Opinion
Coevolutionary Governance of Antibiotic and Pesticide Resistance

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2020.01.011Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Human cultures coevolve with human environments through ecoevolutionary dynamics.

  • Increasing biocide resistance is a result of human–environment coevolution (HEC).

  • Coevolutionary governance (CG) is informed by and proactively shapes HEC.

  • Three CG priorities are identified with the aim of limiting biocide resistance.

Development of new biocides has dominated human responses to evolution of antibiotic and pesticide resistance. Increasing and uniform biocide use, the spread of resistance genes, and the lack of new classes of compounds indicate the importance of navigating toward more sustainable coevolutionary dynamics between human culture and species that evolve resistance. To inform this challenge, we introduce the concept of coevolutionary governance and propose three priorities for its implementation: (i) new norms and mental models for lowering use, (ii) diversifying practices to reduce directional selection, and (iii) investment in collective action institutions to govern connectivity. We highlight the availability of solutions that facilitate broader sustainable development, which for antibiotic resistance include improved sanitation and hygiene, strong health systems, and decreased meat consumption.

Keywords

resistance evolution
social-ecological systems
human–environment interactions
ecoevolutionary dynamics

Cited by (0)

Members of the Living with Resistance project: Peter Søgaard Jørgensen; Athena Aktipis, Arizona State University; Zachary Brown, North Carolina State University; Yves Carrière, University of Arizona; Sharon Downes, CSIRO Agriculture and Food; Robert R. Dunn, North Carolina State University; Graham Epstein, University of Waterloo; George Frisvold, University of Arizona; Yrjö Gröhn, Cornell University; Govind Tikaramsa Gujar, South Asia Biotechnology Centre, Ex-Indian Agricultural Research Institute; David Hawthorne, University of Maryland, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC); Dusan Jasovsky, Uppsala University, ReAct Europe; Eili Y. Klein, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine; Franziska Klein, Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere; Guillaume Lhermie, Cornell University; David Mota-Sanchez, Michigan State University; Celso Omoto, Universidade de São Paulo; H. Morgan Scott, Texas A&M University; Didier Wernli, University of Geneva; Scott P. Carroll, University of California, Davis, Department of Entomology and Nematology.

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Twitter: @PSJorgensen (P.S. Jørgensen).