their observations. We then iteratively designed and tested these methods over the course of two traditional harvest seasons. We interviewed 23 participants following the spring 2017 harvest season and 27 after the fall/winter 2017 harvest season. We also conducted 4 semi-structured interviews with department leaders to ensure that the information gathered was meeting the needs of the Gitga’at Oceans and Lands Department, Treaty Negotiators, the Hartley Bay School and the Gitga’at Health Department. Key outcomes are a harvest logbook, and an interview guide to be administered by community researchers following each harvest season. To answer my third research question, I conducted a conceptual framework analysis on the notes and transcripts taken while designing and testing a monitoring program based in the observations and knowledge of Gitga’at land and sea users. An interconnected set of social-ecological concepts and indicators that are monitored by Gitga’at harvesters emerged. The framework I developed based on conversations about Gitga’at monitoring through harvesting activities highlights the importance of maintaining and revitalizing Indigenous knowledge and harvesting practices in order to continue social-ecological monitoring, as well as opportunities for scientific approaches to situate themselves within Indigenous frameworks and priorities. This research provides the Gitga’at First Nation with foundations from which to pursue ongoing documentation of observations and knowledge produced through harvesting activities as a form of social-ecological monitoring. It also serves as a guide for other Indigenous nations that wish to embark on similar initiatives. Amidst discussions of marine and coastal resource co-management in British-Columbia and Indigenous resurgence, this research adds to the literature that re-enforces the importance of Indigenous governance and access to their lands and waters, and the continuation of Indigenous relationships to the land and sea in order to inform social-ecological monitoring for the benefit of all. / Graduate

abstract: This research assessed the sustainability of protected area-based tourism systems in Nepal. The research was composed of three interrelated studies. The first study evaluated different approaches to protected area governance. This was a multiple-case study research involving three protected areas in Nepal: the Annapurna Conservation Area, Chitwan National Park, and the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area. Data were collected from various published and unpublished sources and supplemented with 55 face-to-face interviews. Results revealed that outcomes pertaining to biodiversity conservation, community livelihoods, and sustainable tourism vary across these protected areas. The study concluded that there is no institutional panacea for managing protected areas. The second study diagnosed the sustainability of tourism in two destination communities: Ghandruk and Sauraha, which are located within the Annapurna Conservation Area and Chitwan National Park, respectively. A systemic, holistic approach--the social-ecological system framework--was used to analyze the structures, processes, and outcomes of tourism development. Data collection involved 45 face-to-face semi-structured interviews and a review of published and unpublished documents. Results revealed that tourism has several positive and a few negative sociocultural, economic, and ecological outcomes in both communities. Overall, tourism has progressed towards sustainability in these destinations. The third study examined tourism stakeholders' perspectives regarding sustainable tourism outcomes in protected areas. The study compared the responses of residents with residents, as well as tourists with tourists, across the Annapurna Conservation Area and Chitwan National Park. Tourism sustainability was evaluated with six tourism impact subscales measuring negative and positive ecological, economic, and social impacts. Data were collected using the survey method. Respondents included 230 residents and 205 tourists in Annapurna, and 220 residents and 210 tourists in Chitwan. The findings revealed that the residents across these protected areas perceived positive and negative impacts differently, as did the tourists, suggesting that the form of tourism development affects the sustainability outcomes in protected areas. Overall, this research concluded that protected areas and tourism are intricately related, and sustainable management of a protected area-based tourism system requires a polycentric adaptive approach that warrants a broad participation of relevant stakeholders. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Community Resources and Development 2014

abstract: Often, when thinking of cities we envision designed landscapes, where people regulate everything from water to weeds, ultimately resulting in an ecosystem decoupled from biophysical processes. It is unclear, however, what happens when the people regulating these extensively managed landscapes come under stress, whether from unexpected economic fluctuations or from changing climate norms. The overarching question of my dissertation research was: How does urban vegetation change in response to human behavior? To answer this question, I conducted multiscale research in an arid urban ecosystem as well as in a virtual desert city. I used a combination of long-term data and agent-based modeling to examine changes in vegetation across a range of measures influenced by biophysical, climate, institutional, and socioeconomic drivers. At the regional scale, total plant species diversity increased from 2000 to 2010, while species composition became increasingly homogeneous in urban and agricultural areas. At the residential scale, I investigated the effects of biophysical and socioeconomic drivers – the Great Recession of 2007-2010 in particular – on changing residential yard vegetation in Phoenix, AZ. Socioeconomic drivers affected plant composition and increasing richness, but the housing boom from 2000 through 2005 had a stronger influence on vegetation change than the subsequent recession. Surprisingly, annual plant species remained coupled to winter precipitation despite my expectation that their dynamics might be driven by socioeconomic fluctuations. In a modeling experiment, I examined the relative strength of psychological, social, and governance influences on large-scale urban land cover in a desert city. Model results suggested that social norms may be strong enough to lead to large-scale conversion to low water use residential landscaping, and governance may be unnecessary to catalyze residential landscape conversion under the pressure of extreme drought conditions. Overall, my dissertation research showed that urban vegetation is dynamic, even under the presumably stabilizing influence of human management activities. Increasing climate pressure, unexpected socioeconomic disturbances, growing urban populations, and shifting policies all contribute to urban vegetation dynamics. Incorporating these findings into planning policies will contribute to the sustainable management of urban ecosystems. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Biology 2015

abstract: Anderies (2015); Anderies et al. (2016), informed by Ostrom (2005), aim to employ robust feedback control models of social-ecological systems (SESs), to inform policy and the design of institutions guiding resilient resource use. Cote and Nightingale (2012) note that the main assumptions of resilience research downplay culture and social power. Addressing the epistemic gap between positivism and interpretation (Rosenberg 2016), this dissertation argues that power and culture indeed are of primary interest in SES research. Human use of symbols is seen as an evolved semiotic capacity. First, representation is argued to arise as matter achieves semiotic closure (Pattee 1969; Rocha 2001) at the onset of natural selection. Guided by models by Kauffman (1993), the evolution of a symbolic code in genes is examined, and thereon the origin of representations other than genetic in evolutionary transitions (Maynard Smith and Szathmáry 1995; Beach 2003). Human symbolic interaction is proposed as one that can support its own evolutionary dynamics. The model offered for wider dynamics in society are “flywheels,” mutually reinforcing networks of relations. They arise as interactions in a domain of social activity intensify, e.g. due to interplay of infrastructures, mediating built, social, and ecological affordances (An- deries et al. 2016). Flywheels manifest as entities facilitated by the simplified interactions (e.g. organizations) and as cycles maintaining the infrastructures (e.g. supply chains). They manifest internal specialization as well as distributed intention, and so can favor certain groups’ interests, and reinforce cultural blind spots to social exclusion (Mills 2007). The perspective is applied to research of resilience in SESs, considering flywheels a semiotic extension of feedback control. Closer attention to representations of potentially excluded groups is justified on epistemic in addition to ethical grounds, as patterns in cul- tural text and social relations reflect the functioning of wider social processes. Participatory methods are suggested to aid in building capacity for institutional learning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2017