Coviability of Social and Ecological Systems: Reconnecting Mankind to the Biosphere in an Era of Global Change

This second volume is the work of more than 55 authors from 15 different disciplines and includes complex systems science which studies the viability of components, and also the study of empirical situations. As readers will discover, the coviability of social and ecological systems is based on the contradiction between humanity, which adopts finalized objectives, and the biosphere, which refers to a ecological functions. We see how concrete situations shed light on the coviability’s determinants, and in this book the very nature of the coviability, presented as a concept-paradigm, is defined in a transversal and ontological ways.

By adopting a systemic approach, without advocating any economic dogma (such as development) or dichotomizing between humans and nature, while emphasizing what is relevant to humans and what is not, this work neutrally contextualizes man’s place in the biosphere. It offers a new mode of thinking and positioning of the ecological imperative, and will appeal to all those working with social and ecological systems.

Olivier Barrière, Ph.D

Dr. Olivier Barrière is an environmental jurist and a researcher at the IRD (french Research Institute for Sustainable Development), which develops a legal socio-ecological approach through the anthropology of law. He got an HDR (accreditation to supervise research) on May 2012, on this topic: “Elements of a legal socio-ecology: the right facing the ecological emergency”.

For 20 years his work has focused on the relationship which bond human beings to their environment, within the limits of a legal regulation which is faced with progressing global and environmental changes. O. Barrière works thus on local law concerned with the viability of systems by promoting innovative concepts within the limits of property-Environment, of the co-viability of the social and ecological systems, and of the negotiated law which creates a relation between international law and the local realities along with endogenous representations. His working areas are: Africa (Morroco, Senegal, Mali, Tchad, Rwanda), French Guyana, Nouvelle Calédonie and France (Causses-Cévennes).

For several years O. Barrière formalizes a network of researchers and experts in the field of coviability by bringing together a variety of disciplines through meetings and seminars. Within its Research Institution (IRD) he leads an interdisciplinary transverse axis on the coviability in a transdisciplinary aims.

Olivier Barrière, as project manager, implement experiments in close cooperation with stakeholders, local elected and national technical institutions to achieve concrete practical results as local law, as environmental convention, socio-ecological resilience pact, pastoral pact. He also teaches environmental law to future managers of natural lands at the University of Sciences of Montpellier.

Mohamed Behnassi, Ph.D

Mohamed Behnassi is specialist in Environment and Human Security Law and Politics. After the obtention of his Ph.D in 2003 from the Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences, Hassan II University of Casablanca for a Thesis titled: Multilateral Environmental Negotiations: Towards a Global Governance for Environment, he accessed to the Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences, Ibn Zohr University of Agadir, Morocco as Assistant Professor (2014). In 2011, he obtained the status of Associate Professor and in 2017 the status of full professor. He served as the Head of Public Law Department (2014-2015) and the Director of the Research Laboratory for Territorial Governance, Human Security and Sustainability (LAGOS) (2015-at present). In addition, Dr. Behnassi is the Founder and Director of the Center for Environment, Human Security and Governance (CERES) (former North-South Center for Social Sciences (NRCS), 2008-2015). Dr. Behnassi is also Associate Researcher at the UMR ESPACE-DEV, Research Institute for Development (IRD), France. In 2011, he completed a U.S. State Department-sponsored Civic Education and Leadership Fellowship (CELF) at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, USA and in 2014 he obtained a Diploma in Diplomacy and International Environmental Law from the University of Eastern Finland and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Finland. Dr. Behnassi has pursued several post-doctoral trainings since the completion of his PhD.

