How are managers responding to local and global ecological stressors? The case of Indonesian co-managed coral reefs in the Anthropocene

Abstract

I use the public policy scholarship on policy entrepreneurs to analyze how decision-makers are responding to local and global human-induced ecological stressors. Using a comparative case study in several communities in Bali, Indonesia that use co-management systems for reef conservation, I present mixed methods data from semi-structured interviews and surveys collected during fieldwork. My findings contribute to the interdisciplinary literature on coral reef management which has not leveraged the policy process literature despite its capacity for insights. I deploy a framework for effective policy entrepreneurs (Cairney 2018), defined as the agents for policy change who possess knowledge, power, dedication, and luck to be able to exploit opportune moments. This framework enables finely-grained analysis on who takes part in influential decision-making, and how responses to ecological stressors are enacted. I found that policy entrepreneurs in co-management systems include sub-national and national decision-makers, non-governmental organizations, and private sector actors. They enact policy innovations to respond to localized stressors such as illegal fishing, but are increasingly responding to stressors from climate change, namely bleaching events. I show that decision-makers implement policy innovations through the telling of persuasive stories, selection of feasible options, and use heightened attention to a problem as an opportune moment to implement their desired response (adaptation). These policy innovations include creating networks to mobilize resources, educational programs, and actual mitigation projects. I refine this framework for the context of tropical biodiversity conservation to include political history and the proximity of case communities to tourism hubs, both of which influence who policy entrepreneurs are, and how they enact responses.