February 09, 2011
Exploring the Social-Ecological Resilience of Forest Ecosystem Services
Donald G. Morgan, Research Scientist, Ecosystem Protection and Sustainability Branch, Ministry of Environment, Smithers
Natural disturbance is predicted to increase in Canadian forests as the climate continues to change. This will trigger an increased variability, and therefore uncertainty, in the supply of ecosystem services from forests. Don used social-ecological systems theory to develop a forest management approach that recognizes and incorporates spatial and temporal dynamics in the supply of provisioning and regulatory ecosystem services. Social-ecological approaches integrate the role of people in ecosystems. This approach focuses on the maintenance of social and ecological resilience to change as the main management objective. Systems modelling was used to capture the overall behaviour of forest resources in the Cranbrook timber supply area and as a foundation for developing scenarios that identified a range of future ecosystem conditions, including climate change. He then used spatio-temporal simulation models to assess the scenarios. Natural disturbance was implemented to reflect historic dynamics.
PRESENTATION (PDF)