Bridging knowledge between marine conservation actors in Pacific Small Island Developing States: A new perspective on the work of boundary organisations
Summary
In the face of growing pressures on the marine environment, the significance of evidence-based decision-making in the realm of marine conservation policies is of utmost importance. In this context, the current literature predominantly concentrates on understanding and addressing barriers to knowledge exchange between scientists and policymakers, as well as exploring diverse science-policy interface models. Among these approaches, boundary organisations stand out as highly promising in bridging the gap between science and policymaking. Through their boundary work, comprising the transfer of knowledge through the production of boundary objects and the facilitation of knowledge exchange, boundary organisations aim at achieving an uptake of knowledge by policymakers, thus contributing to evidence-based decision-making. Fundamental in this process of boundary work is that the knowledge conveyed is perceived as salient, credible, and legitimate by the actors addressed, as this is seen as a prerequisite for knowledge uptake into the policy sphere.
Based on this theoretical background, several success factors for the work of boundary organisations were identified in the literature. However, so far, the research on knowledge exchange between marine scientists and policymakers as well as on boundary organisations in general is largely based on case studies in the Global North, highlighting the need to conduct studies on knowledge uptake in different geographical and political settings, with an increased focus on the Global South. By confronting the current conceptual view on boundary organisations with the specific empirical reality of marine conservation in Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS), this thesis seeks to improve knowledge uptake in SIDS by identifying factors and strategies for successful boundary work in this context and to enrich the generic understanding of the role of boundary organisations with perspectives from the Global South.
The results of this study contribute to the current literature on boundary organisations in several respects. Based on the insights from a series of interviews with boundary organisations working on marine conservation in Pacific SIDS, the success factors identified in the literature could be supplemented and concretised, resulting in the development of a new framework for successful boundary work that is better adapted to realities in the Global South. In particular, the findings shed light on the so far largely unrecognised sphere of local communities in the work of boundary organisations. The observed importance of local communities for marine conservation in Pacific SIDS necessitates a reconceptualisation of the understanding of boundary work towards science-policy-community interfaces, emphasising that the gap between marine science and policy can only be bridged by engaging local communities and their knowledge due to their essential role for the production and dissemination of salient, credible, and legitimate knowledge.