Stakeholder participation in marine management: the importance of transparency and rules for participation

Conserving nature requires the management of people and managing together with people. Marine management relies on scientific knowledge and expertise but is also inherently political, as it deals with aspects of resource access. Both local knowledge of practitioners and stakeholders' world views, values, and perceptions are important, adding to the scientific knowledge base and to understanding the management context. This chapter synthesizes existing literature and reviews on stakeholder participation. We analyze two marine management cases using eight key features of participation. The analyses illustrate that a participatory process can still not be successful if an underpinning participatory philosophy and clear objectives are lacking, participation is delayed and not well institutionalized. Clarity is needed about the participatory philosophy and process objective. The goal can be sharing knowledge or negotiating a decision. The increased need of stakeholder knowledge requires clarity about which of the two is driving the process. Rules of the game, including roles, responsibilities, and mandate need to be clear to all participants from the beginning.