Resilient Socio-Ecological Systems

Globally, most species and their natural habitats are declining and under mounting pressure, largely as a result of human activities including land use changes, trade and a lack of supportive policies. The rate of loss is not slowing, generating a biodiversity crisis and when coupled with the climate change crisis, this results in unprecedented challenges. This widespread loss of biodiversity and natural resources threatens all socio-ecological systems: the ecosystems that support all life on land and below water, and the economies and societies which are built through and from nature’s contributions to people. 

Several Sustainable Development Goals are predicated on resilient socio-ecological systems, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for reducing biodiversity loss this decade. YESI is bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines to support the development and design of new inclusive research methods, supporting new policies and interventions for reversing biodiversity decline, and reducing related impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods are embedded in nature.

Researchers at York study the drivers of biodiversity declines including climate change, degradation of natural habitats and agricultural intensification, their underlying socio-economic drivers such as consumption-intensive lifestyles and lack of alternatives, as well as their implications for different groups and axes of difference. Research also focuses on possible solutions, from releasing green finance for biodiversity conservation to nature-based solutions, stakeholder engagement and participation as core components of practical management options in the field, and the power, justice and coloniality dimensions of these approaches. 

Research theme aims 

• Investigating socio-political, environmental and economic dimensions of socio-ecological systems, and what they mean for resilience, sustainability and equity
• Understanding the interactions and feedbacks among species, ecosystem dynamics and human behaviour
• Identifying and evaluating practical, effective, and equitable solutions to deliver resilient socio-ecological systems for the future, recognising their socio-political dimensions including power, justice and coloniality.

In 2024-2025, the research theme will organize events on, but not limited to the following:

• Mountain socio-ecological systems, and participatory ways of researching them and navigating the future challenges
• Trade-environment nexus in the polycrisis: the political ecology of nature-based value chains, environmental interactions in agricultural production
• The historical and present justice dimensions of biodiversity conservation: transformative potentials
• Supporting early-career researchers across YESI

Key focus areas

• Biodiversity conservation – analysing the factors affecting species responses to habitat change, the ecological, social, political and economic drivers and impacts of biodiversity loss, and the use of diverse knowledges to develop conservation interventions that reorientate activities that are harmful towards those which promote biodiversity and socio-ecological system resilience in equitable ways.
• Ecosystem services – assessing human impacts on essential ecosystem services and informing decision-making about the risks and opportunities that emerge from our dependence on nature and how we can best support this relationship for humankind and nature.
• Climate change and the polycrisis – understanding the impacts of climate and environmental change on socio-ecological systems including agriculture and trade, to enhance our predictions of future changes and to support the development of achievable and equitable mitigation and adaptation strategies at a range of temporal and spatial scales.
• Participatory methods - explore how participatory approaches can support sustainable, resilient, and inclusive futures for communities to navigate through the increasing challenges facing social ecological systems

YESI Objectives