Management of a Changing Natural Environment: The Impact of Sargassum Seaweed in the Caribbean Using the Institutional Analysis and Design Framework

Abstract

This chapter examines Pelagic Sargassum seaweed that has been washing up on shores from Mexico to Ghana in record amounts over the last decade. Increase in Sargassum has had a devastating impact on fisheries and tourism including the livelihoods of coastal communities and nearshore ecosystems. This increase has also caused significant health problems due to the exposure of rotting sargassum. Current science informing this increase points to climatic change and ocean eutrophication. Even as the scientific phenomena is studied, there have been numerous management strategies deployed to adapt to heavy seasonal washups, to build resilience in affected sectors and communities and even explore sustainable uses of the seaweed material turned to viable market products. Here, we focus on public management and administration of Sargassum to consider how the micro- and macroimpacts affect our societies including government and private sector responses to seaweed removal and legal, regulatory, and administrative approaches to such “pollution” that highlight process, jurisdictional, and political imperatives. We unpack via the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) lens to raise and uncover several interesting points regarding how we build resilience to environmental change, manage national systems in the face of unclear nature-based phenomena, and approach to equitable sustainable development.

Citation

Shah, K.U. and McNeil, P. (2022), "Management of a Changing Natural Environment: The Impact of Sargassum Seaweed in the Caribbean Using the Institutional Analysis and Design Framework", Bethell-Bennett, I., Rolle, S.A., Minnis, J. and Okumus, F. (Ed.) Pandemics, Disasters, Sustainability, Tourism, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 145-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-105-420221010