Sustainable Business: System Thinking for Deforestation Solutions

This essay discusses deforestation as a complex, 'wicked' problem and explores the application of system thinking, particularly the Iceberg model, to develop sustainable solutions. It highlights the interconnectedness of environmental, social, and economic factors contributing to deforestation and emphasizes the need to address underlying mental models and values that perpetuate unsustainable practices. The essay argues that by understanding the deeper structures and beliefs driving deforestation, more effective and long-term solutions can be implemented, promoting forest sustainability and mitigating the adverse impacts of deforestation on the environment and society. The role of government and policy enforcement is also emphasized for achieving effective deforestation management.

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Sustainable Business Planning & Strategy
Sustainability is a term that refers to the capability of biological systems to have the
ability to endure and remain diverse and productive in the long run. The agenda for sustainable
development is the leading principle for the sustainability process. Sustainable development
involves various interrelated components that consist of politics, economy, culture and ecology
(Arnold and Wade, 2015). People are always in a quest to attain developmental sustainability but
in the process, we encounter several challenges in reality. The problems encountered, commonly
referred as wicked problems, cannot be fully defined and they do not have a final solution
(Clayton and Radcliffe, 2015). These problems are usually complex and are changing constantly
therefore if we attempt to solve an individual aspect of the problem a completely different aspect
arises and this makes it extremely difficult to find an optimal solution. We need to improve our
mental models and do things different from our conventional way of thinking for us to be able to
come up with solutions to sustainability encounters. That is why we need system thinking to help
us in developing the solutions. The inter-disciplinary framework used in visualizing the
interrelationships to see the various patterns of change instead of the static snapshots is referred
as system thinking. This essay discusses deforestation a wicked problem and system thinking to
address the issue to achieve sustainability.
Deforestation is one of the wicked problems and it displays all the characteristics of
wicked problems. Sustainable deforestation is not fully understood at the moment and maybe it
might be understood after a solution has been formulated. Deforestation is a problem that the
society has struggled to eradicate for so long and it requires collective initiatives (Arima et al,

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2014). There is no stopping rule to the deforestation menace in the society and the solutions we
have applied to this existing problem are neither right nor wrong. The other characteristic of
deforestation is that the problem is basically unique and novel in its own way and it requires
unique solutions. The factors and elements that affect sustainable deforestation uniquely affect
deforestation and will require a unique approach to be solved. Deforestation as a wicked
problem, it has no given alternative solutions. It requires system thinking to come up with
solutions to the deforestation problem to ensure sustainable development. The various system
thinking models can help us come up with solutions that will make us achieve sustainable
deforestation. Sustainable deforestation is a complex system that consists of interacting
components in the economy, ecology and the society (Monasterolo et al, 2016). Sustaining
deforestation will require us to think outside the box concerning all the factors that affect the
system. Some factors are environmental and to some extent, we do not have control over them
but we should at least employ system thinking to control the factors within our capability.
Deforestation problem relates to all the three pillars of our society. Forests play a very
critical role in ensuring the balance of nature and therefore deforestation has negative
environmental impacts. Trees are a source of medicine as well as the indigenous tree species are
an important natural resource that should be maintained and deforestation will lead to the
extinction of some tree species. The trees also form forests which a home to animal and bird
species and therefore deforestation threatens the existence of all these species. Global warming
which is a very serious environmental problem is contributed by the reduction of forest covers
hence the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is not absorbed leading to global warming. Solving
deforestation problem could reduce the global warming which has led to climate change causing
other problems such as food shortage and natural calamities (Haines, 2016). The deforestation

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challenge has social implications in the sense that there are cultural activities that usually take
place in the forests and also some tree are an important part of social and cultural activities. The
economic dimension of deforestation is cannot be ignored. The forests are a cableway skidding
are some of the economic activities that thrive in good forests not to forget timber production.
We need timber for construction, furniture and many other purposes however we should be
concerned about the deforestation threats.
There are various system thinking models that we learnt in class and they can be used to
come up with a solution that will help us achieve sustainable deforestation. I chose to handle this
challenge using the Iceberg model. This model considers the fact that only 10 % of an iceberg
floats above water while 90 % remain submerged in water and the ocean water acts on the
submerged part but the interaction affects the behavior of the floating 10 %. Deforestation
challenged can be viewed in the same context in that there are several hidden factors that have to
be looked into to come up with solutions to this challenge. This model encourages us to realize
that there might be several factors that cause the occurrence of a challenge or problem that are
hidden from the main events. We should therefore be open minded and comprehensively
consider all the direct and indirect factors that could possible cause the problem for us to come
up with the appropriate solution to the problem. This is why system thinking is important since it
is a tool that help us see both sides of a coin of the problem at hand.The model constitutes
several thinking models that have to be applied in approaching any challenge through system
thinking.
The event level of thinking is the first part of this model where we perceive the world. At
this level is where we recognize deforestation as a challenge that we need to solve. Here we
observe the signs and symptoms of deforestation such as the reduction in forest cover in our

