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Research article2006Peer reviewed

Building resilience and adaptation to manage Arctic change

Chapin FS, Hoel M, Carpenter SR, Lubchenco J, Walker B, Callaghan TV, Folke C, Levin SA, Maler KG, Nilsson C, Barrett S, Berkes F, Crepin AS, Danell K, Rosswall T, Starrett D, Xepapadeas A, Zimov SA

Abstract

Unprecedented global changes caused by human actions challenge society's ability to sustain the desirable features of our planet. This requires proactive management of change to foster both resilience (sustaining those attributes that are important to society in the face of change) and adaptation (developing new socioecological configurations that function effectively under new conditions). The Arctic may be one of the last remaining opportunities to plan for change in a spatially extensive region where many of the ancestral ecological and social processes and feedbacks are still intact. If the feasibility of this strategy can be demonstrated in the Arctic, our improved understanding of the dynamics of change can be applied to regions with greater human modification. Conditions may now be ideal to implement policies to manage Arctic change because recent studies provide the essential scientific understanding, appropriate international institutions are in place, and Arctic nations have the wealth to institute necessary changes, if they choose to do so

Published in

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
2006, Volume: 35, number: 4, pages: 198-202
Publisher: ROYAL SWEDISH ACAD SCIENCES

      SLU Authors

    • Danell, Kjell

      • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2006)35[198:BRAATM]2.0.CO;2

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/10959