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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Clare Fitzsimmons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2022 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.To understand and address the failures of reef governance, it is critical to understand the perceptions of diverse policy makers and practitioners about the challenges they face in achieving their goals. Examining the discourse of policy makers and practitioners can reveal the extent to which these perceptions capture the full spectrum of potential governance challenges, including those related to management, institutional structures and processes, the values and principles underpinning governance, and the social and environmental context. We conducted semistructured interviews with 110 policy makers and practitioners across multiple sectors, scales, and contexts in Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis, Belize, and Honduras. We used thematic qualitative analysis informed by theories of interactive governance and governability to examine the challenges perceived by governance actors. Perceived governance challenges were broadly consistent across countries, but differed by sector (V = 0.819, F6,60 = 1.502, p = 0.01) and by level (community compared with national) (V = 0.194, F1,10 = 2.178, = 0.026). Management inputs and outputs, challenges relating to the socioeconomic context, issues of leadership and power, and stakeholder engagement were commonly cited challenges (>75%). Few respondents discussed challenges relating to the ecological context, governance processes, or the values and principles underpinning governance. We argue that examining perceptions can inform efforts to improve governance and assess the appropriateness of particular management tools under context-specific governance constraints. Furthermore, expanding the narratives of governance challenges to encompass the subtle values and images underpinning governance, and the scale of the challenges faced, can help identify a wider set of opportunities for change.
Author(s): Turner RA, Forster J, Fitzsimmons C, Mahon R
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Conservation Biology
Year: 2022
Volume: 36
Issue: 5
Print publication date: 01/10/2022
Online publication date: 16/05/2022
Acceptance date: 22/04/2022
Date deposited: 26/06/2023
ISSN (print): 0888-8892
ISSN (electronic): 1523-1739
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13933
DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13933
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