Management relates to the goal-directed decisions people make when interacting with a shared resource. In its simplest sense, there is one group or one individual with a shared goal. With this definition, management is a subset of governance at a smaller scale and with a shared goal. Natural resource management means managing the way in which people and natural landscapes interact.

Management can be “put in place”, e.g. by creating a national park and assigning organizations and people to positions of authority, monitoring and sanctioning of implemented institutions. Management can also arise spontaneously as groups of people exploit some natural resource. Another term for this is collective action.

Management failures can occur when: 1) the resource is not efficiently and sustainably used 2) the use of the resource generates inequalities that are detrimental to society and 3) the use of the resource generates negative externalities.

Hardin’s “tragedy of the commons” refers to such management failures. Solutions to management failures are amongst many, co-management and stakeholder participation and dialog, as well as governance. In 2012, Elinor Ostrom got the Nobel prize in economics for analysing institutional solutions that addressed management failures.

Different uses of the term

Management is often used by people (practitioners and scientists) that work close to the focal resource. We talk about local managers. Ecologists that work for sustainability related causes often begin by focusing on management, i.e. how to interact with the resource.

The concept of management originates from business and to some people it has a notion of “taking control”, which is one of the reasons why sustainability science scholar are increasingly using the concept of governance to refer to processes previously referred to as management.

Co-management

Co-management involves bringing in multiple actors with potentially diverging goals and thus conflicting interests, co-management = management + stakeholder participation. A prerequisite for co-management are minimal rights to organize and thus creating the conditions for co-management can be a form of governance.

Contributors

Jon Norberg