Adaptive Co-management Research Articles

Local Planning Practice towards Resilience: Insights from the Adaptive Co-Management and Design of a Mediterranean Wetland

Although widely, as well as recently explored, the concept of urban resilience still poses important issues in terms of its operationalization. For this reason, best practices that show how the resilience concept has been turned into planning practice are much needed. This article presents and discusses the case study of the Charca de Suárez Nature Concerted Reserve, an urban wetland situated along the Andalusian coast (Spain), to contribute to filling the gap on the operationalization of urban resilience at the local planning level. In the Charca, an adaptive co-management and design approach has been successfully put into practice to foster local urban resilience. Starting from some recent key studies on planning and management policies for urban resilience, we propose a framework to read, understand and evaluate the Charca experience, and more generally, resilience-based projects. The analysis highlighted the following crucial key aspects for urban resilience in the Charca case study: A collaborative governance model; and the building of community-capitals. The Charca de Suárez Nature Concerted Reserve can actually be acknowledged as an innovative planning practice, a source of inspiration for visions and experiments oriented to urban resilience.

Mapping legal authority for terrestrial conservation corridors along streams.

Wildlife corridors aim to promote species’ persistence by connecting habitat patches across fragmented landscapes. Their implementation is limited by patterns of land ownership and complicated by differences in the jurisdictional and regulatory authorities under which lands are managed. Terrestrial corridor conservation requires coordination across jurisdictions and sectors subject to site‐specific overlapping sources of legal authority. Mapping spatial patterns of legal authority concurrent with habitat condition can illustrate opportunities to build or leverage capacity for connectivity conservation. Streamside areas provide pragmatic opportunities to leverage existing policy mechanisms for riverine and terrestrial habitat connectivity across boundaries. Conservation planners and practitioners can make use of these opportunities by harmonizing actions for multiple conservation outcomes. We formulated an integrative, data‐driven method for mapping multiple sources of legal authority weighted by capacity for coordinating terrestrial habitat conservation along streams. We generated a map of capacity to coordinate streamside corridor protections across a wildlife habitat gap to demonstrate this approach. We combined values representing coordination capacity and naturalness to generate an integrated legal‐ecological resistance map for connectivity modeling. We then computed least‐cost corridors across the integrated map, masking the terrestrial landscape to focus on streamside areas. Streamside least‐cost corridors in the integrated, local‐scale model diverged (∼25 km) from national‐scale least‐cost corridors based on naturalness. Spatial categories comparing legal‐ and naturalness‐based resistance values by stream reach highlighted potential locations for building or leveraging existing capacity through spatial coordination of policy mechanisms or restoration actions. Agencies or nongovernmental organizations intending to restore or maintain habitat connectivity across fragmented landscapes can use this approach to inform spatial prioritization and build coordination capacity. Article impact statement: Combined mapping of legal authority and habitat condition reveals capacity to coordinate actions along streams for clean water and wildlife.

Selection of indicators as a tool for negotiating objectives and evaluating targets within participatory monitoring

Information that is generated through the inclusion of different knowledge sources as a process of intensive negotiation, and mutual learning, is essential for adaptive co-management. To determine if participatory monitoring is fostering social learning and contributing to adaptive co-management, we propose a process of selection and assessment of environmental learning objectives and indicators. We draw from a case study regarding natural resources participatory monitoring in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico. To guide the selection of indicators of advances in learning, we used the environmental citizenship framework. This framework considers the ecological knowledge and scientific tools acquired through the process, as well as the social, cultural and ethical capacities achieved that are useful for environmental management. The use of this framework helped orient the process towards attributes sought as important for community researchers, as well as to pay attention to the interactions between external actors and community researchers within the collaborative research effort. Most indicators selected corresponded to those related to natural resources management, yet indicators were also selected to measure progress regarding communication abilities among community members, their organization and critical attitudes. Differences in expectations between external actors and community researchers, have to do with distinct needs and realities, as well as with the recent history of the community. The adaptive process resulted in an important tool for helping all participants, manage different visions during the process, as well as obtain consensus on concepts and constantly redefining activities as need in the process.

