9: Locust governance: Challenges and research advancements

While locust outbreaks are known to be influenced both by ecological and socio-organizational variables, social sciences are largely ignored in the locust world. Here, we highlight the interest of governance studies to analyze locust’s outbreaks. Using literature review, interviews and participatory workshops, we propose a comparative approach involving four species: the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), the South American locust (Schistocerca cancellata), the Australian plague locust (Chortoicetes terminifera) and the Senegalese grasshopper (Oedaleus senegalensis). In this presentation, we will develop the results that emerged from a two-day workshop conducted in Argentina in 2020, addressing: i) the analysis of the current outbreak situation in South America; ii) the governance structure involved in locust management in this case and iii) the strengths, areas for improvement and remaining challenges. We additionally, highlight the ongoing re-organization process of governance in this case. Finally, we discuss the specificities of locust governance compared to other extreme events and define them as a triple burden: an extreme amplitude requiring massive management capacity, an extreme spatial variation requiring large-scale and even transboundary coordination, and an extreme temporal variation with recession times inducing a loss of both knowledge, trust and means of action. In this context, coordination and management during recession times are two of the main challenges faced by locust governance around the world. We conclude on the necessity to adopt a systemic perspective linking both social science and natural science to address locust outbreaks.