Introduction: the challenges of collaboration in environmental governance

Margerum, Richard D.; Robinson, Catherine J.

doi:10.4337/9781785360411.00008

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 64 publications

(98 reference statements)

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“…Despite the importance of a landscape-level approach to stewardship (Cockburn et al 2018), and wide recognition for consensus-based collaboration (Wondolleck and Yaffee 2000, Ansell and Gash 2007, Margerum and Robinson 2016b, this may not always be possible, particularly in landscapes characterized by contestation (Wollenberg et al 2005, Zachrisson andBeland Lindahl 2013). Plural, dispersed, and diverse patchworks of collaboration, based on localized shared needs and interests, may be more realistic than a blanket approach to collaboration across the whole landscape.…”

Section: Contested Landscapes Call For Patchwork Of Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Structural factors that influence collaboration include policy mechanisms and formal institutional arrangements, which can facilitate power sharing, negotiation, and conflict resolution (Armitage et al 2007b, Ostrom andCox 2010). Such formal institutions often focus on developing processes that lead stakeholders toward consensus on how natural resources should be managed (Ansell andGash 2007, Margerum andRobinson 2016b). Moreover, institutions in the form of formal agreements that provide incentives or contribute to costs of stewardship actions can also provide a sense of security for stewards expected to invest resources to change their farming practices (Church and Prokopy 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Collaborative stewardship in multifunctional landscapes: toward relational, pluralistic approaches

Cockburn¹,

Cundill²,

Shackleton³

et al. 2019

E&S

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Landscape stewardship offers a means to put social-ecological approaches to stewardship into practice. The growing interest in landscape stewardship has led to a focus on multistakeholder collaboration. Although there is a significant body of literature on collaborative management and governance of natural resources, the particular challenges posed by multifunctional landscapes, in which there are often contested interests, require closer attention. We present a case study from South Africa to investigate how collaborative stewardship can be fostered in contested multifunctional landscapes. We conducted this research through an engaged transdisciplinary research partnership in which we integrated social-ecological practitioner and academic knowledge to gain an indepth understanding of the challenges of fostering collaboration. We identified five overarching factors that influence collaboration: contextual, institutional, social-relational, individual, and political-historical. Collaborative stewardship approaches focused on the development of formal governance institutions appear to be most successful if enabling individual and social-relational conditions are in place. Our case study, characterized by high social diversity, inequity, and contestation, suggests that consensus-driven approaches to collaboration are unlikely to result in equitable and sustainable landscape stewardship in such contexts. We therefore suggest an approach that focuses on enhancing individual and social-relational enablers. Moreover, we propose a bottom-up patchwork approach to collaborative stewardship premised on the notion of pluralism. This would focus on building new interpersonal relationships and collaborative capacity through small collective actions. Taking a relational, pluralistic approach to fostering collaborative stewardship is particularly important in contested, socially heterogeneous landscapes. Drawing on our study and the literature, we propose guiding principles for implementing relational, pluralistic approaches to collaborative stewardship and suggest future research directions for supporting such approaches.

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Section: Contested Landscapes Call For Patchwork Of Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative stewardship in multifunctional landscapes: toward relational, pluralistic approaches

Cockburn¹,

Cundill²,

Shackleton³

et al. 2019

E&S

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“…Collaboration is usually a consensus-based approach to management or governance which involves a wide range of stakeholders in an on-going manner [70,85]. Collaborative initiatives involve local resource users in a collective process of actively and intentionally taking responsibility and care of natural resources with which they interact, to realise the ideals of stewardship in practice.…”

Section: Collaboration Is a Necessary Focus For Stewardship Research mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent literature on stewardship points to the diversity of values and ideologies which the concept carries for different actors and stakeholders, in different contexts [12,27,67]. Yet, existing literature on collaboration (Table 2) often emphasises consensus-building as a key process of collaboration [85], implying a reduction or 'flattening' of diversity as an outcome of collaborative deliberations. In multifunctional landscapes, with diverse stakeholders, a more pluralistic approach may be better suited [67,87].…”

Section: The Pathways Approach: a Theoretical Waymark To Deepen Reseamentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Place-Based Research to Support Social–Ecological Stewardship

2018

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Concerns about ecological degradation and social inequalities have prompted increasing calls for stewardship in the social-ecological systems and sustainability science literature. However, how can the ideals of stewardship be realised in practice? The links between the theory and practice of stewardship are under-developed, and research to support place-based stewardship practice is limited. We therefore bring together complementary perspectives to guide research on place-based stewardship practice in the context of multifunctional landscapes. We unpack and synthesise literature on stewardship, landscapes, and collaboration for natural resource management, and highlight the ways in which the pathways approach can deepen research on collaboration and stewardship practice. We propose landscapes as a suitable level of analysis and action for stewardship. Since all landscapes are multifunctional, we argue that collaboration among multiple stakeholders is a necessary focus of such research. Our analysis reveals that existing theory on collaboration could be deepened by further research into the agency of individual human actors, the complex social-relational dynamics among actors, and the situatedness of actors within the social-ecological context. These factors mediate collaborative processes, and a better understanding of them is needed to support place-based stewardship practice. To this end, the pathways approach offers a waymark to advance research on collaboration, particularly in the complex, contested social-ecological systems that tend to characterize multifunctional landscapes.

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“…Collaboration in environmental governance can be explained as an approach to management and governance involving a wide range of stakeholders. It comprises various strategies for empowering and integrating knowledge, activities, and perspectives of stakeholders to improve decision-making processes (Margerum and Robinson, 2016). Environmental governance processes include the "articulation of institutional mandates, negotiation of values, conflict resolution, law making, policy formation, diffusion of information, and application of policy" and this can be achieved through formal or informal co-management strategies (Bennett and Satterfield, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%