Dealing with moving spatialities in disaster governance: the case of locust swarms

Locusts, albeit considered a biological hazard and one of the most destructive migratory pests in the world by the United Nations, are almost absent from risk governance studies. Yet their natural dynamic that alternates between recessions and periods of large-scale expansions imposes great spatio-temporal variabilities and discontinuities, and brings into sharp relief societies' capacities to collaborate to face this transboundary and erratic bio-hazard. While natural sciences have largely contributed to building efficient preventive strategies around the world, invasions still occur and other approaches are needed to understand locust outbreaks and implement effective and sustainable responses. In this context, social sciences and geography are essential to address the social factors that shape preventive strategies and their articulation from local to international levels. Using multiple sources of data including interviews, literature review, and participatory workshops in three different case studies - the desert locust, the Australian plague locust, and the South American locust - we analyze the main challenges in the multi-level and nested governance systems required for locusts. In particular, we discuss the consequences of the extended, uncertain and discontinuous spatial structure imposed by locusts on the distribution of responsibility among multiple players with diverging values, interests, and/or capacity to act. We identify the responses implemented by locust managers around the world to face this variability, and analyze their inherent fragilities. We conclude that in a context of global change that imposes renewed conditions of interconnectedness, hazards, and vulnerabilities, locusts are a textbook case that can inform collaborative governance for managing and responding to large-scale disasters.