英文摘要 |
Misalignments or mismatches between governance and ecosystems are a key sustainability challenge that requires a collaboration and coordination network to design integrated solutions for tackling wicked problems of ecosystem degradation. Yet before any integrated solution can be designed, there is a dearth of knowledge on and comprehensive understanding about the complex social-ecological system that the restoration governing mechanism is embedded within and depends on. Recognizing the abovementioned epistemological challenge, this paper argues that one of the prerequisites to tackle mismatches in restoring ecosystem is the intervention of researchers as scale-crossing brokers to co-produce knowledge with multiple stakeholders and link the disconnected stakeholders to prepare a future coalition of ecosystem restorative activities. The endeavor of researchers as brokers in this case is to link not only social and ecological knowledge but also knowledge currently held in individual environment governing entities in order to create the database for a system-thinking approach and pave ways for future collective action. By using urban river restoration governance as an exemplary field, this research showcases with empirical studies of the problem of both urban and rural sustainability, namely, the Wannian River and the Donggang River in Taiwan, respectively, how the role of researchers can actively play as scale-crossing brokers to link disconnected knowledge and stakeholders at the level of five scales: 1) human-nature scale, 2) temporal scale, 3) spatial scale, 4) institutional scale and 5) methodological scale. Moving beyond the empirical case demonstration, this study makes an additional attempt to match the roles of researchers with eight principles underpinning ecological restoration to explore specific tasks researchers can potentially play as intermediate agents in the future. |