Adaptive capacity of marine comanagement: a comparative analysis of the influence of colonial legacies and integrated traditional governance on outcomes in the Pacific

摘要

Integrating traditional institutions into marine resource comanagement has become common across the Pacific. However, these arrangements can link village-based and centralized governance systems in many ways, resulting in new hybridized institutional organizations, operational scales, and governance process. Examining the context-specific social, cultural, and historical processes that shape these programs can reveal how systems for comanagement develop, and how institutional differences influence adaptive capacity. Using analytical tools drawn from critical institutionalism and broad institutional perspectives, we assess how different institutional histories and processes of hybridization informed the adaptive capacity of two comanagement programs in Samoa: the Community-Based Fisheries Management Programme (CBFMP) and the Marine Protected Area (MPA) program. While the programs were embedded in similar cultural and ecological contexts, the MPA program became inactive following the 2009 Pacific tsunami, while the CBFMP endured. In spite of early efforts to involve communities in the MPA program's development, the institutional history and organization of the program's managing agency informed an interpretation of comanagement principles that did not adequately incorporate traditional Samoan institutions for coastal management, reducing its adaptive capacity. In contrast, the CBFMP gained resilience through its fundamental integration with village-based social and political institutions, social norms, and values. This analysis of institutional histories, structures, and program outcomes demonstrates that colonial legacies pose obstacles for successful hybridized governance in the Pacific, while also confirming the valuable contributions integrated traditional institutions can make to improving adaptive capacity.