Social network analysis and the implications for Pontocaspian biodiversity conservation in Romania and Ukraine: A comparative study

RESEARCH ARTICLE Social network analysis and the implications for Pontocaspian biodiversity conservation in Romania and Ukraine: A comparative study Aleksandre GogaladzeID1,2*, Niels RaesID1,3, Jacobus C. Biesmeijer1,2, Camelia Ionescu4, Ana-Bianca PavelID5, Mikhail O. Son6, Natalia Gozak7, Vitaliy V. Anistratenko8, Frank P. Wesselingh1,9 1 Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2 Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, 3 NLBIF–Netherlands Biodiversity Information Facility, Leiden, The Netherlands, 4 WWF Romania, Bucharest, Romania, 5 Constanta Branch of the National Institute for Research and Development on Marine Geology and Geo-ecology–GeoEcoMar, Constanta, Romania, 6 Institute of Marine Biology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Odessa, Ukraine, 7 NGO "Ecoaction", Kyiv, Ukraine, 8 Department of Invertebrate Fauna and Systematics, Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine, 9 Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands * aleksandre.gogaladze@naturalis.nl Abstract Romania and Ukraine share the Black Sea coastline, the Danube Delta and associated hab- itats, which harbor the endemic, aquatic Pontocaspian biota. Currently, this biota is dimin- ishing both in numbers of species and their abundance because of human activities, and its future persistence strongly depends on the adequacy of conservation measures. Romania and Ukraine have a common responsibility to address the conservation of Pontocaspian bio-

diversity. The two countries, however have different socio-political and legal conservation frameworks, which may result in differences in the social network structure of stakeholder institutions with different implications for Pontocaspian biodiversity conservation. Here, we study the social network structure of stakeholder organizations involved in conservation of Pontocaspian biodiversity in Romania and the implications of network structure for conser- vation outcomes. Then we compare the findings from Romania to an earlier similar study from Ukraine. We apply a mix of qualitative and quantitative social network analysis meth- ods to combine the content and context of the interactions with relational measures. We show that Pontocaspian biodiversity plays a minor and mostly incidental role in the inter- organizational interactions in Romania. Furthermore, there is room for improvement in the network structure through e.g. more involvement of governmental and nongovernmental organizations and increased motivation of central stakeholders to initiate conservation actions. Social variables, such as lack of funding, hierarchical, non-inclusive system of con- servation governance and continuous institutional reforms in the public sector are conse- quential for the network relations and structure. Social network of stakeholders in Ukraine is more connected and central stakeholders utilize their favorable positions. However, neither in Ukraine is the Pontocaspian biodiversity a driver of organizational interactions. Conse-

quently, both networks translate into sub-optimal conservation actions and the roads to PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221833 October 23, 2020 1 / 20 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Gogaladze A, Raes N, Biesmeijer JC, Ionescu C, Pavel A-B, Son MO, et al. (2020) Social network analysis and the implications for Pontocaspian biodiversity conservation in Romania and Ukraine: A comparative study. PLoS ONE 15 (10): e0221833. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0221833 Editor: Paulo Takeo Sano, University of Sao Paulo, BRAZIL Received: August 12, 2019 Accepted: October 6, 2020 Published: October 23, 2020 Copyright: © 2020 Gogaladze et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files. Funding: This research was funded by the EU Innovative Training Network (ITN) Pontocaspian Biodiversity Rise and Demise (PRIDE) Program (grant agreement number: 642973 – PRIDE – H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014). Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.