Linking marine and terrestrial ecosystem services through governance social networks analysis in Central Patagonia (Argentina)

Abstract

The complex relationship among diverse natural factors in a given ecosystem and with society could be not explicitly reflected in governance actions and policy. Social networks are useful tools to characterize these links but few studies include social and ecological nodes. We applied social network analysis to characterize governance and use networks in a coastal socio-ecological system while testing (i) if governance links reflects ecosystem services (ES) use links, (ii) if social links reflect ecological relations between continental and marine ES and (iii) if relations among social actors are associated with their use of and participation in the management of ES. We use structured interviews to build one-mode use and governance networks with social actors and two-mode networks relating social actors and ES. Our results showed cohesive, low density and centralized networks of governance and use. We found that actor-actor links reflect ecological relations between continental and marine environment, but actor-actor relations are weakly correlated with those derived from actor-ES relations, meaning that actors with common interest about ES are no necessarily working together. This paper also shows that social networks are useful to highlight gaps and paths to move the system toward more effective co-management structures.