This document discusses resilience in natural resource management and social-ecological systems. It defines resilience as the ability to absorb disturbances while maintaining structure and function. It identifies threats to resilience such as pollution, overexploitation, and governance failures. It provides principles for resilient natural resource projects such as promoting diversity, embracing variability, and enhancing governance overlaps. It also summarizes approaches to build resilience in focal areas like protected areas, land management, water resources, and forests.

1. NRM and Ecosystem Resilience

2. GEF Natural Resources
Biodiversity
Land
Degradation
International
Waters
Sustainable
Forest Management
Climate Change Adaptation

3. Resilience
• The ability of a social or
ecological system to
absorb disturbances while
retaining the same basic
structure and ways of
functioning, the capacity
for self-organization, and
the capacity to adapt to
stress and change.

4. Social-Ecological Systems
• Social-ecological
systems - linked
systems of people and
nature
• Humans are part of
nature
• Delineation between
social and ecological
systems is artificial and
arbitrary
Sustainable Development Update 1(8), 2008

5. What Disturbances (i.e. Threats)?
• Biological – Pollinator declines, biomass
depletion
• Climatic – Drought or Flooding in drylands
• Physical – Erosion on steep slopes or
sedimentation in lakes, streams, river
• Chemical – Nutrient pollution in water bodies,
Ocean Acidification
• Anthropogenic – Timber extraction and hunting
in forests, Overexploitation of fish stocks
• Economic – Market failures….
• Institutional – Governance breakdown….

6. Generic Principles for NR Projects
(based on Walker and Salt, 2008)
• Promote diversity
• Embrace variability
• Acknowledge slow
variables
• Harness social capital
• Enable innovation
• Value “unpriced”
ecosystem services
• Enhance governance
overlaps

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8. BD and Resilience
Focus on resilience of PAs and PA Systems
1. maintain coverage of representative ecosystems and
species in light of anticipated climate change
2. adjust PA boundaries given anticipated effects of
climate change on species and habitats - a kind of flex
approach to PA demarcation;
3. management of PAs in landscapes that are governed
by land-use regulations to accommodate 1 and 2

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10. Hyper-arid  People Sub-humid

11. SLM and Resilience
• “Integrated” NRM for Livelihoods
– sustain ecosystem service flows -> healthy
soils, vegetative cover
–diversify land use - > create options at
multiple scales
– safeguard high value species -> genetic
resources for food, fuel, fiber
– protect ground and surface water
resources – efficiency in use, re-charge
– traditional/indigenous practices
(nomadic/pastoralist) -> innovations

12. International Waters Focal Area

13. IW and Resilience
• Science-based adaptive management institutions at
transboundary scale, many with cooperative, legal
agreements
• ICM institutions at local scale consider storms / floods /
risk
• Drought management planning; Floodplain
management / restoration
• Aquifer protection/management; reuse of sewage;
water use efficiency
• Marine projects use early warning instrumentation for
forecasting

14. SFM/REDD+ Program

15. SFM/REDD+ Priorities
1. Reduce pressures on forest resources and generate
sustainable flows of forest ecosystem services.
2. Strengthen the enabling environment to reduce
GHG emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation and enhance carbon sinks from
LULUCF activities.
Focus on multiple benefits from forest ecosystems,
including options to mitigate climate change –
implications for resilience of functions and sustainable
flow of services

16. Moving Forward
• Resilience taking center-stage in Conventions
and MEA fora
• Resilience needs to be fully considered in
design and implementation of GEF project
• STAP taking a lead role in establishing
– the scientific bases for resilience in GEF
investments
– Developing a framework for resilience monitoring
and assessment