Rural social–ecological systems navigating institutional transitions: case study from transylvania (romania)

Abstract

Traditional rural social–ecological systems (SES) share many features which are crucial for sustainable development. Eastern European countries such as Romania, are still rich in traditional cultural landscapes. However, these landscapes are increasingly under internal (e.g., people's aspirations toward western socioeconomic ideals) and external (institutional changes, globalization of the commodity market, connectivity with other cultures) pressures. Therefore, understanding the ways how traditional SES navigated past and more recent changes is of crucial importance in getting insights about the future trajectory of these systems. Here, we present the rural SES from the Saxon region of Transylvania through the lens of institutional transitions which happened in the past century in this region. We show that the rural SES went through episodic collapses and renewals, their cyclic dynamic being related to the episodic changes of the higher level formal institutions. These episodic collapses and renewals created a social–ecological momentum for the sustainability of these SES. While we recognize that policy effectiveness depends on institutional stability (and institutions are unstable and prone to collapses), maintaining those social–ecological system properties which can assure navigation of societies through the challenges imposed by global changes should be in the heart of every governance system. Such properties includes wide extent of native vegetation, fertile soils, wide range of provisioning ecosystem services, genuine links between people and landscapes and knowledge about the social–ecological systems. These features could provide important capitals and memory elements for the (re)emergence of social–ecological systems (old or new).

Reduced biodiversity in modernized villages: A conflict between sustainable development goals

“…Villages are places where urban and farmland environments cross and wildlife interacts with humans on a day-to-day basis. The proximity of nature to humans in villages may directly link with human well-being (in terms of psychological and physical health benefits and cultural values; Bullock, Joyce, & Collier, 2018;Gunton et al, 2017;Hiron, Pärt, Siriwardena, & Whittingham, 2018).Villages are an integral part of rural landscapes and ecosystems with high biological, cultural and aesthetic values (Bullock et al, 2018;Fischer, Hartel, & Kuemmerle, 2012;Hartel et al, 2016;Rosin et al, 2016). Human settlements with maintained traditional character in farming landscapes may be essential for conservation of these values (Hartel et al, 2016;Rosin et al, 2016;Šálek et al, 2018).…”

Temporary pond loss as a result of pasture abandonment: exploring the social-ecological drivers and consequences on amphibians

“…The overall abandonment of pasture and the scrub encroachment, with potential influence of weather conditions resulted in the loss of temporary ponds for amphibians (Figure 5). The system dynamic presented in the Figure 5 can be considered archetypical for the traditional management of communal pastures in Transylvania (Hanspach et al, 2014; Hartel et al, 2016; F. Mikulcak, Newig, Milcu, Hartel & Fischer, 2013; Sutcliffe et al, 2013) and elsewhere (Neudert, Salzer, Allahverdiyeva, Etzold & Beckmann, 2019) where the capacity of the local communities to self-organize in order to better navigate institutional challenges and opportunities were highlighted.…”

Sustainability policy considerations for ecosystem management in central and eastern europe

“…Hartel et al. () focus on institutional transitions over the past century in Romania's traditional rural social–ecological systems. They find that the cultural landscapes in their study area show strong links between people and the environment.…”

“…Spatially explicit data for seven kinds of ecosystem services indicate declining trends for regulating and cultural services, and increasing trends for provisioning services, due to increase in arable land and agricultural intensification. Hartel et al (2016) focus on institutional transitions over the past century in Romania's traditional rural social-ecological systems. They find that the cultural landscapes in their study area show strong links between people and the environment.…”