• Energy Research

Tourism development has been promoted as an alternative livelihood to reduce the dependence of small island communities on declining marine resources. It is often central to emerging agendas around marine planning and the blue economy. However, relatively little is known about how communities perceive tourism development as an alternative and potentially sustainable livelihood in their area and its implications. This qualitative study tracks a governance system in transition and analyzes the factors perceived by stakeholders to be driving and hindering the adoption of tourism-based livelihoods on small islands in UNESCO’s Taka Bonerate Kepulauan Selayar Biosphere Reserve (Indonesia). The findings indicate that, despite a series of tourism-enhancing investments and initiatives and the positive attitudes of local communities towards it, tourism is not a direct route towards sustainability for small island communities. The benefits of tourism are perceived to be unequally distributed. The lack of education and skills limits participation in new job opportunities, and the incentives to continue destructive fishing inhibits livelihood transition to tourism. The article concludes that tourism cannot be assumed to generate simultaneous benefits for conservation and development without more equitable benefit sharing, the meeting of basic needs in communities, and addressing the drivers of unsustainable livelihoods.

Here we describe an interdisciplinary and multi-country initiative to develop rapid, participatory methods to assess the vulnerability of coastal communities and facilitate adaptation to climate change in data-poor regions. The methods were applied in Madagascar as a case study. The initiative centered on an exploratory research exercise in two communities in the south-west of Madagascar, a workshop held in Antananarivo in June 2016, combined with a component on communicating ocean science and climate change to stakeholders. It utilized innovative and rapid approaches to combine global and local skills and information on adaptation and resilience building, taking cognizance of national policies, and was based on the principles of a holistic, integrated and participatory approach. This paper summarizes the activities undertaken and assesses how effective they were in achieving the project goals, as well as presenting examples of the outputs obtained. The activities demonstrated the value of using existing high resolution global climate models for provision of information on future trends, and of including a traits-based ecological risk assessment as a standard component of vulnerability assessments. User-friendly qualitative modeling activities helped to consolidate holistic, integrated understanding of selected fisheries. The value of assessing the importance and resilience of supply chains and taking the local management measures and institutions into account were validated. The outcomes of the initiative reinforced the principle that the cumulative ecological and social impacts of individual stressors and drivers on marine-dependent communities must be addressed, including climate-change related stressors. Assessments of vulnerability and adaptation planning should be forward-looking and consider likely changes in the future. They must also be done with participation by local experts and stakeholders to ensure knowledge exchange, local capacity-building and ownership and that outputs are rooted in the local realities, are accepted as being legitimate, and reinforce and complement relevant legal frameworks and laws.

