Can Adaptive Governance Promote Coupling Social-Ecological Systems? Evidence from the Vulnerable Ecological Region of Northwestern China

Yanzi Wang,Chunming Wu,Yongfeng Gong,Zhen Zhu

doi:10.3390/su132011247

Yanzi Wang, Chunming Wu + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011247

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Abstract

Adaptive governance is increasingly considered a feasible approach to address the uncertainties and complexities of social-ecological system (SES), whereas its role on SES coupling has not been sufficiently testified. Empirical evidence is provided in this paper with the case of northwestern China, a region struggling with economic backwardness and ecological vulnerability. Given the ambiguities in scholarship on the causal relationship between adaptive governance and SES coupling, we develop a theoretical framework to outline the driving mechanism of adaptive governance by focusing on its impact on ecosystem service (ES) delivery. Within the framework, ecosystem governance and social system governance are identified as pathways of adaptive governance, which are estimated on their effects on SES coupling by FGLS. The results show that (1) only the synergy of them can positively promote SES coupling rather than isolated one of them, and (2) only social system governance presents a lustrous role in restraining the effect of resource-dependence on SES coupling as opposed to ecosystem governance. The practice of northwestern China again evidences its key leader’s role in seizing the opportunity window and social innovation. The results further uncover the necessity of synthesizing the social and ecological dimensions for shaping adaptive governance and the direction of targeted reforms for catalyzing the transition to adaptive governance.

Highlights

The overexploiting of natural resources and excessive emission has caused severe problems, e.g., forest degradation [1], biodiversity loss [2], agrifood debt [3], and insufficient impetus of development [4], arousing concerns on the sustainability of ecosystem service delivery and human well-being [5]
Adaptive governance is increasingly accepted as a better approach to addressing the coupled social-ecological system (SES)’s complexities and uncertainties than the top-down and bottom-up approaches in ecosystem management
This paper provided an empirical study to detect the role of adaptive governance on SES coupling

Summary

Introduction

The overexploiting of natural resources and excessive emission has caused severe problems, e.g., forest degradation [1], biodiversity loss [2], agrifood debt [3], and insufficient impetus of development [4], arousing concerns on the sustainability of ecosystem service delivery and human well-being [5]. The social-ecological system (SES) was proposed to merge the artificial division between the social and ecological systems and quickly became a hot research frontier in sustainability science [7]. To pursue sustainability in this complex dynamic, an SES should avoid moving into undesired configurations and sustain its functionalities of providing ES [9], which asks for the capacity of the governance system to shape the structures and processes of ES delivery between the ecological systems and the social users [10]. To pursue sustainability in this complex dynamic, an SES should avoid moving into undesired configurations and sustain its functionalities of providing ES [9], which asks for the capacity of the governance system to shape the structures and processes of ES delivery between the ecological systems and the social users [10]. 4.0/).

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