How to navigate toward sustainability? An ecosystem services and resilience operational framework

To address the current global crises threatening socio-ecological systems, we need to bring together the concepts of resilience and ES to define what we want to maintain and restore (i.e. the ES) in response to the actual and future changes (i.e. resilience).
Therefore, we propose a methodological framework combining these two concepts in a participatory way. This framework is currently applied to the municipal forest of Sivry-Rance (Belgium).
After delimiting the system, we organized a first participatory workshop to define the management scenarios. We first asked the participants their main wish and fear concerning the future of Sivry-Rance’s forest and then to build together their dream forest. Six management scenarios were defined ranging from multifunctional forest to forests maximizing specific ES (e.g. wood production or recreation) coupled with two climate change scenarios.
Then, we assessed the different ES in their current condition and in the twelve scenarios, using a variety of methods (literature review, existing models, surveys, field data). We are currently analysing the impact of these alternatives on the different ES and the resilience of ES (i.e. how the levels of ES and their diversity fluctuate).
In a second participatory workshop, the stakeholders weighted and gave meaning to these values (e.g. what is the minimal value that a ES should have) in four groups. By applying these four types of preferences to the ES assessment, we plan to analyse the influence of varying societal demands on the selection of the best scenario(s), to study the social resilience.
Finally, a third participatory workshop will be organized this autumn to discuss the findings and co-generate an action plan for the Sivry-Rance’s forest.
In conclusion, this framework offers an operational tool to navigate toward sustainability by assessing the socio-ecological system and its dynamics while integrating the different views of the stakeholders.