Showing papers in "Society & Natural Resources in 2013"

Community Resilience: Toward an Integrated Approach

Abstract: We explore opportunities for an integrated approach in community resilience to inform new research directions and practice, using the productive common ground between two strands of literature on community resilience, one from social–ecological systems and the other from the psychology of development and mental health. The first strand treats resilience as a systems concept, dealing with adaptive relationships and learning in social–ecological systems across nested levels, with attention to feedbacks, nonlinearity, unpredictability, scale, renewal cycles, drivers, system memory, disturbance events, and windows of opportunity. The second strand emphasizes identifying and developing community strengths, and building resilience through agency and self-organization, with attention to people–place connections, values and beliefs, knowledge and learning, social networks, collaborative governance, economic diversification, infrastructure, leadership, and outlook. An integrative approach seated in the complex ada...

Environmental Concern: Examining the Role of Place Meaning and Place Attachment

Abstract: As landscapes change, it is important to understand how attachments and meanings attributed to place may affect environmental quality and social well-being To understand and apply sociological insights to policy and management efforts it is not sufficient to simply demonstrate that individuals or groups have strong emotional connections with a particular geographical locale Rather, it is imperative to understand the implications of attachments, and meanings related to them We focus our attention in this area on watershed management Quantitative data are used to conduct an analysis of the interactions between place attachment, place meanings, and environmental concerns in a high-natural-amenity watershed in New Hampshire Results from quantitative analyses important for understanding the dynamics between place attachment, place meanings, and various dimensions environmental concerns are presented We find a strong role for place meanings, rather than place attachment, in predicting environmental concer

Community/Agency Trust and Public Involvement in Resource Planning

Abstract: We hypothesize and test a positive relationship between the extent to which local community members trust a management agency and their willingness to engage in resource-related public discourse and involvement. We employ a multilevel generalized mixed model to analyze data collected from five different samples of residents living near managed resource areas. Counter to our proposed hypotheses, results suggest individuals’ level of dispositional trust, their belief that management shares similar values as them, and their trust in the moral competency of the management agency were all found to be significantly and negatively related to public involvement in resource-related activities. These findings suggest that the central role of building trust among local constituents within many planning frameworks needs to be reconsidered with consideration given to both the needs of individuals who trust an agency and the desires of distrusting individuals who are more likely to become involved in public involvement...

Cameroon's hidden harvest: Commercial chainsaw logging, corruption, and livelihoods

Abstract: This article discusses the extent, impacts, and governance dynamics of illegal logging and associated corruption in the chainsaw milling sector in Cameroon and the implications for natural resource management theory and international initiatives, represented by the European Union's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan. We show that state officials may be collecting some 46 million in informal payments each year, part of which is siphoned into a pyramidal system that manages careers not by merit, but by the price one can pay. We argue that corruption becomes a root cause of policy failures when disillusioned state officials perceive that those at the top of the pyramid do not have the legitimacy needed to promote reforms. Arbitrariness, mistrust, and contradiction then predominate, thus weakening the rule of law. We derive lessons for interventions addressing corruption and its impacts.

Payments for Ecosystem Services as Incentives for Collective Action

Abstract: The design and thriving of payments for ecosystem services (PES) have occurred as a response to the relative failure of integrated strategies for reconciling conservation and development. The most widespread definition of PES conceives these payments as markets to solve environmental externalities. This article analyzes the limitations of this “Coasean” approach using insights from transaction costs economics, and it pleads for looking at PES with different analytical lenses. It argues that PES should be seen as “incentives for collective action.” However, the extent to which incentives can contribute to the management of ES should not be taken for granted. The effects of monetary incentives are determined by their “social meanings,” which are context and culture dependent. The proposed conceptual shift has significant analytical and practical implications.

