MarGov Project
_________________________________________________________________________________

Research Programme

Overview
Using complex adaptive system and social-ecological system concepts, the research will focus on understanding governance related to small-scale fisheries and coastal management in the eastern Caribbean. The development problem is that, for coastal resources in the eastern Caribbean as the social-ecological system under study, there is an urgent need to build the capacity and network connections for adaptation and resilience into present and planned marine resource governance.
An examination will be made of how present and planned marine and coastal resource governance initiatives can become more adaptive and resilient to the benefit of diverse stakeholders at various scales in the eastern Caribbean. This has potential lessons for the wider Caribbean and beyond. This project is the start of a major research programme on coastal and marine resource governance in the Caribbean that contributes towards sustainable development.

Research problem and questions
In the eastern Caribbean there is an urgent need to build capacity and network connections for adaptation and resilience into present and planned marine resource governance initiatives in order to facilitate their long-term success. This must take into account the various organisations and institutions of governance operating at different scales and levels. Conventional governance perspectives and approaches are inadequate. A new conceptual framework based on complex adaptive systems and social-ecological systems must be crafted and fitted to the eastern Caribbean situation through applied research. To encourage change based on new approaches suggested by this research there must be active dissemination and uptake of research outputs at levels ranging from policy-makers to the general public.

The problem gives rise to a variety of research questions. The questions posed below reflect the inter-disciplinary backgrounds and experience of the researchers and the stated interests of study area research partners. These general questions will be refined and reformulated in the research process.

First: Can a research framework for marine resource governance in the eastern Caribbean, using small-scale fisheries as the social-ecological system, be constructed from the current literature?

Second: At levels ranging from transboundary to local, what characteristics of networks determine resilience and adaptability of marine resource governance in the eastern Caribbean?

Third: At the national level, what kinds of interventions and governance structures are effective for enhancing adaptive capacity and enabling self-organisation that contributes to resilience?

Fourth: At the local level, what are the formal and informal processes and conditions for establishing and sustaining the adaptive co-management of small-scale fisheries?

The first question is somewhat hypothetical, but needs to be posed. Resilience and governance research worldwide has shown that context and situation specific circumstances need to be taken into account when constructing conceptual frameworks for application to a particular SES. Data are available from previous research on small-scale fisheries governance in the region, as are masses of grey literature that describe situations and interventions, but are not organised into case studies from any conceptual perspective. The principal investigators, with graduate student assistance, are constructing a research framework as the first order of business.

The second question focuses on cross-scale network analysis (organisational and social) applied to the concepts of resilience and adaptability in marine resource governance. The latter term being broader than fisheries governance acknowledges an integrated coastal management perspective is warranted. The results of this investigation will be a major output of the applied research programme. It can be undertaken by a PhD student with MPhil students conducting related work.

The third question, suitable for guiding an MPhil, is related to the second, but focuses on the national scale with emphasis on interventions and institutional arrangements that stem from policy and management decisions or inaction. The intention is to take a closer look at adaptive capacity and the notion of self-organisation which are prominently featured in the literature. The supra-national layers of governance will be sufficiently covered by the second question to provide direction and context for this analysis that is applied to how the fisheries are managed.

The fourth question, also suitable for guiding an MPhil, drills down to an even finer scale by examining local characteristics and focusing more on the fisheries sector specifically. Adaptive co-management was selected as the main theme here due to previous and ongoing regional and international research on the topic, coupled with the likelihood that some type of co-management will continue to be attempted in several fisheries in the eastern Caribbean. In particular it moves the research into community-based management where studies outside of the rather sparse Caribbean co-management literature can also be drawn upon.

Contributing to the success of the research programme will be a small grants facility for research partners and emphasis on communication with partner, participants and wider audiences.