Stepping stones to transformative participatory governance capabilities in a rural landscape restoration project

Local participation in managing natural resources is key to ensuring that community members living within and relying upon ecosystems can influence planning and decision-making. Transformative and inclusive governance towards sustainable outcomes requires the presence of local actors with appropriate capabilities. This paper identifies means (or stepping stones) to cultivate transformative participatory governance capabilities. We analyse the outcomes of a learning system involving researchers and participants (collectively co-learners) employed within a transdisciplinary landscape restoration project – the Tsitsa Project, in the rural Tsitsa River Catchment in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Developing governance capabilities enhanced the sustainability of the project’s localised impact. We conducted a qualitative analysis of the learning outcomes and process documentation, using a value creation framework. We found three stepping stones particularly effective at enabling transformative value creation: i) consistently adapting to novel and evolving constraints, ii) investing in effective, fair facilitation from the beginning, and iii) promoting participatory confidence through exposure to diverse governance spaces. The active, engaged development of participatory capabilities is a foundational step in the process of developing participatory governance practice. The insights can inform the development of transformative participation approaches in natural resource governance, particularly for rural communities.