Navigating toward Sustainable Development : Conceptual maps of modes of governance vs. practical experiences in the Dutch fen landscape

In a rare comparative analysis of governance towards sustainable governance, this thesis investigates three modes most prominent in the literature, i.e. adaptive management, transition management and payments for environmental services. The three modes are here analysed in terms of their orientation towards sustainable development and towards steering. Using a set of criteria, i.e. equity, democracy, legitimacy, handling of scale issues and handling of uncertainty issues, each mode is also examined in terms of its orientation towards these criteria on governance for sustainable development. The three modes are studied according to their articulations in the literature, and according to experiences in practice in the Dutch fen landscape. The Dutch fen landscape reveals itself as an exceptional subject for study, as it is a location where the three modes of governance are recognisable in empirical cases, thus enabling a comparative analysis. The Dutch fen landscape features a high population density, intensive economic usage, high pressure on natural resources, and dense institutional setting. In total 15 case studies are analysed in this thesis, for which actors involved were consulted and project documentation was reviewed. The present research observed that the studied modes provide some limited contributions to the sustainability challenge as encountered in the setting studied. No single mode was found to be more suitable to meet the challenge than the other two. The issues identified in the literature as central – i.e. lack of knowledge and cooperation, lack of transformation and innovation, and lack of appropriate economic instruments – are not the central issues in the empirical contexts studied. Central issues in the empirical context include intensive use of natural resources, conflicting interests of actor groups, diverse ideas about urgencies and priorities, and conflicts in or about the decision-making process, mainly about distribution of impacts and decisions perceived as unfair. Efforts to address the sustainability challenge in the Dutch fen landscape may be assisted by a broad, public debate at the supra-regional level among a representation of a large number of actors involved about the future of the setting ­– not necessarily to achieve consensus, but to clarify options, positions and priorities of groups involved. Analysis of the criteria on governance for sustainable development shows that the setting studied may be further assisted by insights into options to achieve fair and acceptable decision making, especially about distribution of losses and gains. Findings indicate that understandings of the modes of governance in the academic debate may be enhanced by addressing observed equity and legitimacy issues and handling of scale issues. Strikingly, diagnosis of the ‘sustainability problem’ receives barely any attention in the literature on governance for sustainable development. Understandings of these modes would be further enhanced by better diagnosis of a sustainability challenge; that is, explicitly specifying ecological, economic, and social issues at stake, why these issues are under pressure and why their protection is considered relevant and desirable. Insight of what drives a problematic situation may help to understand why interventions intended to move towards sustainable development do or do not work