Sustainability, prudential management of Social Ecological Systems (SESs), and the effectiveness of inter-municipal governance are all very important practices to consider. A point raised by Elinor Ostrom is that ecological systems are not purely about nature, but involve sectors of governance, resource use, resource allocation and individual responsibility. The four components mentioned are: Governance systems, resource use, resource units and individual users.[1] The only way then for comprehendible and sustainable management of natural resources is by taking into account the integrative nature of these four areas, and then applying an Integrated Management System (IMS) that corresponds.
Institutional changes are of vital importance when ecological issues are being addressed. This is because without changing the structure of how decisions are made and paradigms of thought are expressed, then the outcome will remain similar and degradation will continue to take place. The Manawatu River suffers badly from a governance structure that is monistic in nature. HRC are in charge of 10 regions in the lower North Island.[2] The councillors that represent the people are proportionally very small, with a range of districts only represented by a single councillor. The process for disputes and disagreements is very arduous and long-winded, with environmental problems taking a long time to be addressed. In order for wide scale changes to be made this institutional setting would need adjustment. The approach to addressing the ecological problems requires a pluralistic setting where the lay-knowledge of local communities perfects the technocratic knowledge of the councillors elected. This process is what the Netherlands went through to better management practices over their waterways.
[1] Elinor Ostrom, “A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems,” Science 325, no. 5939 (2009): pg 420.
[2] 3Horizons-Regional-Council, “Inaugural Council Meeting,”(2010), http://www.horizons.govt.nz/. (accessed October 25, 2010).