Managing a transition toward a more sustainable development path at a global scale is one of the great challenges facing humanity for the decades to come. Sustainable resource use refers to the use of environmental resources to produce goods and services in such a way that, over the long term, the natural resource base is not damaged, and that future human needs can be met. The time horizon of the concept covers several generations. Human-environment research is expected to contribute in a major way to this endeavour (Clark and Dickson, 2003). The scientific literature is rich on insights on the factors that have allowed societies or communities to innovate successfully to avoid a severe deterioration of their natural environments, but also on the causes of collapse of some ancient societies. The understanding of historical experiences can help to forge and test theories of human-environment interactions, which can then be used to guide future actions.