Understanding Policy Instruments as Rules of Interaction in Social-Ecological System Frameworks

Abstract

Government interventions to manage and improve trade-offs in social and ecological systems are made through various policy instruments. The conditions of the social ecological system (SES) are a function of the cumulatively implemented policy instruments. Although both policy instruments and social ecological system frameworks have played important roles in theoretical developments in resource management, they have largely been considered in isolation from each other. By including policy instruments into the SES framework, the proposed conceptual model serves as a template to examine how governing takes place by deciphering: 1) how the biophysical system has been understood in resource governance; 2) how the social system has been set up in resource governance; and 3) how the trade-off between dynamic biophysical and social systems has been managed in the governance of SESs. This model can assist identifying any absent, overlapping or contradictory policy instruments in the governance of an SES.