Can Law Foster Social-Ecological Resilience?

Law plays an essential role in shaping natural resource and environmental policy, but unfortunately, many environmental laws were developed around the prevailing scientific understanding that there was a "balance of nature" that could be managed and sustained. This view assumes that natur...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ahjond S. Garmestani, Craig R. Allen, Melinda H. Benson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Resilience Alliance 2013-06-01
Series:Ecology and Society
Subjects:
law
Online Access:http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss2/art37/
Description
Summary:Law plays an essential role in shaping natural resource and environmental policy, but unfortunately, many environmental laws were developed around the prevailing scientific understanding that there was a "balance of nature" that could be managed and sustained. This view assumes that natural resource managers have the capacity to predict the behavior of ecological systems, know what its important functional components are, and successfully predict the outcome of management interventions. This paper takes on this problem by summarizing and synthesizing the contributions to this Special Feature (Law and Social-Ecological Resilience, Part I: Contributions from Resilience 2011), focusing on the interaction of law and social-ecological resilience, and then offering recommendations for the integration of law and social-ecological resilience.
ISSN:1708-3087