Communication, trust and leadership in co-managing biodiversity: A network analysis to understand social drivers shaping a common narrative.

Environmental co-management has been advocated and applied in diverse contexts as an integrative and inclusive approach to make biodiversity conservation more effective and contextual. Co-management however requires the actors involved to overcome tacit boundaries and reconcile different viewpoints to reach a shared understanding on the environmental problem and envisioned solution(s). We depart from the assumption that a common narrative can serve as a base for a shared understanding and analyze what types of actor relations in co-management influence the emergence of a common narrative.

Sustainability transformations: socio-political shocks as opportunities for governance transitions.

Faced with accelerating environmental challenges, research on social-ecological systems is increasingly focused on the need for transformative change towards sustainable stewardship of natural resources. This paper analyses the potential of rapid, large-scale socio-political change as a window of opportunity for transformative change of natural resources governance. We hypothesize that shocks at higher levels of social organization may open up opportunities for transformation of social-ecological systems into new pathways of development.

Making framing of uncertainty in water management practice explicit by using a participant-structured approach.

By now, the need for addressing uncertainty in the management of water resources is widely recognized, yet there is little expertise and experience how to effectively deal with uncertainty in practice. Uncertainties in water management practice so far are mostly dealt with intuitively or based on experience. That way decisions can be quickly taken but analytic processes of deliberate reasoning are bypassed.

Diversity in current ecological thinking: implications for environmental management.

Current ecological thinking emphasizes that systems are complex, dynamic, and unpredictable across space and time. What is the diversity in interpretation of these ideas among today's ecologists, and what does this mean for environmental management? This study used a Policy Delphi survey of ecologists to explore their perspectives on a number of current topics in ecology. The results showed general concurrence with nonequilibrium views.