Les systèmes de gouvernance environnementale se développent en taille et en complexité à mesure qu'ils deviennent plus intégrés et basés sur les écosystèmes. Ce faisant, les transitions de gouvernance impliquent souvent plus d'acteurs et modifient sciemment ou inconsciemment l'autonomie des acteurs à prendre des décisions, et donc la capacité du système de gouvernance à s'auto-organiser. En d'autres termes, ces systèmes de gouvernance deviennent de plus en plus polycentriques, s'orientant vers une structure institutionnelle qui conférerait un certain nombre d'avantages aux systèmes socio-écologiques. Cet article s'ajoute à un nombre croissant de preuves sur la gouvernance environnementale polycentrique dans la pratique. Il ajoute des nuances aux représentations normatives et apolitiques des transitions de gouvernance en général, et des transitions vers des formes de gouvernance plus polycentriques en particulier. Nous analysons les relations entre les acteurs et le développement historique de quatre systèmes de gouvernance marine à grande échelle en Asie du Sud-Est pour comprendre comment le contexte, en particulier le pouvoir, façonne l'émergence et l'évolution de la gouvernance marine polycentrique dans la pratique. Nos données indiquent que les transitions vers une polycentricité accrue augmentent la diversité et l'autonomie des centres de décision, ce qui peut permettre plus d'innovation ou de flexibilité pour répondre à l'évolution des circonstances. Cependant, ces innovations ne sous-tendent pas toujours la durabilité et l'équité. Les mécanismes de coordination sont essentiels pour canaliser les dynamiques de pouvoir qui émergent entre divers acteurs vers la durabilité. Pourtant, dans ces nouveaux arrangements de gouvernance polycentrique ad hoc, de tels mécanismes sont restés naissants, inefficaces ou inactifs. Les coûts de transaction impliqués dans la coordination d'un système polycentrique semi-autonome sont apparemment difficiles à surmonter dans les contextes à revenu faible à intermédiaire et nécessitent un investissement dans les ressources et les mécanismes de responsabilisation. Los sistemas de gobernanza ambiental se están expandiendo en tamaño y complejidad a medida que se vuelven más integrados y basados en los ecosistemas. Al hacerlo, las transiciones de gobernanza a menudo involucran a más actores y, a sabiendas o no, alteran la autonomía de los actores para tomar decisiones y, por lo tanto, la capacidad del sistema de gobernanza para autoorganizarse. En otras palabras, estos sistemas de gobernanza se están volviendo cada vez más policéntricos, avanzando hacia una estructura institucional que, según se informa, confiere una serie de beneficios a los sistemas socioecológicos. Este artículo se suma a un creciente cuerpo de evidencia sobre la gobernanza ambiental policéntrica en la práctica. Añade matices a las representaciones normativas y apolíticas de las transiciones de gobernanza en general, y las transiciones hacia formas de gobernanza más policéntricas en particular. Analizamos las relaciones entre los actores y el desarrollo histórico de cuatro sistemas de gobernanza marina a gran escala en el sudeste asiático para comprender cómo el contexto, en particular el poder, da forma al surgimiento y la evolución de la gobernanza marina policéntrica en la práctica. Nuestros datos indican que las transiciones hacia una mayor policentricidad aumentan la diversidad y la autonomía de los centros de toma de decisiones, lo que puede permitir una mayor innovación o flexibilidad para responder a las circunstancias cambiantes. Sin embargo, estas innovaciones no siempre apuntalan la sostenibilidad y la equidad. Los mecanismos de coordinación son fundamentales para canalizar las dinámicas de poder que surgen entre los diversos actores hacia la sostenibilidad. Sin embargo, en estos acuerdos de gobernanza policéntricos emergentes y ad hoc, dichos mecanismos siguieron siendo incipientes, ineficaces o inactivos. Los costos de transacción involucrados en la coordinación de un sistema policéntrico semiautónomo son aparentemente difíciles de superar en contextos de ingresos bajos a medios y necesitan inversión en recursos y mecanismos de rendición de cuentas. Environmental governance systems are expanding in size and complexity as they become more integrated and ecosystem-based. In doing so, governance transitions often involve more actors and knowingly or unknowingly alter the autonomy of actors to make decisions, and thereby the ability of the governance system to self-organise. In other words, these governance systems are becoming increasingly polycentric, moving towards an institutional structure that is reported to confer a number of benefits to social-ecological systems. This article adds to a growing body of evidence on polycentric environmental governance in practice. It adds nuance to the normative and apolitical portrayals of governance transitions in general, and transitions towards more polycentric forms of governance in particular. We analyse the relations amongst actors and historical development of four large-scale marine governance systems in Southeast Asia to understand how context, particularly power, shapes the emergence and evolution of polycentric marine governance in practice. Our data indicate that transitions towards increased polycentricity do increase diversity and autonomy of decision-making centres, which can enable more innovation or flexibility to respond to changing circumstances. However, these innovations do not always underpin sustainability and equity. Coordination mechanisms are critical for channelling the power dynamics that emerge among diverse actors towards sustainability. Yet, in these emergent, ad hoc polycentric governance arrangements such mechanisms remained nascent, ineffective, or inactive. The transaction costs involved in co-ordinating a semi-autonomous polycentric system are seemingly difficult to overcome in low- to middle-income contexts and need investment in resources and accountability mechanisms. تتوسع أنظمة الحوكمة البيئية من حيث الحجم والتعقيد لأنها تصبح أكثر تكاملاً وقائمة على النظام الإيكولوجي. في القيام بذلك، غالبًا ما تنطوي عمليات انتقال الحوكمة على المزيد من الجهات الفاعلة وتغير عن قصد أو عن غير قصد استقلالية الجهات الفاعلة في اتخاذ القرارات، وبالتالي قدرة نظام الحوكمة على التنظيم الذاتي. بعبارة أخرى، أصبحت أنظمة الحوكمة هذه متعددة المراكز بشكل متزايد، وتتحرك نحو هيكل مؤسسي يقال إنه يمنح عددًا من الفوائد للنظم الاجتماعية البيئية. تضيف هذه المقالة إلى مجموعة متزايدة من الأدلة على الحوكمة البيئية متعددة المراكز في الممارسة العملية. ويضيف فارقًا بسيطًا إلى الصور المعيارية وغير السياسية لعمليات انتقال الحكم بشكل عام، وعمليات الانتقال نحو أشكال حوكمة أكثر تعددًا على وجه الخصوص. نحلل العلاقات بين الجهات الفاعلة والتطور التاريخي لأربعة أنظمة حوكمة بحرية واسعة النطاق في جنوب شرق آسيا لفهم كيف يشكل السياق، ولا سيما السلطة، ظهور وتطور الحوكمة البحرية متعددة المراكز في الممارسة العملية. تشير بياناتنا إلى أن التحولات نحو زيادة تعدد المراكز تزيد من التنوع والاستقلالية في مراكز صنع القرار، مما يمكن أن يتيح المزيد من الابتكار أو المرونة للاستجابة للظروف المتغيرة. ومع ذلك، فإن هذه الابتكارات لا تدعم دائمًا الاستدامة والإنصاف. تعد آليات التنسيق حاسمة لتوجيه ديناميكيات السلطة التي تظهر بين مختلف الجهات الفاعلة نحو الاستدامة. ومع ذلك، في هذه الترتيبات الناشئة والمخصصة للحوكمة متعددة المراكز، ظلت هذه الآليات وليدة أو غير فعالة أو غير نشطة. يبدو أنه من الصعب التغلب على تكاليف المعاملات التي ينطوي عليها تنسيق نظام متعدد المراكز شبه مستقل في السياقات ذات الدخل المنخفض إلى المتوسط وتحتاج إلى الاستثمار في الموارد وآليات المساءلة.

