Resilience report spreads2

RESILIENCE &
TRANSFORMATION
A REGIONAL APPROACH

2 I N T RO D U CT I O N:
A New Operating
System
4 A C U LT U R E O F
RESILIENCE
12 REGIONAL
V U L N E RA B I L I T I E S
28 S TO R I E S O F
I N N OVAT I O N
Human resilience is the capacity
to effectively influence and adapt
38 S TA RT
HERE
to change.
40 E P I LO G U E:
Learn by Going
42 Acknowledgments
43 Glossary
44 Notes
46 Bibliography

INTRODUCTION:
A New Operating System

We live in a time of flux. The operating systems that societies are more vulnerable to shocks from natural
guided human development in the 20th century are disasters, resource scarcities, climate change, financial
failing. disruptions, disease, infrastructure failures, and social
unrest. To counter these vulnerabilities, we look to
Too many people still struggle for access to food or scales that better approximate the contours of the
education. Few societies have been able to organize natural and cultural landscapes in which people live,
for broadly shared benefits. Moreover, in our growing work, and organize — regional scales, in which societies
demand for nature’s services, we weaken our ability to can more reliably steward nature’s services and provide
provide for human needs in years to come. for human wellbeing. Greater diversity and viability
of local and regional economies is key to bolstering
It’s time to examine how our current operating systems resilience.
— the institutions of social, political, and economic
relations — leave us vulnerable. Then we can begin to In this publication, we explore a culture of resilience,
draw a new map for navigating the territory ahead. examine current vulnerabilities in our home region
along the West Coast of North America, and present
While individual maps may differ, a set of core principles stories of how individuals and organizations are
for developing 21st-century institutions is common changing the nature of social, political, and economic
to us all. They are the principles of resilience. Stated interactions.
simply, human resilience is the capacity to effectively
influence and adapt to change. Through a culture Although our focus is on regional scales, our vision is
of resilience, we cultivate the potential for novelty, hardly regionally bounded. National and international Resilience Regions
institutional innovation, and social transformation. regimes are stuck in maladaptive traps: entrenched The Resilience Regions map offers a fresh way
of looking at the relationships between people
ways of thinking, acting, and organizing. We believe that and place — a perspective that draws on the
As our maps should reflect, humans are dependent on the innovation that emerges at local and regional scales complexities of cultural and ecological factors.
natural resources and services for food, water, energy, can lead to large-scale transformation. We start with Lines on the map are fixed by necessity, but a
dynamic and more realistic view would reveal
and other basic needs. In the language of resilience, resilience at home in order to develop institutions that smaller, nested, and overlapping scales, from the
we exist within linked social-ecological systems — and better support personal, social, and natural wellbeing local and regional on up to the global.
these relationships matter. for everyone.

Within social-ecological relationships, the scale
of activities matters as well. Globalization fosters
greater connectivity and efficiencies, at the expense of
redundancy, diversity, and social capital. As a result, our

“ Civilization needs a new operating
system, you are the programmers,
and we need it within a few decades.”
Paul Hawken
University of Portland
Commencement Address, 2009

vi · I N T RO D U CT I O N I N T RO D U CT I O N · vii

A CULTURE OF RESILIENCE

Today’s failures are not isolated, but Our guiding questions: Resilience Principles
interconnected. We draw upon the scientific è How might public and private individuals
literature on social-ecological resilience and and organizations around the world cultivate
bring a practitioner’s perspective in order resilience?
to develop an understanding of systemic è What does transformation look like? Plan for change
responses to systemic challenges: a culture of è In what ways are geographic scales significant
resilience. to resilience and transformation?

This culture begins at home, by nurturing the
capacities that build resilience and enable
transformation. It is a culture that manifests
at multiple scales, from the personal to the Expand opportunities
community and region — on up to the species
and planet.

We emphasize a regional approach because
human needs for natural resources and services
largely rely on regional resilience — and also Develop rich relationships
because, in many places, effective regional
institutions are missing or underdeveloped. It
is critical that we start a broader conversation
about the role of regions.

Design for learning

“ The problems that face us are linked.
It’s not a set of problems. It’s a
system of problems. Now it’s time to
Consider multiple scales
look for a system of solutions.”
Janine Benyus
Nobel Laureate Symposium, 2011

viii · A C U LT U R E O F R E S I L I E N C E A C U LT U R E O F R E S I L I E N C E · ix

Resilience in Practice

Human resilience is the capacity to shape and adapt While some of these principles and practices may be
to change. We share with many others the definition of culturally specific, we have attempted to universalize
resilience as a capacity — and extend the definition to our understandings and to describe resilience as a
encompass bundles of personal and social capacities. necessary capacity for communities and societies
Public and private individuals and organizations can around the world.
cultivate these capacities through the application of
resilience in practice.