Amenity Landownership, Land Use Change, and the Re-Creation of “Working Landscapes”

Abstract: In recent years the “working landscape” concept has risen to prominence in popular, academic, and policy discourse surrounding conservation of both natural and cultural values in inhabited landscapes. Despite its implied reconciliation of commodity production and environmental protection, this concept remains contested terrain, masking tensions over land use practices and understandings of human–nature relations. Here we draw on a case study of landownership and land use change in remote, rural Wallowa County, Oregon to explore how working landscapes are envisioned and enacted by various actors. The arrival of landowning amenity migrants, many of whom actively endorsed a working landscape vision, resulted in subtle but significant transformations in land use practices and altered opportunities for local producers. The working landscape ideal, while replete with tensions and contradictions, nevertheless functioned as an important alternative vision to the rural gentrification characteristic of other scenic...

Payment for Environmental Services and Unequal Resource Control in Pimampiro, Ecuador

Abstract: Payments for environmental services (PES) schemes are widely promoted to secure ecosystem services through incentives to the owners of land from which they are derived Furthermore, they are increasingly proposed to foster conservation and poverty alleviation in the global South In this article, we analyze the social relations that have shaped the design, implementation, and outcomes of a PES scheme in Pimampiro, Ecuador While previous studies describe this case as successful, we show that the PES scheme reinforces existing social differences, erodes community organization, undermines traditional farming practices, and perpetuates inequalities in resource access in the “working” landscape inhabited by the upstream peasant community paid for watershed management We argue that PES schemes are thus not neutral initiatives imposed upon blank canvases, but intersect with existing development trajectories and power relations We conclude that analyses of PES need to look beyond conservation to critically exa

Learning from Landowners: Examining the Role of Peer Exchange in Private Landowner Outreach through Landowner Networks

Abstract: More than one-third of forested land in the United States is owned by individuals or families, making these lands a significant source of the nation's forest resources and services. Yet investments in traditional expert-led outreach efforts, including financial incentive programs and technical assistance for management plan development, have failed to engage the vast majority of U.S. forest landowners. Through case studies of five diverse landowner networks, this study explored peer exchange among landowners as an alternative means of fostering engagement. Sixty-one in-depth interviews revealed common themes across cases that contributed to landowner participation and learning, including maintaining an atmosphere conducive to social learning, emphasis on local information and hands-on learning, and access to rich networks that include both practical peer-derived information and trusted technical expert-derived information. These findings enrich existing landowner engagement theory by offering insight into...

Scale Misfit in Ecosystem Service Governance as a Source of Environmental Conflict

Abstract: We examine transformations in institutional regimes defining access to ecosystem services in Donana, a rural region in southwestern Spain that is internationally recognized for its outstanding biocultural values. First, we review historical changes in rules, norms, and conventions defining access to ecosystem services. Second, we conduct a survey among local informants to assess the scales at which ecosystem services are supplied, demanded, and governed and discuss scale misfits in relation to historical conflicts over access to ecosystem services. We identify (1) two major periods of institutional change, characterized by conflicts between the central state and local users from enclosures of communal lands and associated restrictions in access to ecosystem services, and (2) a clash between customary governance institutions and new ones emerging with growing central state intervention and market integration. Our results suggest that multilevel governance regimes that promote coordination and institutional...

Market-Based Instruments for Ecosystem Services: Institutional Innovation or Renovation?

Abstract: Recent years have seen widespread experimentation with market-based instruments (MBIs) for the provision of environmental goods and ecosystem services. However, little attention has been paid to their design or to the effects of the underlying pro-market narrative on environmental policy instruments. The purpose of this article is to analyze the emergence and dissemination of the term “market-based instruments” applied to the provision of environmental services and to assess to what extent the instruments associated are genuinely innovative. The recommendation to develop markets can lead in practice to a variety of institutional forms, as we show it based on the example of payments for environmental services (PES) and biodiversity offsets, two very different mechanisms that are both presented in the literature as MBIs. Our purpose is to highlight the gap between discourse and practice in connection with MBIs.

