Integrating stakeholder knowledge into the management of a social-ecological system: Mental models, risk, and trust in Atlantic coast fisheries

Historical approaches to natural resource management have largely viewed resource managers, resource users, and the resources as distinct and separate components. This perspective has highlighted the conceptual boundaries between management, social systems and ecosystems. Recent failures in this normative approach however, such as major declines in fisheries, have challenged this traditional perspective. Many management institutions are now adopting a systems perspective which embeds resource management within the human system, and the human system within the broader ecosystem. This new paradigm has produced new frameworks like ecosystem-based management and theoretical tools such as coupled social-ecological systems (SES). These new frameworks are thought to be more beneficial for natural resource management decision-making since they acknowledge important links between social and eco-systems and include more complexity. This complexity, however, presents new challenges as managers and researchers now seek ways to characterize the components, relationships, and dynamics within these systems as a way to inform natural resource policies. To address some of these challenges, this dissertation research seeks to better understand the role that stakeholder knowledge plays in influencing natural resource management in a model SES, mid-Atlantic marine fisheries. I begin by characterizing the SES and outlining differences in knowledge systems by evaluating representations of stakeholder mental models. Next, through interview data collected from fishery managers and scientists, I categorize the conceptual risks within the SES to outline the goals of management and what policies in SES seek to address. Then, I evaluate factors which affect trust of fishery management institutions from the perspective of resource users. Finally, I offer recommendations on how to align knowledge systems between resource users and resource management toward shared goals.