Identifying and harmonizing the priorities of stakeholders in the Chesapeake Bay environmental monitoring community

Abstract

Research collaborations between volunteer monitoring groups and environmental scientists and managers are instrumental for understanding and managing complex socioecological systems. In the Chesapeake region, the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative (CMC) helps coordinate volunteer monitoring efforts throughout the watershed, and facilitates collaboration between environmental stakeholders. However, stakeholders perceive their environment and their own role in different ways, and these perceptions affect how they prioritize problems and respective solutions. We conducted a survey to explore the extent to which cultural knowledge about environmental monitoring was shared across the CMC community, pinpoint key similarities and differences in how stakeholder groups prioritized various environmental monitoring goals, and understand stakeholders' perspectives of the CMC's resources. We learned that stakeholders drew from a shared system of cultural knowledge surrounding environmental monitoring and prioritized goals related to collecting actionable data and improving environmental conditions. There were also compelling differences in how stakeholder groups prioritized increasing knowledge and building a sense of community. Furthermore, stakeholders especially valued CMC resources associated with increasing the quality, quantity, and accessibility of volunteer-collected data. Based on our results, we developed recommendations to inform the design and coordination of other collaborative environmental monitoring programs. We argue that cultural consensus can provide a foundation for collaboration, and stakeholders' highest-priority monitoring goals can inform organizational priorities and strategic outreach. Furthermore, efforts to build social capital and understand stakeholders' changing priorities over time will be important for ensuring the continued success of the research partnership.