ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is not to describe the challenges of natural resource governance in general, but the challenges of applying adaptive collaborative approaches (ACA) to improve governance and innovation. Moreover, these are narrated from the perspective of actors who are practically concerned with issues of natural resources management and human well-being, and more importantly who value the action orientation in research and a move towards a more adaptive and collaborative approach. The chapter also pools diverse ways through which the ACA actors confronted these challenges in practice as part of their attempts to improve governance and facilitate innovation. So the analyses here seek to capture the perspective of ACA actors – who have themselves become hybrid agencies, with multiple origins – from research, training, policy and implementation backgrounds, but all struggling with the process of change in the ‘context of application’, beyond ‘classical academic extractivism’ or ‘scientism’. For this reason, the structure and flow of the text includes quotes, narratives and interpretations made in the previous chapters, with the aim to distil actionable insights from the experience of having put the ideas into practice.