Understanding patterns of information sourcing and motivations to collaborate among absentee landholders: A case study of the Central Tablelands, NSW

The population of absentee landholders, in rural areas of Australia and worldwide, has risen over recent decades, underpinning the need to better understand how to effectively engage this stakeholder group, especially from natural resource management (NRM) agencies. Prior research argues that these often difficult-to-reach rural actors play an important role in environmental management, biodiversity conservation and cross property collaborations. Therefore, this paper investigates the ways in which absentee landholders access information on land management practices, the extent of their engagement with government NRM agencies, and the potential for absentee landholders to engage in cross-property collaboration.Focusing on a case study in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, the results indicate that absentee landholders in the case study region access a range of government and personal sources for information, with Local Land Services (a regional NRM agency) and neighbours being the two most commonly used sources amongst survey respondents. Reasons behind the frequent use of Local Land Services include the awareness and trustworthiness that absentee landholders have of this source of information. As for collaborations, most absentee landholders expressed a preference for non-commercial collaborations related to conservation and amenity, as opposed to production-related or other commercial activities. Motivations to collaborate included knowledge-sharing and a collective effort to manage cross-property conservation issues. Hence, it is recommended that NRM agencies recognize the role they can play in adaptive co-management by providing information to absentee landholders, facilitating collaborations around knowledge-sharing and conservation, and continuously adapting their outreach to accommodate for the growing heterogeneity in values and interests.

How do biosphere stewards actively shape trajectories of social-ecological change?

The biosphere faces an uncertain future! Embracing change, uncertainty and complexity calls for creative transformative pathways. Biosphere stewardship provides a novel multi actor approach towards sustainability. Despite the critical role of individual environmental stewards, biosphere stewardship emphasizes the importance of collective action, and therefore governance. Biosphere stewardship denotes novel governance configurations with the capacity to effectively approach to sustainability transformation. In this paper we seek to advance understanding of how biosphere stewardship actively shapes trajectories of change to foster social-ecological resilience and human wellbeing. Considering the crucial role of governance and more specifically its two pillars of collaboration and learning, we conduct our study of biosphere stewardship through the lens of adaptive co-management. We first set out a framework for diagnosing and analyzing the process of biosphere stewardship. Secondly, we provide evidenced-based insights from applying the framework in four UNESCO biosphere reserves situated in Canada and Sweden to shed light on how active collective shaping of biosphere stewardship occurs and what it produces. In view of the lack of framework for environmental stewardship, we suggest that the present study makes a considerable contribution by providing an appropriate holistic and systemic framework with operational measures. The study also highlights how the comprehensive and consensual understanding of stewardship is proving to be a means of catalyzing biosphere stewardship by enabling effective crafting of policy design and strategic interventions. Moreover, the application of the framework to four case studies reveals the importance of the governance process attributes (collaboration and learning) in mediating outcomes from biosphere stewardship. Finally, the framework provides the basis to address new stewardship enquiries, which require further research in this field.

Wildfire risk science facilitates adaptation of fire-prone social-ecological systems to the new fire reality

Large and severe wildfires are an observable consequence of an increasingly arid American West. There is increasing consensus that human communities, land managers, and fire managers need to adapt and learn to live with wildfires. However, a myriad of human and ecological factors constrain adaptation, and existing science-based management strategies are not sufficient to address fire as both a problem and solution. To that end, we present a novel risk-science approach that aligns wildfire response decisions, mitigation opportunities, and land management objectives by consciously integrating social, ecological and fire management system needs. We use fire-prone landscapes of the US Pacific Northwest as our study area, and report on and describe how three complementary risk-based analytic tools—quantitative wildfire risk assessment, mapping of suppression difficulty, and atlases of potential control locations—can form the foundation for adaptive governance in fire management. Together, these tools integrate wildfire risk with fire management difficulties and opportunities, providing a more complete picture of the wildfire risk management challenge. Leveraging recent and ongoing experience integrating local experiential knowledge with these tools, we provide examples and discuss how these geospatial datasets create a risk-based planning structure that spans multiple spatial scales and uses. These uses include pre-planning strategic wildfire response, implementing safe wildfire response balancing risk with likelihood of success, and alignment of non-wildfire mitigation opportunities to support wildfire risk management more directly. We explicitly focus on multi-jurisdictional landscapes to demonstrate how these tools highlight the shared responsibility of wildfire risk mitigation. By integrating quantitative risk science, expert judgement and adaptive co-management, this process provides a much-needed pathway to transform fire-prone social ecological systems to be more responsive and adaptable to change and live with fire in an increasingly arid American West.

