One Thing Leads to Another: Causal Chains Link Health, Development, and Conservation

The linkages between environmental health and human well-being are complex and dynamic, and researchers have developed numerous models for describing them. The models include attempts to bridge traditional academic boundaries, uniting fields of study under rubrics such as social-ecological frameworks, coupled human and natural systems, ecosystem services, and resilience theory. However, these efforts have been constrained by varying practices and a failure among practitioners to agree on consistent practices. Writing in BioScience, Jiangxiao Qiu of the University of Florida and his colleagues describe this state of affairs and propose an alternative approach to understanding the interplay of social and ecological spheres: causal chains. The authors describe these chains as an “approach to identifying logical and ordered sequences of effects on how a system responds to interventions, actions, or perturbations.” And although causal chains are well established in many fields, the authors highlight that “there is no normative consensus about the principles and guidelines necessary to create causal chains relevant for dealing with human-nature challenges.” By refining and standardizing the causal chain methodology, the authors hope that the drivers of human behavior and ecological changes can be better understood-and then acted on. For instance, the authors cite an example of a biophysical system in Kenya in which forests are converted to farmland withou...
Source: BioScience Press Releases - Category: Biology Source Type: news