要旨
No doubt impacts from climate change on natural resources threaten achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. But of more concern is the controversial “climate-conflicts nexus” theory which paints a grim future as resources become scarcer in Africa. Though some scientists believe that this popular theory is biased, there is an evident knowledge gap on successful adaptation strategies currently sustaining rural livelihoods across the Sub-Sahara. Moreover, poorly coordinated “adaptation expertise” actors in climate-vulnerable communities nurture legal pluralism and sectorial divisions that are now also projected to instigate resource conflicts at the community level. Possibility of such a scenario creates the need for efficient resource governance structures that clearly delineate actor responsibilities for enhanced site-specific conflict-sensitive adaptation. Social network analysis is emerging as the best tool for identifying actor roles and unlocking cooperation deadlocks in natural resource management. However, a methodological gap exists on how to effectively incorporate social network notions into governance frameworks for evaluating community responses to climate change and resource conflicts using actor-linkages.
To resolve this technical gap, I formulate a theoretical governance approach based on social network theory to simultaneously identify rural actors and analyse their governance activities in a multi-resource sector community. The objective is to investigate; with whom does a rural natural resource user do what? How? If, not possible, then why not? With a specific focus on climate adaptation and resource conflict resolution issues. My innovative framework - ecosystem service governance (ESG) approach - builds further the Ecosystem Approach and also incorporates monetary valuation of ecosystem services. To test functionality of the ESG approach, I implement it on the social network of Loitoktok in Kenya. My focus is on key ecosystem services that are economically important namely, food production, wildlife, water and medicinal plants in the district. Application of ESG requires empirical information that consists of both relational and resource attributes data gathered using structured questionnaires, expert interviews, and group discussions. Secondary data is obtained from official resource records and documents from different government agencies.
Findings reveal a significant relationship between actor linkages and adaptation performance in the agriculture, wildlife and water sectors. Whereby, high inter-actor connections in the agriculture and wildlife sectors result in many diverse adaptation measures, poor linkage in the water sector lowers collaborative adaptation activity while the medicinal plants sector has no actor interlinkage and which promotes individual-effort adaptation practises. Secondly, dense connectivity among resource conflict resolution actors facilitates implementation of three unique mechanisms that enhance cohesion in the community. Formation of actor linkages is hindered by poor coordination, low financial support and insufficient manpower. In addition, absent inter-actor linkage in the medicinal plants sector is rooted in its lack of recognition as a valid formal economic sector that hinders legislation and contributes to lack of public interest. To resolve the identified hindrances, the ESG approach has an additional feature that simulates an “optimum” resource governance structure through network weaving actions by certain brokers. The resultant hypothetical structure illuminates potential pathways for increasing adaptation performance, livelihoods diversification, carbon sequestration and culture preservation in Loitoktok.
The formulated ecosystem service governance approach effectively answers the aforementioned research questions by revealing how adaptation and resource conflict resolution are precisely being implemented at the community level. Secondly, the study proposes using the established Revolving Fund scheme (responsible for aggregating individuals into community (business) interest groups) in disseminating climate adaptation knowledge alongside economic development. Thirdly, significance of the formulated ESG approach cannot be understated in relation to the current devolution predicament in Kenya. Whereby, the newly formed County governments can utilise the ESG for identifying collaboration deadlocks in their social structures. Finally, since the ESG approach also gives a practical structural solution to enhance resource governance, then it is foreseen that subsequent objective netweaving of actor linkages at the community and County levels will enhance climate governance especially rural adaptive capacity and reduce risk of projected climate-driven resource conflicts in Kenya.
