Collaborative learning, organizational innovation, and adaptive co-management: The role of social networks in Kristianstad Wetlands, Sweden.

Abstract

The literature on ecosystem management and assessment is increasingly focusing on the social capacity to enhance ecosystem resilience and the services it sustains. Organizational flexibility and participatory approaches to learning in order to respond adequately to environmental change have been highlighted but not critically assessed. The aim of this article is to describe and analyze a response to declining ecosystem services by Kristianstad municipality in southern Sweden. The municipality launched the project Kristianstad Wetlands (Kristianstads Vattenrike, KV) in 1989 and set up a small, fle xible organization (EKV) to initiate and coordinate water -related ecosystem projects. This case has been chosen because it appears to be an example of successful collaboration for ecosystem and landscape management and illuminates many theoretical concerns of adaptive co-management and resilience of social-ecological system.

By being sensitive to the concerns within non-environmental sectors, EKV has identified winwin situations and gained broad support for ecosystem management among a diversity of actors in the region. Operating under existing legal framework, EKV has built a network of key individuals representing stakeholders and institutions at all levels of society. EKV appears to create arenas for exchanging information, preference formation, creating meaning, and solving conflicts among actors in relation to specific nature conservation issues arising in the area. It is a dynamic system where ad hoc projects and sub-networks are formed for each issue arising. These arenas also make it possible for different knowledge systems, such as local ecological knowledge and scientific knowledge, to be combined. We assess how collaborative learning has been employed to monitor, interpret and respond to signals of ecosystem change; scientists have been involved but not in charge of these adaptive comanagement processes. We conclude that trust building has been the crucial component of EKV’s strategy. Our results indicate that this strategy has increased the social capacity within the municipality to navigate the social-ecological system towards a desirable trajectory. The interplay between informal social networks and formalized local collaboration will be crucial for a successful implementation of the new EU Water Directive.