Adaptive Capacity, Governance and Small Island Developing States: A Case Study of Sargassum Management in the Eastern Caribbean

Governance generally, and appropriate operational institutions specifically, are said to be crucial to increasing human adaptive capacity amidst environmental change. But existing conceptualizations tend to assume a universal model of governance will work for states of all sizes. This article questions this orthodoxy which disregards the lack of clarity on size-relevant institutional design and functioning. We do so by focusing on the role of governance in the adaptive capacity of small island developing states (SIDS) facing a new marine social-ecological threat. We draw on a unique dataset of capacity self-assessments undertaken by thirty-eight key agencies involved in the management of sargassum seaweed influx events in the Eastern Caribbean. We found support for the findings of public administration scholars who show that country size is a contextual factor affecting adaptive capacity beyond the control of managers. The implication is that the ability of SIDS to adapt to new or emergent environmental change is crucially inhibited by size-related governance constraints while solutions that mitigate these effects–informal networks and regional organizations–are not well captured by existing metrics. To ensure assessments of adaptive capacity are contextually appropriate we need a more nuanced appreciation of the impacts of state size on governance outcomes.