Abstract
Recognition that there are often social and ecological components to problems that arise from management of shared resources has led to a dominant paradigm among academics that natural resource management should consider coupled social-ecological systems. For academic theory to have real-world impact it must be understood and acted upon by stakeholders at a local scale. However, it is unclear if stakeholders view their systems as coupled social-ecological systems. We interviewed key stakeholders in an inland recreational fishery to solicit their mental models of system dynamics in the context of Ostrom‘s Social-Ecological Systems Framework (SESF). We found that stakeholders in aggregate considered all components of the SESF (actors, resource systems, environmental settings, and governance systems) in their view of recreational fisheries. However, researchers viewed governance system and environmental setting components as less diverse than actor and resource system components, while anglers and managers viewed the actor component as more diverse than all other components. In addition, all stakeholders viewed governance system and environmental setting components as less influential than actor and resource system components. Given strong empirical evidence of positive relationships between the number and diversity of governance system attributes and successful fisheries outcomes, our results suggest that governance systems that prevent free riding, enforce rules through graduated sanctions, and address large scale problems at the local scale through nested institutions could improve social-ecological outcomes in inland recreational fisheries.
Highlights
A social-ecological approach to natural resource management has become the dominant paradigm among academics
We provide an overview of how all concepts present in Fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) were classified into the Systems Framework (SESF) using Hinkel et al.’s (2014) visual representation of the SESF with attribution and subsumption relationships (Figure 3)
There were 60 distinct concepts among the 15 maps (Figure 2A); this included both concepts and their attributes in Figure 3 but did not include the four SESF components themselves as these were never explicitly included in FCMs
Summary
A social-ecological approach to natural resource management has become the dominant paradigm among academics. Since the 1980’s a new form of natural resource management has emerged within academic circles, which focuses on understanding the many complex interactions among social and ecological systems (Kates et al 2001, Mace 2014). These interactions among system components produce dynamics, like feedbacks and thresholds, that can only be explained by considering coupled social-ecological systems (Costanza et al 1993). Considering institutional arrangements can help explain how “tragedy of the commons” type outcomes may be avoided in shared resource use (Berkes et al 1989, Dietz et al 2003)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
