Systemic barriers and participatory gaps in landscape governance: Why collaborative tools fail across contexts despite good intentions
Original framing: “Multi-actor collaboration in integrated landscape approaches” — Phys.org
Colonial land tenure systems (e.g., enclosure acts, *ejido* dispossession in Mexico) created the structural inequities that participatory tools now attempt to navigate, often reinforcing extractive logics. Historical case studies (e.g., Kenya’s *Harambee* failures, India’s *Joint Forest Management* co-optation) show participatory approaches frequently collapse under elite capture or donor conditionalities. The Green Revolution’s 'participatory' irrigation schemes in South Asia displaced millions, illustrating how such tools can exacerbate inequality under the guise of collaboration.
The scoping review’s focus on participatory tools as neutral instruments obscures how colonial land tenure systems, extractive economies, and neoliberal conservation agendas systematically undermine collaboration.
Indigenous legal orders (e.g., Māori *kaitiakitanga*, Andean *ayni*) and African agroecological traditions offer proven alternatives, but these are sidelined in favor of donor-driven templates that prioritize metrics over meaning. Historical precedents—from Kenya’s *Harambee* failures to India’s *Joint Forest Management*—show that participatory processes collapse under elite capture unless tied to land reform and reparations. The solution lies in legal pluralism (recognizing Indigenous legal systems), cultural metrics (measuring ecological well-being), and anti-displacement safeguards (banning 'participatory' conservation zones). Actors like La Via Campesina and Indigenous Ranger Programs demonstrate that collaboration succeeds when it centers land rights, not tool design. The absurdity of current approaches is revealed by Hermes: we extract labor under the guise of participation while denying the land itself. The path forward requires dismantling the extractive logics that frame land as a 'resource' to be collaboratively managed, and instead treating it as kin to be stewarded.