# Ethics to Intersect Civic Participation and Formal Guidance
## 4 Discussion: Contextualising the Examples  
As illustrated above, considering complex-adaptive dynamics of SES is vital to understand their governability to improve governance. The wickedness of a complex-adaptive SES is intrinsic because of the conflicting interests, different values, partial knowledge, non-linear system dynamics and multiple positive feedbacks between processes. As the mining and fisheries industries learned, participatory approaches are essential means to maintain governability despite complex-adaptive dynamics.  
Experience in other fields shows that dedicated governance capabilities are required to handle appropriately complex-adaptive dynamics [1; 8; 16; 26; 74]. Such capabilities include adaptive, deliberative and participatory practices, reflexivity and variety of frames, resilience to uncertainties, responsiveness and capability to observe, revitalisation to block unproductive patterns, rescaling as well as cross-scale interactions. Participatory approaches facilitate that governance capabilities develop [36], although big asymmetries of power or scale of intervention pose significant obstacles to taking advantage of this potential [77; 78; 79].  
Considering the state of global fish stocks, the current governance systems in place for industrial and SSF do not seem to be in an appropriate shape. The system of regional fisheries management bodies, trade restrictions on endangered species (CITES) and weak enforcement of fisheries legislation in EEZs (including mandated marine protected areas, mainly, but not only, in countries with limited institutional and financial resources) have not been able to halt the massive decline of global fish stocks [80]. Therefore, operational schemes emerge that try to harness modern information technologies, such as satellite tracking of fishing vessels [81]. They open new forms of public mobilisation and spaces for participatory processes to play a role in defending these commons from sustainable practices [78; 79; 80; 81; 82]. Hence, frameworks emerge that acknowledge the role of participatory processes in complex-adaptive systems [36].  
The governance system in place for regulation and surveillance of mining sites at the seabed, e.g., the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and national regulators for the Exclusive Economic Zone, are unlikely to be able to handle complex-adaptive systems. Their design and the operational and political capabilities did not have these purposes in mind [83; 84; 85; 86]. To improve governability of seabed mining, the practices of \"social license to operate\" may help [87]. However, such practices are not straight forward as shown for the Solwara-1 mining site off Papua New Guinea that is licensed to Nautilus Minerals Ltd. [88].  
In the absence of better approaches, robust participatory governance systems for marine complex-adaptive SES could offer the required capacity building for third parties. Furthermore, they could facilitate: the involvement of civil society in different formats, constructive engagement with the insurance industry to discourage high-risk investments, end of damaging subsidies, curtailing market access for fraudulently produced goods, and operational security for legitimate commercial and regulatory parties.  
The ongoing UN negotiations about protecting the High Seas are a forum to seek better mutual understanding between diverse interests and sharing of knowledge, including scientifically validated insights [89; 90]. Effective marine governance would imply considering the entire life cycle of the global supply-chains for resources. Also, processes leading to a \"social license to operate for the blue-economy\" need to involve a wide range of stakeholders who would lend their voices to the ethical paradigm that marine resources are part of the common heritage of humankind [85; 91]. Strengthening the application of ethical paradigms requires an understanding of their operational role.