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The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics Annual Report 2010/2011

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The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics Annual Report 2010/2011 The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics Annual Report 2010/2011 The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics Annual Report 2010/2011 The major objectives of the Beijer Institute are to carry out research and stimulate cooperation between scientists, university departments, research centres and institutes to promote a deeper understanding of the interplay between ecological systems and social and economic development. The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics © 2011 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Editor: Agneta Sundin Layout: Typoform Print: EO Grafiska 2011 ISSN 1654-6024 Cover photographs: Nobel Laureate Symposium/Stefan Nilsson, Erik Andersson, Max Troell/Azote, Tom Hermansson Snickars/ Azote, Agneta Sundin, Hermera/iStockphoto/ Photodisc/ Thinkstock Innehåll Director’s column 4 Photo gallery from the 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium 6 An urgent call from Stockholm 8 Askö meetings: bringing ecologists and economists together 1 4 Regime shifts and resilience in ecological economics 1 8 Research 2 0 Aquaculture and Sustainable Seafood Production 2 1 Behavioural Economics and Nature Network – BENN 2 3 Complex Systems 2 4 Global Dynamics and Resilience 2 6 Urban Social-Ecological Systems 2 8 Supporting Environmental Economics Networks 3 1 Stockholm Resilience Centre – context and action 3 5 A snapshot of events 3 8 Appendix 4 1 Board of Directors 41 Staff members 42 Visiting scientists and graduate students 43 Administration 43 Funding 44 Collaborations 44 Teaching and training 45 Staff members’ publications and activities 47 Publications 58 Director’s column by Carl Folke, Director, the Beijer Institute PREPARATIONS FOR THE gathering of the group Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with its Envi- of Nobel laureates and other experts for the 3rd ronmental Research Committee. The continua- Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainabil- tion of the collaboration holds great promise! Many ity – Transforming the World in an Era of Global people were engaged in the effort – thank you all, Change has been one of the main efforts this year for but especially Christina Leijonhufvud and Agneta the Beijer Institute. Orchestrating major high-lev- Sundin, professional as always, and Åsa Jansson, el science-policy meetings is indeed a challenging Eva Krutmeijer, Johan Rockström and Staffan Nor- task, gladly, all our hard work paid off. The Sympo - mark for great team work. sium, mentioned as “the biggest sustainability event In times of new global dynamics of connectivity, in Stockholm since the UN Stockholm Meeting mobility, multiplications of linkages, speed of inter- 1972”, was an enormous success, and it is extensively actions and new combinations of social-ecologi- covered further on in the Annual Report. cal shocks and surprises, humanity is moving into This event clearly illustrated the synergies that new terrain. Understanding such critical interact- can be created through the constructive collabora- ing feedbacks in relation to global sustainability is tion of the Beijer Institute, Stockholm Resilience the core focus of the Beijer Institute’s research pro - Centre, Stockholm Environment Institute and the gramme on Global Dynamics and Resilience, a col- laborative effort with Stockholm Resilience Centre. The programme provides a platform for interdisci- plinary work with great scholars involved. The first year with the new structure of our five research programmes; Aquaculture and Sustain- able Seafood Production; Urban Social-Ecological Systems; Complex Systems; Behavioural Econom- ics and Nature Network (BENN); and the Global Dynamics and Resilience has indeed been a pro - ductive one. We have received several new grants for the activities, links are now in place within and between the programmes and exciting findings are in the pipeline. Special thanks to the programme directors for their efforts in building the networks of collaboration, organising the activities, bringing in young researchers and raising critical funds. The Askö Meeting is an annual highlight event of the Beijer Institute, and this year we have seen the book Bringing Ecologists and Economists Together: The Askö Meetings and Papers published by Spring- er. I would like to thank Anna Sundbaum and Tore Söderqvist for making this happen – an impressive PHOTO: CECILIA NORDSTRAND CECILIA PHOTO: 4 director’s column set of papers with thoughtful comments and reflec - advising practice and policy, and communicating tions by Beijer Fellows. and disseminating insights and results. It is a small institute in terms of staff but with a network of hun - Jeff Vincent and Aart de Zeeuw continue with their dreds of respected scholars worldwide. appreciated efforts in nurturing activities of the regional networks in environmental economics and We are extremely privileged and grateful for the guiding the Mäler Scholarship, thanks to which we long-term investment of the Kjell and Märta Beijer have hosted researchers from Argentina and China Foundation in the Beijer Institute and I would per- this year. The journal