TY - JOUR

T1 - Literature syntheses to inform marine ecosystem management: lessons learned from stakeholder participation

AU - Kuhn, Tinka

AU - Vikström, Suvi

AU - Suškevičs, Monika

AU - Storie, Joanna T.

AU - Saikkonen, Liisa

AU - Rees, Rebecca

AU - Håkansson, Cecilia

AU - Oinonen, Soile

AU - Burkhard, Benjamin

N1 - This study was supported through the BONUS ROSEMARIE project, which received funding from BONUS (Art. 185), funded jointly by the EU and the Swedish Research Council Formas and the Estonian Research Council. The publication of this article was funded by the Open Access Fund of Leibniz Universität Hannover.

PY - 2023/3/16

Y1 - 2023/3/16

N2 - Systematic literature syntheses are a key element in the scientific realm, considering the steadily growing amount of available knowledge. Involving stakeholders in the research process brings a wide range of advantages, like broadening the perspectives on the problem in question, increasing the relevance of results for policy- and decision-making, the public and other end-users and thus enhancing the impact and acceptance of research. While participatory approaches are on the rise, reflections on stakeholder involvement in systematic syntheses on environmental management are scarce. We reflect on the process of involving stakeholders with expertise also from outside academia during three literature syntheses with different foci of marine and coastal ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea. Our analysis is based on notes, e-mails, minutes and recordings of internal project meetings, interviews and workshops involving both researchers and stakeholders. We discuss the challenges the participatory approach introduced and develop lessons learned to support the planning of stakeholder engagement for future literature syntheses. We conclude that stakeholder identification, communication, collaboration and knowledge translation are highly time- and resource-intensive processes. Furthermore, appropriate training and experience are necessary for the design, execution and evaluation of participatory methods tailored to each project stage. Therefore, we underline the importance of adequate consideration of the required resources during project planning and implementation. To encourage and support valuable stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange between the research community and actors of policy and practice, more appreciation of such efforts by funding institutions and within the wider scientific community is needed.

AB - Systematic literature syntheses are a key element in the scientific realm, considering the steadily growing amount of available knowledge. Involving stakeholders in the research process brings a wide range of advantages, like broadening the perspectives on the problem in question, increasing the relevance of results for policy- and decision-making, the public and other end-users and thus enhancing the impact and acceptance of research. While participatory approaches are on the rise, reflections on stakeholder involvement in systematic syntheses on environmental management are scarce. We reflect on the process of involving stakeholders with expertise also from outside academia during three literature syntheses with different foci of marine and coastal ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea. Our analysis is based on notes, e-mails, minutes and recordings of internal project meetings, interviews and workshops involving both researchers and stakeholders. We discuss the challenges the participatory approach introduced and develop lessons learned to support the planning of stakeholder engagement for future literature syntheses. We conclude that stakeholder identification, communication, collaboration and knowledge translation are highly time- and resource-intensive processes. Furthermore, appropriate training and experience are necessary for the design, execution and evaluation of participatory methods tailored to each project stage. Therefore, we underline the importance of adequate consideration of the required resources during project planning and implementation. To encourage and support valuable stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange between the research community and actors of policy and practice, more appreciation of such efforts by funding institutions and within the wider scientific community is needed.

KW - Evidence synthesis

KW - HELCOM region

KW - policymakers

KW - science-policy interaction

KW - Sebastian Villasante

KW - stakeholder participation

KW - systematic map

KW - systematic review

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150504088&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/26395916.2023.2188970

DO - 10.1080/26395916.2023.2188970

M3 - Article

VL - 19

JO - Ecosystems and People

JF - Ecosystems and People

SN - 2639-5908

IS - 1

M1 - 2188970

ER -