Social Attractors: A Proposal to Enhance “Resilience Thinking” about the Social

Abstract: This article proposes social attractors as a way of addressing limitations in the functionalist sociology commonly applied to the social when examining ecological-social relations. It focuses on “resilience thinking” to argue the case. Resilience thinking is discussed (1) as an analytical strategy whereby ecological and social attractors perform analogous roles in a coordinated approach to ecosystems and social relations, and (2) as a social movement within the “new ecology” that institutionalized around the notion of resilence. The article begins by describing the institutionalization of resilience thinking. It then argues that functionalist assumptions about equilibrium contradict those of resilience thinking and lead to conflated views of social relations. The theoretical context of the social attractor, which stems from a synthesis of critical realism and Gramscian analysis of power, is outlined. Finally, the qualitative, nonlinear methodology that the social attractor facilitates is illustrated throu...

Bridging Knowledges: Understanding and Applying Indigenous and Western Scientific Knowledge for Marine Wildlife Management

Abstract: Cross-cultural knowledge sharing in natural resource management is receiving growing academic attention. Further consideration is necessary regarding how indigenous and Western knowledges are understood and validated by resource managers. Using a marine co-management case study in northern Australia, we explored how indigenous and nonindigenous managers engage with indigenous and Western scientific knowledge. Interview participants discussed the utility of empirical information within each knowledge system, but engaged less with the beliefs and worldviews framing knowledge. Based on interview responses, we developed a typology that describes the main ways resource managers engage with indigenous and Western scientific knowledge in this management system. We suggest several steps to help achieve a more integrative approach to knowledge utilization in indigenous co-management contexts. Ensuring that resource managers understand and respect multiple ways of knowing will improve stakeholder collaboration engagement across cultures.

Why Land Planners and Water Managers Don't Talk to One Another and Why They Should!

Abstract: Increasing evidence demonstrates that unsustainable land use practices result in human-induced drought conditions, and inadequate water supplies constrain land development in growing cities. Nonetheless, organizational barriers impair coordinated land and water management. Land planning is strongly influenced by political realities and interest groups, while water management is focused on the single-minded goal of providing reliable water for future development, often set apart from other priorities. Survey results from Portland, OR, and Phoenix, AZ, show that water managers and land planners are generally aware of the physical interconnections between land and water, but there is little cross-sector involvement in the two cities. Focusing on shared concerns about outdoor water use, climate variability, and water-sensitive urban design is a fruitful first step in integrating the practices of land planning and water management for climate adaptation and sustainable resource use.

Community Forestry and the Threat of Recentralization in Nepal: Contesting the Bureaucratic Hegemony in Policy Process

Abstract: Nepal's community forestry program has been touted as a successful case in decentralized forest management. However, the government of Nepal has often constrained the autonomy of local communities as an apparent attempt to reverse decentralization. This article identifies the mechanisms through which decentralized reforms and growing deliberative culture of policy process are attenuated. To this end, we analyze an amendment proposal of the government to revise the Forest Act 1993—a widely recognized legislation for democratic decentralization—with the tacit aim of re-equipping the government forestry staff with substantial power. This article shows that the government often monopolizes the policy process and obstructs community forestry, while failing to address its own governance deficits. While acknowledging the importance of an antagonistic form of resistance, we emphasize the combination of alliance-led resistance and research-informed deliberation as an effective strategy to contest inappropriate pol...

Farmer Attitudes toward Proactive Targeting of Agricultural Conservation Programs

Abstract: Calls for improved targeting of conservation resources are increasingly common. However, arguments for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of agricultural conservation programs through proactive targeting are often tempered by questions regarding political feasibility. Such questions rest on an assumption that there will be resistance to these approaches, whether from farmers, farm groups, or elected officials, yet there is little research-based evidence supporting that assumption. Analysis of data on Iowa farmers’ attitudes toward targeted conservation indicates that most farmers support targeted approaches. Specific factors associated with endorsement of targeted approaches include awareness of agriculture's environmental impacts, belief that farmers should address water quality problems, having experienced significant soil erosion, belief that extreme weather will become more common, participation in the Conservation Reserve Program, and belief that farmers who have natural resource issues are l...

