Syncopated rhythms? Temporal patterns in natural resource management

Abstract

In natural resource management, law and temporality have interesting dimensions that are complicated by perceptions of and relations with environment. This paper examines the relationship between legal pluralism, temporality and oceans management. Oceans are managed at multiple levels with multiple chronometers. International standards encourage policy reform at a rapid pace, introducing in quick succession and over a short time-frame concepts such as privatization, community-based management, integrated management, evidence-based management, ecosystem-based management, spatial management and adaptive management for sustainability. There is often a temporal dissonance between these and national regulation, which tends to follow such policy directions more slowly. Meanwhile, the development of new institutions at the local level to facilitate management of localized resources is occurring at a glacial pace, with many barriers and roadblocks along the way. The lack of synchronization in regulatory chronometers is only enhanced by temporal challenges in scientific methodology, which complicate the science-to-policy nexus. This paper uses a case study from the Canadian Maritimes inshore fishery to examine scalar issues, sustainability shortfalls and the stratifying effects of these interesting temporal challenges.