Why do governance institutions and practices in Marine Protected Areas (MPA) generally fail to keep pace with ecological transitions due to climate change? Researchers from four institutes – KITLV,  the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO), Wageningen University & Research and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) – will collaborate to find out, as they have been awarded a grant from the Institutes Research Fund of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

Climate change and governance in Indonesia and the Caribbean: A pilot program on marine protected areas (MPA’s) and coastal nature reserves

KITLV, NIOO, NIAS and WUR join forces in an interdisciplinary study of the impact of climate change on social-ecological systems (SES). A consortium including Indonesian and Caribbean partners in academia and NGOs will co-create and implement pilot research in four coastal zones in these two tropical archipelagoes. Concretely, it seeks to write a joint ecological and sociopolitical history of selected protected areas in both regions and its effects in the present. If the ecological system in an MPA passes a tipping point into an undesired state, what social impact would this have and what is needed to prevent it? Who has power in the governance structure and who is allowed to represent the state of climate change knowledge?

An interdisciplinary consortium will be formed to engage with these questions and, on this basis, develop concrete advice for effective climate governance and policies.

Read more about the research.

Photo: Haïti. CC-BY Stephane Venne.