Land use and environmental degradation in the island state of Mauritius: Governance and problem conceptions

Biodiversity and natural ecosystems underpin human life and wellbeing, yet they are systematically degraded by anthropic activity, with land use change being the direct driver most impacting terrestrial ecosystems. Since scholars argue that solving the biodiversity crisis hinges on the problem conceptions that steer governance, and since land use is governed predominantly at the national level, we seek to identify the problem conceptions expressed through the governance of the land use – environment nexus in a country where ecosystem degradation persists despite tenure security: Mauritius. Through interviews with key informants, corroborated by documentation review, we investigate the current governance systems across legislative, policy, and institutional frameworks to elicit the main governance issues that may reveal underlying problem conceptions. Our results point to weak commons and compromise approaches, which systematically enable land use changes for financial maximization at the expense of natural ecosystems. Economic optimization and ecosystem prioritization approaches were not observed despite recognition of nature’s role in the wellbeing of citizens. In this context, which may be similar in many developing countries, the introduction of biophysical and monetary natural capital accounting is recommended to provide commensurate data on the benefits derived from ecosystems and those derived from economic activities, in order to better inform compromise and prioritization. •Land use change is the direct driver most impacting terrestrial ecosystems.•Ecosystem degradation may persist despite land tenure security.•Land use governance is a potential leverage for positive biodiversity outcomes.•Local sustainability problem conceptions steer national level governance.•Governance in Mauritius is appraised to reveal dominant problem conceptions.