Plan for change Expand opportunities Develop rich relationships Design for learning Consider multiple scales

Develop capacities for: Develop capacities for: Develop capacities for: Develop capacities for: Develop capacities for:

• Flexibility • Human potential • Social capital • Integration of knowledge and • Systems thinking
• Local and regional self-reliance practice • Foresight
• Awareness of uncertainties • Leadership, creativity, and
entrepreneurship • Rich feedbacks • Social memory and learning • Compassion
• Functional redundancy
• Diversity • Continuous institutional
Start by asking: Start by asking: innovation Start by asking:

• When the unexpected happens, Start by asking: • How might we support the • How do our current lifestyles
viability of local and regional Start by asking: affect our individual health and
will system failures be • Are the capacities to meet basic
disastrous or graceful? needs accessible to all? economies? • In light of failures and wellbeing?
• What types of information might uncertainties, how might • How do our current lifestyles
• If prices rise or supplies are • Are ownership and employment current knowledge be shared,
disrupted, how readily available opportunities diverse and be more openly or broadly affect the environment, other
available? reevaluated, and recreated? peoples, and future generations?
are alternatives? accessible?
• How might institutions, • How might we foster personal • How might prices and incentives • Whose voices are critical to the • How might effective local and
better support social and natural problems being diagnosed and regional innovations be scaled
infrastructures, and lifestyles be and social wellbeing: senses of decisions being made?
more flexible and adaptive to autonomy, trust, and purpose? wellbeing? up or replicated elsewhere?
change? • How might we abandon
ineffective rules and practices,
improve others, and actively
experiment with new ones?

x · A C U LT U R E O F R E S I L I E N C E A C U LT U R E O F R E S I L I E N C E · xi

The Language of Resilience

The Latin word resilire means to leap back or to Resilience and vulnerability
rebound from a disturbance. We commonly understand A loss of resilience translates into a vulnerability. In By definition, business as usual is the dominant
resilience as the endurance and fortitude that carry ecosystem management, for example, a focus on narrow regime, but others are possible. The local food, food
us through challenges. “Think of resilience in terms of objectives can undermine resilience and increase sovereignty, and seed-saving movements have each
the old Timex commercial,” an expert on earthquakes vulnerability to environmental stresses. Attempts to created alternatives to the industrial food regime. The
explained in a 2011 Washington Post article: “it can take optimize fish harvest have led to population crashes, clean energy and climate stabilization movements
a licking and keep on ticking.” and efforts to optimize production from forest, present alternatives to the fossil fuel energy regime.
agricultural, and grazing lands can yield similar results. Alternatives to business as usual are all around us, but
This commonsense approach to resilience is part of our they have to surmount numerous formidable obstacles.
understanding as well. But it is incomplete. Here are The same can happen in supply chains as well. Efforts
additional ways to think about resilience. to optimize food distribution leave many big cities with It is easy for social-ecological systems, settling in to
limited food on hand at any time. They are vulnerable ruts in a vast landscape of possibilities, to become
Resilience of what? to supply shocks, as evidenced in the aftermaths of stuck. We develop psychological and social attachments
Cockroaches, kudzu, and jellyfish are known for their Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Tōhoku earthquake to dominant ways of thinking and living. The reigning
resilience. They can endure environmental stresses and in 2011. Greater functional diversity and redundancy power structures tend to reinforce the institutional
return to repopulate their ecosystems. But humans differ — many types of distribution channels, supplying food rules, practices, and norms that shape and constrain
in important respects from other life on earth. With from many types of sources — would increase food our activities. Existing infrastructures and technologies
advanced capacities for foresight and self-reflection, system resilience. further reinforce these patterns. Poverty, disease, and
we not only respond to change, we intentionally seek conflict limit possibilities in afflicted societies.
to influence it. And so the resilience of individuals and Resilience and transformation
societies relies not only on the capacity for endurance, As social and environmental threats to human These are just some of the examples of rigidities that
but also on capacities for intentional adaptation and wellbeing mount, it is becoming more evident that can inhibit social change. Resilience in the 21st century
transformation. business as usual cannot continue. But what is business requires a fresh approach — new ways of thinking,
as usual — and why is it so difficult to change? acting, and organizing in the world. How will these
Resilience to what? innovations be recognized, supported, and financed?
A 2011 World Economic Forum survey of global power In the language of resilience, business as usual And how might traditional knowledge — memories of
brokers ranked energy price volatility and climate represents a type of regime — a mutually reinforcing set older worldviews, institutions, and experiences — inform
change among the top global risks. Resilience to of factors that create regularities in social-ecological our understanding of what might work better today?
these types of environmental stresses is critical for interactions. These factors include value systems
human wellbeing in the 21st century, and social and (worldviews, ideologies), institutions (social, political, Decades ago, Will Rogers set out the cardinal precept of
environmental stresses are tightly linked. In this economic), and material artifacts (infrastructures, social transformation: “When you find yourself in a hole,
publication, we examine resilience in systems that technologies). stop digging.” To stop digging means to stop supporting
provide for essential needs: systems involving food, — or even to oppose — regimes that undermine
water, forests, energy, and finance, among others. A more Just as political regimes can become entrenched and wellbeing. And, even more important, to develop viable
comprehensive look would also examine resilience resistant to change, dominant regimes that regulate alternatives.
and wellbeing in systems that provide other vital our relationships to people and places — our economic
components of human wellbeing, such as education and systems, our energy systems, our food systems —
health care. develop a kind of inertia that makes them difficult to
transform.

