摘要：Governance networks play an increasingly important role in ecosystem management. Thecollaboration within these governance networks can be formalized or informal, top-down or bottom-up,and designed or self-organized. Informal self-organized governance networks may increase legitimacy ifa variety of stakeholders are involved, but at the same time, accountability becomes blurred when decisionsare taken. Basically, democratic accountability refers to ways in which citizens can control their governmentand the mechanisms for doing so. Scholars in ecosystem management are generally positive to policy/governance networks and emphasize its potential for enhancing social learning, adaptability, and resiliencein social-ecological systems. Political scientists, on the other hand, have emphasized the risk that the publicinterest may be threatened by governance networks. I describe and analyze the multilevel governancenetwork of Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve (KVBR) in Southern Sweden, with the aim ofunderstanding whether and how accountability is secured in the governance network and its relation torepresentative democracy. The analysis suggests that the governance network of KVBR complementsrepresentative democracy. It deals mainly with "low politics"; the learning and policy directions aredeveloped in the governance network, but the decisions are embedded in representative democraticstructures. Because several organizations and agencies co-own the process and are committed to theoutcomes, there is a shared or extended accountability. A recent large investment in KVBR caused a majorcrisis at the municipal level, fueled by the financial crisis. The higher levels of the governance network,however, served as a social memory and enhanced resilience of the present biosphere developmenttrajectory. For self-organized networks, legitimacy is the bridge between adaptability and accountability;accountability is secured as long as the adaptive governance network performs well, i.e., is perceived aslegitimate. Governing and ensuring accountability of governance networks, without hampering theirflexibility, adaptability, and innovativeness, represents a new challenge for the modern state
