Governance structures for ecosystem-based adaptation: Using policy-network analysis to identify key organizations for bridging information across scales and policy areas

Abstract

Abstract Ecosystem service degradation, exacerbated by climate change, requires flexible and effective communication within governance systems to foster actions that reverse current trends and can cope with changing conditions. Key organizations bridge information to a variety of actors across administrative scales and policy areas in complex governance networks concerned with ecosystem services. In this paper, we use quantitative analysis of information flows, perceived influence and competence within a multi-actors’ governance network to identify key information bridging organizations (BrO) for an example involving soil regulation services in a watershed in Costa Rica. Here, heavy soil erosion (due to intense cultivation on steep slopes, and increasing frequency of extreme precipitation events) affects both farmers (by loss of fertile topsoil) and hydroelectric generation (by rapid siltation of reservoirs downstream). To gauge the information-bridging capacities of organizations we use the network parameter betweenness centrality, and we created two new parameters to measure the extent of cross-scale and cross-policy area exchange of information of the organizations. The regional agricultural extension office is identified, among others, as a crucial BrO in keeping with other studies of agricultural systems. The results also show that network analysis provides an empirical basis for understanding information flows and influence in governance networks, in order to identify key organizations. In this manner, we can diagnose potential bottlenecks, when these organizations lack the resources to achieve their mandates and need support to strengthen their efforts in information provision and influence in governance for ecosystem services.