His core teaching and expertise areas cover: environmental change, human security, sustainability, climate change politics and governance, human rights, CSR, etc. He has published numerous books with international publishers such as: Environmental Change and Human Security in Africa and the Middle East (Springer 2017); Vulnerability of Agriculture, Water and Fisheries to Climate Change (Springer 2014); Science, Policy and Politics of Modern Agricultural System (Springer 2014); Sustainable Food Security in the Era of Local and Global Environmental Change (Springer 2013), Global Food Insecurity (Springer, 2011); Sustainable Agricultural Development (Springer, 2011); Health, Environment and Development (European University Editions, 2011), and Climate Change, Energy Crisis and Food Security (Ottawa University Press, 2011). He has also published numerous research papers and made presentations on these at international conferences. In addition, Dr. Behnassi has organized many international conferences covering the above research areas in collaboration with national and international organizations and managed many research and expertise projects on behalf of various national and international institutions. Behnassi is regularly requested to contribute to review and evaluation processes and to provide scientific expertise nationally and internationally. Other professional activities include Social Compliance Auditing and consultancy by monitoring human rights at work and the sustainability of the global supply chain.

Gilbert David

Gilbert David is marine and island geographer by training and research director in IRD: UMR Espace-Dev, head of the research team dealing with integrated approach of nature and society. During his career, he experimented different types of coviability. From 1984 to 1991, he studied the links between reef fisheries and food security of islanders in Vanuatu (South Pacific).

From 1991 to 1996 he was involved in a project dealing with the spatial coviability of New Caledonia. This big island was divided into three parts, an urban center (Noumea), rural areas with nickel mines and rural peripheries, whose evolution’s trajectories were different. How cope with these diffrences and how change these trajectories to reach a viable future for all people of New Caledonia?

From 1997 to 2000, he was involved in the Regional Environment Programme of the Indian Ocean commission (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauricius, Reunion, Seychelles) working on the coral reef  action plan in order to cope with the increasing uses of this ecosystem in the Western Indian Ocean region.  From 2003 to 2009, he was based in Reunion island working of integrated coatal zone management (IZCM) and Marine protected areas (MPAs), both considered as tools for coviability. After 2 years in Brest, he is now based in Montpellier. IZCM and MPAs are still his main research topic.

Vincent Douzal

Vincent Douzal graduated from Institut national agronomique Paris-Grignon (INA-PG, now AgroParisTech) and École Nationale du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts (ENGREF). He completed a master in robotics and a thesis in computer science, on perception: mathematical modelling and data analysis of descriptive sensory analysis experiments, including the underlying theoretical framework on perception.  Then for several years he was head of a team in a regional public administration in Grenoble, France, conducting civil engineering works in water supply and sanitation, rural electric infrastructure, irrigation, waste incineration plants, waste sorting centres, and public education buildings. He was responsible for the negotiation process leading to the global regional collective planning of waste treatment. He returned to research in a multidisciplinary team spanning from remote sensing to spatial modelling and social implications of using spatial and temporal data for collective decision-making, with the mandate of defining the bases of information systems for scholarly and general issues on natural hazards. His current work focuses on traceability in computer systems, a problem tightly connected to the representation of time in information systems, with many implications on memory preservation and cultural heritage, long-term digital archiving, hypermedia and collaboratory systems, and of course, at the very basis, reproducibility of scientific results.

Mireille Fargette

Dr. Mireille Fargette graduated at both Université Aix-Marseille III (France) (Master in Biology and Ecology) and Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie (Montpellier SupAgro, France) where she obtained a Master and a PhD in Agronomy. She has been working for IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) on scientific questions in tropical Southern countries, through national and international scientific programs. She has worked abroad for part of the time. She has published more than 50 publications in indexed scientific journals and participated (posters or papers) to 68 scientific congresses. She first focused on the plant domain (biology, parasitology, ecology) and biodiversity related to agro-systems. More recently her main interests have encompassed the systemic relationships between societies and their environment (including man and societies relationships on the one hand, their links with the environment and “natural systems” on the other hand). Her main present scientific interests (e.g. dynamics and viability of complex systems, Southern territories, scientific observatories) call for an inter-disciplinary approach and rely on ontological approaches and symbolic modeling in order to share knowledge and representations.

