Natural Resource Management Institutions Research Articles

Trust ecology and the resilience of natural resource management institutions

The resilience of natural resource management (NRM) institutions are largely contingent on the capacities of the people and organizations within those institutions to learn, innovate, and adapt, both individually and collectively. These capacities may be powerfully constrained or catalyzed by the nature of the relationships between the various entities involved. Trust, in particular, has been identified repeatedly as a key component of institutional relationships that supports adaptive governance and successful NRM outcomes. We apply an ecological lens to a pre-existing framework to examine how different types of may interact to drive institutional resilience in NRM contexts. We present the broad contours of what we term trust ecology, describing a conceptual framework in which higher degrees of diversity of trust, as conceptualized through richness and evenness of four types of (dispositional, rational, affinitive, and systems based), enhance both the efficacy and resilience of NRM institutions. We describe the usefulness and some limitations of this framework based on several case studies from our own research and discuss the framework's implications for both future research and designing more resilient governance arrangements.

Applying historical ecology to natural resource management institutions: Lessons from two case studies of landscape fire management

Understanding the linkages between social and ecological systems is key to developing sustainable natural resource management (NRM) institutions. Frequently, however, insufficient attention is paid to the historical development of NRM institutions. Instead, discussion largely focuses on models of economic efficiency at the expense of the cultural, historical, and ecological contexts within which institutions develop. Here we use the research program of historical ecology to explore the development, maintenance, and change of two contemporary fire management institutions in northern Australia and Colorado, USA, to demonstrate how social institutions and ecological systems change and resist change over time and how institutions interact across scales to negotiate contrasting goals and motivations. We argue that these NRM institutions are not strictly speaking evolutionary or adaptive, and that historical context is critical when evaluating how and why particular institutions and institutional relationships develop. As with ecosystems, the present characteristics of the NRM institutions are dependent on what has happened before and their efficacy can only be evaluated retrospectively. Therefore, an understanding of history is essential to questions of the desirability and feasibility of institutional change where such shifts are required from an ecological, social, or economic perspective. We further propose that institutional conflict arises from the differing goals and motives of resource management institutions at different scales. Our cases reveal that larger-scale institutions can be successful at achieving narrowly defined goals but often fall short of achieving socially desirable sustainable outcomes. Our findings support the use of narratives of community history, place, and being in considering the resilience and sustainability of social-ecological systems. We offer that historical ecology is complementary with institutional and economic approaches to the analysis of NRM institutions, and possesses a particular strength in linking ecology to the values and norms of small social groups.

Consensus Building or Constructive Conflict? Aboriginal Discursive Strategies to Enhance Participation in Natural Resource Management in Australia and Canada

This article analyzes the strategies used by the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation from the Wet Tropics, Australia, and the Innu Nation of Labrador, Canada, in their efforts to participate in natural resource management within their traditional lands. Comparative research highlights that both Aboriginal groups engage in strategies of consensus building and constructive conflict, matching their choice to the dynamic institutional settings that govern natural resource management in their respective territories. Both groups build consensus for more equitable participation in natural resource management institutions while engaging, when necessary, in forms of constructive conflict that will bring about more expedient institutional change needed to fully reflect the full suite of Aboriginal interests and values. The result is a mix of Aboriginal strategies that are used to instigate planning reforms on their traditional estates.

Renegotiating property rights in the Florida golden crab fishery

The golden crab ( Chaceon fenneri ) supports a small, economically healthy fishery in south Florida. Crabbers in the fishery have successfully protected themselves against larger outside fishing interests in the past, and management has been stable for over fifteen years. Why, then, did a portion of the fleet propose shifting to individual transferable quotas (ITQs)? Our findings suggest that proponents sought ITQ management because they believed it would further limit the ability of other crabbers to enter the fishery and act as a mechanism to legally preserve the informal and formal property rights that they have previously negotiated among themselves. Opponents believed that a shift to an ITQ regime would destroy those same property rights. We explore the implications of these findings to a broader understanding of property rights and natural resource management institutions, noting that the currently existing system closely resembles a territorial use rights fishery (TURF).

Renegotiating property rights in the Florida golden crab fishery

<p class="Normal1">The golden crab (<em>Chaceon fenneri</em>) supports a small, economically healthy fishery in south Florida. Crabbers in the fishery have successfully protected themselves against larger outside fishing interests in the past, and management has been stable for over fifteen years. Why, then, did a portion of the fleet propose shifting to individual transferable quotas (ITQs)? Our findings suggest that proponents sought ITQ management because they believed it would further limit the ability of other crabbers to enter the fishery and act as a mechanism to legally preserve the informal and formal property rights that they have previously negotiated among themselves. Opponents believed that a shift to an ITQ regime would destroy those same property rights. We explore the implications of these findings to a broader understanding of property rights and natural resource management institutions, noting that the currently existing system closely resembles a territorial use rights fishery (TURF).

