Lopez Porras, G, Stringer, L orcid.org/0000-0003-0017-1654 and Quinn, CH orcid.org/0000-0002-2085-0446 (2020) Seeking Common Ground in Dryland Systems: Steps Towards Adaptive Water Governance. Water, 12 (2). 498. ISSN 2073-4441
Abstract
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Mexico; social-ecological resilience; perceptions survey; agricultural systems; water scarcity; cultural sensitivity |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 14 Feb 2020 12:11 |
Last Modified: | 14 Feb 2020 12:11 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/w12020498 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:157073 |