Resilience principles and a leverage points perspective for sustainable woody vegetation management in a social-ecological system of southwestern Ethiopia

Addressing ecosystem destruction and unsustainable development requires appropriate frameworks to comprehensively investigate social-ecological systems. Focusing on woody plant management in southwestern Ethiopia, we combined social-ecological resilience and a leverage points perspective to (1) assess how stakeholders perceive and operationalize resilience principles; (2) investigate resilience challenges and solutions across different levels of systemic depth; and (3) assess how different stakeholder groups noted challenges and solutions at different levels of system depth. Data were collected in focus group discussions with multiple types of stakeholders and analyzed via quantitative content and descriptive analysis. All stakeholder groups identified two principles currently applied in the landscape, while other principles were not currently applied widely. In total, we identified 37 challenges and 44 solutions to resilience, mainly focused on deeper systemic change. This trend was noted across stakeholder groups, but particularly by local people. Based on our work, we suggest to foster bottom-up changes in system goals, rules, paradigms, and intent, drawing explicitly on local people and their knowledge. More broadly, we suggest that further research on combining social-ecological resilience and leverage points perspectives could be helpful to better navigate and transform social-ecological systems.

Automated summary

Addressing ecosystem destruction and unsustainable development requires comprehensive investigation of social-ecological systems. In this study focusing on woody plant management in southwestern Ethiopia, a social-ecological resilience and leverage points perspective was combined to assess stakeholders' perceptions and operationalizations of resilience principles, investigate resilience challenges and solutions, and analyze stakeholder groups' perspectives on system depth. The findings identified limited application of resilience principles, with a focus on deeper systemic change. Based on this, the study suggests fostering bottom-up changes, drawing on local knowledge, and further research on combining social-ecological resilience and leverage points perspectives.