Methods and approaches to support Indigenous water planning: An example from the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

Summary Indigenous land owners of the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory Australia have begun the first formal freshwater allocation planning process in Australia entirely within Indigenous lands and waterways. The process is managed by the Northern Territory government agency responsible for water planning, the Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport, in partnership with the Tiwi Land Council, the principal representative body for Tiwi Islanders on matters of land and water management and governance. Participatory planning methods (‘tools’) were developed to facilitate community participation in Tiwi water planning. The tools, selected for their potential to generate involvement in the planning process needed both to incorporate Indigenous knowledge of water use and management and raise awareness in the Indigenous community of Western science and water resources management. In consultation with the water planner and Tiwi Land Council officers, the researchers selected four main tools to develop, trial and evaluate. Results demonstrate that the tools provided mechanisms which acknowledge traditional management systems, improve community engagement, and build confidence in the water planning process. The researchers found that participatory planning approaches supported Tiwi natural resource management institutions both in determining appropriate institutional arrangements and clarifying roles and responsibilities in the Islands’ Water Management Strategy.

Socio-Ecological Perspectives on Sustainable Livelihood and Environmental Management: A Multiple Case Study in Northern Thailand's National Park

Protected areas such as national parks play a crucial role in global conservation efforts and also provide a range of socio-economic benefits. This paper draws from preliminary findings from an ongoing research project to review the broad theoretical socio-ecological perspectives and applies multidisciplinary research to environmental management. The aim of the overall research program is to investigate the relationship between sustainable livelihood and natural resource management in northern Thailand’s national park communities, with a view to enhancing compatibility. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and qualitative research methods are used to develop an in-depth understanding of the governing institutions in natural resource management with regard to the context and perception of sustainable livelihoods. Our preliminary results show that sustainable livelihood activities are related to environmental conservation initiatives, such as annual forest restoration, the establishment of fire breaks, water resources management, and community-based ecotourism, which are the vital parts of natural resource management in northern Thailand’s national park communities. In addition, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is the pathway for national economic and tourism development, which will promote change in terms of socio-economic development in local, national and regional ASEAN countries. The recommendation of this study considers that community empowerment to participate in natural resource management decisions is the significant pathway to support both sustainable livelihood and environmental conservation efforts within northern Thailand’s national parks.

The Goldilocks Solution: Exploring the Relationship between Trust and Participation in Resource Management within the New Zealand Commercial Rock Lobster Fishery

Our understanding of the role natural resource users, and the governing institutions they create, has grown considerably in recent years. At the same time, our understanding of the role of trust in human interactions continues to grow. We use the case of New Zealand rock lobster (jasus edwardsii and Jasus verrauxi) to ask the question “What is the role of trust in an individual's decision to participate in natural resource management institutions?” Using data from a survey of constituents of the commercial rock lobster fishery, our analysis shows an inverted “U” relationship between trust and participation. We suggest that this may be described as a “Goldilocks solution” in which having both too much and too little trust is problematic; but a healthy level of is “just right.” Theoretical and policy implications of these findings and directions for future research are explored.

Collective action on the western range: coping with external and internal threats

Collaborative natural resource management institutions enable agents with diverse interests to come together to solve complex problems. These actors must overcome a series of collective action problems to create, maintain, and evolve these institutions. In addition to the challenge of heterogeneous actors, these commons social-ecological systems often face internal and external threats or disturbances. The institutional arrangements may be effective with problems that are internal to a social-ecological system – ones that they are designed to handle, but how do these arrangements cope with external disturbances, especially ones caused by large-scale political and economic decisions, events, and processes. Using ethnographic and archival data we conduct an institutional analysis outlining the existing and emerging collaboratives, the important actors, and ongoing efforts to cope with the five major challenges identified by rangeland actors. We trace the evolution of institutions on the western range with a focus on their ability to cope with challenges that are largely within the system – biodiversity, fire, and water management, and those that are driven externally by actors who are largely absent – border militarization and violence and exurbanization.

Particular and wider interests in natural resource management: Organizing together but separately

The focus that scholars have put on mainstream institutions for resource management, i.e. those recognized by the community and development agents as the primary organizations for resource management, has tended to mask alternative, less visible, but equally robust, organizational forms in which resources are managed and development is carried out at the local level. Mainstream institutions are often inadequate as arenas for negotiating contested interests. By directing attention to women's organizing in contexts in the south (India) and the north (Sweden), it is argued in this paper that although inclusive and heterogeneous structures are essential for the sustainable and equitable management of natural resources such as forests, in order to be able to be so, mainstream institutions need to be able to relate to other structures and forms that are exclusive and represent particular interests. This study of institutional contexts in such different places informs thinking on resource management, development and gender equality, and has practical implications for sustainable and equitable resource management. Importantly, it draws attention to the need to redefine how we study institutions for natural resource management.

