Title: From shouting matches to productive dialogue - establishing stakeholder participation in Polish fisheries governance

Authors: Christian Stöhr; Ilan Chabay

Addresses: Department for Applied Information Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden ' Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, 130 Berliner Stasse, 14467 Potsdam, Germany

Abstract: Environmental governance is increasingly turning away from classic top-down hierarchical governance regimes and experimenting with more collaborative forms of governance, e.g., analytic-deliberative participation of resource users. In this paper, we examine the role of the Polish Baltic Sea Fisheries Roundtable as a multi-stakeholder platform in Polish Baltic Sea fisheries governance. The fisheries sector within a country rapidly transitioning from a centrally planned system to (pseudo) market conditions provides an illustrative case in a very difficult context. Employing an action- and learning-based approach, we participated in the initiation and institutionalisation of a process of levelling the playing field and building trust within the fisheries sector in Poland. Using Adler and Birkhoff's collaborative process model for action planning and implementation, we evaluate the approach and outcomes of this project and discuss the results in relation to the existing literature.

Keywords: stakeholder participation; fisheries governance; environmental governance; sustainability; learning; dialogue; trust building; Poland; action research; analytic-deliberative participation; collaborative process model; CPM; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2014.065328

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2014 Vol.17 No.4, pp.403 - 419

Received: 13 Nov 2012
Accepted: 18 Jun 2013
Published online: 31 Oct 2014 *

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