Ecosystem Governance

What do we do?
The Ecosystem Governance programme supports individuals andorganisations to manage ecosystems sustainably and to share thebenefits equitably. We help partners to achieve direction, control andcoordination of their activities. We do this by enhancing theircapacities for conflict management, joint decision-making,institutional change and integrated management planning.

We address urgent issues
Ecosystem degradation and sustainable management of natural resources,including securing access and benefits for the poor, are urgent itemson the international agenda. The uncertainties and impacts of climatechange render these issues all the more important.

Efforts to halt the loss of biodiversity have proveninadequate. We believe that effective ecosystem management is as much aproblem of ‘governance’ as it is a question of science and designingeffective policies.

Why governance?
Ecosystem governance creates the setting for goodecosystem management by defining – or redefining – fundamentalobjectives, policies, laws and institutions. Since ecosystem boundariesrarely coincide with jurisdictional boundaries, and since capacitiesfor managing ecosystems are spread over a wide variety oforganisations, we need to find innovative ways to establish effectiveecosystem governance. This requires understanding of three differentsystems: biophysical systems, social systems and governance systems.

We have an integrated perspective
The Ecosystem Governance programme brings an integrated perspective toimproving governance systems and policy implementation. We do this by:

• Applying an ecosystems approach to natural resourcemanagement
• Promoting transparent and democratic decision making
• Promoting the principle of adaptive management
• Demonstrating how biodiversity conservation and povertyreduction can be combined

We combine our strengths
We combine technical and scientific expertise andknowledge in agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, water and fisheriesmanagement and aquaculture with our expertise in facilitation andlearning. Where necessary we draw on the expertise of colleagues inother units of Wageningen UR.