Building upon Traditional Knowledge to Enhance Resilience of Soils in Sub-Saharan Africa - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 123

discourse on resilience now includes consideration of the interactions of humans and
ecosystems via socioecological systems and the need for a shift from the maximum
sustainable yield paradigm to environmental management, which aims to build eco-
logical resilience through “resilience analysis, adaptive resource management, and
adaptive governance” (Hughes et al. 2005).

5.3.4 a t the s oIl s cale
Soil resilience refers to a process by which a soil subjected to an external force resists
the change imposed in order to maintain its healthy state and functions (Seybold
et al. 1999). Soil resilience should first be looked at as a subset of a notion of environ-
mental resilience along with social and ecosystem resilience. In doing so, the holis-
tic perspective of TK becomes relevant in informing sustainable soil management.
External forces constitute the pressure imposed on the soil in terms of biosphere
(direct human impacts included), and climate constitutes environmental change—
the rate of this change compared to other changes over pedological time constitutes
a shock.

5.4 RESILIENCE MODEL
Risk factors are related to poor or negative outcomes. Resilience is a two-dimensional
construct concerning the exposure of adversity and the positive adjustment outcomes
of that hazard (e.g., degradative forces, extreme climate events); this two-dimensional
construct implies two dimensions: one about an “adaptive capacity” and the other
about the significance of risk (or vulnerability):

Risk Capacity()
Hazard(

∗ C

Vulnerability()= V

H )

This synthesis has drawn on the growing literature on vulnerability and resilience
to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the interrelated effects of natu-
ral disasters and how capacity can be improved to mitigate these effects ( Figure 5.3 ).

5.4.1 m anagIng For r esIlIence
Resilience is usually defined as the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance with-
out shifting to an alternative state and losing function and services (Folke 2006).
Resilience describes systems that are expected to adapt successfully even though
they experience risk factors that “place burdens” against them experiencing good
development. The resilience of a soil is limited by the rate and extent of change
imposed compared with the time that soil requires to recover (Seybold et al. 1999).
The concept of managing for resilience aims to alleviate local stressors in an effort
to increase system resilience to degradative forces and climate change (Carilli 2009).
Such a management philosophy is premised on the belief that eliminating local
drivers of ecological change will increase the ability of the system to resist future