Adaptive co-management of urban forests: monitoring reforestation programs in Mexico City

Aiming to maintain or increase the indispensable socio-ecological benefits provided by urban forests, cities of the world have adequate urban forestry to take advantage of new technologies and political arrangements. Cooperation among different actors has become a trend to address urban forests’ most pressing management issues, such as reforestation monitoring and the creation of tree inventories. This management approach has been conceptualized as adaptive co-management (ACM) in European and North American cities. Intending to advance the academic efforts to understand ACM, this article presents a spatial and statistical analysis of the distribution of trees monitored in Mexico City. The analysis indicated that the number of urban trees monitored is very low and inequitably distributed in the city. The implementation of ACM for environmental management of the urban forest, using the participatory tool of Naturalista . The tool demonstrated to have much potential in the operationalization of inclusive reforestation programs, particularly in monitoring urban trees recently planted. The implementation of ACM and citizens' science programs are discussed and recommended as a promising urban environmental management approach.

Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Ecuador: Good Practices for Adaptive Co-Management

Abstract Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) requires social learning and linkages between actors and levels under Adaptive Co-Management (ACM), especially in landscapes with high biodiversity and vulnerability, such as the Tropical Andes. Methodology: A multicriteria methodology was designed and applied to identify, characterize, select and evaluate the ACM and the constraining and enabling conditions for its effectiveness in EbA actions implemented between 2011 and 2015. Results: 1. The integration of conservation, restoration and sustainable production, and linkage among institutions and sectors through local leadership, enable knowledge coproduction, social learning and innovation. 2. Governance and planning based on a landscape approach, and acknowledgment of the diversity of contexts, promote dialogue, cooperation and institutional innovation. 3. Economic alternatives in production, marketing and local markets, as well as complete and adequate technology transfers, stable and planned funding and monitoring, promote sustainability.

Hilsa fishery management in Bangladesh

Hilsa shad (Tenualosa ilisha), is a biologically, nutritionally, economically, socially and culturally important species in the Bay of Bengal and Persian Gulf regions, but Bangladesh enjoys the major share wherein it contributes about 517,000 tons/year. However, this important fishery declined in the late 1990’s that led the Government to formulate the Hilsa Fishery Management Action Plan (HFMAP) and started its implementation from 2005. Since then, hilsa production increased @5%/year till 2015. To improve the annual incremental production further, Department of Fisheries (DoF) and WorldFish have jointly been implementing “Enhanced Coastal Fisheries in Bangladesh (ECOFISH-Bangladesh)”, a USAID supported project (2014-2019). The project supports the DoF and local communities to establish a science-based “adaptive co-management” that focuses on the brood hilsa protection, juvenile conservation, illegal gears control, and overall ecosystem resilience involving all stakeholders. As a synergistic impact of all the initiatives taken and the proactive supports of the law enforcing agencies, the declined hilsa fishery from both inland and marine habitats revived @ 11% annual incremental total hilsa catch. The increased hilsa production and average size (from 510 g to 915 g) resulted in increased household income of fishers by 52%. The interventions additionally improved catfish abundance and other fish biodiversity.

Collaborative research to inform adaptive comanagement: a framework for the Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve

Winter, K. B., Y. M. Rii, F. A. W. L. Reppun, K. DeLaforgue Hintzen, R. A. Alegado, B. W. Bowen, L. L. Bremer, M. Coffman, J. L. Deenik, M. J. Donahue, K. A. Falinski, K. Frank, E. C. Franklin, N. Kurashima, N. Kekuewa Lincoln, E. M. P. Madin, M. A. McManus, C. E. Nelson, R. Okano, A. Olegario, P. Pascua, K. L. L. Oleson, M. R. Price, M. J. Rivera, K. S. Rodgers, T. Ticktin, C. L. Sabine, C. M. Smith, A. Hewett, R. Kaluhiwa, M. Cypher, B. Thomas, J.-A. Leong, K. Kekuewa, J. Tanimoto, K. Kukea-Shultz, A. Kawelo, K. Kotubetey, B. J. Neilson, T. S. Lee, and R. J. Toonen. 2020. Collaborative research to inform adaptive comanagement: a framework for the Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve. Ecology and Society 25(4):15. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11895-250415

