Abstract
Incidental fishing bycatch of loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) epitomizes the type of wicked problems increasingly faced by authorities, scientists, and stakeholders around the world. Successfully tackling wicked problems requires the implementation of approaches such as “continual engagement” to enable dialogue and collaboration amongst the stakeholders (as posited by Habermas’ communicative rationality). Yet, continual engagement may raise the likelihood of political collision (as posited by Mouffe’s agonistic pluralism). In the case of loggerheads’ incidental bycatch, the attitudes of the stakeholders swung back and forth between collaboration and confrontation. To address these challenging circumstances, we implemented mediated modeling following the concepts of reflective equilibrium and overlapping consensus (as posited by Rawls´ political liberalism) to (1) portray the interests of individual stakeholder—or narrow reflective equilibrium, (2) achieve effective communication among the stakeholders—or wide reflective equilibrium; and (3) find enough common ground on how to curb incidental bycatch—or overlapping consensus. While not being a panacea, our approach to continual engagement effectively addresses the fundamental issue of empowering otherwise marginalized positions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acevedo MF (2012) Simulation of ecological and environmental models. CRC Press, USA
Alfie M (2013) Democracia deliberativa y gobernanza ambiental: ¿conceptos transversales de una nueva democracia ecológica? Sociológica (México) 28(80):73–122
Balint PJ, Stewart RE, Desai A (2011) Wicked environmental problems: managing uncertainty and conflict. Island Press, Washington
Bäcklund P, Mäntysalo R (2010) Agonism and institutional ambiguity: ideas on democracy and the role of participation in the development of planning theory and practice-the case of Finland. Plan Theory 9(4):333–350. doi:10.1177/1473095210373684
Bojórquez-Tapia LA, Diaz-Mondragón S, Ezcurra E (2001) GIS-based approach for participatory decision making and land suitability assessment. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 15(2):129–151. doi:10.1080/13658810010005534
Bojórquez-Tapia LA, Luna-González L, Cruz-Bello GM, Gómez-Priego P, Juárez-Marusich L, Rosas-Pérez I (2011) Regional environmental assessment for multiagency policy making: implementing an environmental ontology through GIS-MCDA. Environ Plan B Plan Des 38:539–563
Bojórquez-Tapia LA, Eakin H (2012) Conflict and collaboration in defining the “desired state”: the case of cozumel, Mexico. In: Evan B (ed) Collaborative resilience: moving through crisis to opportunity. MIT Press, London, pp 153–176
Bond S (2011) Negotiating a ‘democratic ethos’: moving beyond the agonistic—communicative divide. Plan Theory 10:161–186. doi:10.1177/1473095210383081
Bowen BW, Abreu-Grobois FA, Balazs GH, Kamezaki N, Limpus CJ, Ferl RJ (1995) Trans-Pacific migrations of the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) demonstrated with mitochondrial DNA markers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 92(9):3731–3734
Brown VA, Harris JA, Russell JY (2010) Tackling wicked problems through the transdisciplinary imagination. Earthscan, New York
Cash DW, Clark WC, Alcock F, Dickson NM, Eckley N, Guston DH, Jäger J, Mitchell RB (2003) Knowledge systems for sustainable development. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100(14):8086–8091
Clark W, Holliday L (Rapporteurs) (2006) Linking knowledge with action for sustainable development: the role of program management-summary of a workshop. National Research Council of the National Academies Press. Available online at http://www.nap.edu/search/?rpp=20&ft=1&term=Clark+Holliday
Conant TA, Dutton PH, Eguchi T, Epperly SP, Fahy CC, Godfrey MH, MacPherson SL, Possardt EE, Schroeder BA, Seminoff JA, Snover ML, Upite CM, Witherington BE (2009) Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) 2009 status review under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Report of the Loggerhead Biological Review Team to the National Marine Fisheries Service, August 2009
Flyvbjerg B (1996) The dark side of planning: rationality and ‘realrationalitaet’. In: Mandelbaum SJ, Mazza L, Burchell RW (eds) Explorations in Planning Theory, Center for Urban Policy Research Press, New Brunswick, NJ, pp 383–394. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2278431
Gilman E, Kobayashi D, Swenarton T, Brothers N, Dalzell P, Kinan-Kelly I (2007) Reducing sea turtle interactions in the Hawaii-based longline swordfish fishery. Biol Conserv 139(1–2):19–28
Goldstein BE (2012) Collaborative resilience: moving through crisis to opportunity. MIT Press, USA
Harper TL, Stein SM (2006) Dialogical planning in a fragmented society: critically liberal, pragmatic, incremental. Transaction Publishers, USA
Hilborn R, Walters CJ (1992) Quantitative fisheries stock assessment: choice, dynamics and uncertainty. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 2(2):177–178. doi:10.1007/BF00042883
