Philipp Gorris

PhD project:

Linking governance systems for regional-scale coral reef management: Analysis of case studies in Brazil and Indonesia

In the face of increasing depletion of marine resources and degradation of marine ecosystems including coral reefs, marine protected areas (MPAs) have become more and more important around the world. To scale up conservation efforts to ecological relevant scales and address management problems of individual MPAs, MPA networks have been strongly promoted over the last decade. But approaching marine management on a regional scale poses new institutional challenges. It means to increase institutional complexity, diversity and dynamics particularly in context of decentralized political systems due to the extension in geographical and administrative scales, and the inclusion of additional stakeholders and levels.

Indonesia and Brazil are two large countries with long coastlines and highly diverse marine ecosystems. Both countries face increasing competition over scarce resources and deteriorating environmental quality due to growing human population and intensification of marine resource use. The pattern of degradation of coral reef ecosystems in both countries follows the trajectory of coral reef degradation of the world as a whole. In order to overcome existing problems with centralized management such as high levels of bureaucratization and associated costs, delays in decision-making and communication problems, Brazil and Indonesia have decentralized their control over natural marine resources entailing changes in the allocation of rights to managing marine resources. Whereas these two countries resemble each other in a number of aspects, their social, political, historical and cultural contexts differ immensely. These different contexts do not only have a strong effect on human behavior and social interactions but also on the human nature relationship which all together has severe effects on the respective governance systems.

This study will analyze regional scale governance systems for coral reef management and identify potentials and obstacles for linking MPA governance units in Brazil and Indonesia. It particularly investigates how individual MPA governance systems can be linked into networks for achieving adaptive and coherent regional scale marine management in a decentralized political system. By using an inductive case study approach based on qualitative methods and Social Network Analysis, this study seeks to advance our understanding of regional governance systems for coral reefs and examines the challenges for creating MPA networks. This project aims to broaden the case study base for regional scale marine management and contribute to the ongoing governance debate.

Research Theme: D "Ocean and Society"