Operationalizing pathway diversity in a mosaic landscape

Abstract

Understanding and building resilience is critical to responding to the deepening polycrisis. Pathway diversity is a promising approach to resilience that combines individual and systems perspectives, but so far has only been applied to idealized cases. Here, we use a rich case study from the mosaic landscape of Västra Harg, Sweden, to test and advance pathway diversity. Mosaic landscapes can simultaneously produce food, support biodiversity, and provide space for recreation, but these benefits require multiple actors to collectively and individually respond to changing circumstances. Our results indicate that, although the mosaic landscape provides many options for actors, forestry strategies are generally more resilient than agricultural strategies due to higher risks of abandonment in agriculture. We also found that supporting a specific strategy may create lock-in and undermine livelihood resilience overall. The study contributes toward developing a practical method for assessing resilience that can inform governance of complex social-ecological systems.