Survival of commons? Institutions for robust forest social – ecological systems^☆

In recent decades, human activities have moved beyond the range of natural variability and are approaching critical tipping points that may lead to irreversible changes to the Earth’s systems. In particular, the diversity of actors and scales, and their power and interest in Earth system resources, increases natural – social interconnectivity and the vulnerability of these traditionally local resource systems to disturbances. Using a combination of design conditions and robustness analyses, we argue that institutional maturity and local knowledge of self-organised regimes are pre-conditions for the continuity of local forest socio-ecological systems as long-lasting institutions that survive global market disturbances. Vulnerability and robustness against external natural and social disturbances thus largely depend on institutional robustness, as well as socioecological dynamics.