[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Ecological Governance

## Details

**Authors** Jenkins B

**Year** 2023

**Publisher** Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-22

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Environment & Sustainability

**Reading level** technical

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.0000024) 
10.54120/jost.0000024

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Traditional approaches of planner-led technical decision making and process-led legal decision making in relation to addressing development impacts on ecological systems have been found to be inadequate when the sustainability limits are reached either in relation to providing resources for development or accommodating the adverse effects on ecosystems from development.This paper sets out an approach of nested adaptive systems as the basis for governing and managing the integration of socio-economic systems with biophysical systems to reconcile development and ecosystem integrity.The approach was applied to the development of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy. Rapid expansion of irrigation to convert dryland farms to dairying has led to the sustainability limits being reached for water availability, and, for the cumulative effects of land use intensification on water quality and freshwater ecology. Traditional approaches to water management had failed to address this issue. A paradigm shift to systems thinking incorporating collaborative governance was fundamental to achieving a strategy supported by all stakeholders.In the implementation of the strategy, it has also been demonstrated that managing limits is insufficient. Rather, as a future development, a management approach based on nested adaptive systems incorporating collaborative governance is needed.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

A chapter setting out nested adaptive systems as a basis for governing the integration of socio-economic and biophysical systems, applied to the Canterbury Water Management Strategy in New Zealand.

### What they found (results)

Where planner-led and process-led approaches failed at sustainability limits, a shift to systems thinking with collaborative governance produced a strategy all stakeholders supported — and managing limits alone proved insufficient.

## Commentary

### In short

Sets out nested adaptive systems as a way to govern development within ecological limits, applied to the Canterbury Water Management Strategy in New Zealand.

### Response

Published in the Handbook of Systems Thinking (Cabrera, Cabrera & Midgley, eds., 2023), a volume built on the premise that systems thinking now has a universal theory—DSRP-484. Its contents were selected on that basis by its editorial team in concert with a team of advisors.

**Patterns it shows** S, R

## Refers to

- [Handbook of Systems Thinking](https://dsrpevidence.org/element/382)

**How to cite this** Jenkins B (2023). Ecological Governance. Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-22.