The Livelihood Impacts of Payments for Environmental Services and Implications for REDD

Abstract: International discussions on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) foresee payment for environmental services (PES) schemes as an important mechanism to provide local incentives for the conservation and enhancement of carbon stocks. There are concerns, however, about the potential impacts of REDD+ and PES on local livelihoods. This article assesses the livelihood impacts of seven existing PES schemes using a comparative case study approach, and reviews lessons for the design of REDD+. It finds that PES schemes provided some livelihood benefits to participants, particularly in terms of building individual participants’ and community institutions’ capacity, and in some cases contributing to income. Insights for the design of PES for REDD+ schemes are derived in relation to the issues of the role of intermediaries, individual versus collective contracts, payment schedules and amounts, conditionality and permanence, and property and access rights.

The Institutional Dimension of “Market-Based Instruments” for Governing Ecosystem Services: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract: The emergence of the ecosystem services framework has coincided with the rise in the policy agenda of what have been coined “market-based instruments” for environmental governance, particularly in ...

Management Without Borders? A Survey of Landowner Practices and Attitudes toward Cross-Boundary Cooperation

Abstract: Ecosystem management requires cross-jurisdictional problem-solving and, when private lands are involved, cross-boundary cooperation from many individual landowners Fragmented ownership patterns and variation in ownership values, as well as distrust and transaction costs, can limit cooperation Results from a landowner survey in California were analyzed using an audience segmentation approach Landowners were grouped into four clusters according to ownership motivations: rural lifestyle, working landscape, natural amenity, and financial investment All clusters showed willingness to cooperate for all three topics addressed in the survey (pest and disease control, fire hazard reduction, and wildlife conservation), but their degree of willingness differed by cluster, who they were expected to cooperate with, and the natural resource problem addressed All were more willing to cooperate with neighbors and local groups than with state and federal agencies Landowners were most willing to cooperate to reduce f

We Still Have a Long Way to Go, and a Short Time to Get There: A Response to Fikret Berkes and Helen Ross

Abstract: We are reminded of the need for integrated research on the resilience of our coupled socio-ecological systems with each day's headlines, demarcating in graphic terms the mounting challenges such sy...

Recreancy Revisited: Beliefs about Institutional Failure Following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Abstract: In 1993, Freudenburg suggested the term “recreancy” to refer to behaviors associated with institutional failures, which he distinguished from the consequences of such failures. This article revisits issues related to recreancy associated with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Using qualitative data collected in Cordova, Alaska, between 2002 and 2010, we examine notions about recreancy and technological disasters. Findings highlight perceptions of institutional failures associated with the spill and cleanup activities, providing insights into the social consequences of such failures for those most directly affected by them, including loss of ontological security, the emergence of corrosive communities, and diminished social capital. We extend the discussion about recreancy to include organizational processes intended to address economic, social, and environmental consequences of technological disasters. Our data reveal a persistence of beliefs about recreancy associated with the Exxon Valdez oil spill and t...

"Slash and Burn" and "Shifting" Cultivation Systems in Forest Agriculture Frontiers From the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract: We analyze changes in the extent of slash and burn cultivation (SBC) and shifting cultivation (SC) and the main drivers of change observed in the last 10 years across the Brazilian Amazon. Our results show that SC is stable in indigenous and caboclo communities from Amazonas and Acre. SBC increases along new roads, illustrating how roads shape deforestation frontiers beyond the “arc of deforestation.” In established forest frontiers, the conversion of forests into pasture or cash crops through SBC continues to increase locally, but smallholders' diversification strategies translate into complex land uses with both the increase and decrease of SBC and SC observed locally. Secure land tenure, access to markets, and population increase appear to be driving to the classic intensification path. Overall, access to cash transfer programs has helped stabilize forest frontiers as households become less reliant on subsistence agricultural production.

