ELD Initiative: Practitioner’s Guide_Pathways and Options for Action and Stakeholder Engagement
As the world’s population continues to rise, there is an ever increasing demand for our land to produce a diverse range of products such as food, timber, and fuel. Our growing need for these goods is leading to higher levels of competition between different land uses and, as a result, land users. Not only is the quantity of land available for production under current technical and economic conditions limited, but there is also growing evidence that the quality of our land is degrading (Safriel, U. N. 2007; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005; TEEB, 2010). As a result, healthy land that is available for production is becoming an increasingly scarce resource, and there is a great need to make better use of what we have available, both now and in the future. Improved co-production of knowledge is needed between scientists, local community members, technical advisors, administrators and policy makers. These different groups may be considered “stakeholders”, defined as those who are affected by or who can affect a decision or issue (Freeman, 1984). Stakeholder engagement can be defined as “a process where individuals, groups and organisations choose to take an active role in making decisions that affect them” (Reed, 2008). It is argued that stakeholder engagement may enhance the robustness of policy decisions designed to reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems and human populations to land degradation (de Vente et al., in press). In this way, it may be possible to develop response options that are more appropriate to the needs of local communities and can protect their livelihoods and wellbeing (ibid).