Fikret Berkes, FRSC
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB)
February 10, 2017
Fikret Berkes is the former Director of the Natural Resources Institute, and two-term Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Community-based Resource Management. He has served as the President of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) and led several national and international projects. He completed his PhD at McGill University, and then taught at Brock University before joining the University of Manitoba in 1991. Dr. Berkes is a world leader in the area of interconnected human-environment systems (social-ecological systems). His research deals with commons theory, social-ecological resilience, and traditional-ecological knowledge.
In Canada, he has been involved in the Sustainable Canada Dialogues project, and was a member of the CCA’s Expert Panel on the State of Knowledge of Food Security in Northern Canada. Internationally, he has participated in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the UNDP Equator Initiative in conservation-development, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Dr. Berkes has some 250 peer-reviewed publications and over 48,000 Google Scholar citations. His 10 books include Coasts for People (Routledge 2015), Sacred Ecology (Routledge 2012), Navigating Social-Ecological Systems (Cambridge University Press, 2003); and Linking Social and Ecological Systems (Cambridge University Press, 1998). His recent honors and awards include the International Union for Conservation of Nature CEESP Inaugural Award for Meritorious Research (2016); the IASC Elinor Ostrom Award for Senior Scholar (2015); and the ESA Ecological Society of America Sustainability Science Award for the book, Sacred Ecology (2014).
Relevant to the Panel, Dr. Berkes brings expertise in three areas: (1) ecology (adaptive management, adaptive co-management, ecosystem services), (2) natural resources development (forestry, through the NCE Sustainable Forest Management Network, 2002 to 2009; mining, Monitoring Agency for Ekati diamond mine, 1998 to 2000; hydroelectric development, Baie James, 1975 to 1990), and (3) human geography (social, cultural and health impacts of development projects).
Role: Panel Member; Panel Member
Report: Aboriginal Food Security in Northern Canada: An Assessment of the State of Knowledge (March 2014); Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: Toward Integrated Natural Resource Management in Canada (April 2019)