Measuring community resilience against coastal hazards: Case study in Baron Beach, Gunungkidul Regency

The impacts of natural disaster occurred in coastal area have pushed environmental damage and threatened its sustainability as well as the existence of community livelihood. Accelerating risks from coastal hazards add the disadvantages for communities living in coastal areas, especially those who are very dependent on natural resources. The objectives of the research are the research is intended to measure the resilience of coastal community through collective resilience assessment and bottom-up approach in community level. Based on overall scores, mix-livelihood community is categorized as medium resilience with the score of (1.99), whereas fishery community (2.3) and tourism community (2.5) are categorized as high resilience score. The result of the participatory approach suggests that communities in Baron Beach are highly aware of the importance of the coastal environment especially within karst ecosystem. However, their awareness does not in line with their action of managing the sustainability of the ecosystem. Their livelihood practices still neglect the principle of environment conservation. Environmental conservation efforts and long-term disaster mitigation practice are still behind economic fulfillment of the livelihood. Therefore, community participation is a crucial requirement for implementing this approach. This research proposed co-management practice in form of Adaptive Co-Management that can be defined as a partnership approach where government and resource users share the responsibility and authority for the management of a fishery or area, based on collaboration between themselves and with other stakeholders.

System dynamics modeling as a circular process: The smart commons approach to impact management

This study argues that the mainstream approaches to system dynamics (SD) modeling processes lack effective impact-based performance management tools and, paradoxically, build upon a nonsystemic view of some social dynamics that are key to sustainability transformations. A causal loop diagram of the mainstream approaches to participatory SD modeling is developed to discuss the fragilities of the learning and decision-making systems that result from such approaches. The analysis suggests that when common resources are at stake, ad hoc organizational solutions are needed at the field level, in addition to the traditional facilitating action at the project/group level, for SD modeling to succeed. Then, to address the fragilities of the existing approaches to participatory SD modeling, this study integrates concepts and solutions from institutional theories, adaptive co-management, and the body of knowledge on the (new) commons. A second causal loop diagram is provided to show how this new proposed approach could restructure the processes that link SD modeling inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts due to a higher-level permanent organizational unit with specific roles and data management capabilities labeled “smart commons organization”. This study suggests that the proposed smart commons approach could enhance the contribution of SD modeling to sustainability transformations.

Out of the Ashes: Ecological Resilience to Extreme Wildfire, Prescribed Burns, and Indigenous Burning in Ecosystems

Until Euro-American colonization, Indigenous people used fire to modify eco-cultural systems, developing robust Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Since 1980, wildfire activity has increased due to fire-suppression and climate change. In 2017, in Waterton Lakes National Park, AB, the Kenow wildfire burned 19,303 ha, exhibiting extreme fire behavior. It affected forests and the Eskerine Complex, a native-grass prairie treated with prescribed burns since 2006 to reduce aspen (Populus tremuloides) encroachment linked to fire suppression and bison (Bison bison bison) extirpation. One-year post-fire, the Kenow wildfire caused vigorous aspen sprouting, altered stand structure to an early-seral state, and dominant land cover from grass to mineral soil. It did not change aspen-cover extent, or cause non-native grass eruption, but reduced native-grass diversity, and produced more pronounced shifts in ecosystem structure and biodiversity than the prescribed burns. The 2017 Kenow wildfire and prescribed burns differed in phenological timing, scale, and severity. Prescribed burns occurred in late spring, with little fuel available, while the Kenow wildfire occurred in late summer, with abundant fuel—amplifying the difference in severity. As in other climate-limited fire regimes, prescribed burns treatments did not mitigate the severity of the Kenow wildfire. To more effectively reduce the extent of aspen cover, future prescribed burns in this system could be applied in the late season. Incorporating TEK in adaptive co-management can help create more resilient ecosystems for fire and pervasive stressors such as invasive plants, provided one contextualizes current conditions and how they differ from historical conditions.

