Putting Resilience Theory into Practice: The Example of Fisheries Management
31:3 Natural Resources & Environment 3-7 (Winter 2017 Forthcoming)
5 Pages Posted: 16 Jan 2017 Last revised: 2 Feb 2017
Date Written: January 10, 2017
Abstract
Resilience theory offers lawmakers a different way of thinking about natural resources management. This new viewpoint, which emphasizes that natural systems are complex, interconnected, and constantly changing, is especially appropriate as climate change increasingly interacts with other anthropogenic stresses to increase the unpredictability of complex natural and social-ecological systems.
This article provides an introduction to resilience theory and the concepts of ecological resilience, adaptive cycles, and anarchy. It then applies resilience theory to commercial marine fisheries management, explaining why Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) is an inappropriate management standard for the Anthropocene and offering suggestions for improved marine fisheries management.
Keywords: resilience theory, panarchy, ecological resilience, engineering resilience, fisheries, Anthropocene
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