Thérèse Libourel

Prof. Thérèse Libourel is Professor Emeritus in the department of computer science at the Montpellier University. She participated in the creation of UMR ESPACE-DEV (IRD, UM, UAG, UR) and assured co-direction and direction thereof from January 2011 to September 2014 after having been a member of the Montpellier Laboratory of Informatics, Robotics and Microelectronics (LIRMM/CNRS). She received her Ph.D. from Montpellier University in 1992 and she got an HDR (accreditation to supervise research - standing for “Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches” in french) on January 2003. She has served as a program committee president and member for several conferences in information systems and databases (BDA, INFORSID, CASSINI, SAGEO, ICEIS). She is a member of the GDR Magis (Methods and Applications for Geomatics and Spatial Information). Thérèse Libourel has been studying and teaching information systems, databases and software engineering for nearly 15 years (in various Master University Montpellier 2 and International Master ICT USTH). Her research interests specifically include complex system modeling in various fields (Biology, Geographic Information System, Robotics), particularly in the area of object modeling paradigm where she gained expertise in a number of key issues such as object methodology, data models, data evolution, metadata, information integration or modeling UML and its evolution. As a result of her strong implication in various projects, she is closely collaborating with different research partners from various disciplines (agriculture, environment, biology, geography,) and consequently gained a significant experience in interdisciplinarity.

Maud Loireau

Dr. Maud Loireau is a Research Engineer at IRD (Institut de recherche pour le développement) with a competence in international agro-development (ISTOM engineer) and geography (PhD, University of Paul Valéry - Montpellier 3). She has been working for more than 25 years in arid areas in Saheli and Northern Sahara, and generally in threatened territories (arid zones vs desertification, pioneer frontier vs deforestation and urban extensions, mountains areas changing vs tourism).

Her research consists in constructing, formalizing and using conceptual frameworks (observatory, landscape, viability, attachment to places) and methods (data collection, co-construction and formalization of shared knowledge, modeling) to characterize the links between the systems involved and their spatio-temporal footprints, between the societies concerned and the place they live in.

This research is conducted on fragile territories and / or in transition under constraints from global changes with management issues, in order to develop ways to observe, analyze and monitor the dynamics of these territories, and ultimately contribute to enrich and share knowledge, to facilitate discussions and negotiations between actors, accompany the managers decisions and actions.

With some 60 scientific publications including book chapters, journal articles and conference proceedings, her scientific expertise, mainly focused on the issue of desertification, has also contributed to consolidate a network of partners in Southern and Northern countries; she animates the networks “Scientific Societies-Environments Observatories”, and “Relations between Society-Environment and Ecology: from knowledge to action”, within the frameworks of MAGIS and of the SFE, respectively; and she encourages communication between Scientists, Politicians and Civil Society as a member of the CSFD.

Laurence Pascal

Lecturer at the University of Montpellier, co-initiator and the specialty of Master “Tropical Plant Biodiversity” and responsible for license teaching units and master, “Plant Physiology and operation of plants,” “Perfume, aromas, and biomolecules of living “,” co-evolution and symbiosis “,” biological heritage”. She participates to the Inter-university exchange, as a member of the scientific and administrative councils of the “Pôle Universitaire de Guyane”, by supervising numerous training course, and the creation of thematic school of tropical biodiversity in French Guyana.

Researcher in the team “biocultural interactions and coevolution” of CNRS in Montpellier since 1995, she has joined the Joint Research Unit “Microorganisms Environment Interactions Plantes” (EMPI / IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier University) to study the tolerance of plants and ecosystems to environmental constraints in a context of global change. Her research is based on an ecological approach to chemistry relationships that plants have with their biotic and abiotic environments around contemporary issues (maintenance of ecosystems, their biodiversity and species communities where chemical communication is paramount). Her research explores the diversity of species interactions, with particular emphasis on their dynamic and scalable operation in response to current environmental changes.

Catherine Prost

Dr. Catherine Prost is Associate Professor of the Geography Department at the Institute of Geosciences (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil). She completed a post-doctorate at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD-Montpellier, France). Her core expertise areas cover: Artisanal Fishing, Territorial and Environmental Management, Protected Areas. She has published papers in accredited journals and communicated several oral presentations in relevant Brazilian conferences.

