Adiska Octa Paramita

Operationalizing the Social Ecological Framework as a Diagnosis Tool to Assess Target Knowledge for Aquaculture Sustainability

Aquaculture tonnage production has continued to grow intensively by overtaking the wild capture fisheries. Despite that, aquaculture is largely unexamined and unexplored in terms of sustainability and governance challenges. Several aquaculture co-management initiatives have been adopted in a decentralized governance system to create a collaborative and participatory process of regulatory decision making among representatives of user groups, government agencies, and research institutions. However, there are challenges in co-management arrangements related to the difficulties to integrate stakeholder preferences and values. This study argues that constructive dialogue in deliberation among actors is important to improve the implementation of co-management that encourages fairness and the ability to learn from the knowledge exchange process.

As part of the COMPASS project, this research will develop methodologies to evaluate stakeholder’s perspectives, values, and normative goals with deliberative and participatory methods to support co-management arrangement. In order to do so, Social-Ecological System Framework (SESF) will be used as a practical tool for knowledge exchange and empowerment in experimental and non-experimental deliberative settings. The study will be conducted in Lombok, Indonesia, that has demonstrated movement toward sustainable aquaculture production through blue economy development strategies. Several aquaculture communities are chosen to assess the collective action problems related to an irrigation system and gender issues in aquaculture.

Three research plans have been developed accordingly:

1. An experimental field study to evaluate the stakeholders’ perceptions related to collective action problems in maintaining pond irrigation systems that support aquaculture.
2. A non-experimental field study to assess social-ecological understanding of different relationships between men and women with the aquaculture systems. This study aims to overcome the marginalization of women in aquaculture. 
3. A literature review paper based on case studies in marine and coastal governance to understand the conceptualization and problem framing in deliberation research.