Seeking common ground in Dryland systems: Steps towards adaptive water governance

TY - JOUR

T1 - Seeking common ground in Dryland systems

T2 - Steps towards adaptive water governance

AU - Porras, Gabriel Lopez

AU - Stringer, Lindsay C.

AU - Quinn, Claire H.

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: This research received financial support ENERGIA-SUSTENTABILIDAD ENERGETICA Grant No. 439115. Funding Information: The first author acknowledges financial support from the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) and the Mexican Ministry of Energy. This research received financial support from CONACYT-SECRETARIA DE ENERGIA-SUSTENTABILIDAD ENERGETICA Grant No. 439115. Funding Information: Acknowledgments: The first author acknowledges financial support from the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) and the Mexican Ministry of Energy. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 by the authors.

PY - 2020/2/12

Y1 - 2020/2/12

N2 - Drylands are exposed to climate stressors, such as water scarcity, as well as societal stressors, including conflicts, which can make water governance unsuitable for the system's context. The emergence of adaptive water governance often takes places in these challenging contexts, but the process of achieving this style of governance requires a better consideration of system complexities. Using the Rio del Carmen watershed in Mexico as a case study, with primary data obtained through a questionnaire survey carried out with 217 farmers, this paper aims to identify the main complexities and needs to enable the emergence of adaptive water governance. We found that different groups of farmers converge in identifying system stressors and the main needs regarding water governance; yet, the ways these stressors are perceived differ between groups. The results indicate that contrasting perceptions are shaped by the different cultural roots and environmental conditions in the upper and lower parts of the watershed. This variation increases the difficulty in achieving collaboration and compromise when conflicts ensue. Reducing inequalities in the awareness of system stressors has the potential to enable adaptive water governance. This could be achieved through a peacebuilding technique with an appropriate cultural approach for the watershed's context in the early stages of a stakeholder engagement process.

AB - Drylands are exposed to climate stressors, such as water scarcity, as well as societal stressors, including conflicts, which can make water governance unsuitable for the system's context. The emergence of adaptive water governance often takes places in these challenging contexts, but the process of achieving this style of governance requires a better consideration of system complexities. Using the Rio del Carmen watershed in Mexico as a case study, with primary data obtained through a questionnaire survey carried out with 217 farmers, this paper aims to identify the main complexities and needs to enable the emergence of adaptive water governance. We found that different groups of farmers converge in identifying system stressors and the main needs regarding water governance; yet, the ways these stressors are perceived differ between groups. The results indicate that contrasting perceptions are shaped by the different cultural roots and environmental conditions in the upper and lower parts of the watershed. This variation increases the difficulty in achieving collaboration and compromise when conflicts ensue. Reducing inequalities in the awareness of system stressors has the potential to enable adaptive water governance. This could be achieved through a peacebuilding technique with an appropriate cultural approach for the watershed's context in the early stages of a stakeholder engagement process.

KW - Agricultural systems

KW - Cultural sensitivity

KW - Mexico

KW - Perceptions survey

KW - Social-ecological resilience

KW - Water scarcity

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081566822&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/w12020498

DO - 10.3390/w12020498

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85081566822

SN - 2073-4441

VL - 12

JO - Water (Switzerland)

JF - Water (Switzerland)

IS - 2

M1 - 498

ER -