Challenges for achieving conservation and development - A presentation by Elinor Ostrom at the Khoshoo memorial lecture, ATREE

Social and ecological systems are inherently complex and unique as they are composed of multiple variables.One way of understanding these is to build a common framework to conduct research related to socio-ecological systems (SES). This presentation discusses such a framework, first published in PNAS in 2007, and in Science in 2009. This framework has been developed following a study of situations in several different socio-ecological systems. Such a framework enables us to understand complex SESs in the following manner:

• enables us to unpack the common components of a SES, which is composed of four internal systems embedded in two external systems.
• helps identify variables
• helps to study similar systems while avoiding both overgeneralization or overspecification

The second-tier variables of a SES are listed and explained in this presentation. Future research directions are also explained.The use of the framework is then illustrated by comparing three SESs in Mexico and the lake system in Bangalore.

Download the presentation here.