Traps and Transformations of Social-Ecological Systems: Commentary from the Caribbean

Essentially, a trap is a failure to transform, even when the system clearly needs to. The literature gives us an effective model to describe transformation. Why not assess where transformation breaks down, define those points as the cause(s) of the trap, and fashion recommendations to relieve them?

The cause of the trap is defined as the point(s) where transformation breaks down.

This provides a nice 'branching point' to develop recommendations for breaking free of a trap. If breakdown occurs at Phase 1, it leads you to one set of questions and you can draw from a given set of approaches to resolve the breakdown. If the breakdown occurs at Phase 3, it leads you to a different set of questions and approaches.

Olsson, Per, Lance H. Gunderson, Stephen R. Carpenter, Paul Ryan, Lewis Lebel, Carl Folke, and C.S. Holling. 2006. Shooting the Rapids: Navigating Transitions to Adaptive Governance of Social-Ecological Systems. Ecology and Society 11 (1): article 18.

Kingdon, John W. 1995 [2003]. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, Second Edition. New York, NY, USA: HarperCollins College Publishers. Reprint, Boston: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. ISBN 0-321-12185-6. Citations refer to the Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers edition.

My setting. A small tropical island.

We get a lot of precipitation. Between 100 and 400 cm/year (!)

But the precipitation is seasonal. . Jan-May = Dry Season. . When it doesn't rain, water shortages occur. When it does rain, it rains hard and sediment is flushed into streams and into water intakes. The infrastructure has a hard time handling it and 'dirty water' is distributed to residents.

See commentary & new figure, next slide.

I drew this on the board in the original lecture, but later created an electronic version see below. . Essentially, the water supply system is stuck in a non-resilient state - it does not take much of a disturbance to move the 'normal' water supply into water shortage or low-quality, 'dirty' water. This system is perpetuated in large part by the current system of water management, which is an amalgam of 14 laws, which are poorly coordinated, lack a holistic approach, and fail to plan long term (over 5 years). However, in 2007 a water policy was formally adopted to address these issues. But no laws were ever changed or passed to implement the new policy. . This is a classic case of a non-resilient and undesirable situation on one level being perpetuated by a trap at another level. Historically, attention has been paid to the water supply level. The social-ecological systems approach illuminates the real issue is overcoming the barrier to implementing the 2007 water policy. . My study asked why the water management system is trapped and unable to transform to the 2007 policy formulation.

I applied my framework to Grenadian water management and identified these point(s) of breakdown. . Which I define as the cause of the trap. . NOW I have a new set of questions (e.g. Why do these breakdowns exist?) . When I answer why the breakdowns exist, I have something solid to target recommendations at.

These were present, but did not 'get it done.' . Why?

John Kingdon's three-streams model of organizational choice, which is sometimes used in the social-ecological systems literature, was particularly useful to explain why the 2007 Policy was never implemented. . The networks and policy entrepreneurs never 'joined the streams.' But this exercise defined WHAT they are not doing. Now we can address HOW they can do it with specific recommendations.