Information Transmission Capacity and Robustness of Natural Resource Governance Networks in Brazil and Indonesia: A Comparative Analysis

摘要

How do different approaches to collaborative natural resource governance impact the associated actor networks' potential for rapid information transmission, and their robustness when subject to sociopolitical change? This is studied in the context of two cases that represent different archetypal regional approaches to coral reef governance. The case in Brazil adopts a centrally coordinated, large-scale protected area governance approach, whereas a self-organized polycentric governance approach is evident in the Indonesian case. Extensive empirical data are analyzed based on social network analysis and an innovative approach for simulating the effects of sociopolitical change on networks. The results show that both governance approaches shaped networks with surprisingly similar information transmission capacity. The network formed by the self-organized polycentric governance approach is found to be more robust than the centrally coordinated network. Mechanisms that contribute to shape the network pattern in the study areas are discussed.