Collaborative capacity in reconciling fisheries and Saimaa ringed seal protection

Abstract

Restricting human activity for biodiversity conservation seems to evoke conflicts. In the past, measures to alleviate human-wildlife conflicts have largely focused on technical solutions while leaving less attention to the root causes of deeper social conflict between stakeholders. At the same time, traditional governance strategies have found to be insufficient to manage complex problems that overlap different sectors. This has led to an increasing interest in collaborative governance practices.
We use the lens of collaborative capacity to zoom in two ministry-led multilateral stakeholder workgroups that have encountered prolonged conflicts in reconciling fisheries and Saimaa ringed seal protection. Analysis is based on four dimensions of collaborative capacity as proposed by Innes & Booher (2003) which are individual, organizational, governance and relational capacity. Research data consists of a web-based survey (n=44) and interviews (n=24) which were gathered between 2021–2022.
Our results indicate that the conflict related to Saimaa ringed seal conservation is deep-rooted, and that contemporary ministry-led workgroup infrastructure and practices do not support collaboration or future needs of conflict resolution. Increasing the long-term collaborative problem-solving capacities requires timely attention and multidimensional actions to strengthen collaborative skills and processes but also to alter the conflict-sustaining dynamics and patterns of interaction.