I was fortunate enough to visit my grandparents' house, in the small island of Kimolos on a corner of the Aegean, every year since i can remember. As a result, i spent most of my childhood summers swimming in its blue waters or running in the stone paved streets. Even since i was a child, i traveled the short distance to the nearby uninhabited island of Polyegos; trying to take a peek on its famous inhabitants, the beautiful Monk seals.
The Monk seal (monachus monachus) is one of the six most threatened mammals in the world. In 1993, the Greek population was estimated at 200-250 individuals. That was the largest global population and accounted for 90% of the European population. The efforts to conserve the Monk seal has led to the establishment of certain protected areas called Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). One of the seven most important protected areas was located in the island complex of Polyegos-Kimolos, due to the large number of population inhabiting its waters. I will proceed to an analysis of this Socio-Ecological System (SES).
According to Ellinor Olstrom's framework, the different elements a SES contains are the following (Olstrom 2009):
- Resource System (RS),
- Resource Units (RU),
- Users (U),
- Governance system (GS).
The Resource system in this case is the marine wildlife and the natural resources in their disposal, contained in the SAC of Kimolos-Polyegos (taking into account the surrounding coastal environment). The Resource units are, the protected species (Monk seals) as well as the harvested fish population inside the area. The Users of the SES are the local inhabitants, fishermen as well as the tourists visiting the area each year (local and international). Potential users of this Socio-Ecological System are the members of the international community, working to preserve the Monk seal species (NGOs).
Finally, the organizational organs that manage this SES are: on the local scale the municipality of Milos-Kimolos, and on higher scales the prefecture of Cyclades and finally the Greek Ministry of the Environment. Since this program is under an EU directive, the European Commision represents the international organizational organ. Together, these organs form the Govarnance System of the SES, a multi-level governance with institutional arrangements operating at different scales (Andersson and Olstrom 2008).
Analyzing the relationships around multiple levels of this complex system, at different spatial and temporal scales, gives us a more complete view of the SES. The social, economic and political changes (S) connected with the SES - together with some other laws, regulations and restrictions in the particular area- over the passing of the years, have been substantial. The local community of Kimolos has followed the complete opposite direction of economic growth than the neighbouring island of Milos. This had a positive impact on the local marine (and coastal) environment, the related ecosystem (Eco) of the SES, as it was better preserved. On the other hand it had a negative impact on the local society, as the limited available means of economic development forced the island's youth to rellocate.
The structure of this complex system is best represented as a hierarchy of nested adaptive cycles, on semi-autonomus levels, which serve two functions: first to stabilize and conserve conditions for the faster levels and second to generate and test innovations for the slower ones. Each of these adaptive cycles is divided into two phases, the period of accumulation of resources and the period of rapid reorganization(Holling 2001).
As a result, the phase (and our ability to identify it) of the adaptive cycles in the SES, ranges across their levels in the panarchy. The faster levels represent the certain areas in marine environment (reefs, sea-floor, microfauna), where due to little external pressure its inherent potential (wealth) and its resilience have increased. It is very difficult to assess the (current) stage of their adaptive cycles, since the speed of transition from conservation to reorganization can be quite fast and has too many variables (specific data needed).
As we go further up in the levels of adaptive cycles, we get to the slower levels, representing a more general view of the SES. Since their reorganization phase (omega-a : meaning the time when the environmental regulations came in place) the higher levels of the system have accumulated information (e.g. scientific data, time series for specific species etc.). This tightly regulated environment has created a resilient system, which managed to handle all the (incoming) social and environmental pressures (illegal poaching, touristic development, marine pollution etc).
The system's continuity will be tested the following years, due to major transformations on even higher level adaptive cycles (EU funding of the program, economic and political crisis in Greece etc) which will lead to a renewal of the lower cycles. It is to be seen if the faster, more adaptive levels will, through their creative destruction, influence the higher levels in a positive way. These two connections between the levels are needed to create, test and maintain adaptive capability, combining learning with continuity; ulitmately leading to the system's sustainability.
References:
Holling, Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems, 2001
Olstrom, A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems, 2009
Krister P. Andersson, Elinor Ostrom, Analyzing decentralized resource regimes from a polycentric perspective, 2008
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