Social Learning in Multilevel Flood Risk Governance: Lessons from the Dutch Room for the River Program

Although social learning is a key element of multilevel flood risk governance, it is hardly studied. This paper addresses this knowledge gap. The paper aims to identify enabling conditions for social learning in multilevel flood risks governance arrangements. We first conceptualize social learning and draw up a conceptual framework consisting of enabling conditions for social learning, using the literature on adaptive co-management, sustainable land and water management, and integrated flood risk management. Next, we apply this framework to analyze social learning in the context of the Dutch Room for the River program. Our interview results reveal that social learning about integrated flood protection measures took place at multiple levels. We found that a strong personal commitment to learning and mutual interpersonal trust in working groups are key conditions for successful social learning. Based on our analysis, we conclude with some recommendations for enhancing social learning processes in future flood protection programs.

Adaptive co-management model for the East Kolkata wetlands: A sustainable solution to manage the rapid ecological transformation of a peri-urban landscape

Human-induced land use changes like agriculture and urban development occur commonly at the cost of natural wetlands, which require immediate attention and sustained efforts from urban planners and concerned governments. In view of the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), India, this paper has examined the trend, causes, extent and impacts of landscape transformation during the last few decades. Hence we aim to present a review of several studies in and around EKW and suggests a sustainable model for EKW. This ‘Ramsar site of International Importance’ is one of the world's largest wastewater-fed aquaculture systems where the city sewage is recycled for pisciculture and agriculture, and acts as flood resistance for the city of Kolkata. Rapid encroachment in the EKW due to unplanned development has caused various environmental, social and economic impacts. The key ecological impacts found in the study included loss of faunal and floral diversity, eco-toxicological impacts, etc. In terms of biodiversity loss, while the number of bird species in the EKW decreased from 248 in 1960s to 72 in 2005, about 59% fish species are near threats, vulnerable and endangered. Reported persistent organic pollutants (POPs) around the EKW region were found to pose deleterious impact on environment and ambient biota. Several studies have evidenced that the open burning of solid waste in the dumping ground of Dhapa is a potential source of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated dibenzo dioxin/furans (PCDD/Fs). Further the ecological transformation of the EKW focussing on policy development and regulatory compliance issues has been studied in this paper. The aspects of encroachment and wetland shrinkage triggered by economic drivers like urban sprawl have been analyzed. The paper presents adaptive co-management as the future roadmap for action to curb further degradation of the wetlands, and adopt an integrated approach of environmental, political, physical, economic and institutional aspects. It is envisaged that the adaptive co-management model will contribute to long-term sustainable sustenance of this precious ecosystem.

Evaluación participativa para la gobernanza adaptativa de sistemas Socio-Ecológicos

Within the field of adaptive governance, evaluation has been identified as a knowledge void requiring attention. Small-scale fisheries in Uruguay were used as case study as they are going through a governance transition; local multistakeholder councils have been formed to look for solutions to fishery-related problems in a collective manner. In one of these councils, we facilitated a participatory evaluation process with involvement of different stakeholder groups (fishers and government agencies). The objective was to investigate the potential of participatory evaluation for enhancing the two main pillars of adaptive co-management: collaboration and learning. Findings show that cooperation and communication among stakeholders were enhanced. Both the relationships between fishers and government agencies, and the connections among agencies, were improved. The evaluation workshops became a learning space and stakeholders improved their skills to participate and interact with different actors. Participatory evaluation is thus an important process for the maturity of adaptive co-management.

Adaptive Governance System through Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Natural Resource Conservation in Serangan Island, Denpasar City

This research aims to understand environmental partnerships that have built in Serangan Island, Denpasar, to understand the governance systems based on environmental partnerships in Serangan Island, Denpasar, and analyze adaptive capacity of those governance systems to changes in socioeconomic and environmental conditions in Serangan Island, Denpasar. This research is conducted in the settlements and tourism areas outside the BTID tourism area in Serangan Island, Denpasar, on December 2018 until Februari 2019, using qualitative approach is used through indepth interviews to sixteen informans, which have particular roles in natural resource conservation in Serangan Island, Denpasar, which include conservation and utilization of turtles, coral reefs, sea biota, and many types of governance and partnerships in Serangan Island. Result shows that the government and business partnerships were initiated from provision of tourism infrastructure which was developed into wider partnerships with NGOs and communities in the area of turtle conservation, while collaborative governance in the shape of community-based coastal resources management in Serangan Island. Meanwhile, adaptive co-management was developed through devolution of partial responsibility of turtle’s conservation and utilization to local communities through various deals and MoUs. Result also shows that adaptive capacity of Serangan Islanders has developed towards resilience to changes of environmental and socioeconomic conditions. Two recommendations are advised to natural resource managers in Serangan Island. Firstly, robust data collection and supervision systems needs to be developed for governance of turtles, coral reefs, and sea biota. Secondly, social learning through dialogue, reflexions, and evaluation needs to be implemented to reassess the outdated governance practices.

