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LINKING SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS Management practices and social mechanisms for building resilience Edited by FIKRET BERKES ‘Natural Resources Institute, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada and CARL FOLKE Department of Systems Ecology and Centre for Research on Natural Resources and the Environment, Stockholm University Sweden, ‘and The Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden and with the editorial assistance of JOHAN COLDING The Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, and Department of Systems Ecology, Stockholm University, Sweden n Reviving the social system-ecosystem links in the Himalayas | NARPAT S. JODHA CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1998 . 11 Reviving the social system—ecosystem links in the Himalayas NARPAT S. JODHA Introduction This chapter deals with the natural resource-friendly traditional patterns of resource use in the Hindukush-Himalaya (HK-H) region, their progressive decline under present-day circumstances, and possible approaches to their revival (Figure 11.1). This formulation of resource use, without getting into finer definitional issues, represents the operational dimensions of ecosys- tem-social system links in the context of fragile mountain areas, The chapter draws on the broad synthesis of inferences and understanding generated by more than 50 studies by different agencies in different parts of the region. It is often inferred that present-day society ~ particularly the Figure 11.1. ‘The Hindukush-Himalayas. 285 286 Narpat S. Jodha policy makers, planners, and their technica! advisors dealing with the mountain regions — is better equipped than the traditional communities in terms of knowledge of ecosystems and their functional dynamics. And yet, it is unable to design and implement a social framework (covering norms and mechanisms to govern a community's approach and interactions with nature) which could more appropriately respond to the imperatives of the natural resource base. Traditional communities, without the knowiedge of formal principles of ecosystem (or natural resource system) dynamics, did understand the manifestations of these dynamics, largely in terms of the myriad opportunities and constraints for the community's survival. Consequently, they evolved norms and practices to regulate individual and collective behaviour (vis-a-vis nature) as well as technical and institutional mechanisms to support them. This in turn helped in shaping and su: ing positive ecosystem-social system links. The traces of such links, though under severe strain, can still be found in several parts of the HK-H region (or other relatively inaccessible ecosystems), where modern changes causing disruption of such linkages are yet to have their full impact. n- Objectives The chapter primarily focuses on the following aspects of human-nature interactions in the HK-K region. (1) The circumstances and processes responsible for positive ecosystem- social system links, their manifestations and implications. (2) The process of gradual disruption of ecosystem-social system links, and its underlying causes and consequences. (3) Possible approaches to arrest the disruption and restore the above links by learning from (i) and (ii) above. Basic premises The central argument of the chapter can be briefly stated (i) Ecosystem-social system links are discussed in terms of dynamics of nature-society interactions manifested through a two-way adaptation process, i.e. society adapting its needs (including mechanisms to fit them) to the features of its natural resources base and adapting or amending the natural resource base to suit its needs (Jochim, 1981; Gadgil and Berkes, 1991). (ii) In a given social-ecological context, the nature and composition of

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