Action-orientated research and framework: insights from the French long-term social-ecological research network

Abstract

Many social-ecological system(SES)-based approaches have been proposed to address environmental problems. Most social-ecological frameworks developed to date, however, lack clear operational linkages between humans and nature to efficiently guide SESs toward resilience. A conceptual framework designed to be operational is therefore necessary, as well as a network of research platforms with which to apply it. We defined explicit coupling processes that can be used as leverages to pilot an SES toward sustainability. We proposed to formalize an SES as a dynamic entity composed of two coupling interfaces, i.e., adaptive management and ecosystem services, both set within a landscape context to provide an actionable framework. These interfaces describe the way various actors, including scholars, benefit from and manage complex and changing interactions between the biophysical and social templates. Understanding the key processes underlying the interaction dynamics, especially those leveraging adaptive management processes, would help identify adaptive pathways for practices and collective actions, provide a crucial knowledge base for policy makers, and foster operationality as a requisite of an SES research agenda. Using several examples, we explained why long-term social-ecological research platforms provide an ideal operational network of research infrastructures to conduct place-based action-orientated research targeting the sustainability of SESs.Ecology and Society 24(3): 10 https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol24/iss3/art10/

Social–ecological experiments to foster agroecological transition

“…Long‐Term Social–Ecological Research (LTSER) platforms can provide dedicated infrastructures to develop a network of social–ecological experiments. Indeed they have been set up to investigate socio‐ecosystems (Angelstam et al, ) and produce the knowledge required to support sustainable regional development (Berthet et al, ; Bretagnolle et al, ). Furthermore, in such platforms, stakeholders (farmers/fishermen, practitioners, managers and policy‐makers) work with scientists from various disciplines (e.g.…”

“…and thus the abundance of weed plants). We selected farmers to reflect a full gradient of management intensity, as a proxy of human decision‐making, using our farm survey database (Bretagnolle et al, ). The social process investigated was therefore the intensity of weed control, and the experimental unit was the field.…”

Innovative approaches in river management and restoration

“…In the 2000s, the interdisciplinary working groups formally joined the international Long Term Ecological Research network (LTER), becoming one of the research teams (ZABR "Zone Atelier du Bassin du Rhône") of the LTER France network. This team has now extended its activities geographically and its relevance to the social sciences, becoming an LTSER site ("S" standing for social; Bretagnolle et al 2019). Since the beginning of the process, frequent dialogue and exchanges have been maintained to link academic and operational domains, to formulate common questions, and to develop coconstructed research themes.…”

Des bois dans les Maisons. Rôles du système social dans la forêt rurale des paysages des Coteaux de Gascogne (Sud-ouest de la France)

“…Une réflexion semblable a émergé de travaux menés dans d'autres contextes, et notamment dans certains pays du Sud, où la porosité entre l'espace cultivé et domestiqué et l'espace forestier est encore plus ténue (Michon et de Foresta, 1997). On parle alors de « forêts domestiques » ou encore de « forêts rurales » pour désigner ces forêts qui sont plus ou moins appropriées, gérées et façonnées par les communautés rurales, lesquelles ont développé des savoirs et pratiques spécifiques pour l'utilisation et la perpétuation de ces dernières (Genin et al, 2013 ;Michon et al, 2007) (Bretagnolle et al, 2019). D'autre part, les outils de modélisation de type multi-agent, notamment, offrent maintenant des pistes prometteuses pour rechercher et formaliser des invariants dans les processus sociaux et écologiques mis en évidence (Deconchat et al, 2007).…”