Incentives, tradeoffs and political priorities in the integration and segregation of social-ecological system’s governance

This exploratory presentation starts out with characterizing the challenge of social-ecological systemsgovernance from an institutionalist perspective. It specifically discusses the relation between characteristics of social-ecological transactions and their governance. It argues that an evaluation of matching between characteristics of transactions and governance promises a valuable research program. The problem is conceptualized through the lens of Integrative and Segregative Institutions, which provide for differential incentives concerning the integration of intertemporal, multi-scalar and cross-sectoral interdependence of actors into decision-making. This reasoning is subsequently transposed to the realm of transactions between sectoral public regulators and private service providers (e.g. water management administration and water users). The aim is to evaluate different configurations of governance in regard to their integrativeness and segregativeness. It is argued that either depends also on the scalar organization of public governance.

In order to carry out such an assessment a framework will be outlined to guide reasoning about what would cost effective scalar organization of natural resource governance. Specifically, it will consider the way characteristics of social-ecological transactions are related to setting up natural resource governance. It turns out that iterative consideration of transaction specific spatial boundaries and cross-transaction aggregation of transactions of great similarities concerning both the social and ecological systems involved should guide cost-effective natural resource governance, in which the scalar organization of governance takes centre stage. The role of boundaries of media will be discussed in relation to near decomposability and hierarchical interdependence and their implications for Integrative and Segregative Institutions. In addition, we argue that for guiding processes of scalar reorganization of natural resource governance political and historic aspects adopt a significant role in prioritizing specific sets of transactions (e.g. provision of ecosystem qualities or water for agriculture) in the way natural resource governance is set up. It is argued that the scalar organization of natural resource governance requires political prioritization of specific social-ecological transactions, as no ideal governance is possible in the face of the complexities encountered and the predominant role of the social construction of management challenges and ever changing knowledge status. This process of setting political priorities therefore needs to be understood as a vital component of the re-structuring of social ecological system governance.

If time allows, the process of reorganizing the scalar configuration of governance is then selectively illustrated for the re-configuration of natural resource governance in the water and marine sectors in Europe (Spain, Germany and Portugal). The reconfiguration of the landscape of water and marine governance in the respective countries is evaluated against the background of Integrative and Segregative Institutions and the respective characteristics of social-ecological transactions and their scalar reorganization. We argue that changes in marine governance, to integrate across marine waters, reflect enhanced political and administrative drive to consider the ecosystem quality of marine waters and require cross-territorial coordination structures. In Portugal and Germany, reconfiguration of water governance according to basin boundaries similarly represents shifts in the kind of ecosystem services that governance prioritizes while in Spain Integrated, cross-medium management is prioritized and reflected in the reorganization of governance. The scalar reorganization of governance therefore integrates decision making on one scale while segregating it on another.