Achieving sustainable use of the planet will require a new paradigm regarding the relationship between human society and the environment and a concomitant paradigm on the responsibility of those now living to provide a quality life for their descendants for an indefinite period of time. Both industrial ecology and natural capitalism provide useful guidelines and case histories on how these two ...

Debate about the substitutability of manufactured, natural, human and social capital is at the heart of sustainability theory. Sociology can contribute to this debate by examining the processes and mechanisms by which one form of capital is substituted for another. We examine the substitution among different forms of capitals at China’s Wolong Nature Reserve where the consumption of an importan...

We develop and apply a consistent and comprehensive theoretical framework for assessing whether economic growth is compatible with sustaining wellbeing over time. Our approach differs from earlier approaches by concentrating on wealth rather than income. Sustainability is demonstrated by showing that a properly defined comprehensive measure of wealth is maintained through time. Our wealth measu...

Two main problems can be identified in fisheries currently: overfishing and negative effects on ecosystems (including bycatch). Both result in a reduction in natural capital. In recent years a concept for a theory of sustainability was developed at our institute. Part of the work has been to develop a strategy in fisheries for creating sustainable use systems, which can be considered as "invest...

Negative developments on the capital markets at the beginning of the millennium along with the increase in natural catastrophes and terrorist attacks have substantially altered the risk situation of the insurance industry. Insurance companies have reacted to the altered prevailing conditions with a paradigm shift in corporate strategy developing from classical turnover orientation to valueand r...

Back in the early 1970s, Partha Dasgupta realized that the economic models of the time were neglecting an entire class of capital assets: natural resources. Over the course of his career, Dasgupta, an economist at the University of Cambridge and a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences, has worked to put “natural capital” on an equal footing with other capital assets, exploring h...

Ecotourism is a viable alternative for the development of regions and countries with a strong natural resource base. Sustainable development involves the compatibility of the growth in the number of tourists and the preservation of ecologically valuable natural resources. This paper focuses on the relationships between environmental degradation and physical capital in the management of natural ...

Increasingly, social capital, defined as shared norms, trust, and the horizontal and vertical social networks that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutually beneficial collective action, is seen as an important asset upon which people rely to manage natural resources and resolve conflicts. This paper uses empirical data from households and community surveys and case studies, to exami...

Researchers studying on adaptation and resilience of systems mainly seek to reduce the vulnerability of extremely complex social-ecological systems against potential changes. Since major portion of natural resources of Iran is interrelated with various users and social groups. Present study focused upon the necessity of studying structural characteristics of social capital of rangeland users in...