Carl Folke (born 1955), is a trans-disciplinary
environmental scientist
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...
and a member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...
.
He is a specialist in
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
, resilience, and social-ecological systems, viewing such systems as intertwined and potentially unexpected in their interactions. As a framework for resource management, this perspective brings important insights to environmental management, urban planning, and climate adaptation. He suggests ways to improve our ability to understand complex social-ecological interactions, deal with change, and build resilience, often working at smaller scales as a step towards addressing larger scales.
Folke is the Director of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...
.
He was the founding Science Director of the
Stockholm Resilience Centre
The Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), is a research centre on resilience and sustainability science at Stockholm University. It is a joint initiative between Stockholm University and the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swe ...
(2007-2023) and remains Chairman of the Board for the Centre.
Biography
Folke earned his Ph.D. in 1990 in
ecological economics/Natural Resource Management from the Department of Systems Ecology,
Stockholm University
Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, so ...
, Stockholm, Sweden
under the supervision of
AnnMari Jansson.
His Ph.D. work identified the
ecosystem service
Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. Th ...
s that the
Martebo
Martebo () is a populated area, a ''socken'' (not to be confused with parish), on the Swedish island of Gotland. It comprises the same area as the administrative Martebo District, established on 1January 2016.
Geography
Martebo is the name of t ...
mire provided for the island of
Gotland
Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...
before it was drained. Without the wetland's free naturally-powered resources, expensive fossil-fuel-based technological substitutes were needed for sewage treatment, pesticides and fertilizers, and water treatment.
Folke has continued his career in Stockholm, working for both Stockholm University and the Beijer Institute in a number of leadership role.
He served as deputy director of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1991-1996.
He became Chair of Natural Resource Management at the Department of Systems Ecology, Stockholm University in 1997,
serving until 2007.
He served as director of Stockholm University’s Center for Transdisciplinary Environmental Research (CTM) from 1999-2006.
In 2007, Folke became the Director of the Beijer Institute and the founding Science Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC),
formed in 2007
by the Beijer Institute at Stockholm University. In 2019, he became Chairman of the Board of the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
In 2023 he stepped down as science director, and was succeeded by
Beatrice Crona and Magnus Nyström. He continues to be Chairman of the Board of the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Folke was elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2002 and serves on its Environmental Research Committee.
He is among the founders of the
Resilience Alliance
The Resilience Alliance is an interdisciplinary network of scientists and practitioners that analyze the integrated dynamic of people and nature from a social-ecological system perspective. It was established in 1999 and is supported by an interna ...
. He was involved in the development of the
International Society for Ecological Economics
The International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) was founded in 1989, based heavily on the work of Herman Daly to promote ecological economics and assist ecological economists and related societies.
In 1996, the Right Livelihood ...
and contributed to
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is a major assessment of the human impact on the environment, called for by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000, launched in 2001 and published in 2005 with more than $14 million of gr ...
.
Folke served as Co-Editor in Chief of ''
Ecology and Society
''Ecology and Society'' (formerly ''Conservation Ecology'') is a quarterly open access interdisciplinary academic journal published by the Resilience Alliance. It covers an array of disciplines from the natural sciences, social sciences, and the h ...
'' (formerly ''Conservation Ecology'') from 2002-2019.
Awards
* 2017,
Gunnerus Sustainability Award,
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters ( da, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab, DKNVS) is a Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The s ...
* 2017, Member, Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (DKNVS)
* 2017, Member, Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA)
* 2017. International Member, U.S. National Academy of Sciences
* 2004, Sustainability Science Award, Ecological Society of America, co-author of the paper "Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems" in ''Nature'', 413:591-596.
* 2002, Member, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
* 1995, Pew Scholar Award in conservation and the environment
Publications (selection)
Folke has co-authored and edited 10 books and written over 200 scientific papers, over 15 of which have been published in ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
'' and ''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
''.
He has been among the top 1% of researchers by citations for
field and year as assessed by
Clarivate
Clarivate Plc is a British-American Public company, publicly traded analytics company that operates a collection of subscription business model, subscription-based services, in the areas of bibliometrics and scientometrics; business intelligence, ...
beginning in 2014.
Books
*Chapin, Kofinas, Folke (Eds.), ''Principles of Natural Resource Stewardship: Resilience-Based Management in a Changing World'', Springer 2009, .
*Berkes, Colding, Folke (Eds.), ''Navigating Social-Ecological Systems: Building Resilience for Complexity and Change''. Cambridge University Press 2003, .
*Berkes, Folke (Eds.), ''Linking Social and Ecological Systems: Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience''. Cambridge University Press 1998, .
*Andersson, Folke, Nyström, ''Trading with the Environment: Ecology, Economics, Institutions, and Policy'' Earthscan 1995, .
Important journal papers
*
*
*
Steffen et al., ''Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet''. In: ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
'' 347, No. 6223, (2015), .
*Folke et al., ''Reconnecting to the Biosphere''. In: ''
Ambio
''Ambio: A Journal of Environment and Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It was established in 1972. The editor-in-chief is Bo ...
'' 40, Issue 7, (2011), 719–738, .
*Steffen et al., ''The Anthropocene: From Global Change to Planetary Stewardship''. In: ''
Ambio
''Ambio: A Journal of Environment and Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It was established in 1972. The editor-in-chief is Bo ...
'' 40, Issue 7, (2011), 739–761, .
*Folke et al., ''Resilience Thinking: Integrating Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability''. In: ''
Ecology and Society
''Ecology and Society'' (formerly ''Conservation Ecology'') is a quarterly open access interdisciplinary academic journal published by the Resilience Alliance. It covers an array of disciplines from the natural sciences, social sciences, and the h ...
'' 15, Issue 4, (2010)
Link
*
Rockström et al., ''A safe operating space for humanity''. In: ''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'' 461, (2009), 472–475, .
*Liu et al., ''Complexity of Coupled Human and Natural Systems''. In: ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
'' 317, No. 5844, (2007), 1513–1516, .
*Worm et al., ''Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services''. In: ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
'' 314, No. 5800, (2006), 787-790, .
*Folke, ''Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for social–ecological systems analyses''. In: ''Global Environmental Change'' 16, Issue 3, (2006), 253–267, .
*Folke et al., ''Adaptive governance of social-ecological systems''. In: ''
Annual Review of Environment and Resources
The ''Annual Review of Environment and Resources'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes review articles about environmental science and environmental engineering. It was first published in 1976 under the name the ''Annual Review ...
'' 30, (2005), 441–473, .
*Hughes et al., ''Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs''. In: ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
'' 301, No. 5635, (2003), 929–933, .
*Folke et al., ''Resilience and Sustainable Development: Building Adaptive Capacity in a World of Transformations''. In: ''
Ambio
''Ambio: A Journal of Environment and Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It was established in 1972. The editor-in-chief is Bo ...
'' 31, Issue 5, (2002), 437–440, .
*Scheffer et al., ''Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems''. In: ''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'' 413, (2001), 591–596, .
*Arrow et al., ''Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment''. In: ''
Ecological Economics'' 15, Issue 2 (1995), 91–95, .
References
External links
Beijer Institute of Ecological EconomicsCVpublication list*
Interview with Carl Folke in Science Watch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Folke, Carl
Living people
1955 births
Swedish biologists
Systems ecologists
Ecological economists
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences