A SYSTEMIC ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATORY LAND AND WATER GOVERNANCE IN THE TSITSA RIVER CATCHMENT, SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

Participation of diverse stakeholders is essential for adaptive governance of land and water resources, along with the complex social-ecological systems in which the resources are embedded. Local manifestations of participation vary considerably. Successful resource governance requires arriving at compromises and trade-offs. This paper documents the findings from a systemic analysis of participatory governance in the Tsitsa River Catchment in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. A multi-method approach was designed to compare mental models elicited from actors with narratives crafted from participant observation data. Here, we focus on meaningful participatory governance that we define as being intelligible and significant to the actors involved as well as relevant to and coherent within a broader, multi-level governance system. The findings suggest that while there are multiple available options for enabling participation, there are also multiple obstacles inhibiting participatory governance. Challenges relate to accessibility and mobility, allocation of governance capacity, change resistance to power sharing, and persistent mental models that perpetuate old habits. Despite widespread support for more participation in governance, the application of participatory approaches should avoid becoming box-ticking exercises that are tokenistic or manipulative. We highlight the importance of context for enabling meaningful participation and the need to pioneer appropriate analysis methods.