Whole decision network analysis for coastal ecosystems (WD-NACE)

In Kenya we will also be working with the local support of UNEP and of KMFRI. The analytical tools we will use will be chosen from a range including Social Network Mapping and Agent-Based Modelling. The entire project will work within the social framework of the concept of Adaptive Co-Management.

The research will integrate locally-grounded climate change knowledge and knowledge about global economic forces with local-generated knowledge about ecosystem quality, resource health, resource use, household income and local power and knowledge networks. This will provide a single database which will help make explicit an understanding of the drivers of resource use patterns which can then be targeted towards creating locally validated knowledge about poverty reduction.

The overall aim is to help decision takers at 'policy-making' levels (both in situ and internationally) to be able to understand better what knowledge resource user decision takers (at the local level) have, and how that knowledge is used to determine action (i.e. how the actions of individual actors influences ecosystem services and poverty alleviation but also how these 'outputs' in turn influence individual action).

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