1. List Below Your Major Stakeholders Identified with Relation to Your Land

1. List below your major stakeholders identified with relation to your land

Stakeholder Name / Type of Stakeholder / Description / Relationship to the land
Citizens’ initiative Messdorfer Feld / Civil Society / concerned about land degradation due to urbanization, declare themselves in favour of protection of the land / Preservation and conservation of the land
City of Bonn / Government / interested in the land as part of the land-use plan, economic and structural use (e.g. construction of a cell mast) / Policy and land development, tourist attraction to city
Tourists / Civil Society / worried about losing recreation area in a dense populated region / Preservation and conservation of the land
Buendnis Gruene NRW / Government / fought (successfully) the city and the University of Bonn whose agenda was to expand the campus area onto Messdorfer Feld / Preservation and conservation of the land
Chamber of agriculture / Private businesses / a chance to shed a different light on the image of agriculture( not only monoculture but also contribution to diversity and recreation) / Land development, reputation of agriculture
local residents/Farmers / Civil Society / interested in the nearby area’s development,
space for urban gardening and growing of regional products,
locals benefit from this kind of agriculture since everybody is interested in keeping the field in good condition (principle of the commons) / Land conservation, recreational use

All in all, we identified six stakeholders (seven if you include soil) with varying types from government to private businesses to civil society. In each case, the relationship to the land is on local level. We identified the soil itself as a stakeholder because while developing the area further we need to consider, among other things, the time of soil to recover. Soil is identified as a silent stakeholder but has much influence due to its fertility and its services to the land.

2. Selection of method you used to categorize your identified stakeholders:

Interest-influence matrix (see fig. 1: Interest-influence_matrix_”Messdorfer Feld)

Explain why you choose the selected method?

We choose the interest-influence matrix because it is very visual and accessible. For both, those who are involved in the process of defining the stakeholders as well as those who would be new to the topic, the chart is easy to understand at first glance. Furthermore, the simplicity of it will allow us to shift around the stakeholders along our research if we gain new findings.

The interest-influence matrix gives the possibility to priorities stakeholders’ interest. Furthermore, an internal concept of a process strategy can be drawn out of this.

3. Name the method you intend to use to map your stakeholders?

Venn Diagram (see fig 2: Venn_Diagram_”Messdorfer Feld”).

4. Name the tool you choose to investigate the relationships among your identified stakeholders?

Social Network Analysis
Knowledge Mapping

Explain why you choose the selected tool?

We chose knowledge mapping, possibly in a combination with social network analysis. We think it´s important to define and describe the interrelations between stakeholders to clearly understand their needs and role. Defining an interrelation as a conflict does not necessarily imply a negative input or influence. On the contrary it is very important to understand and accept responders’ constructive criticism as valuable contribution and review the own opinion. However, the knowledge map is important to receive a general overview on knowledge available amongst the stakeholders. Depending on a bigger crowd of stakeholders more or less information is generated. As a tool of control we chose to use the knowledge map in order to document, control and distribute knowledge.

5. Explain how you plan to prioritize the identified stakeholders in relation to their engagement, role, importance and influence over your land work?

We do want to prioritise the identified stakeholders since the interest-influence matrix we created earlier shows that there is a great variation between interest and influence.

As a start, we use the interest-influence matrix to prioritise stakeholders. We want to pay attention to these three kinds of stakeholders: (1) those with decision-making power, (2) the so-called ‘knowledge-brokers’ and, (3) the ‘marginalised’.

For example, it shows that although tourists enjoy the Messdorfer Feld, they neither have great interest in it nor do they have great influence. This is why it might be sufficient to watch them and keep them in mind as a stakeholder but not actively involve them in the process.

Soil will be considered as our fundamental asset. In spite of having no voice (i.e. being marginalised) soil is defined as our stakeholder with great interest. To set a priority list, we want to check the interests, the level of influence and the interrelation with farmers and local citizens as well as the Citizens’ Initiative Messdorfer Feld. From then on, we would include politics and the views of the City of Bonn, Buendnis Gruene NRW and also of the Chamber of Agriculture. Together they have great (political) power of structuring and developing the field.

In addition to the interest-influence matrix, it would be helpful to include further analysis tools. We assume that using the stakeholder-led stakeholder categorization could lead to a different result. Also thinking about the snowball system it might be interesting to identify stakeholders through other stakeholders for identifying diverse opinions and demands. Hence, to identify stakeholders and prioritize them depends also on own initiative of a stakeholder, their engagement and their knowledge. It seems important to us to rethink about past projects and the role of stakeholders and their cooperation within an existing project in the past.

Via questionnaire the local community could be asked about their demands. Results can be integrated at first while talking to farmers and politicians. Probably the least influence have tourists even though they benefit from fresh air and nice scenery in a recreational sense. Therefore we would also recommend querying their point of view via questionnaire.