TILLies students evaluate indicators of adaptive governance for Knysna Estuary
You may be asking yourself, “What is a TILLie?” and that’s the first question I had when I heard about the programme. Well, TILL stands for Transdisciplinary International Learning Lab, and the TILLies were a group of international students conducting their studies in Germany, Canada, and South Africa and participating in a six-week immersive course aimed at building skills in sustainability research and practice.
As a fully funded programme, TILL is an international and intercultural learning experience for students, aimed at building skills in sustainability research and practice. This year the TILL and TILLies were hosted by the Garden Route Biosphere Reserve, and their projects tackled real-world problems in the marine and coastal environments of the Garden Route.
Mentorship and collaboration with biosphere landscape partners were seen as key aspects contributing to the success of the TILL experience. SANParks, as a landscape partner with the biosphere, was invited to participate in this year’s TILL, to put forward project ideas, and to engage with and provide guidance to the TILLies.
Effective governance of the Knysna Estuary is critical to ensure sustainable and equitable benefit sharing amongst a range of stakeholders. However, in situations where there are many role-players, differing viewpoints, and complex issues, a specific form of environmental governance termed “adaptive governance” is desired. Using both an online questionnaire and in-person interviews, the TILLies assessed stakeholder views on how well key characteristics of adaptive governance were being met within the Knysna Estuary context. Over a very short period of time, 21 in-person interviews were conducted, whilst 16 online questionnaires were received, providing a wealth of information.
Preliminary results indicate that we have a way to go in implementing meaningful adaptive governance. But, perhaps more importantly, the work undertaken by the TILLies provides the first assessment of the adaptive governance indicators, highlights areas to focus on and improve, and provides a baseline from which we can evaluate progress over time. Their work has been a tangible and beneficial contribution to addressing the governance challenges we face in the Knysna Estuary.