Environment and Develop - sonally like to thank Anders Wall and members of ment Economics is in good shape, thanks to Tasos the Beijer Foundation for their commitment to our Xepapadeas. A special thanks to deputy director, research in the interplay between ecological systems Anne-Sophie Crepín, who isinstrumental in all the and prosperous social and economic development. activities and strategies of the institute. It is most rewarding to experience that the twen - We warmly welcome Eric Lambin, Rosamond Nay- ty years of work to date by the Beijer Institute of lor, Karine Nyborg, and Scott Taylor to the Beijer Ecological Economics and our network of col- Board and are looking forward to the coming years laborators, is reaching out influencing mind sets together. The term as Board members for Kan - and actions globally, from university curricula and chan Chopra, Gretchen Daily, and Jeff Vincent has research areas to on-the-ground practice and inter- come to an end. Many thanks for all your efforts national policy. in guiding the Beijer direction and for immensely Carl Folke valuable contributions. It is of great significance to Stockholm, 12 July 2011 have your continued engagement and that of other Beijer Fellows in the Beijer Institute. Ingela Tern- ström, who has been working with us for the last eight years, has now taken on a new path. We will miss Ingela’s contributions and friendly presence. Currently we are in the process of recruiting young skilful economists to the Institute to engage in the BENN and Global Dynamics programmes. Many seminars have been organized and several vis- iting researchers have stayed with us this year. Jeff Vincent and family stayed for two months and con - tributed and inspired. The key focus of the Beijer Institute is to stimu - late and perform collaborative research between economists and ecologists and related disciplines on fundamental and applied problems in relation to resilience and sustainability, teaching and train- ing on those issues nationally and internationally, ANNUAL REPORTdirector’s 2010–2011 column 5 2 3 4 1 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 6 3rd nobel laureate symposium 13 15 14 12 “ ‘A call from Stockholm’ This was stated in the invitation to this 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability. This is not a local call. This is a long distance 911 call from the future. A call that we need to take right now.” 16 With these words the Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden began her inaugural speech at the the 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability in Stockholm. Some fifty of the world’s most renowned thinkers and experts on global sustainability, among them 18 Nobel Laureates had gath- ered at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to take that call. This marked the beginning of intense activity, two days of plena- ry presentations, panel discussions and working group sessions to address urgent challenges for the future of humanity. 17 18 21 19 20 ANNUAL REPORT3rd nobel laureate 2010–2011 symposium 7 An urgent call from Stockholm 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability – Transforming the World in an Era of Global Change by Agneta Sundin and Carl Folke THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, staff at the Beijer Institute Issues such as climate change, environmental were deeply engaged in the preparations for the 3rd impacts, decreasing biodiversity and economic Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainabil- development are attracting great attention, but ity – Transforming the World in an Era of Global have generally been treated to date as separate enti - Change in May in Stockholm. The Symposium was ties, with little or no regard for the interactions a major event and a major success, both in terms of between them. providing basic scientific understanding on global “We have converged into a globalised society and in sustainability and of spreading this understanding just a few human generations developed perspec- through communication and eye-to-eye discussion tives and value systems that mentally disconnect and interaction with policy at the highest level. progress and economic growth from fundamental interactions with the Earth System and dependence The science on the biosphere – now it is time to reconnect” said The 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium, which fol- Beijer Director Carl Folke, chairman of the Scien- lowed from previous meetings in Potsdam and tific Committee of the Symposium. London, made clear that humanity is an embedded Three scientific background documents were pre- part of the biosphere, shaping it from local to glob - pared for the Symposium. al scale, while remaining fundamentally dependent on its services. PHOTO GALLERY (PREVIOUS PAGES) PHOTOS: © NOBEL LAUREATE SYMPOSIUM/STEFAN NILSSON 1. Nadine Gordimer reading her own text 8. Geoffrey West and David Gross 15. The UN Panel and Symposium members during the Symposium concert. discuss the Stockholm Memorandum. 9. The Symposium delegates together with 2. Symposium coordinator Christina Leijon- members of the UN High Level Panel for 16. The Memorandum signing ceremony. hufvud and Carl Folke, Chairmain of the Sci- Global Sustainability. 17. Panel session. entific Committee. 10. Symposium Manager Eva Krutmeijer and 18.
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