Angela Guerrero

Attempts to better understand the social context in which conservation and environmental decisions are made has led to increased interest in human social networks. But despite the utility of social network research the potential for misuse is strong. This paper draws attention to key considerations with the aim of improving future applications of social network research in conservation contexts. We explain the dominant properties of human social networks that distinguish them from other types of networks, the importance of a sound theoretical basis, as well as practical considerations that should be considered early in the process of research design. We also discuss future directions and challenges, including causality, network dynamics, and new methodological approaches. This paper helps advance consistent and rigorous application of environmental social science, and in doing so, contributes to the design of effective conservation and environmental programs.

When environmental processes cut across socioeconomic boundaries, traditional top-down government approaches struggle to effectively manage and conserve ecosystems. In such cases, governance arrangements that foster multiactor collaboration are needed. The effectiveness of such arrangements, however, depends on how well any ecological interdependencies across governed ecosystems are aligned with patterns of collaboration. This inherent interdisciplinary and complex problem has impeded progress in developing a better understanding of how to govern ecosystems for conservation in an increasingly interconnected world. We argue for the development of empirically informed theories, which are not only able to transcend disciplinary boundaries, but are also explicit in taking these complex social-ecological interdependences into account. We show how this emerging research frontier can be significantly improved by incorporating recent advances in stochastic modeling of multilevel social networks. An empirical case study from an agricultural landscape in Madagascar is reanalyzed to demonstrate these improvements.

Significant benefits can arise from collaborative forms of governance that foster self-organization and flexibility. Likewise, governance systems that fit with the extent and complexity of the system under management are considered essential to our ability to solve environmental problems. However, from an empirical perspective the fundamental question of whether self-organized (bottom-up) collaborative forms of governance are able to accomplish adequate fit is unresolved. We used new theory and methodological approaches underpinned by interdisciplinary network analysis to address this gap by investigating three governance challenges that relate to the problem of fit: shared management of ecological resources, management of interconnected ecological resources, and cross-scale management. We first identified a set of social-ecological network configurations that represent the hypothesized ways in which collaborative arrangements can contribute to addressing these challenges. Using social and ecological data from a large-scale biodiversity conservation initiative in Australia, we empirically determined how well the observed patterns of stakeholder interactions reflect these network configurations. We found that stakeholders collaborate to manage individual parcels of native vegetation, but not for the management of interconnected parcels. In addition, our data show that the collaborative arrangements enable management across different scales (local, regional, supraregional). Our study provides empirical support for the ability of collaborative forms of governance to address the problem of fit, but also suggests that in some cases the establishment of bottom-up collaborative arrangements would likely benefit from specific guidance to facilitate the establishment of collaborations that better align with the ways ecological resources are interconnected across the landscape. In our case study region, this would improve the capacity of stakeholders to detect both the intended and unintended off-site impacts of management actions. Our approach offers an avenue for empirical evaluations of collaborative governance so that preconditions for effectiveness of environmental programs can be enhanced.

Large-scale conservation requires the involvement of numerous stakeholders to plan for and implement a range of activities across multiple scales. Establishing and sustaining the effective collaborations necessary to achieve this is a key challenge. Utilizing data from a large-scale conservation initiative in the south west of Australia we characterize the interactions between stakeholders as a social network. We employ a novel network theoretical approach to assess the different forms of collaboration, including cross-scale collaboration. We find that the social network predisposes cross-scale collaboration for invasive animal control, an action where coordination of activities is necessary. We find that for revegetation activities there is little evidence of collaboration across scales, but this could be fostered by a subset of stakeholders acting in a “scale-bridging” role. Addressing this will likely improve the effectiveness of revegetation efforts and the outcomes of the broader conservation initiative.

One of the key determinants of success in managing natural resources is “institutional fit,” i.e., how well the suite of
required actions collectively match the scale of the environmental problem. The effective management of pest and pathogen threats to
plants is a natural resource problem of particular economic, social, and environmental importance. Responses to incursions are managed
by a network of decision makers and managers acting at different spatial and temporal scales. We applied novel network theoretical
methods to assess the propensity of growers, local industry, local state government, and state and national government head offices to
foster either within- or across-scale coordination during the successful 2001 Australian response to the outbreak of the fungal pathogen
black sigatoka (Mycosphaerella fijiensis). We also reconstructed the response network to proxy what that network would look like today
under the Australian government’s revised response system. We illustrate a structural move in the plant biosecurity response system
from one that was locally driven to the current top-down system, in which the national government leads coordination of a highly
partitioned engagement process. For biological incursions that spread widely across regions, nationally rather than locally managed
responses may improve coordination of diverse tasks. However, in dealing with such challenges of institutional fit, local engagement
will always be critical in deploying flexible and adaptive local responses based on a national system. The methods we propose detect
where and how network structures foster cross-scale interactions, which will contribute to stronger empirical studies of cross-scale
environmental governance.

Many of the challenges conservation professionals face can be framed as scale mismatches. The problem of scale mismatch occurs when the planning for and implementation of conservation actions is at a scale that does not reflect the scale of the conservation problem. The challenges in conservation planning related to scale mismatch include ecosystem or ecological process transcendence of governance boundaries; limited availability of fine-resolution data; lack of operational capacity for implementation; lack of understanding of social-ecological system components; threats to ecological diversity that operate at diverse spatial and temporal scales; mismatch between funding and the long-term nature of ecological processes; rate of action implementation that does not reflect the rate of change of the ecological system; lack of appropriate indicators for monitoring activities; and occurrence of ecological change at scales smaller or larger than the scale of implementation or monitoring. Not recognizing and accounting for these challenges when planning for conservation can result in actions that do not address the multiscale nature of conservation problems and that do not achieve conservation objectives. Social networks link organizations and individuals across space and time and determine the scale of conservation actions; thus, an understanding of the social networks associated with conservation planning will help determine the potential for implementing conservation actions at the required scales. Social-network analyses can be used to explore whether these networks constrain or enable key social processes and how multiple scales of action are linked. Results of network analyses can be used to mitigate scale mismatches in assessing, planning, implementing, and monitoring conservation projects.