Securing well-being and building resilience in response to shocks are often viewed as key goals of sustainable development. Here, we present an overview of the latest published evidence, as well as the consensus of a diverse group of scientists and practitioners drawn from a structured analytical review and deliberative workshop process. We argue that resilience and well-being are related in complex ways, but in their applications in practice they are often assumed to be synergistic. Although theoretically compatible, evidence we present here shows that they may in fact work against each other. This has important implications for policy.

Interventions to address climate adaptation have been on the rise over the past decade. Intervention programmes aim to build the resilience of local communities to climate shocks, and ultimately their wellbeing by helping them to better prepare, adapt and recover. Resilience, similar to human wellbeing, is a multidimensional construct grounded in local realities and lived experiences. Yet current evaluation frameworks used in resilience programming rarely consider what resilience means in local contexts prior to implementation. This means policy designs risk failing to improve resilience of communities and creating unintended negative consequences for communities’ wellbeing. Better processes and indicators for assessing resilience are needed. This paper explores the interplay between local predictors of resilience and wellbeing to assess the validity of self-assessed indicators as part of frameworks to measure resilience. We draw from research on the Devolved Climate Finance (DCF) mechanism implemented between 2014 and 2018 in Tanzania. We find that different factors explain resilience when compared to wellbeing; while resilience is primarily influenced by relationships, wellbeing is correlated with livelihoods. This shows that incentives to improve resilience differ from those of wellbeing. Climate and development practitioners must adopt locally grounded framings for resilience and wellbeing to ensure interventions track appropriate indicators, towards positive outcomes.