Obura2009-IUCN Congress report - Resilience sessions

Executive Summary
Other factors may be only weak drivers, or neutral, but may have value as indicators of resilience
e.g. obligate coral feeders are an indicator of the amount of coral and the complexity of habitat and
nutrition they provide. Using a diversity of indicators in assessing resilience and impacts is useful in
capturing the complexity of ecosystem dynamics and to capture unexpected findings that may
highlight key aspects of resilience.
Greater investments need to be made in using research findings for adaptive management, as
well as for generating adaptive actions, such as by resource users. Adaptive management and
policy-making should become increasingly operationalized in a changing climate where new threats
are continually becoming apparent (e.g. recently ocean acidification), and research findings from
resilience programmes should be assimilated quickly into decision-making processes. With their
explanatory value across ecological and social dimensions, resilience concepts can help link scientific
findings to adaptation actions.
Complementary to assessment of ecological resilience, tools for quantifying social resilience are
needed that can link ecological measurements to resource use practices and thence to adaptive
actions. Resilience concepts can facilitate this by reducing barriers across the disciplines, and
facilitating comparison and interpretation. The goal is to be able to measure changes in peoples’
vulnerability to climate change and ecosystem degradation. If social benefits can be quantified in this
way, then access to adaptation and carbon funds will be improved to finance the growing need there
will be for social action.
Priorities for management
Enhancing the development and use of tools for management, based on resilience, is a key priority.
To date, resources such as the R2 toolkit and Reef Resilience Assessment method have been
developed, and additional tools are needed to further assist managers. Networking and
communications among managers and between them and scientists, other professionals and
stakeholders are key strategies for expanding the acceptance and use of resilience principles in
management.
Of critical importance for management is the establishment of supportive policy for adaptive
management, focusing on flexibility, responsiveness to change and resources to enable action.
Resilience concepts can provide principles on which to base policy, from which options for
interventions, priority setting mechanisms and communication strategies can be developed.
Economic and financial arguments, and public education, will ultimately be the factors that will
drive decision makers, and resilience concepts provide a means to translate the value of individual
reef components in the larger context. For example, a herbivorous fish that contributes to maintaining
overall ecosystem health is worth more in the water, providing its function daily, attracting tourists and
reproducing, than providing a single meal.
Priorities for policy
Policy development is urgently needed to consolidate and support recent advances in resilience
science and resilience-based management, and pave the way for new discoveries. Urgent policy
actions that are needed all relate to development of frameworks for management and adaptation
actions that are responsive to climate change. These include:
• policies that facilitate managers to take adaptive action;
• the development of management frameworks that are flexible and can respond to challenges;
• increased use of holistic/multisectoral approaches, such as Ecosystem-Based Management
(EBM) and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and Participatory approaches to rural
development;
• policies that support social resilience by reducing peoples’ vulnerability in the face of change,
particularly with respect to natural resource-based livelihoods.
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