Ecosystem services are a telling concept to discuss the integrated management of natural resources, such as integrated water and soil, with non-academic stakeholders. Stakeholders have different perceptions regarding the management of various ecosystem services, which is challenging when aiming to develop and foster sustainable ecosystem management. We performed a stakeholder analysis as part of a social-ecological study in preparation of a decision support system for integrated water management within the Lake Manyara sub-basin (LMSB), Tanzania. The area includes a National Park and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. A group discussion listed 26 stakeholders, categorized according to the sector, influence, and interest. The stakeholders were grouped into six functional categories: local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), other civil society groups, Belgian and international NGOs, authorities, academics associated to international donors and the private sector. We empirically identified advantages, shortcomings and associated risks when performing a stakeholder analysis with an interest–influence matrix. Confounding factors may include, e.g., the omission of important stakeholders, a different understanding of ‘influence’ and ‘interest’, or the omission of fragile groups. Instead of ‘low’ or ‘high’ interest and influence, we propose the terms ‘supportive’, ‘potentially supportive’, ‘unsupportive’, ‘not interested’, ‘low or no influence’ and ‘antagonistic’. Further, we consider stakeholders who directly extract resources from the social-ecological system (SES) as a separate category, because of their direct dependence and impact on the SES. This improved stakeholder analysis framework for developing decision support systems in water basins can contribute to better analysis, understanding and management of aquatic social-ecological systems in general.

生态系统服务是一个有说服力的概念，可以与非学术利益相关者讨论自然资源的综合管理，例如综合水和土壤。利益相关者对各种生态系统服务的管理有不同的看法，这在旨在发展和促进可持续生态系统管理时具有挑战性。作为社会生态研究的一部分，我们进行了利益相关者分析，为坦桑尼亚曼雅拉湖次流域 (LMSB) 内的综合水资源管理准备决策支持系统。该地区包括国家公园和联合国教科文组织生物圈保护区。小组讨论列出了 26 个利益相关者，按行业、影响力和兴趣分类。利益相关者分为六个职能类别：地方非政府组织 (NGO)、其他民间社会团体、与国际捐助者和私营部门相关的比利时和国际非政府组织、当局、学者。在使用利益影响矩阵进行利益相关者分析时，我们凭经验确定了优势、缺点和相关风险。混淆因素可能包括，例如，重要利益相关者的遗漏，对“影响”和“利益”的不同理解，或脆弱群体的遗漏。我们提出了“支持”、“可能支持”、“不支持”、“不感兴趣”、“影响低或没有影响”和“对抗”等术语，而不是“低”或“高”的兴趣和影响力。此外，我们将直接从社会生态系统（SES）中提取资源的利益相关者视为一个单独的类别，因为他们直接依赖和影响 SES。