Adaptive comanagement in developing world contexts: A systematic review of adaptive comanagement in Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia

Abstract

Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) province, Indonesia is beset by high vulnerability to climate change and weak adaptive capacity to address its effects. Livelihoods in the province are intimately tied to increasingly scarce and contested ecosystem goods and services. The population’s climate vulnerability is further exacerbated by social, economic, and cultural drivers of vulnerability, such as rapid population growth, pervasive corruption, and inadequate community participation in planning processes. Scholars and practitioners have begun conceptualizing and implementing adaptive comanagement (ACM) approaches in NTB. ACM is an environmental governance approach for complex, multi-scale social-ecological systems facing uncertainty and rapid system changes. ACM aims to forge vertical and horizontal links for shared learning between the various actors of multi-level resource management systems. The province’s markedly heterogeneous physical and social geographies present a unique opportunity to glean lessons applicable to a range of contexts including rural communities, island geographies, the Indonesian archipelago, the tropical Asia-Pacific region, and the developing world more broadly. This paper provides a systematic review of efforts to conceptualize, implement, and evaluate adaptive comanagement approaches in Nusa Tenggara Barat. In doing so, it characterizes the literature, discerns salient thematic components, and identifies areas for further research and action on the conceptualization and implementation of adaptive comanagement.