The Community-Driven Ecosystem Resilience and Equity Framework: A Novel Approach for Social Resilience in Ecosystem Services

Masoomeh Shemshad – Agnieszka Synowiec – Marcin Kopyra – Zsófia Benedek

Sustainability, Vol. 17. No. 8. Paper: 3452 (2025)

Abstract

Ecosystem service (ES) frameworks help to assess the benefits ecosystems provide to society, yet weak governance integration often limits their effectiveness. This review critically examines major ES frameworks’ governance gaps, introduces the Community-Driven Ecosystem Resilience and Equity framework (C-DERM), and identifies five key gaps. Thematic coding is applied to achieve research objectives. The analysis of ten ecosystem service models shows that when considering the five socio-ecological elements of ES based on C-DERM—including community engagement and participatory governance, integration of cultural values and local knowledge, dynamic adaptive feedback mechanisms, social equity and inclusion, and social resilience and long-term sustainability—only the IAD-SES model achieves a strong score (3) in community engagement, while SES and IAD-SES moderately (2) integrate cultural values and address resilience; however, most models exhibit weak (1) or absent (0) consideration of social equity and participatory governance, highlighting a critical gap in inclusivity and community-driven approaches within existing frameworks. Finally, C-DERM enhances the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) framework by embedding social considerations into ES assessments.

https://doi.org/10.3390/su17083452