A Qualitative Method for Collecting Spatial Data on Important Places for Recreation, Livelihoods, and Ecological Meanings: Integrating Focus Groups with Public Participation Geographic Information Systems

Abstract: The association between humans and their environments is highly interactive, with humans bound to the landscapes and landscapes subject to the actions of humans. Sense of place is a concept used to describe the relationships that exist, bonds that form, and the meanings that humans ascribe to landscapes. This article builds on previous qualitative research using public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) to develop an alternative and efficient methodology to spatially represent place. The approach integrates participatory mapping procedures within a focus group format. Benefits of this approach include the rich text uncovered in qualitative place studies; the synergy of dialogue, efficiency in sampling, ability to elicit information from a range of groups; and the efficient use of drawn polygons as part of the qualitative PPGIS mapping procedure. This methodology can provide pertinent and spatially explicit findings useful for place based planning and management.

Benefit distribution and equity in Ecuador's Socio Bosque Program

Abstract: In this article we analyze the equity and distribution of financial incentives in Ecuador's Programa Socio Bosque (PSB) PSB aims to conserve native ecosystems on privately owned lands while reducing rural poverty Based on the analysis of 1,563 conservation contracts, representing nearly 900,000 ha of land in Ecuador and more than 90,000 beneficiaries, we scrutinize the regional distribution of benefits among three regions (the Coast, the Andes, and the Amazon) and two contract types: land under individual ownership and land under collective ownership We compare incentive distribution before and after a substantial change in the incentive scale, differentiating collective and individual landowners as well as forests and paramo ecosystems Although PSB is a mechanism that incentivizes conservation stewardship, its distributional equity and ability to reduce rural poverty remain questionable, because poverty levels and population density in collective contracts are not sufficiently considered in the incen

Does Adaptive Collaborative Forest Governance Affect Poverty? Participatory Action Research in Nepal's Community Forests

Abstract: Despite recognition of forests’ roles in rural livelihoods, there has been relatively little empirical exploration of community forestry's contribution to poverty alleviation. Similarly, there has been little study of the interaction of social learning-based approaches to forest governance with poverty alleviation. This article draws on 6 years of research on community forestry in Nepal to explore whether, and how, adaptive collaborative forest governance influences the financial and forest assets of women and the poor. The study includes impacts on income generation, access to micro-credit, and employment. The findings indicate that the financial and forest assets of both women and the poor—and especially poor women—increased as a result of adaptive collaborative forest governance. They also suggest a strong role for social learning in poverty alleviation. The article concludes by considering whether poverty alleviation might usefully be reconceptualized as a power-related transformation process.

Rules, Norms, and Injustice: A Cross-Cultural Study of Perceptions of Justice in Water Institutions

Abstract: Access to water is often inequitable, and perceived as unjust by stakeholders. Based on qualitative analysis of 135 ethnographic interviews in Bolivia, Fiji, Arizona, and New Zealand, we conduct a cross-cultural analysis to test for shared notions of justice in water institutions (i.e., rules, norms). A key finding is that institutional rules are a common concern in evaluations of justice, but institutional norms were prominent in justice evaluations only in the Bolivia site (where water access problems are most acute). Similarly, while concerns related to distributive and procedural justice were widely shared across community sites, interactional justice was only a salient concern in Bolivia. We propose that the study of water and other natural resource institutions will benefit from an expanded concept of environmental justice that includes interactional injustices and also a more explicit analytic focus on institutional norms, particularly for communities that face resource scarcity and less-developed ...

Trans-forming social capital around water : water user organizations, water rights and non-governmental organizations in Cangahua, the Ecuadorian Andes

Abstract: Although the community represents a very important level at which existing social capital is used to mobilize resources and collective action in the Andes, many irrigation systems need supracommunity cooperation for their management. Based on a case study of the Guanguilqui and Porotog irrigation systems in the northern Ecuadorian Highlands, this article argues that external nongovernmental organizations can play an important role in facilitating the establishment of new supracommunity autonomous water user associations by (1) developing mutual trust relations and reciprocity between individuals and communities (bonding and bridging); (2) facilitating the establishment of a normative framework (water rights) that provides the rules of interaction; (3) assisting in the creation of relations with external agents (linking); and (4) developing local capacities for organizational and technical irrigation management. Once sturdy water user organizations consolidate, they have the potential to mobilize collectiv...

