Navigating transformations in governance of Chilean marine coastal resources

Abstract

Marine ecosystems are in decline. New transformational changes in governance are urgently required to cope with overfishing, pollution, global changes, and other drivers of degradation. Here we explore social, political, and ecological aspects of a transformation in governance of Chile's coastal marine resources, from 1980 to today. Critical elements in the initial preparatory phase of the transformation were (i) recognition of the depletion of resource stocks, (ii) scientific knowledge on the ecology and resilience of targeted species and their role in ecosystem dynamics, and (iii) demonstration-scale experimental trials, building on smaller-scale scientific experiments, which identified new management pathways. The trials improved cooperation among scientists and fishers, integrating knowledge and establishing trust. Political turbulence and resource stock collapse provided a window of opportunity that triggered the transformation, supported by new enabling legislation. Essential elements to navigate this transformation were the ability to network knowledge from the local level to influence the decision-making processes at the national level, and a preexisting social network of fishers that provided political leverage through a national confederation of artisanal fishing collectives. The resultant governance scheme includes a revolutionary national system of marine tenure that allocates user rights and responsibilities to fisher collectives. Although fine tuning is necessary to build resilience of this new regime, this transformation has improved the sustainability of the interconnected social-ecological system. Our analysis of how this transformation unfolded provides insights into how the Chilean system could be further developed and identifies generalized pathways for improved governance of marine resources around the world.artisanal fishing | ecosystem services | human dimensions | social-ecological systems | window of opportunity

The Historical Dynamics of Social–Ecological Traps

“…Possibilities for human intervention can possibly be improved when taking account of the opportunities and restraints of historical processes. It should, in other words, adapt to the temporal dynamics of the trap process, e.g., possibilities for agency and management are greater just before a critical juncture than later down in the sequence of a path-dependent process (Gelcich et al 2010).…”

Tipping Toward Sustainability: Emerging Pathways of Transformation

“…Skill, however, is also a key, including the capacity to anticipate when an opportunity or shock will occur. For example, Gelcich et al (2010) describe how a new governance approach for marine resources emerged in the late 1980's in Chile at a time of marine resource crisis and political turbulence. The resource crisis triggered a few collaboration initiatives between fishermen and scientists in informal networks to start solving problems together and experimenting with new ecosystem management approaches.…”

A Framework for Resilience-based Governance of Social-Ecological Systems

“…Although these approaches are increasingly called for within the academic literature and even within natural resource management agencies (e.g., Williams et al 2009), many systems of governance still lack the necessary flexibility to accommodate dynamic systems (Liu et al 2007, Ostrom 2009). In the U.S., ecosystem management has had limited success because of entrained institutional hierarchies, as well as the lack of favorable legislation (Gelcich et al 2010). This legal and institutional rigidity can limit the experimentation necessary for environmental governance in light of our current understanding of the dynamics of ecological and social systems (Garmestani et al 2009a).…”