Social-ecological system: Saxon Switzerland

Ostrom’s framework applied: National park Saxon Switzerland (Germany)


This summer, my brother and I hiked through the Saxon Switzerland national park. Since the reunification of Germany, it has resurrected from its former poor state and become one of the country's most iconic nature reserves. How was the park able to sustain itself so well?
In order to arrive at a conclusion to this answer, I will apply Ostrom's framework, which helps analyze the sustainability of complex, social-ecological system (SES), such as Saxon Switzerland.

The SES framework is a multi-level framework that shows the relationships between social, economic and political settings. Furthermore, it helps identify and analyze the relationships among the multiple levels of these complex systems at different spatial and temporal scales. In the following analysis, I will first explore the first-level core subsystems and then the deeper nested second-level and deeper level variables.

Lastly, I will try to conclude why the SES is able to sustain itself and what the probability of self-organization is. This ultimately depends on whether the expected benefits of managing the resource exceed the perceived costs of investing in better rules and norms for most users and leaders.

The Bastei  -  (Picture: Carl Kuehl)

Resource system
Saxon Switzerland is a land-related resource system with a small mountain range and large forest areas around it (RS1). It is 95.3 km² (RS3) large and clearly marked on maps and roads by signs (RS2). While large size is not conducive to self-organization due to the high costs of boundary definition and monitoring, I believe this not to be the case with Saxon Switzerland, since it is only the 12th largest national park in Germany (BFN). In terms of size, I would therefore rather consider it moderately large.

The most noteworthy of all human facilities apart from hiking and climbing trails is “the Bastei” (RS4).  It is an old medieval bridge, running over a steep rock formation and the most iconic landmark of the park.

Source: Ostrom, E. (2009). A general framework for analyzing the sustainability of social- ecological systems, Science 325, 419-422.

Resource units
The resource units in Saxon Switzerland (mountain ranges and forests) are very immobile. In terms of self-organization, the lack of mobility makes self-organization easier compared to mobile resource units (RU1). There are, however, also more mobile resource units. The lynx, is one of the parks most famous wildlife attractions.
In terms of the growth and replacement rate (RU2), it is slightly higher for the lynx population than for the trees, but care has to be taken of both. Especially the lynx population is recovering from near extinction just a few decades ago and still remains in a fragile state. They are highly protected within the park.
The low mobility of trees and rock formations is conducive to self-organization, while the wildlife's (lynx) mobility, might cause potential problems. Especially for wildlife protection (RU2), I see potential problems for self-organization, due to the fragility of the lynx population.

Governance system
The governing bodies are a mix of local municipalities, state and federal organizations (GS1). They watch over the preservation of the natural habitat as well as the organization of tourism. In terms of financial and technical support the state takes most responsibility with some federal support. 
The management of the park is largely decentralized. All actors involved, from the federal to the municipal level, have specific duties. By giving local users more freedom, the governance system allows for everyone to have a stake in the management of the park and therefore encourages self-organization.


Users
There are many users of the park, including tourists, pension owners, small business owners (U1). In 2011 the park registered close to 350 000 visitors. Since the re-unification of Germany, the region has seen a steep increase in the number of tourists, resulting in the establishment of many small hotels, pensions and other SMEs, which cater towards the needs of the tourists.
In my opinion, the large size of users effects self-organization in two ways. On one hand, this large size of users (tourists) benefits self-organization, since they bring money to the region and thus provide the system with the ability to fund preservation and sustainability measures. 
On the other hand, however, there are significantly higher costs in monitoring tourists and ensuring their proper behavior. In order to overcome this, it will be crucial to develop Norms and social capital (U6) in order to instill the same moral and ethical standards among all users.
I feel that the park achieved this, by informing tourists regularly about nature preservation rules and offering them plenty of freedoms. Overall, I felt that a sense of shared responsibility for the preservation of the national park was created.

Due to the region's dependence on tourism, the livelihood of most locals is highly dependent on the tourists that visit and thus the state of the national park (U8). To them, there is therefore a direct correlation between the sustainability of the park and their income. The better the state of Saxon Switzerland, the higher their potential income. Their attached value to the resource is therefore conducive to self-organization.

Richard Wagner was inspired to compose "Lohengrin" in the Saxon Switzerland (Picture: Carl Kuehl)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSKoGDEuNdE

Interactions
In terms of interactions, the park administration provides good initial information for users (tourists). Upon arrival, tourists are given an extensive package including maps, emergency contacts, pamphlets, and a printout of the park rules. We were told to stick to the rules and make sure that we would respect the natural surrounding as much as possible (I2).

View on to the Elbe River (Picture: Carl Kuehl)

Outcomes

All things considered, I believe that self-organization will not occur in an isolated fashion in the SES. It is currently embedded in clear state and federal laws concerning nature preservation and subsidized by the federal government. These boundary conditions show that there are existing elements of self-governance in the system. Nevertheless, I believe that these boundary conditions offer enough room for local users such as municipalities and small business owners to self-organize and shape the SES in ways that they see fit. Not only do they know the area the best themselves, their dependence on the park also incentivizes them to take actions towards the sustainable development. I felt as if the different actors in the SES, the users (tourists, business owners) and governance systems did a very good job in setting the rules and regulations. At no point during my trip did I notice a major rule violation by users and I also did not hear from any pension owners that were complaining about the rules. On the contrary, I felt as if there was a shared collective belief that the rules were needed to protect the national park. In conclusion, I believe that a mix of self-governance and self-organization occured in Saxon Switzerland.



Friedman's principle applied to the Saxon Switzerland

In his paper, Friedman argues that private firms should solely pursue profit maximization. In order to make the argument of how Friedman’s proposition can be used in this example, we will use Prakash’s elaboration on why firms act in terms of policy compliance.

We will work under the assumption that any measures beyond the compliance of environmental policies will lead to increased profits because of an increase in visitors.

Prakash defines this policy type as a type 1, in which beyond compliance policies are consistent with profit maximization.  Furthermore, we will construct this argument from the perspective of a small pension owner, dependent on tourism.

Small pension owners in the Saxon Switzerland are highly dependent on a steady seasonal stream of visitors. The large majority of these tourists visit the park for hiking/ climbing trips. In order to maximize the number of people that come to the park (revenue), the pension owners are dependent on a healthy ecosystem. There is an intrinsic motivation for pension owners to go above and beyond the environmental policies and contribute as much as possible to a healthy natural park. There is therefore a direct correlation between the state of the natural park and the profits of pension owners, due to the number of tourists that will visit the park.

If all business owners in the region  internalize this correlation the profit maximization principle of Friedman can be put to great use. The reason for this is that there will be mutual benefits for the environment as well as for the business owners. They can rest assured that any expenses for the environment will also benefit themselves. Pension owners thus exist in a symbiotic relationship with the national park and should be interested in its sustainability.

Sources: 

Bundesamt für Naturschutz: http://www.bfn.de/0308_nsg.html

http://www.saechsische-schweiz.de/elbsandsteingebirge.html

Ostrom, E. (2009). A general framework for analyzing the sustainability of social- ecological systems, Science 325, 419-422.

Prakash, A. (2001). Why do firms adopt ‘beyond‐compliance’environmental policies?. Business strategy and the environment, 10(5), 286-299.