Achieving social and ecological goals of coastal management through integrated monitoring

摘要

Successful resource management relies on an understanding of the complex relationships between social and natural systems and their governance (Berkes et al., 2016). Taken together these interacting systems have been described as part of a social‐ecological system (SES). Here, natural system refers to the biological and physical (biophysical) system and is used interchangeably with ecological system or ecosystem. Social system is used to characterize the interactions within and among human communities and their institutions, particularly those related to resource governance. The SES framework was developed to explain the many complexities of these relationships, but also to characterize what contexts and processes could help improve the management of natural resources (Ostrom, 2009). More specifically, SES has been defined as 'a system that includes societal (human) and ecological (biophysical) subsystems in mutual interactions' (Harrington et al., 2010) or a system 'where social and ecological systems are mutually dependent' (Fidel, Kliskey, Alessa, & Sutton, 2014). Management is most successful when it maximizes the benefits that natural resources provide to people and human stewardship of the environment. To date, limited evidence linking conservation and natural resource management interventions to human well‐being exists (McKinnon et al., 2016). Monitoring must adapt to capture this complexity, and in particular, focus sharply on the interactions and interdependencies of natural and social systems.