Between the Public and the Private Interest: The Interrelationship of Intermediary Roles of Environmental Nonprofits in Coastal Resilience

Abstract

Government regulators cannot mitigate the loss of wetlands and coastal erosion alone. Nonprofits, uniquely situated between coastal property owners with personal interests and governments with regulatory interests, are positioned to mediate the interests of different parties while considering local context and individual circumstances. However, it is unclear what roles environmental nonprofits play within the network of actors. This study asks: (1) What roles do environmental nonprofit organizations play in local stakeholder network arrangements for wetlands conservation and shoreline management? (2) How are these roles interrelated? We use two frameworks describing the roles of nonprofits to examine the roles of environmental nonprofits within the network of actors that seek to mitigate loss of wetlands and coastal erosion by focusing on living shorelines as shoreline management solutions utilizing natural and nature-based features. We show how these roles are interrelated to provide context for how government can leverage nonprofits in achieving regulatory outcomes.