Hillier J (2003) Agonizing over consensus: why habermasian ideals cannot be ‘real’. Plan Theory 2(1):37–59. doi:10.1177/1473095203002001005
Hoffman R (2005) Storied theory science and stories are not only compatible, they’re inseparable, as shown by Einstein’s classic 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect. Am Sci 93(4):308–312. doi:10.1511/2005.4.308
Innes JE (2004) Consensus building: clarifications for the critics. Planning Theory. Plan Theory 3(1):5–20. doi:10.1177/1473095204042315
Innes JE, Booher DE (2010) Planning with complexity: an introduction to collaborative rationality for public policy. Routledge, USA
Jamal TB, Stein SM, Harper TL (2002) Beyond labels: pragmatic planning in multistakeholder tourism-environmental conflicts. J Plan Educ Res 22(2):164–177. doi:10.1177/0739456X02238445
Jasanoff S (ed) (2004) States of knowledge: the co-production of science and the social order. Routledge, London and New York
Kates RW (2011) What kind of a science is sustainability science? Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108(49):19449–19450. doi:10.1073/pnas.1116097108
Lave J, Wenger E (1991) Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Leach M, Scoones I, Stirling A (2010) Dynamic sustainabilities, techonology, environment, social justice. Earthscan, London
Lewison RL, Crowder LB (2007) Putting longline bycatch of sea turtles into perspective. Conserv Biol 21(1):79–86
Lewison RL, Freeman SA, Crowder LB (2004) Quantifying the effects of fisheries on threatened species: the impact of pelagic longlines on loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles. Ecol Lett 7(3):221–231
Lluch-Belda D (1998) A proposal for IAI phase II research: biological actions centers. Informe técnico. CIBNOR/CICIMAR/IAI. 35 pp
Lluch-Belda D, Lluch-Cota DB, Lluch-Cota SE (2003) Scales of interannual variability in the California current system: associated physical mechanisms and ecological impacts. CalCOFI Rep 44:76–85
Malczewski J (2004) GIS-based land-use suitability analysis: a critical overview. Prog Plan 62(1):3–65. doi:10.1016/j.progress.2003.09.002
Malczewski J (2006) GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis: a survey of the literature. Int J Geogr Infor Sci 20:703–726. doi:10.1080/13658810600661508
Malczewski J, Moreno-Sanchez R, Bojorquez-Tapia LA, Ongay-Delhumeau E (1997) Multicriteria group decision-making model for environmental conflict analysis in the cape Region, Mexico. J Environ Plan Manag 40(3):349–374. doi:10.1080/09640569712137
Manuel-Navarrete D (2010) Power, realism, and the ideal of human emancipation in a climate of change. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Clim Change 1(6):781–785. doi:10.1002/wcc.87
McGreavy B, Hutchins K, Smith H, Lindenfeld L, Silka L (2013) Addressing the complexities of boundary work in sustainability science through communication. Sustainability 5(10):4195–4221. doi:10.3390/su5104195
Montello DR, Freundschuh SM (1995) Sources of spatial knowledge and their implications for GIS: an introduction. Geogr Syst 2(1):169–176
NOAA-Fisheries (2013) Improving international fisheries management. Report to congress pursuant to section 403(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens fishery conservation and management reauthorization act of 2006. US Department of Commerce, Washington
Peckham SH, Maldonado Diaz D, Walli A, Ruiz G, Crowder LB, Nichols WJ (2007) Small-scale fisheries bycatch jeopardizes endangered Pacific loggerhead turtles. PloS one 2(10):e1041. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001041
Peckham SH, Maldonado-Diaz D, Koch V, Mancini A, Gaos A, Tinker MT, Nicholas WJ (2008) High mortality of loggerhead turtles due to bycatch, human consumption and strandings at Baja California Sur, Mexico, 2003 to 2007. Endanger Spec Res 5(2–3):171–183. doi:10.3354/esr00123
Quick KS, Feldman MS (2014) Boundaries as junctures: collaborative boundary work for building efficient resilience. J Pub Adm Res Theory 24(3):673–695. doi:10.1093/jopart/mut085
Reid RS, Nkedianye D, Said MY, Kaelo D, Neselle M, Makui O, Onetu L, Kiruswa S, Kamuaro NO, Kristjanson P, Ogutu J, Burnsilver SB, Goldman MJ, Boone RB, Galvin KA, Dickson NM, Clark WC (2009) Knowledge systems for sustainable development special feature sackler colloquium: evolution of models to support community and policy action with science: balancing pastoral livelihoods and wildlife conservation in savannas of East Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. doi:10.1073/pnas.0900313106
Resendiz A, Resendiz B, Nichols WJ, Seminoff JA, Kamezaki N (1998) First confirmed east-west transpacific movement of a loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta, released in Baja California, Mexico. Pac Sci 52(2):151–153
Rittel HWJ, Webber MM (1973) Dilemmas in a general theory of planning dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sci 4:155–169