Evolution in Finland's Forest Biodiversity Conservation Payments and the Institutional Constraints on Establishing New Policy

Abstract: This article analyzes the influence of the preexisting institutional basis on designing and implementing new biodiversity and ecosystem services policies. The way that regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive institutions condition the currently popular payments for ecosystem services (PES) is analyzed by exploring the evolution of a championed forest biodiversity PES scheme in Finland. Our analysis of the evolution of the PES demonstrates several constraints on new policies. Based on policy documents and secondary material, we show how the policies that seemingly take effect through regulative institutional changes are conditioned by normative and cultural-cognitive institutions. Administrative and professional rigidities can be broken with a light policy experiment but for longer term governance development, radical institutional changes are necessary. The applied institutional framework demonstrates the analytical opportunities that attention to institutions generates for deepening the generally o...

Can Patrons Be Bypassed? Frictions between Local and Global Regulatory Networks over Shrimp Aquaculture in East Kalimantan

Abstract: Taking related concepts of friction and a simplified value chain analysis, this article focuses on interaction of three regulatory networks and their influence over sustainable shrimp aquaculture in East Kalimantan. The results show that while government and nongovernment organization (NGO) regulatory networks have focused on the standardization of best practices, it is artisanal trade networks, controlled by local patrons (or ponggawa), that hold most influence over production. By exploring the influence of these ponggawa over production and trade we demonstrate how patronage is key to regulating the conduct of farmers and constitutes a vital, but poorly understood element in the shrimp value chain. We conclude that while ponggawa hold a central position in these value chains they remain systematically ignored by state and NGO-market-led regulatory networks. As a result, many of the frictions inherent to local–global interconnections of shrimp aquaculture limit any externally led attempt to create change.

Policyscape—A Spatially Explicit Evaluation of Voluntary Conservation in a Policy Mix for Biodiversity Conservation in Norway

Abstract: We use spatially explicit indicators for biodiversity conservation status and opportunity costs of conservation to evaluate the role of voluntary forest conservation in a mix of policy instruments distributed across a landscape We define a spatially explicit evaluation of a policy mix as a “policyscape analysis” A policyscape analysis includes a comparison of (1) actual spatial overlap of instruments, (2) “functional overlap” of instruments in a cost-effectiveness space, and (3) complementary spatial targeting of instruments as computed by reserve site selection models To illustrate, we evaluate the actual spatial coverage in cost-effectiveness space of Norway's public protected areas and private voluntary forest conservation We use proxies for conservation value and opportunity cost—a national Nature Index for forests and forest productivity classes We conclude by discussing the empirical challenges of our “policyscape analysis” These have bearing on future “return-on-investment” analysis and reser

From Cattle to Corn: Attributes of Emerging Farming Systems of Former Pastoral Nomads in East Pokot, Kenya

Abstract: Crop cultivation under rain-fed conditions is a recent innovation among the formerly pastoral-nomadic Pokot in north-central Kenya. We have examined the socioecological dynamics of land-use change from an interdisciplinary perspective. The patterns of transition to agropastoralism are closely related to both the biogeophysical attributes of the area and the economic characteristics of the households. While the use of advanced agronomic practices in the highlands is associated with annual maize grain yields of >2 Mg ha−1, unfavorable climatic and edaphic conditions, as well as the limited agronomic knowledge of the newcomer farmers in the lowland and mid-hill zones, make field crop production there an opportunistic, spatially scattered, and rather erratic land-use strategy. The accelerated transition to crop cultivation and the spatiotemporal differences in sedentarization between zones contribute to a fragmentation and shortage of land, which results in growing interhousehold inequalities and increasing c...