Sovereignty and responsibilization in co-management plans: An action-verb analysis of management plans from Kanaky/New Caledonia

Abstract

Co-management is an environmental governance framework that seeks to empower communities in decision-making and action, but which risks overburdening them in assigning management actions. Management plans codify co-management objectives and actions and offer a dataset for analyzing project discourses, how responsibilities are distributed, and how projects may either empower or overburden management partners. Here, I combine insights from ethnographic research with content and discourse analysis of five co-management plans from Province Nord, Kanaky/New Caledonia using a technique I name action-verb analysis. I use action-verb analysis to assess the responsibilization—or task assignment—of the eight most responsibilized actors. Results show that actors have generalized or specialized roles and that Indigenous-led associations were tasked with a diversity of tasks but sometimes lacked resources to complete them. I consider how co-management arrangements may avoid overburdening Indigenous partners and how Indigenous sovereignty can be supported in co-management so that empowerment is achieved.