Institutional Change, Sustainability and the Sea

Abstract

Currently, a substantial institutional change is under way for marine and coastal resources. Sustainability plays a major role therein. At the time of writing, roughly 2.3% of the marine and coastal territory has been declared a Marine Protected Area (MPA). The Convention of Biological Diversity set a target to protect 10% of the global marine environment by 2020. This move toward enclosure signifies a substantial shift away from mainly open access to at least de jure marine protected areas. What drives institutional change towards MPAs; and what role does sustainability play in this change in governance? In reflecting on these questions, the paper's aim is to begin a dialogue on how the social-ecological system (SES) analytical framework developed by Elinor Ostrom and her collaborators engages differentially with marine and coastal systems. How institutional change takes place depends on the characteristics of the resources considered and the drivers of change for the particular resource. In order to characterize the marine and coastal realm we use the social-ecological system (SES) framework of Elinor Ostrom. Douglas North's theory of institutional change is used to classify the change observed. The marine realm has ambiguous system boundaries and often high resource mobility. Uncertainties about system properties and change are much higher than for terrestrial OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2013, 5 5374 systems. Interdependencies among different ecosystems are high, necessitating multi-level governance. Institutional change in this sector occurs under strong institutional path dependencies and competing ideologies. All these features make it particularly relevant to think about institutional change, sustainability and the current process of MPA expansion.

Mangroves, fishers, and the struggle for adaptive comanagement: applying the social-ecological systems framework to a marine extractive reserve (RESEX) in Brazil

“…Further linking collective action and institutional change theories with MPA comanagement literature may provide a better understanding of these underlying social processes and how they can influence whether formal governance will work in practice (Schlüter et al 2013, Weber de Morais et al 2015. These processes are constantly fluctuating over time, thus comanagement requires persistent and regular efforts to maintain collective efforts.…”

Can institutional change theories contribute to the understanding of marine protected areas?

“…In addition, some features of coastal and marine areas, such as their physical characteristics and the way their resources are used, make change towards their sustainable use more challenging than in other environmental fields (Schlü ter et al, 2013). Thus, when MPAs are considered in the light of the design principles proposed by Ostrom (1990), it is clear that some ''conditions'' like clearly defined boundaries (not easy in the sea), rules adapted to local realities (not always the case due to imported conservation models), effective monitoring (deficient surveillance is the norm), and accessible conflict resolution mechanisms (less likely in top-down approaches) are often missing in MPAs, especially in developing countries where their governance is usually more fragile.…”

“…In view of this, the use of historical institutionalism in this paper calls attention, in a wider sense, to certain aspects of the political process within the established body of work on institutions and environmental governance. In a narrow sense, it adds to theory development of MPA governance by deploying institutional change theories to understand the challenges involved; something which is quite novel in this field (Jentoft and Mikalsen, 2014;Schlü ter et al, 2013).…”

Institutional Mapping Towards Developing a Framework for Sustainable Marine Spatial Planning

“…The sustainability is the most important element (Schlüter et al, 2013) especially to study the institutional legislative directions (Sozialwissenschaften, 2013) in the coastal and marine realm because it relates to provides a policy framework and baseline spatial data to guide the placement of marine developments (Chen and Tsai, 2015;Sala et al, 2015;Kelly et al, 2014 andGiardino et al, 2011).…”