Fikret Berkes (born 1945) is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba's Natural Resources Institute.^[1][2] Berkes studies community-based natural resources management in societies around the world.

Early life and education

Berkes was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1945. His parents are Niyazi Berkes and Mediha Esenel.^[3] He received his Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 1968.^[4] He obtained a Ph.D. in marine sciences from the same university in 1973.^[4][5]

Career

In 1974, rather than continuing on with a postdoctoral position in marine ecology, Berkes worked with an anthropologist, Harvey Feit, studying Cree people's fishing.^[6]

Berkes taught at Brock University, then became the Director of the NRI at the University of Manitoba in 1991.^[1][7]

Awards

In 2014, Berkes won the Sustainability Science Award of the Ecological Society of America for his third (2012) edition of Sacred Ecology.^[8]

He has also been awarded the International Union for Conservation of Nature CEESP Inaugural Award for Meritorious Research (2016) and the IASC Elinor Ostrom Award for Senior Scholar (2015).^[7]

Selected publications

• Berkes, F. (2017). Sacred Ecology (4th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315114644
• Berkes, F., Colding, J., & Folke, C. (Eds.). (2008). Navigating social-ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change. Cambridge University Press.
• Berkes, F., Colding, J., & Folke, C. (2000). Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecological applications, 10(5), 1251-1262.
• Berkes, F., Folke, C., & Colding, J. (Eds.). (2000). Linking social and ecological systems: management practices and social mechanisms for building resilience. Cambridge University Press.