Managing social–ecological systems under uncertainty: implementation in the real world

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Management decisions for natural resources are not made in a vacuum; the environmental and ecological conditions as well as the socioeconomic and political contexts affect goals, the choice of interventions, their feasibility, and which outcomes are obtained. Although uncertainty is recognized as a feature of natural resource management, little attention has been given to the uncertainty generated by institutional settings, historical contingency, and individual people's influence. These implementation uncertainties, related to the translation of policy into practice, make it difficult to predict the outcomes of management interventions within social-ecological systems. Using the conservation of species hunted for bushmeat in the Serengeti as a case study, we investigated the challenges and potential barriers to successful implementation of natural resource management policies. We used a mixed-methods approach, combining semistructured interviews with scenario building, social network, and institutional analysis exercises. Using a management strategy evaluation (MSE) conceptual framework, we obtained insights into the constraints and opportunities for fulfilling stakeholder aspirations for the social-ecological system, analyzed the multiple roles played by different institutions in the system, and described the interactions between different actor types. We found that the respondents had generally similar views about the current and future status of the Serengeti but disagreed about how to address issues of conservation concern and were more uncertain about the actual outcomes of management interventions. Improving conservation implementation (rather than research, monitoring, or status assessment) was perceived as the key priority to be addressed. Institutional barriers were perceived as an important challenge given that the decision-making and implementation processes were broadly distributed across a number of institutions. Conservation social networks were centered on very few individuals, suggesting their importance in bridging across conservation arenas but also potentially affecting the resilience of governance structures. Our study gives an improved understanding of the underlying causes of discrepancies between conservation plans and outcomes for this case study, as well as providing a novel framework for the analysis of implementation uncertainties more broadly. A next step would be to use this framework as a basis for collaboratively developed models that integrate research findings with specific management questions. By bringing tools and findings from social psychology, natural resource management, and bioeconomics together into a unified operational framework, researchers may be better able to understand the barriers to successful resource management and engage with stakeholders to overcome them.

Social networks and the resilience of rural communities in the Global South: a critical review and conceptual reflections

“…For the latter two factors, dense and centralized networks with strong bonding ties are shown to be effective in managing simple tasks (Rico García-Amado et al 2012), while fragmented networks are shown to limit communication and hence adaptive capacity (Cárcamo et al 2014, Mannetti et al 2015. Furthermore, for successful transformation toward sustainable governance, studies indicate the need for decentralized and heterogeneous networks that entail bridging ties between administrative and institutional scales of management (Gelcich et al 2010, Cohen et al 2012, Marín et al 2012, 2015 and, in particular, the need for brokers who facilitate collaboration between these scales (Stein et al 2011, Cárcamo et al 2014, Moeliono et al 2014, Nuno et al 2014, Pietri et al 2015. Studies elaborating on possible reasons for inertia in governance processes reveal homogeneity among centrally positioned opinion-leaders as a potential barrier to collective action (Crona and Bodin 2006, Bodin and Crona 2008, Ramirez-Sanchez and Pinkerton 2009, Moeliono et al 2014, Mannetti et al 2015.…”

“…The case studies deal with issues, ranging from climate policy (Moeliono et al 2014) to water and dryland management (Stein et al 2011, Sundstrom et al 2012, de Villiers et al 2014, Nuno et al 2014, Mannetti et al 2015 and coastal area management (Tompkins et al 2002, Crona and Bodin 2006, Bodin and Crona 2008, Ramirez-Sanchez and Pinkerton 2009, Gelcich et al 2010, Marín and Berkes 2010, Cohen et al 2012, Marín et al 2012, 2015, Cárcamo et al 2014, Pietri et al 2015.…”

“…Network narrative: Underlying most studies is the conception of networks as a "form of coordination," either focusing particularly on the communication and knowledge flows between resource users at the community level (Crona andBodin 2006, 2010), or with an emphasis on formal organizational networks (Gelcich et al 2010, Stein et al 2011, Cohen et al 2012, Cárcamo et al 2014, Moeliono et al 2014, Nuno et al 2014, Pietri et al 2015. Furthermore, several studies refer to social networks as a structural feature of "social capital."…”

“…A particular strength of this approach lies in linking social network patterns with particular resilience features Dale 2005, Janssen et al 2006). Against this background, studies provide instructions for strengthening the resilience of governance systems; they offer opportunities to identify cross-scale mismatches and barriers in governance processes (e.g., Crona and Bodin 2006, Stein et al 2011, Moeliono et al 2014, Nuno et al 2014, to recognize potential change agents (e.g., Crona and Bodin 2010, Cárcamo et al 2014, Moeliono et al 2014, to design more sustainable governance regimes (e.g., Gelcich et al 2010, Cohen et al 2012, Marín et al 2012, 2015, Pietri et al 2015. In doing so, they can draw on the elaborated toolkit of SNA, which is increasingly applied not only in the context of resource governance in the Global South but around Ecology and Society 22(1): 10 http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss1/art10/ the globe (Bodin and Prell 2011).…”

Accounting for the links between social and ecological systems for effective nature conservation

“…The SES framework was developed as a diagnostic approach designed to aid the identification of common drivers of sustainability outcomes in natural resource systems (McGinnis and Ostrom, 2014;Ostrom, 2009); the PPD framework was developed to guide integrated social and ecological research (Collins et al, 2010); and the MSE framework is a simulation approach used in fisheries for testing management options under a range of uncertainties (André and Greg, 2007). The extension of some of these frameworks to conservation is currently being investigated Bunnefeld et al, 2011;Milner-Gulland et al, 2010;Nuno et al, 2014).…”