From Maps to Models: Participation and Contestability in the Dynamic Management of Natural Resources

How does stakeholder participation in natural resource management change when conservation rules are grounded in near real-time data? Recognition of our rapidly changing climate and recent technological advances have facilitated the increased feasibility of the “dynamic management” of natural resources, which promises to align the spatiotemporal scales of management with ecological variability and resource use. Drawing on Kelty’s (2020) concept of “contributory autonomy,” this article offers a critical comparison of how participation is conceived of in the more established context of static conservation areas and planning versus the emergent field of dynamic management. A systematic review of the dynamic ocean management literature reveals a varied, but shallow engagement with the topic of stakeholder participation in that context. Whereas static management regimes are governed by intuitive and readily contestable maps, dynamic management is governed by models and data flows. Overall, the decision-making stakeholder of participatory mapping processes under static management is displaced by the stakeholder conceived as an “end user” of a dynamic management product. Yet, these shifts also open up potential points of contestation, which may pattern the future theory and practice of participation in dynamic management: counterdata, countermodeling, and data chokepoints. Beyond the empirical focus on oceans, this article contributes to broader conversations about the political stakes of environmental data, and algorithmic and artificial intelligence-driven natural resource conservation by considering how possibilities for participation are foreclosed, enabled, and reconstituted by new spatiotemporal and technological conditions.