Five challenges to adaptive governance by Dr. Bruce Stiftel

Techniques of conflict resolution to balance the interests of stakeholders are incorporated in efforts to adapt government. Facilitating conflict naturally produces challenges to cooperation and communication. Dr. Stiftel presented five challenges to adaptive governance that were identified by the contributors to the study of water management in Florida, which help explain that the concept of adaptive governance is in its early stages and that these challenges are 'key to creating successful second-order institutions capable of adaptive governance.' Stakeholder identification can be difficult, because all parties involved need to be effectively represented, and the process of the design has to involve all stakeholders and authorities so that policy agreements can be reached. Two areas of learning also present challenges to adaptive governance. Scientific learning must be regarded by stakeholders as indefinite, and there needs to be an understanding that answers will not be readily available from scientific study. Discussions of public learning highlight the necessity for transparency of the decision-making process. The public has a right to information so that they understand the alternatives available to them in managing a resource as valuable as water. Finally, a major challenge to the concept of adaptive governance is the ability to respond to the problems of resource management and to achieve the goals of sustainability, equity, and efficiency. Dr. Stiftel explained that, 'We have to reinvent government over and over again…' in order to accommodate different agencies dealing with new problems in water management.

Time: 10 min 14 sec