Remaking ocean governance in Aotearoa New Zealand through boundary-crossing narratives about ecosystem-based management

Abstract

Despite international advances in linking ecosystem knowledge and ecosystem-based management (EBM) frameworks, progress in Aotearoa New Zealand to develop holistic ocean management has been hesitant and slow. The paper explores ocean governance by combining enactive narratives and boundary-crossing thinking. Strategic use of narratives can energise different collective imaginaries for holistic ocean governance at various scales. The narrative resources developed steer towards place making approaches enabling connected and holistic governance. This reflective paper revisits co-journeying and thought extensions, with the aim of supporting the reader to also think and do marine governance differently. We tell a story of co-creating narrative resources to show our navigation of the difficulties and learnings therein. We emphasise contextualising and development of narrative storylines, and the enactive workshop processes through which a distinctive bicultural, socio-scientific and grounded multi-media portfolio of narratives was produced. Five EBM narrative resources were circulated for review to gain feedback into how narratives as carriers of critical messages about marine governance practices might be received in different settings. We use boundary thinking to examine the translational possibilities and performative effects of deploying narratives. Feedback revealed deep tensions when reviewers assessed the narratives in terms of personal and professional positionings, and when reflecting on the social and collective work that EBM narratives provoke. The research provokes urgent recognition of the complexity of both the conception and practicalities of advancing holistic ocean governance, whilst also providing techniques for navigating these complexities.