Scale Misfit in Ecosystem Service Governance as a Source of Environmental Conflict

Abstract

We examine transformations in institutional regimes defining access to ecosystem services in Doñana, a rural region in southwestern Spain that is internationally recognized for its outstanding biocultural values. First, we review historical changes in rules, norms, and conventions defining access to ecosystem services. Second, we conduct a survey among local informants to assess the scales at which ecosystem services are supplied, demanded, and governed and discuss scale misfits in relation to historical conflicts over access to ecosystem services. We identify (1) two major periods of institutional change, characterized by conflicts between the central state and local users from enclosures of communal lands and associated restrictions in access to ecosystem services, and (2) a clash between customary governance institutions and new ones emerging with growing central state intervention and market integration. Our results suggest that multilevel governance regimes that promote coordination and institutional diversity across scales while respecting local sovereignty over ecosystem management are more likely to prevent environmental conflicts and to produce better outcomes regarding the long-term sustainable use of ecosystem services.

Keywords:

• communal lands
• Doñana
• enclosure
• environmental conflicts
• institutional diversity
• resource regimes
• scale misfit
• Spain

Acknowledgments

We thank all local informants for the time and attention devoted to this research. Research leading to these results has received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project CGL2011-30266), and from the European Community's 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement 308428. The contents of this article reflect only the author's views, and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.

Notes

Note. Classification and scales of delivery and use based on previous ecosystem service assesssment in Doñana by Gómez-Baggethun et al. (2011) and Martín-López et al. (2011). The scale at which ecosystem services are governed as perceived by the locals is based on the chi-squared test (χ² = 4183.5; p < .0001).