xii · A C U LT U R E O F R E S I L I E N C E A C U LT U R E O F R E S I L I E N C E · xiii

A Regional Approach

Watersheds, food systems, electric grids, and forest To describe some of the ways in which regional Terrestrial Ecoregions Map Resilience Regions Map Food Traditions Regional Map
The World Wildlife Fund, 1987 Ecotrust, 2011 Renewing America's Food Traditions, 2004
biomes — each occupy a specific geography, and economies can bolster resilience, we posit the
their geographies matter more than our institutions following:
and economies give them credit for. We live in • Diversity within and among regions reduces
neighborhoods and regions, but we interact through vulnerability to stresses and shocks from climate
various jurisdictions and supply chains. change, disease, shortages, transmission or
transport failures, and so on.
To address these mismatches, we adopt a regional
approach. At the same time we recognize that regional • A greater diversity of production systems within
boundaries are themselves hard to pin down. A region and among regions offers greater opportunities
acquires a discrete character and form only with respect for ownership, community investment, and social
to a given watershed, foodshed, or energyshed. To capital formation.
further complicate matters, the watershed boundary • Regional trade networks offer opportunities for
aboveground may not correspond to that of the aquifer more immediate and transparent feedback about
below. These “problemsheds,” as geographer Tony Allan the true costs of production and consumption.
calls them, demand an “ad hoc regionalism.” Precise • Regional trade networks offer opportunities for
and fixed boundaries are less important than adaptive shared responsibility, stewardship, and community.
collaboration among the people and organizations
relevant to the geographic context. • Especially when national and international
institutions prove rigid and inflexible, the
When disaster strikes, we are vulnerable where we live. emergence of novelty and innovation at local and Based on expert opinion Based on spatial analysis Based on expert opinion
of ecological factors of both ecological and cultural factors of cultural traditions
Geography, financial resources, political access, and regional scales can be critical to leadership on
social capital are all factors that can turn environmental global problems such as climate change.
stresses into vulnerabilities. Residents of the Ganges,
Pearl, Mekong, Mississippi, and Rhine Deltas each face
flood and displacement risks, but they are not equally
vulnerable. As environmental stresses multiply, the
Comparing Regions
ability to organize and act at local and regional scales We compare three maps of North American
becomes more critical. regions. Unlike the World Wildlife Fund and
Renewing America’s Food Traditions maps, the
Resilience Regions map (center) is based on
Despite the many benefits of international trade and spatial analysis of both ecological and cultural
communication, globally interconnected economies factors.
also leave societies more vulnerable. Shocks and We use a “cost-distance analysis” to determine
regional boundaries. Starting with population
disturbances can transmit more readily from one region centers, we examine variations between adjoining
of the world to the next. Moreover, the homogenizing map cells. Greater variation entails a greater “cost”
of inclusion in a region, until the point where
forces of globalization endanger the local knowledge, cumulative costs between adjoining regions
relationships, and regionally diverse cultures that once are equivalent, indicating a boundary. Costs are
connected people and place. assigned based on variations in biophysical
characteristics such as temperature, elevation,
vegetation, and precipitation, as well as variations
in language groups.

xiv · A C U LT U R E O F R E S I L I E N C E A C U LT U R E O F R E S I L I E N C E · xv

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