Program on ecosystem change and society
Please cite this article in press as: Carpenter SR, et al. Program on ecosystem change and society: an international research strategy for integrated social-ecological systems, Curr Opin Environ Sustain (2012), doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2012.01.001 Program on ecosystem change and society: an international research strategy for integrated social-ecological systems Stephen R Carpenter 1 , Carl Folke 2,3 , Albert Norstro ¨m 2 , Olof Olsson 2 , Lisen Schultz 2 , Bina Agarwal 4 , Patricia Balvanera 5 , Bruce Campbell 6 , Juan Carlos Castilla 7 , Wolfgang Cramer 8,9 , Ruth DeFries 10 , Pablo Eyzaguirre 11 , Terry P Hughes 12 , Stephen Polasky 13 , Zainal Sanusi 14 , Robert Scholes 15 and Marja Spierenburg 16
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2012, 4:1-5 This review comes from the Open issue Edited by Rik Leemans Received 21 July 2011; Accepted 6 January 2012
https://www.academia.edu/12952476/Program_on_ecosystem_change_and_society_an_international_research_strategy_for_integrated_social_ecological_systemsThe Program on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS), a new initiative within the ICSU global change programs, aims to integrate research on the stewardship of social-ecological systems, the services they generate, and the relationships among natural capital, human wellbeing, livelihoods, inequality and poverty. The vision of PECS is a world where human actions have transformed to achieve sustainable stewardship of social-ecological systems. The goal of PECS is to generate the scientific and policy-relevant knowledge of social- ecological dynamics needed to enable such a shift, including mitigation of poverty. PECS is a coordinating body for diverse independently funded research projects, not a funder of research. PECS research employs a range of transdisciplinary approaches and methods, with comparative, place-based research that is international in scope at the core.....
...PECS research will be explicitly transdisciplinary and intersectoral, and will thereby break down barriers that have impeded understanding of social-ecological trans- formations. PECS aims to understand interactions across scales, such as fast and slow drivers of social and ecological change, thresholds, traps and time lags, in order to identify appropriate operational scales. A comparative, place-based approach, international in scope, is at the core of PECS research. PECS is a coordinating organization, not a funding agency
Conclusion The emergence of PECS is an opportunity to implement some key elements of Earth System Science for Global Sustainability [21]. The grand challenges of Earth System Science explicitly involve the dynamics of integrated social-ecological systems, which are the focus of PECS. Ultimately, the success of PECS will depend on the participation of excellent researchers who are motivated to link their research to the PECS network, as well as the full ensemble of global change research programs. ....The PECS International Program Office (IPO) is hosted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC). Please contact Albert Norstro ¨m for more information. The PECS web- site will soon be available. Meanwhile see PECS at ICSU (http://www.icsu.org/what-we-do/interdisciplinary- bodies/pecs/about) and the PECS website at the Stock- holm Resilience Centre (http://www.stockholmresilien- ce.org/research/centrehostedresearchprogrammes/pec- s.4.5686ae2012c08a47fb5800013559.html)