Abstract
We investigate linkages between stakeholders in resource management that occur at different spatial and institutional levels and identify the winners and losers in such interactions. So-called cross- scale interactions emerge because of the benefits to individual stakeholder groups in undertaking them or the high costs of not undertaking them. Hence there are uneven gains from cross-scale interactions that are themselves an integral part of social-ecological system governance. The political economy framework outlined here suggests that the determinants of the emergence of cross-scale interactions are the exercise of relative power between stakeholders and their costs of accessing and creating linkages. Cross-scale interactions by powerful stakeholders have the potential to undermine trust in resource management arrangements. If government regulators, for example, mobilize information and resources from cross-level interactions to reinforce their authority, this often disempowers other stakeholders such as resource users. Offsetting such impacts, some cross-scale interactions can be empowering for local level user groups in creating social and political capital. These issues are illustrated with observations on resource management in a marine protected area in Tobago in the Caribbean. The case study demonstrates that the structure of the cross-scale interplay, in terms of relative winners and losers, determines its contribution to the resilience of social-ecological systems.
Highlights
We address here the political economy of the evolution of cross scale linkages
The political economy framework outlined here suggests that the determinants of the emergence of cross-scale interactions are the exercise of relative power between stakeholders and their costs of accessing and creating linkages
We suggest that cross-scale linkages evolve and are maintained by the organizations and institutions involved in resource management to further their own interests
Summary
Cross-scale interactions come about only because it is in the interest of one or other of the stakeholders involved to develop and to maintain these linkages. Universal in natural resource management (Berkes 2002) Part of this trend towards multiple competing claims stems from processes of integration of localities, societies, and economies in multi-level governance and economic systems. Environmental services and functions are increasingly seen as public goods They have multiple beneficiaries and claims to them at national and global levels. Many ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration functions, the maintenance of the world's stock of genetic biological resources, and shared water resources are all portrayed as public goods with a value to global society (Dietz et al 2003). At the same time, offsetting linkages facilitate the empowerment of local user groups
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