Ecosystems and Social Conflict: Lessons from the Florida Everglades

The relationship between social conflict and ecological processes has received relatively little attention in the economics literature. Yet recent public concern has focused on the variability of ecosystems over time and how societies adapt to environmental change. We present a heuristic framework based on Kaufmann’s statistical theory of order within complex systems to consider the interplay between ecosystems and social institutions in “ecological-economic organizations. ” We use this framework to evaluate social conflicts over water and ecosystem management during the past century in the South Florida/Everglades region. The analysis indicates a social adaptation process leading to centralized management and a transformation of the essential attributes of the ecosystem. It remains to be determined whether new initiatives to restore the ecosystem can succeed without causing more social conflict.