Research Coordination Networks in Biological Sciences (RCN)

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0234186. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF)

Dahlem Desertification Paradigm (DDP)

The DDP focuses on the interrelationships between human socio-economic and biophysical factors that cause desertification. This is the core paradigm to emerge from the 2001 Dahlem Conference (click here for list of participants). The DDP draws upon a variety of sources. It embraces non-linear processes, resilience, vulnerability, traditional range ecology, human perceptions, hierarchy theory, economic analysis, and so on. As is the case for many paradigms, while the constituent ideas are generally not new, bringing them together reveals a new view of an ‘old problem,’ providing a new depth of insight about actions that will be required in the future. The DDP is composed of 9 assertions, which are briefly explained below.

Assertion 1. Desertification Always Involves Human and Environmental Drivers	Always include both socio-economic and biophysical variables in any monitoring or intervention scheme
Assertion 2. 'Slow' Variables are Critical Determinants of System Dynamics	Identify and manage for the small set of 'slow' variables that drive the 'fast' ecological goods and services that matter at any given scale
Assertion 3. Thresholds are Crucial, and May Change Over Time	Identify those variables at which there are significant increases in the costs of recovery if certain thresholds are surpassed; quantify these costs and seek ways to manage the thresholds to increase resilience
Assertion 4. The Costs of Intervention Rises Non-linearly with Increasing Degradation	Intervene early as possible in order to reduce the costs associated with increasing scales of intervention
Assertion 5. Desertification is a Regionally Emergent Property of Local Degradation	Take care to define precisely the spatial and temporal extent of any given measure of local degradation
Assertion 6. Coupled Human-Environment Systems Change over Time	Understand and manage the circumstances in which the human and environmental sub-systems become 'de-coupled'
Assertion 7. The Development of Appropriate Local Environmental Knowledge (LEK) must be Accelerated	Create better partnerships between LEK development and conventional scientific research, employing good experimental design, effective adaptive feedback and monitoring
Assertion 8. Systems are Hierarchical	Recognize and manage the fact that changes at one level affect others; create flexible but linked institutions across the hierarchical levels, and ensure processes are managed through scale-matched institutions
Assertion 9. A Limited Suite of Processes and Variables at Any Scale Makes the Problem Tractable	Analyze the types of land degradation syndromes at different scales. Only a limited number of biophysical and socio-economic processes and variables are necessary at any given scale to capture the mechanisms of change.