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Exploring the alignment between the bottom-up and top-down objectives of a landscape-scale conservation initiative

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2021

Samantha Mc Culloch-Jones Open the ORCID record for Samantha Mc Culloch-Jones [Opens in a new window] ,
Peter Novellie ,
Dirk J Roux  and
Bianca Currie
Samantha Mc Culloch-Jones*
Affiliation:
Sustainability Research Unit, Nelson Mandela University, George 6530, South Africa
Peter Novellie
Affiliation:
Sustainability Research Unit, Nelson Mandela University, George 6530, South Africa
Dirk J Roux
Affiliation:
Sustainability Research Unit, Nelson Mandela University, George 6530, South Africa Scientific Services, South African National Parks, George 6530, South Africa
Bianca Currie
Affiliation:
Sustainability Research Unit, Nelson Mandela University, George 6530, South Africa
*
Author for correspondence: Samantha Mc Culloch-Jones, Email: samantha.mcculloch@mandela.ac.za
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Summary

Globally, there is a trend towards conserving biodiversity by promoting co-management with multiple stakeholders at landscape scales. Environmental policies emphasize stakeholder engagement in decision-making, yet landscape conservation is typically a bureaucratic–scientific endeavour. Building trusting relationships with stakeholders is key to negotiations that minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies. Incorporating shared stakeholder objectives improves co-management, as they act as incentives for participation and trust development. We explored the degree of alignment between the bottom-up stakeholder objectives and top-down management objectives of a landscape-scale conservation initiative on the West Coast of South Africa. We categorized stakeholders into six affiliations representing governmental, private and community organizations, and using a social-ecological inventory we identified ten shared objectives. Of these objectives, three were shared between all affiliations, namely biodiversity conservation, socioeconomic development and coordination of the landscape approach. The first two aligned with the top-down landscape management objectives and the latter did not. The importance of coordinating landscape approaches in multi-stakeholder landscape-scale initiatives is crucial to long-term success, and we recommend that it be formally included as a landscape management objective. Exploring the alignment between bottom-up and top-down objectives can highlight overlooked functions of co-management and can reduce the transaction costs of sustaining conservation efforts in the long term.

Keywords

biodiversity conservationco-managementlandscape coordinationshared stakeholder objectivessocial-ecological inventory
Type
Research Paper
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 255 - 263
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Foundation for Environmental Conservation

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