A system is said to be resilient if it can cope with ’shocks’, such as de-population and sudden market prices changes, and reorganise itself to essentially remain functionally the same. Evolution is possible because the system is resilient. The Avon River Basin is both a social and an ecological system—the two are inextricably linked. This system supports a whole range of ecosystem services, which in turn affect the system’s ability to provide these services. The use of resilience thinking in Natural Resource Management informs managers about what parts of the system are at risk of crossing a ‘Threshold of Potential Concern’ (TPC’s) from which it is difficult to return. Environmental problems are one outcome of this. Once crossed it can be difficult to ’pull’ the system back. Our regional examples of this are dryland salinity, river eutrophication and local species extinction. We need to keep the system away from crossing critical thresholds. Natural Resource Managers can assist this through prioritising (and funding, where possible) management.
interventions.
