WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY?
Janne Hukkinen, HUT Laboratory of Environmental Protection
Message: Sustainability is a set of preferred pathways of development that are both socially constructed by people and objectively constrained by ecology
WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY? Topics
• multiple social constructions of sustainability; • multiple ecologically sustainable equilibria; • scale dependence of sustainability; • perspectives for understanding sustainability; • measurement challenges of sustainability
CASE: REINDEER MANAGEMENT IN FINLAND
Annual cycle of reindeer management: Calf marking
Annual cycle of reindeer management: Round-up
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY (1)
• Sustainable reindeer management means that
– reindeer on only on natural pastures? OR – reindeer is artificially fed during winters?
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY (2)
• Social scientific studies of environmental issues emphasize that sustainability is socially constructed (Dietz et al. 2003, Dryzek 1997, Flyvbjerg 2001, Hajer 1995,
Hukkinen 1999, Lee 1993, Redclift 1992).
• Different social groups, stakeholders and communities in the society perceive differently what the sustainable future is. • Each group has a well-reasoned rationale for holding its view of sustainability. • It is impossible to justify any single viewpoint of sustainability as the ‘correct’ or ‘optimal’ one.
ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE STATES (1)
• Sustainable reindeer management means that • Lichen cover is thick? OR • Lichen cover does not always matter that much?
ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE STATES (2)
• Ecosystem studies have shown that in many ecosystems smooth change can be interrupted by sudden drastic switches to a contrasting state. • An ecosystem may have several alternative locally stable, ecologically sustainable states (Scheffer et al. 2001, Holling and Sanderson
1996).
SCALE DEPENDENCE OF SUSTAINABILITY (1)
Northern tundra in southern forest (Salla)
Southern farming in northern tundra (Teno)
• Assessment of sustainability needs to be scale sensitive, when patches of northern type reindeer management exist in the south and vice versa
SCALE DEPENDENCE OF SUSTAINABILITY (2)
• Case studies of environmental and biodiversity management show that
– policies meeting socio-ecological sustainability criteria for local areas and shorter time scales – fail to do so for larger areas and longer time scales (Dovers 1995, Groombridge 1992, Wolf and Allen 1995).
PERSPECTIVES FOR UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABILITY
• Policy makers who assess sustainability with reference to a single perspective commit themselves to partisanship in the political contest over sustainability. • One sustainability perspective alone is incapable of illustrating shifts between alternative ecologically sustainable states. • Alternative perspectives are needed to illustrate the possible contradictions between different spatial and temporal scales of sustainability.
Sustainable future for Sámi region
• Council for land and water rights • Sámi food labeling • Livelihood inherited within the family • Restrictions on tourism, forestry
Sustainable future for forest zone
• Councils for land use • Monetary compensation to reindeer herders for land use damage caused by Forest and Park Service • Small herd sizes with other livelihoods • Restrictions on forestry
Sustainable future for Arctic agriculture
• Participatory regional zoning • Reindeer management and small-scale agriculture recognized as a livelihood • Feeding in the field and inside fences • Meat products, tourism, multiple livelihoods
MEASUREMENT CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABILITY (1)
• Alternative sustainability perspectives (scenarios) make explicit the fact that there are many interpretations of what the path toward sustainability might look like. • Scenarios of the future provide a series of reference points against which to assess the significance of specific indicator values.
MEASUREMENT CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABILITY (2)
Carrying capacity indicator bounded by alternative sustainability scenarios. The shift in the value of the indicator at time t´ means abandoning the sustainability range when sustainability is interpreted in the context of scenario B, but at the same time entering the sustainable trajectory as interpreted in scenario A
References
• •
•
• • • • • • • • •
Holling, C.S. and S. Sanderson (1996), ‘Dynamics of (dis)harmony in ecological and social systems’, in S.S. Hanna, C. Folke and K.-G. Mäler (eds), Rights to nature, Washington, DC: Island Press, pp. 57–85 Scheffer, M., S. Carpenter, J.A. Foley, C. Folke, B. Walker (2001), ‘Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems’, Nature, 413, 591-596 Dovers, S.R. (1995), ‘A Framework for Scaling and Framing Policy Problems in Sustainability’, Ecological Economics, 12 (2), 93-106 Groombridge, B. (ed.) (1992), Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's Living Resources, Compiled by World Conservation Monitoring Centre, London: Chapman & Hall Wolf, S.A. and T.F.H. Allen (1995), ‘Recasting Alternative Agriculture as a Management Model: The Value of Adept Scaling’, Ecological Economics, 12 (1), 5-12 Dietz, T., E. Ostrom, P.C. Stern (2003), ‘The struggle to govern the commons’, Science 302, 1907-1912 Dryzek, J.S. (1997), The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses, Oxford: Oxford University Press Flyvbjerg, B. (2001), Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hajer, M.A. (1995), The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process, Oxford: Oxford University Press Hukkinen, J. (1999), Institutions in Environmental Management: Constructing Mental Models and Sustainability, London: Routledge Lee, K.N. (1993), Compass and Gyroscope: Integrating Science and Politics for the Environment, Washington DC: Island Press Redclift, M. (1992), Sustainable Development: Exploring the Contradictions, London: Routledge