In addition, Dr. Prost has organized three conferences: the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Seminaries about Coastal Spaces, September 2011, May 2013 and October 2016, Salvador, Brazil. Dr. Prost is also a Lead Manager of several research projects such as: 1) “Communitarian Management of Natural Resources in the Reserve of Collect Bay of Iguape” and 2) “Environnemental Management and Territorial Conflicts in the baianese Maritime Reserves of Collect “ both sponsored by the National Centre of Research.

Voyner Ravena Canete

Dr. Voyner Cañete is an Anthropologist, Associate Professor at Federal University of Pará - UFPA/Brazil, resident at the Institute of Biological Sciences, working both at the Post-Graduation Program in Aquatic Ecology and Fishing and Post-Graduation Program in Sociology and Anthropology at UFPA. She graduated in History (1991), has a Master’s Degree in Anthropology (2000) and PhD in Sustainable Development in the Humid Tropics, at UFPA. She develops research and extension projects regarding especially environmental issues that involve traditional populations at the rural Amazon area. Between 1998 and 2005, she carried out research about Amazon peasantry and their ways of living, focusing kinship as strategy to access and use of natural resourses. Between 2006 and 2012, she extended her studies to regional sceneries that involved traditional riverine populations in the Amazon and their specific patterns of pluriactivity. Since 2010, she has been developing studies about fishing populations and their way of living, especially within coastal and estuarine environment.

She presently coordinates the research project “Empowerment, local ethos and natural resources: social cartography as strategy to action planning in RESEX’s saliferous marines in Pará”, funded by UFPA and aiming at traditional fishing populations within the Amazon north coast microregion. She develops research and extension activities in the Mocapajuba extractive reserve, in São Caetano de Odivelas, studying and nurturing the strengthening of the native population’s ethos. She works as a consultant in Anthropology for Amazon traditional populations, especially in the fields of natural resources, memory, reciprocity, sociability and kinship.

Frédérique Seyler

Frédérique Seyler is director of research at IRD (Institute of Research for Development) and Acting Director of UMR Espace-Dev, specializing in the study of interrelated dynamics of the environment and societies. She has a recognized experience on soil-water relationships in lateritic landscapes of Central Africa and the Amazon, studied from both remote sensing analysis (visible, near infrared and radar) and field data collection. Her areas of expertise are mainly the spatial variability of soils, spatial hydrology (using radar altimetry). She has coordinated several partnership programs in Africa and South America (Brazil and Colombia) and organized transfer of the methods developed, mainly in the field of remote sensing of water resources. Frédérique Seyler is vice-president of the International Commission for Remote Sensing of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS). She has co-edited two IAHS books: “Improving Integrated Surface and Groundwater Management and Vulnerable in a Changing World”, and “GRACE, Remote Sensing and Ground-based Multi-Scale Methods in Hydrology”.

Serge Morand

Dr. Serge Morand is an evolutionary ecologist, and his main researches focus on parasites and pathogens and their roles in conservation ecology, public and animal health. He is concerned at the role of biodiversity as risk and insurance for zoonotic emerging infectious diseases. He is conducting projects on the impacts of global changes, including climate change and land use land cover change, on the links between biodiversity and health in Southeast Asia, using wildlife-borne diseases as a model. Dr. Morand is adjunct Professor at Kasetsart University, Faculty of Veterinary Technology, and at Mahidol University, Faculty of Tropical Medicine (Thailand) where he teaches disease ecology. He is the author and co-author of more than 450 articles and chapters, and author and co-editor of 13 books on these domains, with the last ones in 2017:

·    by Routledge EarthScan, “Biodiversity Conservation in Southeast Asia: Challenges in a Changing Environment London” (Morand, S., Lajaunie, C., Satrawaha, R., Eds.), a book that provides theoretical overviews and challenges for applied research in living resource management, conservation ecology, health ecology and conservation planning in Southeast Asia.

·      by Elsevier, “Biodiversity and Health Linking Life, Ecosystems and Societies” (Morand, S., Lajaunie, C., Authors), a book that fills the gap between the ecology of health and the concepts supported by international organizations, such as EcoHealth and One Health and demonstrates how ecological sciences, environmental sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences may contribute to improve human health through conserving biodiversity and the services it provides to societies.