Natural Resource Management - Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder analysis originated from business management practices and has been incorporated into natural resource management in ever growing popularity. Stakeholder analysis in the context of natural resource management identifies distinctive interest groups affected in the utilisation and conservation of natural resources.

There is no definitive definition of a stakeholder as illustrated in the table below. Especially in natural resource management as it is difficult to determine who has a stake and this will differ according to each potential stakeholder.

Different approaches to who is a stakeholder:

Source Who is a stakeholder Kind of research
Freeman. ‘‘can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives’’ Business Management
Bowie ‘‘without whose support the organization would cease to exist’’ Business Management
Clarkson ‘‘…persons or groups that have, or claim, ownership, rights, or interests in a corporation and its activities, past, present, or future.’’ Business Management
Grimble and Wellard ‘‘…any group of people, organized or unorganized, who share a common interest or stake in a particular issue or system…’’ Natural resource

management
Gass et al. ‘‘…any individual, group and institution who would potentially be affected, whether positively or negatively, by a specified event, process or change.’’ Natural resource

management
Buanes et al ‘‘…any group or individual who may directly or indirectly affect—or be affected—…planning to be at least potential stakeholders.’’ Natural resource

management
Brugha and Varvasovszky ‘‘…actors who have an interest in the issue under consideration, who are affected by the issue, or who—because of their position—have or could have an active or passive influence on the decision making and implementation process.’’ Health policy
ODA ‘‘… persons, groups or institutions with interests in a project or programme.’’ Development

Therefore it is dependent upon the circumstances of the stakeholders involved with natural resource as to which definition and subsequent theory is utilised.

Billgrena and Holme identified the aims of stakeholder analysis in natural resource management:

  • Identify and categorise the stakeholders that may have influence
  • Develop an understanding of why changes occur
  • Establish who can make changes happen
  • How to best manage natural resources

This gives transparency and clarity to policy making allowing stakeholders to recognise conflicts of interest and facilitate resolutions. There are numerous stakeholder theories such as Mitchell et al. however Grimble created a framework of stages for a Stakeholder Analysis in natural resource management. Grimble designed this framework to ensure that the analysis is specific to the essential aspects of natural resource management.

Stages in Stakeholder analysis:

  1. Clarify objectives of the analysis
  2. Place issues in a systems context
  3. Identify decision-makers and stakeholders
  4. Investigate stakeholder interests and agendas
  5. Investigate patterns of inter-action and dependence (e.g. conflicts and compatibilities, trade-offs and synergies)

Application:

Grimble and Wellard established that Stakeholder analysis in natural resource management is most relevant where issued can be characterised as;

  • Cross-cutting systems and stakeholder interests
  • Multiple uses and users of the resource.
  • Market failure
  • Subtractability and temporal trade-offs
  • Unclear or open-access property rights
  • Untraded products and services
  • Poverty and under-representation

Case studies:

In the case of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a comprehensive stakeholder analysis would have been relevant and the Batwa people would have potentially been acknowledged as stakeholders preventing the loss of people’s livelihoods and loss of life.

Nepal, Indonesia and Koreas' community forestry are successful examples of how stakeholder analysis can be incorporated into the management of natural resources. This allowed the stakeholders to identify their needs and level of involvement with the forests.

Criticisms:

  • Natural resource management stakeholder analysis tends to include too many stakeholders which can create problems in of its self as suggested by Clarkson. ‘‘Stakeholder theory should not be used to weave a basket big enough to hold the world’s misery.’’
  • Starik proposed that nature needs to be represented as stakeholder. However this has been rejected by many scholars as it would be difficult to find appropriate representation and this representation could also be disputed by other stakeholders causing further issues.
  • Stakeholder analysis can be used exploited and abused in order to marginalise other stakeholders.
  • Identifying the relevant stakeholders for participatory processes is complex as certain stakeholder groups may have been excluded from previous decisions.
  • On-going conflicts and lack of trust between stakeholders can prevent compromise and resolutions.

Alternatives/ Complementary forms of analysis:

  • Social Network Analysis
  • Common Pool Resource

Read more about this topic:  Natural Resource Management

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