Cross-scale governance and ecosystem service delivery: A case narrative from the Olifants River in north-eastern South Africa

Biggs, Harry; Clifford-Holmes, Jai Kumar; Freitag, Stefanie; Venter, F.; Venter, J.

doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.03.008

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…governing at different scales should be promoted to support resilient CSES [52,55]. These should be designed to enable and promote cross-scale collaborative governance and co-constructed action [56,57]. Yet these kinds of collaborative platforms face significant organisational and financial difficulties [58], and much can still be learnt about how to design, implement and facilitate these complex processes.…”

Section: Principle 2: Encourage Polycentric and Participatory Governamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dynamic, messy and difficult to navigate, CSES require researchers and managers to proceed through adaptive approaches that recognize and work with the complexity [57,65] and seek out collaboration and learning. Collaboration in management and governance is necessary because of the difficulty of problems, the wide range of stakeholders, the large landscape-scale of initiatives, and the collective sense-making and responses required [53,58,66].…”

Section: Principle 4: Work In Collaborative Reflexive Adaptive and mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Navigating Multiple Tensions for Engaged Praxis in a Complex Social-Ecological System

Cockburn

Palmer

Biggs

et al. 2018

Land

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Innovative, pragmatic approaches are needed to support sustainable livelihoods and landscape management in complex social-ecological systems (CSES) such as river catchments. In the Tsitsa River Catchment, South Africa, researchers and natural resource managers have come together to apply such innovative approaches. Since CSES are characterised by uncertainty and surprise, understanding and managing them requires a commitment to reflexive praxis and transdisciplinarity. Accordingly, we facilitated a collective reflection and learning process in the project team to deepen our understanding of praxis in CSES. Our findings indicate that CSES thinking created an enabling framing. However, building new linkages among diverse actors to put CSES thinking into practice is challenging, since it requires the development of novel working relationships. Existing institutional structures, power dynamics, and ways of working impose significant constraints. A deeper critical realist analysis of our findings revealed a metaphor which explains why this work is challenging. In this metaphor, the Tsitsa Project team is navigating a bumpy terrain of dialectic tensions. These are tensions for example between natural science and social science, and between science and indigenous knowledge. Based on this metaphor, we suggest an expanding role for scientists and managers, and recommend transformative social learning processes to support teams navigating such bumpy terrains.

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Section: Principle 2: Encourage Polycentric and Participatory Governamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Principle 4: Work In Collaborative Reflexive Adaptive and mentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating Multiple Tensions for Engaged Praxis in a Complex Social-Ecological System

Cockburn

Palmer

Biggs

et al. 2018

Land

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“…), and agency scientists reconnected stakeholders across several boundaries to restore river flows in Kruger National Park (Biggs et al. ).…”

Section: Value Of Embedding Scientists Within Conservation Agenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They also maintain an influential role in colearning processes with key stakeholders, which promotes new understanding and behavior across social-ecological systems that transcend PA boundaries. For example, the U.S. National Park Service engaged in extensive interagency and science-policy-management-stakeholder collaborations to address air pollution originating outside park boundaries (Baron et al 2017), and agency scientists reconnected stakeholders across several boundaries to restore river flows in Kruger National Park (Biggs et al 2017).…”

Section: Benefits Of Embedded Scientists As Knowledge Brokersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The case for embedding researchers in conservation agencies

Roux

Cook

Carruthers

et al. 2019

Conservation Biology

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Although protected areas represent a pivotal response to escalating anthropogenic threats, they face many pressures, inside and outside their boundaries. Amid these challenges, effective conservation is guided by evidence‐based decision making supported by dynamic processes of learning and knowledge exchange. Although different models promote knowledge exchange, embedding research scientists within conservation agencies is best suited to supporting evidence‐based conservation. Based on available literature and our experiences on several continents, we considered the benefits, challenges, and opportunities associated with embedding research scientists within conservation agencies and the research required to better understand the effectiveness of the embedding model for evidence‐based conservation. Embedded researchers provide long‐term commitment to building social capital among academic and nonacademic stakeholders; act as skilled gatekeepers who increase 2‐way flow of knowledge between scientists and managers; attract, coordinate, and support management‐relevant external research projects; drive the design and maintenance of long‐term monitoring; and align their research with information needs. Notwithstanding the many benefits, research capacity of conservation agencies is declining worldwide. A significant challenge is that the values, structures, functions, and effectiveness of the embedding model of knowledge exchange remain poorly evaluated and documented. Also, embedded researchers have to balance their desire for creativity and flexibility with the standardization and quality control required by their public sector agencies; may be perceived as not credible because they are not truly independent of their agency; and have to couple scientific productivity with skills for transdisciplinary research, social facilitation, and stakeholder engagement. Systematic research on embedding and other models of knowledge exchange, across different world contexts, is required to better understand the benefits, costs, and institutional arrangements associated with different models.

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“…The prevention and timely addressing of water pollution issues in the Kruger park depends on the collaboration between the Kruger park and the Department of Water and Sanitation. Biggs et al (2017) showed that intensifying links across different scales of nature and water governance, trust building and shared vision were critical in responding to the drying-up of the Olifants river in 2005 and in the number of subsequent emergency cases affecting water quantity and quality in the Kruger park. Whenever water pollution levels exceed critical thresholds, the management of the Kruger Park contacts the Department of Water and Sanitation to investigate and address the reason for such pollution increases.…”

Section: Water Pollution In the Olifants River Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transboundary Water Resources for People and Nature: Challenges and Opportunities in the Olifants River Basin

et al. 2019

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This paper proposes that transboundary water governance needs to become an essential input to sustainable governance of protected natural reserves. The paper reviews the challenges and opportunities for such governance mechanisms, and identifies the factors behind successful practices. Successful transboundary governance of water and nature requires the reduction of associated transaction costs. Firstly, water diplomacy through joint research, data collection and monitoring, capacity building, dialogues for consensus building, promoting responsible leadership and providing advisory support can help in overcoming mistrust between stakeholders and create opportunities for cooperation. Secondly, power asymmetries may hinder transboundary water governance, therefore, there is a need to involve multi-scale links across stakeholders to counterbalance local power asymmetries and engage all stakeholders in consultations and negotiations. Thirdly, transboundary water governance is critically dependent on accurate and transparent data and analysis tools for informing policy decisions. Science-policy interactions for facilitating transboundary water governance were found to be most effective when the knowledge on joint water and nature governance is coproduced in a trans-disciplinary manner, in collaboration with wide-ranging informal networks of scientists, policy makers, and civil society. Finally, transboundary water governance organizations can serve as platforms for facilitating water diplomacy, building trust and cooperation, especially when they are granted the ability to enter into binding cooperative agreements regardless of external political pressures.

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Cross-scale governance and ecosystem service delivery: A case narrative from the Olifants River in north-eastern South Africa

Cited by 17 publications

References 22 publications

Navigating Multiple Tensions for Engaged Praxis in a Complex Social-Ecological System

Navigating Multiple Tensions for Engaged Praxis in a Complex Social-Ecological System

The case for embedding researchers in conservation agencies

Transboundary Water Resources for People and Nature: Challenges and Opportunities in the Olifants River Basin

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