Abstract
In developed countries a social learning approach has been shown to support Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) by fostering stakeholders' understanding of system complexity, recognition of mutual dependence, appreciation of others' perspectives, and development of the capacity to work together and to create mutual trust. Much less is known about social learning's potential in less developed small island states, particularly postconflict island states, where integration must navigate prescriptive management, limited resources, widely differing world views, a history of adversarial relationships, and unsuccessful attempts at government-community collaboration. This paper analyzes the transformative aspects of a social learning experience that occurred during research facilitating participatory integrated catchment management in the Pacific. The study elicited community and expert knowledge to create systems understanding to generate and analyze complex scenarios for integrated catchment risk assessment in the Kongulai catchment, Solomon Islands. Separate sequenced and then combined discussions led to facilitated exploration of others' subjective assessment of catchment risks and management options. Issues of transparency, trust, accountability, and mutual responsibility were explored in carefully created discursive spaces, assisted by the immediacy of personal contact and the absence of complex bureaucratic structures. Despite historical difficulties, through the use of bridging individuals, participants were generally able to transcend the constraints of their individual knowledge cultures, expand awareness and appreciation of the complexity of human-environment systems for IWRM, and envisage new opportunities for productively working together in integrated catchment management.
Highlights
The Pacific Island nations are currently developing national Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) plans, identified in the 2002 Pacific Regional Action Plan on Sustainable Water Management (Pacific RAP) as a solution to managing and protecting water resources, improving governance arrangements and water supply and sanitation (SOPAC 2007)
Through the use of bridging individuals, participants were generally able to transcend the constraints of their individual knowledge cultures, expand awareness and appreciation of the complexity of human-environment systems for IWRM, and envisage new opportunities for productively working together in integrated catchment management
This paper reports on an evaluation of a participatory research process that was conducted to develop a catchment risk assessment to improve natural resource and water management in the Solomon Islands (Chan et al 2010)
Summary
The Pacific Island nations are currently developing national Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) plans, identified in the 2002 Pacific Regional Action Plan on Sustainable Water Management (Pacific RAP) as a solution to managing and protecting water resources, improving governance arrangements and water supply and sanitation (SOPAC 2007). IWRM, and its catchment-scaled variant, integrated catchment or watershed management, advocates a strategic and integrated approach to allocating water, subordinating the needs of individual sectors and user groups to the larger goals of the society and vital ecosystems. It focuses on establishing and improving the linkages between land and water management, competing sectors, government agencies, civil society, and the private sector (SOPAC 2007).
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