Non-governmental organizations and multi-sited marine conservation science: A case study
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now major players in the realm of environmental conservation. Whilemany environmental NGOs started as national organizations focused around single-species protection, governmentaladvocacy, and preservation of wilderness, the largest now produce applied conservation science and work withnational and international stakeholders to develop conservation solutions that work in tandem with local aspirations.Marine managed areas (MMAs) are increasingly being used as a tool to manage anthropogenic stressors on marineresources and protect marine biodiversity. However, the science of MMA is far from complete. ConservationInternational (CI) is concluding a 5 year, $12.5 million dollar Marine Management Area Science (MMAS) initiative.There are 45 scientific projects recently completed, with four main “nodes” of research and conservation work:Panama, Fiji, Brazil, and Belize. Research projects have included MMA ecological monitoring, socioeconomicmonitoring, cultural roles monitoring, economic valuation studies, and others. MMAS has the goals of conductingmarine management area research, building local capacity, and using the results of the research to promote marineconservation policy outcomes at project sites.How science is translated into policy action is a major area of interest for science and technology scholars (Cash and Clark 2001; Haas 2004; Jasanoff et al. 2002). For science to move policy there must be work across “boundaries” (Jasanoff 1987). Boundaries are defined as the “socially constructed and negotiated borders between science and policy, between disciplines, across nations, and across multiple levels” (Cash et al. 2001). Working across the science-policy boundary requires boundary organizations (Guston 1999) with accountability to both sides of the boundary, among other attributes. (Guston 1999; Clark et al. 2002).This paper provides a unique case study illustrating how there are clear advantages to collaborative science. Throughthe MMAS initiative, CI built accountability into both sides of the science-policy boundary primarily throughhaving scientific projects fed through strong in-country partners and being folded into the work of ongoingconservation processes. This collaborative, boundary-spanning approach led to many advantages, including costsharing, increased local responsiveness and input, better local capacity building, and laying a foundation for futureconservation outcomes. As such, MMAS can provide strong lessons for other organizations planning to get involvedin multi-site conservation science. (PDF contains 3 pages)
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | conference_item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2010
|
| Subjects: | Conservation, Oceanography, Environment, TCS22, |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1834/21569 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|