Why do governance institutions and practices in Marine Protected Areas generally fail to keep pace with ecological transitions due to climate change? Researchers from four institutes -the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO), Wageningen University & Research and NIAS - will collaborate to find out, as they have been awarded a grant from the Institutes Research Fund of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Climate Change and Governance in Indonesia and the Caribbean: A Pilot Program on Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) and Coastal Nature Reserves
KITLV, NIOO, NIAS and WUR join forces in an interdisciplinary study of the impact of climate change on social-ecological systems (SES). A consortium including Indonesian and Caribbean partners in academia and NGOs will co-create and implement pilot research in four coastal zones in these two tropical archipelagoes. Concretely, it seeks to write a joint ecological and sociopolitical history of selected protected areas in both regions and its effects in the present. If the ecological system in an MPA passes a tipping point into an undesired state, what social impact would this have and what is needed to prevent it? Who has power in the governance structure and who is allowed to represent the state of climate change knowledge?
An interdisciplinary consortium will be formed to engage with these questions and, on this basis, develop concrete advice for effective climate governance and policies.
Academy's Institutes Research Fund
It is the fourth time that Academy has awarded grants from the Institutes Research Fund. The Fund is making it possible for institutes to carry out projects with the aim of reinforcing one or more of the three roles that make a research institute nationally important. The other five successful research projects involve a national website for medieval manuscripts, measuring fertility intentions, repairing damaged nerves, the anatomy of nerve networks and brain analysis methods and preventing root rot in asparagus plants. Together, the projects are receiving EUR 1.5m in funding.