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country. However, the model tells us that will should not think we can solve every problem at the
event level since there are several factors that have caused the event and we must look into the
for us to get an appropriate solution.
The pattern level follows the event level and at this stage we always notice patterns.
Observing the events we realize that similar events have been occurring for several times. We
might realize that continuous logging or drought has always led to a drastic loss of forest cover.
The next level that follows the pattern level is known as the structure level. At this level, we try
to find out what causes the patterns to occur and we end up the reason is some sought of a
structure. Professor John Gerber says that the structures that cause the pattern can be physical
things, organizations, policies or rituals. Organizations such as governments and corporations or
policies such as laws and regulations can be the reasons why certain patterns are occurring. The
continued logging could have been caused by poor policies regulating the harvesting of trees or
the government is not enforcing the logging laws put in place (Rist, et al, 2012). In one way or
other structures are highly contributing to the occurrence of the pattern.
The last level of this model is the mental model level. At this level, we move deeper into
problem analysis by analyzing the expectations, morals, attitudes, values and beliefs that make
the structures to function as they are. There are some beliefs or values that we learn from the
society without our conscious realizing that we have acquired them. In this case, we have to
evaluate what belief or value makes governments not to enforce the logging laws so as to prevent
deforestation (Banson et al, 2015). Corruption and poor implementation of logging laws in our
country is the major problem that is making the government not to implement the logging laws
strictly. This causes the deforestation and this will have an adverse impact on our society in the
economic, social and environmental dimensions. Through system thinking we can narrow down

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to the key moral values that will help the society members to stop engaging in corrupt activities
and this will help us solve this challenge on long term basis. The Iceberg model can be
summarized into react, anticipate, design and transform. First we react to the challenge and see
the symptoms of the problem in the society followed by figuring out routine occurrences that are
related to the event. Looking deep into the routine occurrences we can anticipate some events
that have been happening consecutively. Design part consists of the relationship between the
structures and the patterns and the underlying factors causing the patterns. The transform part is
where we recognize the belief, value or moral that highly contributes to the structure to behave
the way it does. Here is where we have to find a different way of thinking that will solve the
problem at hand.
Corruption is something that is very hard to fight and eliminate but is not in any way
implying that it cannot be eradicated. It requires very strong personal morals and social values to
be established to discourage the vice. Logging laws are already in place but the involved
companies don't follow them simply because the moral obligation to the society is ignored. The
government and the authorities entitled with the duty to ensure that the laws are followed strictly
are taking bribes from the lawbreakers (Molderez and Ceulemans, 2018). There is no punishment
for those participating in illegal logging and this is a big challenge. For us to get a solution to the
deforestation challenge, we need to put mechanisms in place to instill strong moral values among
people and educate them on the importance of upholding the law and especially those that
govern deforestation activities (Tegegne et al, 2016). The government as a structure has a critical
role to play in establishing and implementing logging laws.
In conclusion, system thinking is critical in developing solutions to sustainability
challenges. Sustainability challenges are very complex and undefined and they have various

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interrelated factors that contribute to their occurrence. For us to come up with solutions to
wicked challenges we have to apply the various system thinking models to comprehensively
analyze all the factors associated with the challenge. Deforestation is a challenge that is facing us
and in our quest to achieve sustainable deforestation we will have to face several problems
(Brandt, Nolte and Agrawal, 2016). Using the Iceberg model we can narrow down to the major
belief or value that is causing the structure to operate in a manner that does not promote
sustainability. Scrutinizing the values or morals we can come up with the key solution to
deforestation so as to achieve sustainability. Forest cover has so many social, environmental and
economic prominences, therefore, we should put an initiative to achieve deforestation
sustainability. System thinking is an important tool that enables us to think differently about
how to tackle challenges by carefully and systematically analyzing all the factors that contribute
to a sustainability challenge. Applying this tool in our day to day activities will help us come up
with solutions to various life challenges.
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