Stakeholder dialogue as a communication and negotiation tool in scientific inquiry

A stakeholder dialogue aimed to facilitate the development and dissemination of the ATEAM European vulnerability assessment of global change impacts. This participative experiment constitutes a milestone in integrated ecological modelling. Participating ecosystem managers, sectoral representatives and policy advisers significantly influenced the research content and process. The usefulness of the projects’ outcomes for stakeholders and an evaluation of the dialogue are presented. Three challenges are highlighted. First, the increasing complexity and uncertainty of global change modelling and the multiplication of its results raise the question of how to best communicate modelling outcomes to society. Second, scientifically credible and socially relevant participative research implies the need for transparency in the research process, so that goals, underlying assumptions and methods of scientific inquiry may be adequately scrutinised and debated. Finally, stakeholder dialogues are valuable processes of negotiation, which may help to reconcile the differing needs of fundamental and applied global change sciences.Keywords: science-stakeholder dialogue, participative research, ecosystem modelling, global change, vulnerability assessmen

Introduction

Peer reviewe

La gobernanza participativa de áreas naturales protegidas. El caso de la Reserva de la Biosfera El Vizcaíno

A partir de los conceptos aceptación y gobernanza se analizan los grados y modalidades de aceptación del área natural protegida Reserva de la Biosfera El Vizcaíno por parte de los actores sociales involucrados en su ges- tión. Con base en 38 entrevistas a profundidad, realizadas en 2010, también se evalúan las consecuencias de dichas discrepancias para la gobernanza, con énfasis en las plataformas de participación que pretenden mitigar conflictos y promover la aceptación de la política ambiental en México. Se concluye que, aunque la gran mayoría de los actores acepte tanto su figura jurídica como las medidas aplicadas para implementar la normatividad ambiental, un grupo influyente de opositores limita considerablemente la eficacia de las plataformas de participación, establecidas durante la década pasada

Potential implications of sea-level rise for Great Britain

Large parts of the coasts of Great Britain (including England, Wales, and Scotland) already experience a number of problems, including sediment starvation and erosion, loss/degradation of coastal ecosystems, and significant exposure to coastal flooding. Sea-level rise and other potential climate change will exacerbate all of these issues. Coastal management is embracing sea-level rise and climate change as one of the long-term issues that must be addressed, while recent nonstatutory guidelines are encouraging decision makers and actors alike to promote integrated coastal-zone management. Hence, preparations for adaptation to sea-level rise are more advanced than in most European coastal countries. In England and Wales, it is recommended that new coastal defences consider an allowance for accelerated sea-level rise. Strategic shoreline management plans have also been prepared, which include proposals for managed retreat (termed managed realignment) in flood-prone areas with low levels of development, and allowing continued erosion of retreating cliffs. More strategic tools for coastal management are also being developed. Future needs include a better response to the uncertainties of climate change, better guidance on managing the interaction between river flooding and sea-level rise in coastal lowlands, regional analyses of changes in coastal ecosystem stocks, and flood management for London and the Thames River. Scotland requires more basic assessment to define the key issues and needs

Implications of sea-level rise for Europe's coasts: an introduction

This paper introduces the collection of papers on impacts of sea-level rise on a number of European countries, and presents some overarching conclusions

Peasant coffee in the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Mexico: A critical evaluation of sustainable intensification and market integration potential

Abstract Production of low-input, shaded coffee in the Los Tuxtlas UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (LTBR), Veracruz, Mexico, an economically marginalized but ecologically rich region, was strongly affected by the collapse in international prices and the reconfiguration of the Mexican coffee sector in the 1990s. This place-based study used qualitative methods to investigate local strategies to reactivate coffee cultivation and improve market integration. Ninety-five producers, processors and cooperative representatives were interviewed to: 1) characterize the different actors in the local coffee commodity chain; 2) explore how producers, organized or not, shape and are constrained by the local coffee sector, and 3) evaluate whether producers land use strategies may be compatible with conservation in the LTBR. We combine the Land Sparing and Sharing framework with the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve zonation system to conceptualize how coffee plantations can be spatially integrated in protected areas and facilitate synergies between local livelihoods and conservation. Our empirical study illustrates the complexity and dynamism of the LTBR coffee sector. It highlights the resourcefulness of producers in adapting their cultivation systems, but also the narrow maneuvering room farmers have to exploit textbook synergies between conservation and fair trade and / or certified organic markets. In principle, coffee cultivation can be expanded and intensified without affecting remaining primary forest (Land Sparing) and contribute to maintain a diverse landscape matrix in productive agroforestry systems (Land Sharing). However, few producers have the means required to successfully achieve profitable and long-term market integration. Future research on sustainable land use management in, and around, protected areas needs to explicitly address local, sectoral and market dynamics as drivers of land use at the local level. Although these dynamics may create windows of opportunity for the biggest and best-connected producers, they exacerbate asymmetries inside peasant farming communities and weaken producers cooperatives

Communicating climate change and biodiversity loss with local populations:exploring communicative utopias in eight transdisciplinary case studies

Climate change and biodiversity loss trigger policies targeting and impacting local communities worldwide. However, research and policy implementation often fail to sufficiently consider community responses and to involve them. We present the results of a collective self-assessment exercise for eight case studies of communications with regard to climate change or biodiversity loss between project teams and local communities. We develop eight indicators of good stakeholder communication, reflecting the scope of Verran’s (2002) concept of postcolonial moments as a communicative utopia. We demonstrate that applying our indicators can enhance communication and enable community responses. However, we discover a divergence between timing, complexity and (introspective) effort. Three cases qualify for postcolonial moments, but scrutinising power relations and genuine knowledge co-production remain rare. While we verify the potency of various instruments for deconstructing science, their sophistication cannot substitute trust building and epistemic/transdisciplinary awareness. Lastly, we consider that reforming inadequate funding policies helps improving the work in and with local communities