More than just linking the nodes: civil society actors as intermediaries in the design and implementation of payments for ecosystem services – the case of a blue carbon project in Costa Rica.

authored by

Barbara Schröter, Bettina Matzdorf, Isabel Hackenberg, Jennifer Hauck

Abstract

While in many cases the benefits of ecosystem services (ES) can be enjoyed on different scales, the provision of ES requires engagement and commitment at the local scale. Therefore, the local level becomes important when thinking about compensation schemes or payments for ecosystem services (PES) as an approach to managing ES. The difficult task of bringing together different actors and institutions at different scales for specific conservation projects at the local level often remains in the hands of intermediaries. In this paper, we investigate the role of a civil society organisation (CSO) as an intermediary organisation in a PES scheme, the Community Blue Carbon Project (CBCP) in Costa Rica. To assess the role of intermediaries in a PES scheme, we rely on social network analysis and examine the position and role of the intermediary organisation. Based on Net-Map interviews, which is an interview-based mapping tool that helps people understand, visualise, discuss and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes, we find that the intermediary organisation in the CBCP is composed of several institutional and individual intermediaries who create both formal networks for connecting the international to the local level and informal networks for creating trusting relationships among the actors. Different spatial levels are reflected within the CSO’s organisational structure, and the CSO mitigates the distributional, procedural, recognition and contextual aspects of environmental justice.

External Organisation(s)

Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)
Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health
CoKnow Consulting - Coproducing Knowledge for Sustainability

Type

Article

Journal

Local Environment

Volume

23

Pages

635-651

No. of pages

17

Publication date

09.04.2018

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2018.1460808 (Access: Closed)