The role of participatory modeling in landscape approaches to reconcile conservation and development

By Marieke Sandker, B. Campbell, M. Ruiz-Pérez, J. Sayer, Richard M. Cowling, H. Kassa, A. Knight. 2010

124 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Conservation organizations are increasingly turning to landscape approaches to achieve a balance between conservation and development goals. We use six case studies in Africa and Asia to explore the role of participatory modeling with stakeholders as one of the steps towards implementing a landscape approach. The modeling was enthusiastically embraced by some stakeholders and led to impact in some cases. Different stakeholders valued the modeling exercise differently. Noteworthy was the difference between those stakeholders connected to the policy process and scientists; the presence of the former in the modeling activities is key to achieving policy impacts, and the latter were most critical of participatory modeling. Valued aspects of the modeling included stimulating cross-sector strategic thinking, and helping participants to confront the real drivers of change and to recognize trade-offs. The modeling was generally considered to be successful in building shared understanding of issues. This understanding was gained mainly in the discussions held in the process of building the model rather than in the model outputs. The model itself reflects but a few of the main elements of the usually rich discussions that preceded its finalization. Problems emerged when models became too complex. Key lessons for participatory modeling are the need for good facilitation in order to maintain a balance between “models as stories” and technical modeling, and the importance of inviting the appropriate stakeholders to achieve impact.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4ffb02b0cbf12c576c64d87945a1cb23353ad7ae

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In Global and Planetary Change

Citations in the corpus

NEW HORIZONS FOR MANAGING THE ENVIRONMENT: A REVIEW OF COUPLED SOCIAL‐ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS MODELING (2012, background): “Examples include studies investigating the impact of the governance structure and multipurpose resource use on system dynamics (Schlüter and Pahl-Wostl [2007]), the diversity of resource uses (Schlüter et al. [2009]), and the linkages and tradeoffs between different ecosystem services (Leslie et al.”
Integrating deliberative monetary valuation, systems modelling and participatory mapping to assess shared values of ecosystem services (2016, background): “, 2004), balancing conservation and development goals (Sandker et al., 2010), public sector administration (Van den Belt et al.”
Systemic perspectives on scaling agricultural innovations. A review (2016, background): “…et al. 2015; Komarek et al. 2015) and social and environmental impact assessment, or be supported by participatory modelling and companion modelling in which stakeholders are included as active participants (Bousquet et al. 2005; Delmotte et al. 2013; Gouttenoire et al. 2013; Sandker et al. 2010).”