Year of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Forest and Conservation Science

Department or School/College

W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation

Committee Co-chair

Brian Chaffin, Michele Barnes

Commitee Members

Alan Townsend, Tiffany Morrison, Carina Wyborn, Jill Belsky

Keywords

adaptive governance, climate change, coral reefs, environmental governance, futures-thinking, mass coral bleaching

Publisher

University of Montana

Abstract

A warming climate brings fundamental transitions to social-ecological systems (SES), threatening to degrade already strained relationships between people and nature. Extreme climate events can create crises that provide an opportunity for examining how resource managers, scientists, policy-makers, and others who make or influence decisions about SES (i.e. “governance actors”) understand and respond to climate change. Previous research indicates that extreme climate events may present opportunities for governance actors to evolve new priorities and approaches that improve governing SES as climate change bears down. However, there has been little empirical research to understand how governance actors respond to extreme climate events in practice, and what their responses reveal about the challenges of evolving SES governance.

In this dissertation, I examine how governance actors’ priorities and visions for the future evolve or not after experiencing extreme climate events that impact a large SES. The specific example I investigate is governance of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) after mass coral bleaching events. Governance refers to the rules, processes, norms, and interactions between diverse actors (e.g., government, community groups, industry) that shape policy and other aspects of decision-making. To do so I integrate approaches from social network science and political science and concepts from adaptive governance studies. This combined approach enables me to uncover the priorities amongst networks of organizations engaged in GBR governance. Further, it enables me to investigate how influential governance actors in decision-making or advisory positions in this system conceive the problems facing the GBR and construct narratives about its future. My second chapter presents a longitudinal analysis of organizations’ attendance at forums focused on issues facing the GBR region from 2012 to 2019; I find that the types of governance actors engaging in governance across the GBR region stay relatively stable before and after extreme climate events, and that these actors hold relatively stable priorities for the GBR. My third describes governance actors’ differing perspectives on the implications of bleaching for the GBR, and the multiple pathways they suggest for shaping future governance. My fourth chapter considers how governance actors’ differing visions for the future align or conflict with each other, and what this reveals about controversies and barriers for steering reefs through climate change.

Through this dissertation I open a window into a moment in time when governance actors face one of the first acute, large-scale climate impacts to coral reefs, and to large-scale SES in general. I find that in the GBR region extreme climate events did not dramatically affect the priorities of governance networks but did change the way high-level governance actors envision the future for this SES. However, their perspectives change in different ways that suggest lingering cross-level and cross-sector tensions are continuing to prevent a coordinated response to extreme climate events and transition towards more adaptive ways of governing SES. This suggests that extreme climate events can affect different aspects (e.g. forums, actors’ visions) and levels (i.e. individuals, networks) of SES governance in myriad ways. Through this work I deepen and broaden theoretical understanding of the role of crisis in shaping environmental governance. I simultaneously uncover the difficulties governance actors face in navigating these events, and consider what opportunities lie ahead for more coordinated governance of SES in the Anthropocene.

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© Copyright 2023 Amber Waialea Datta