Roskamm N (2014) On the other side of “agonism”: “The enemy,” the “outside,” and the role of antagonism. Plan Theory 1473095214533959. doi:10.1177/1473095214533959
Saarikoski H (2002) Naturalized epistemology and dilemmas of planning practice. J Plan Educ Res 22(1):3–14. doi:10.1177/0739456X0202200101
Schaefer MB (1954) Some aspects of the dynamics of populations important to the management of the commercial marine fisheries. Inter Am Trop Tuna Comm Bull 1(2):23–56
Schlüter M, McAllister RRJ, Arlinghaus R, Bunnefeld N, Eisenack K, Hölker F, Milner-Gulland EJ, Müller B, Nicholson E, Quaas M, Stöven M (2012) New horizons for managing the environment: a review of coupled social-ecological systems modeling. Nat Resour Model 25(1):219–272. doi:10.1111/j.1939-7445.2011.00108.x
Seminoff JA, Peckham SH, Eguchi T, Sarti-Martinez A, Rangel-Acevedo R, Forney K, Nichols W (2006) Loggerhead turtle density and abundance along the Pacific coast of the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico. In: Frick M, Panagopoulo A, Rees A, Williams K (comp.). Twenty sixth annual symposium on sea turtle biology and conservation. International Sea Turtle Society, Atenas, pp 321
Seminoff JA, Eguchi T, Carretta J, Allen CD, Prosperi D, Rangel-Acevedo R, Gilpatrick JW Jr, Forney K, Peckham SH (2014) Loggerhead sea turtle abundance at a foraging hotspot in the eastern Pacific Ocean: implications for at-sea conservation. Endanger Spec Res 24(3):207–220. doi:10.3354/esr00601
Simon HA (1997) Models of bounded rationality: empirically grounded economic reason (Vol. III). MIT Press. Massachusetts Cambridge, Cambridge
Stein SM, Harper TL (2003) Power, trust, and planning. J Plan Educ Res 23(2):125–139. doi:10.1177/0739456X03258636
Stein SM, Harper TL (2005) Rawls’s ‘justice as fairness’: a moral basis for contemporary planning theory. Plan Theory 4(2):147–172. doi:10.1177/1473095205054603
Suter GW (2006) Ecological risk assessment, 2nd edn. CRC Press, Boca de Ratón
Tversky B (2004) Narratives of space, time, and life. Mind Lang 19(4):380–392
Van den Belt M (2004) Mediated modeling: a system dynamics approach to environmental consensus building. Island Press, Washington
Van Kerkhoff L, Lebel L (2006) Linking knowledge and action for sustainable development. Annu Rev Environ Resour 31:445–477. doi:10.1146/annurev.energy.31.102405.170850
Wingfield DK, Peckham SH, Foley DG, Palacios DM, Lavaniegos BE, Durazo R, Nichols WJ, Croll DA, Bograd SJ (2011) The making of a productivity hotspot in the coastal ocean. PLoS One 6(11):e27874. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027874
Acknowledgments
This research was conducted as part of the EO-NPMR with the financial support of SEMARNAT (DGRMIS-DAC-DGPAIRS No. 020/2011). Germán Ponce-Díaz thanks to EDI and COFAA-IPN. This article is a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Sustainability Science, UNAM, of Daniela Pedroza.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Handled by Nicky Grigg, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia.
Appendix
Appendix
Gower´s residuals
Because conflict minimization consists in segregating incompatible activities in space and time, and consensus maximization in allocating activities to the most suitable zone, it was necessary to compare the mean and relative suitability values for each homogeneous zone identified by the numerical classification. Accordingly, mean suitability for activity \(n\) at homogeneous zone \(m\), \(\delta_{\text{mn}}\), was obtained by overlying the homogenous zones map layer onto the suitability ones. Next, relative suitability was obtained by first arranging the \(\delta_{\text{mn}}\)values into matrix \(D\) (dimensions \(m \times n\)), and then adjusting them by rows and columns to generate matrix \(Z\)of Gower´s residuals; formally:
where \(z_{\text{mn}}\) is the Gower’s residual value, \(\delta_{m.}\)is the mean suitability for all activities at homogeneous zone \(m\), \(\delta_{{ . {\text{n}}}}\) is the mean suitability for activity \(n\) in all the homogeneous zones, and \(\delta_{..}\)is the mean suitability of matrix \(D\)—a positive \(z_{\text{mn}}\) indicates a high suitability of homogeneous zone \(m\) for activity \(n\), whereas a negative \(z_{\text{mn}}\) indicates the opposite.
Asymmetry index
An asymmetry index, \(y\), was then implemented as a proxy for the potential loss or cost of excluding the activity of a community of practice in each EMU. This index measured the geographic overlap between pairs of suitability categories for conflicting activities in an EMU; formally:
where \(k\)and \(l\) are suitability categories, and \(h\)and \(g\) are activities in EMU \(n\).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bojórquez-Tapia, L.A., Pedroza, D., Ponce-Díaz, G. et al. A continual engagement framework to tackle wicked problems: curtailing loggerhead sea turtle fishing bycatch in Gulf of Ulloa, Mexico. Sustain Sci 12, 535–548 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0405-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0405-1