The namele mechanism: a methodological tool to assist climate adaptation

In the context of the escalating imperative of responding to the impacts of global warming, there is a need for enforcement and methodological mechanisms that bridge the gaps between legislation, principles, conventions, protocols and their ‘on-ground’ application. A new tool in environmental law for such a purpose is proposed in this paper, named the ‘namele mechanism’, and is developed to guide processes of adaptive co-management. This methodological mechanism has been built on platforms of traditional local knowledge and practices of first peoples and local communities, particularly those from Vanuatu and the South Pacific, where systems of traditional customary law are still being practised. Much thought underpinning its development was founded on the empirical data captured in 58 in-depth interviews with chiefs, community leaders, government representatives and legal scholars. The namele mechanism recognises the effectiveness of contemporary management practices that are informed by science and technology, as well as customary law and historic practices that may have been in situ for tens of thousands of years. The introduction of such a mechanism is supported by existing protocols and instruments such as the Nagoya Protocol and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The rationale behind its approach promises to strengthen and innovate optimal environmental management approaches that are bespoke for specific places and communities. Such a mechanism will assist with the delivery of Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goals 13, 14 and 15. Through a ‘bottom-up’ approach that focuses on the involvement of local communities in the protection of their local ecosystems, the namele mechanism will provide an important step towards the empowerment of first peoples and local communities as they adapt to changing environmental conditions imposed by global warming.

Exploring the prospects for adaptive governance in marine transboundary conservation in East Africa

This article explores the prospects for adaptive governance in a proposed marine transboundary conservation initiative in East Africa. Adaptive governance that involves interdependent state and non-state actors learning and taking action on joint environmental problems is suggested for effective transboundary resource governance. Using the concept of adaptive co-management, the current multi-stakeholder marine governance systems in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania are compared to illuminate opportunities and constraints for adaptive marine transboundary conservation governance between Kenya and Tanzania. The concept of networks and the formal method of social network analysis (SNA) are applied as the main methodological device. Using questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, social network data of 70 organizations (local resources users, government agencies and NGOs) was generated from Kenya (n = 33) and Tanzania (n = 37). Results show the existence of strong collaboration networks for marine resource governance in both Kenya and Tanzania. Social proximity is the common driver of network formation. Collaboration networks in Kenya and Tanzania have contributed to enhanced learning among marine resource managers. Conclusions point to the need to focus on common challenges relating to low levels of rule-compliance, limited access to information on the state of resources and poor integration of science into marine management decisions. Finally, differences in views regarding the state of marine ecosystems need to be addressed to improve prospects for joint problem-solving in marine transboundary conservation.

Is the Partnership Governance Able to Promote Endogenous Rural Development? A Preliminary Assessment Under the Adaptive Co-Management Approach

Abstract Ever increasingly more, all the actors directly or indirectly involved in the planning processes express the need to know the effects deriving from the implementation of rural development policy. In this direction, evaluation can make an important contribution, fostering the development of a ‘good policy’ as underlined by EU regulations. Among the specific evaluation questions developed by the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, one of them relates to the improvement of governance. Considering the Adaptive Co-Management (ACM) approach’s capacity as a proxy of the quality of network governance, the study aims to propose the ACM theoretical framework as a suitable model with which to study the social interactions between actors in the smallest unit of the LEADER process (i.e., the local action group’s (LAG’s) partnership governance). The proposed methodology is subsequently tested on a specific case study through the evaluation of the partnership governance of two case studies in the South of Italy. The empirical evidence supports the idea that ACM approach may represent a new model to assess the quality of the implementation process of the LEADER Programme. In addition, the ACM approach can lead to a new organizational and self-evaluation model of LAGs which places an emphasis on the importance of the relational process among its members.