APPENDIX S1: Principles of the Drylands Development Paradigm [19]

Principle 1 - fundamental system components of the social and ecological domains of dryland social-ecological systems are coupled, interrelate and coevolve in a highly dynamic unpredictable fashion in space and time.

Principle 2 - only a limited set of key slow variables determines the dynamics of desirable states of DSES; it is important to identify and monitor these variables as they determine a system’s resilience to disturbance. The trajectory of slow variables is frequently overseen and therefore not adequately managed, while policy interventions and management decisions mostly follow rapid changes of social or ecological components and try to reduce the high variability of these fast variables.

Principle 3 - the non-linear trajectory of system development [1] may lead slow variables towards irreversible thresholds causing regime-shifts of DSES (Fig. 1b), where DSES change among multiple undesirable stable states exhibit new structures and function and respond to different feedback categories [2, 3, 4]. Thresholds themselves can change with time.

Principle 4 – DSES are hierarchically nested and interact across many spatial and temporal scales; it is crucial to understand to what extent system dynamics are controlled by these cross-scale interactions and potential feedback among scales. For instance, local rural communities build their livelihoods on livestock production following global market trends, which in turn leads to the creation of national and regional institutions and governance structures that strengthen the dependency on livestock production; mostly remote DSES are unaware of the loss of their adaptive capacity to respond to environmental or economic (e.g. price) shock.

Principle 5 – Long-term coevolutionary adaptation between the social and ecological subsystem in a highly variable and unpredictable dryland environment has contributed to a large body of local environmental knowledge including traditions, mental models and world views of cultures [5]. Since local DSES are increasingly affected by global environmental and social change, top-down interventions and institutional assistance to combat and mitigate these effects should take into account and draw on this knowledge as it has proven vital to sustaining local DSES as life support systems.

REFERENCES APPENDIX S1

[1] Levin, S. A. 1998 Ecosystems and the biosphere as complex adaptive systems. Ecosystems1, 431–436.

[2] Gunderson, L. H. & Holling, C. S. 2002 Panarchy: understanding transformations in systems of humans and nature. Island Press, Washington, D.C

[3] Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S., Foley, J. A., Folke, C. & Walker, B. 2001 Catastrophic regime shifts in ecosystems: linking theory to observation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18, 648-656.
[4] Westoby, M. Walker, B. & Noy-Meir, I. 1989 Opportunistic management for rangelands not at equilibrium. Journal of Range Management42, 266-274.

[5] Berkes, F. Kofinas, G. O. & Stuart Chapin, F.S. III. 2009 Conservation, community, and livelihoods: sustaining, renewing, and adapting cultural connections to the land. In Principles of Ecosystem Stewardship (ed. F.S. Chapin III, G.P. Kofinas, C. Folke,), pp 129-147. Springer, New York, N.Y