Reconnecting to the biosphere

Abstract

Humanity has emerged as a major force in the operation of the biosphere, with a significant imprint on the Earth System, challenging social-ecological resilience. This new situation calls for a fundamental shift in perspectives, world views, and institutions. Human development and progress must be reconnected to the capacity of the biosphere and essential ecosystem services to be sustained. Governance challenges include a highly interconnected and faster world, cascading social-ecological interactions and planetary boundaries that create vulnerabilities but also opportunities for social-ecological change and transformation. Tipping points and thresholds highlight the importance of understanding and managing resilience. New modes of flexible governance are emerging. A central challenge is to reconnect these efforts to the changing preconditions for societal development as active stewards of the Earth System. We suggest that the Millennium Development Goals need to be reframed in such a planetary stewardship context combined with a call for a new social contract on global sustainability. The ongoing mind shift in human relations with Earth and its boundaries provides exciting opportunities for societal development in collaboration with the biosphere--a global sustainability agenda for humanity.

Fig. 1

Reconnecting to the biosphere, Stockholm archipelago, Sweden (photo: Carl Folke)

Fig. 2

Sources of fishmeal imported to Thailand 1988, 1990, 1995, and 2000. Fishmeal amounts are metric tonnes and the numbers in parentheses are the percentage of total imports. Fishmeal is used in shrimp farming in Thailand (modified from Deutsch et al. 2007)

Fig. 3

Cape Cod lobster, Massachusetts, USA (photo: Carl Folke)

Fig. 4

Fruit of the oil palm Elaeis (photo: Carl Folke)

Fig. 5

Examples of interactions between global drivers, shocks and economic, climate, health, and ecosystem changes. The latter are often treated separately but are increasingly interdependent (Crépin et al. ; modified from Walker et al. 2009b)

Fig. 6

Current distribution of the National Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) and the Grain to Green Program (GTGP) in China, showing names of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities (adapted from Liu et al. 2008)

Fig. 7

Example of a multiple cascading social-ecological crises: fish and zoonotic disease (modified from Galaz et al. 2010)

Fig. 8

Shifting mind sets, a challenge for an urbanizing planet, Tokyo, Japan (photo Carl Folke)