Abstract

Social-ecological resilience and sustainability have long been serious concerns in China. Along with the rapid economic development in the past three decades, environmental qualities of air, water and soil have been continuously deteriorating, health risks caused by pollution have recently reached to a point historically high, and social conflicts due to environmental problems occur everywhere and frequently. Traditional regulatory approaches are designed and implemented but are frequently ineffective. However, the recent development of societal approaches such as environmental stakeholder dialogues can be good complements to the conventional strategies for social-ecological resilience and sustainability in China, at least at the community level.