TY - JOUR

T1 - Bringing transparency into the process: Social network analysis as a tool to support the participatory design and implementation process of Payments for Ecosystem Services

AU - Schröter, Barbara

AU - Hauck, Jennifer

AU - Hackenberg, Isabel

AU - Matzdorf, Bettina

N1 - Funding Information: This paper is based on research conducted as part of the CiVi.net project (www.civinet.eu), funded under contract number 282750 within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. The fourth author's field stay was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through a PROMOS scholarship (Programm zur Steigerung der Mobilit?t von deutschen Studierenden). We would like to thank all involved stakeholders in the case study for participating, as well as the CSO for their invaluable support during the case study visit. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and their insightful comments and suggestions.

PY - 2018/12

Y1 - 2018/12

N2 - Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are criticized, amongst other reasons, for their basis in ideas suited to the neoliberal political economy and for the unequal distribution of power inherent in such models. However, PES can be a natural resource management approach that combines social and environmental objectives so that they not only serve to protect ecosystems such as tropical forests and wetlands but also to improve social conditions and rural development. Particularly for community-based PES, tools are needed to bring transparency to PES institutional settings and actor constellations by revealing power relations, as well as to empower local actors to engage in social learning through participatory processes. Considering both of these aspects will improve the equity aspects of PES and establish a social context conducive to a payment scheme that considers local behaviors and attitudes towards conservation. Close collaboration – in knowledge co-production processes – between social science and practitioners can address these challenges and support the PES design and implementation process. In this paper, we demonstrate how Net-Map, as a specific tool for Social Network Analysis (SNA), can make actor relations visible for the purpose of group discussion within participation processes. We present how the results of participatory Net-Map Interviews can be used for participatory PES development, implementation and evaluation. In particular, we explain and discuss this for three case studies in Costa Rica. We conclude that this combination – using empirical data from social sciences for participatory planning – facilitates the creation of a common understanding of the PES-governance models, the creation of ownership, and the consolidation of transparency and trust amongst the participants, as well as reflection on the existing social capital necessary for implementation. The results of the Net-Map tool support the design of inclusive and adaptive processes that shape institutions, choices, design and the implementation of policy instruments such as PES. The additional value of the tool is that it makes these processes transparent by generating knowledge during a participatory process and helps to balance the actors’ interests and values. This method of undertaking research in combination with workshops has its limitations, as it reveals – to a group – confidential information given in personal interviews. Further, for the scenario development of PES design, actors must have a certain level of openness and creativity so that the PES design does not merely end up being a copy of the initially net-mapped PES example.

AB - Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are criticized, amongst other reasons, for their basis in ideas suited to the neoliberal political economy and for the unequal distribution of power inherent in such models. However, PES can be a natural resource management approach that combines social and environmental objectives so that they not only serve to protect ecosystems such as tropical forests and wetlands but also to improve social conditions and rural development. Particularly for community-based PES, tools are needed to bring transparency to PES institutional settings and actor constellations by revealing power relations, as well as to empower local actors to engage in social learning through participatory processes. Considering both of these aspects will improve the equity aspects of PES and establish a social context conducive to a payment scheme that considers local behaviors and attitudes towards conservation. Close collaboration – in knowledge co-production processes – between social science and practitioners can address these challenges and support the PES design and implementation process. In this paper, we demonstrate how Net-Map, as a specific tool for Social Network Analysis (SNA), can make actor relations visible for the purpose of group discussion within participation processes. We present how the results of participatory Net-Map Interviews can be used for participatory PES development, implementation and evaluation. In particular, we explain and discuss this for three case studies in Costa Rica. We conclude that this combination – using empirical data from social sciences for participatory planning – facilitates the creation of a common understanding of the PES-governance models, the creation of ownership, and the consolidation of transparency and trust amongst the participants, as well as reflection on the existing social capital necessary for implementation. The results of the Net-Map tool support the design of inclusive and adaptive processes that shape institutions, choices, design and the implementation of policy instruments such as PES. The additional value of the tool is that it makes these processes transparent by generating knowledge during a participatory process and helps to balance the actors’ interests and values. This method of undertaking research in combination with workshops has its limitations, as it reveals – to a group – confidential information given in personal interviews. Further, for the scenario development of PES design, actors must have a certain level of openness and creativity so that the PES design does not merely end up being a copy of the initially net-mapped PES example.

KW - Community-based conservation

KW - Costa Rica

KW - Ecosystem service governance

KW - Environmental planning

KW - Governance

KW - Net-Map tool

KW - Participatory research

KW - Transdisciplinary research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044364075&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.03.007

DO - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.03.007

M3 - Article

VL - 34

SP - 206

EP - 217

JO - Ecosystem Services

JF - Ecosystem Services

SN - 2212-0416

IS - Part B

ER -