The livelihood impacts of the Namibian community based natural resource management programme: a meta-synthesis

SUMMARYCommunity based natural resource management (CBNRM) programmes aim to achieve the joint objectives of biodiversity conservation and improved rural livelihoods by providing incentives to sustainably manage relevant resources. Since 1998, more than 50 natural resource management institutions, known as conservancies, have been established in order to manage wildlife resources, on communal lands in Namibia. The national programme is often cited as a CBNRM success; however, despite its rapid spread, there are few systematically collected or analysed household-level data which demonstrate the long-term ecological, social and economic impacts of Namibian programme. A meta-synthesis was undertaken to determine the range of positive and negative livelihood impacts resulting from CBNRM programme activities in two key regions, and the factors affecting how these impacts have been felt by households or individuals. Impacts were categorized according to any changes in access to and/or returns from the five key assets of the sustainable livelihoods framework, namely financial, human, natural, physical and social assets. Positive and negative impacts were felt on financial, human, natural and social assets; only positive impacts were identified as affecting physical assets. Individual- and household-level impacts differed depending on the specific activities implemented locally and, according to the duration, frequency and timing of the impacts, the circumstances and preferences of households and their access to particular activities and consequent impacts. If a greater understanding of the extent and importance of different impacts is to be gained in the future, more rigorous and comprehensive data collection and analysis will need to be undertaken. Analyses will need to consider the whole range of activities implemented, both the benefits and costs associated with these different activities, and will also need to provide contextual information to allow the relative importance of impacts resulting from CBNRM activities to be better understood.

Pursuing community forestry in Liberia

AbstractWhile Liberian forests are a biodiversity hotspot and integral to the livelihoods of indigenous communities, 14 years of conflict forestry turned this national asset into a source of economic inequality and corruption in an extreme example of a ‘natural resource curse’. Moreover, overharvesting of timber through the conflict period has endangered community livelihoods and raised concerns regarding resource sustainability from international conservation organizations. Since the end of conflict in 2003, the Liberian government has forged international partnerships to create a reformed policy framework balancing commercial, conservation and community (the three Cs) interests. In an effort to contribute to the larger body of work on the role of natural resource management institutions in the creation and fostering of the resource curse, this paper offers a case study of timber in Liberia. We feel that an in‐depth understanding of the Liberian case clarifies the challenge of timber as an extractive commodity and how the institutional framework can be shaped to provide a positive contribution to economic development. The discussion focuses on the historical development of Liberian land and forest tenure institutions that lead to poverty, ecological degradation and conflict. Tracing the more recent implementation of the three Cs, this paper analyzes the current conditions of community engagement and outlines critical steps to be taken for Liberia to escape further resource driven cycles of conflict. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Norms, institutions, and collective action: the changing face of inland fisheries in Kerala

This paper examines the continuity and change in the governance of inland fisheries in Kerala. It analyses the transformations taking place in riverine fisheries management due to social, technological, and policy changes. Further, it discusses the significance of contextual factors in the sustainable management of riverine fisheries. The findings of this paper show that contextual factors such as family structure, technological changes, intervention by state government, market, and resource scarcity have significantly influenced sustainable fishing practices. Exploring the dynamics of norms and sanctions that facilitate sustainable resource use, this paper also signifies the limitations of static models of institutions in natural resource management. This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork among two fishing communities along the Pamba-Achankovil River basin in Kerala, South India. Interview guides and focused group discussion were the primary tools of data collection.

Livelihood Change and Livelihood Sustainability in the Uplands of Lembang Subwatershed, West Sumatra, Indonesia, in a Changing Natural Resource Management Context

This paper analyzes livelihood change and livelihood sustainability of households in the upland part of the Lembang subwatershed, West Sumatra, in response to changes in the natural resource management context during the last decade. Using the sustainable livelihood framework (SLF), we measured livelihood changes at two separate points in time, 1996 and 2006, and assessed their environmental, economic, social, and institutional sustainability. We found that people with a low income had less access to capital assets than people from middle- and high-income groups. Our analysis revealed, however, that access to capital assets increased over time, and that poor households experienced economic improvement, indicating an overall increase in economic sustainability. Environmental sustainability, however, is threatened by intensive agricultural practices such as high agrochemical input and intensive soil tillage on steep slopes, leading to pollution and soil erosion. Social sustainability is also a matter of concern: while social exclusion has been reduced, income inequity has increased. Institutional sustainability is likely to remain uncertain, as local institutions for natural resource management are still weak, despite the fact that decentralization has been implemented during the last 8 years. External facilitation is needed to improve the livelihood of upland people while, at the same time, enhancing the sustainability of watershed management. Strengthening local institutions, conserving natural resources, and promoting environmentally sound agricultural practices are the three most important policies to be promoted within the watershed.

Making democracy matter: Responsibility and effective environmental governance in regional Australia

This paper will critically examine the changing social relations of responsibility associated with Australia's current regional ‘experiment’ in environmental governance. This experiment centrally involves the transfer of responsibility for natural resource management (NRM) from Federal and State governments to community-based regional bodies. Although governments are promoting democratic NRM planning at the regional level as a more effective means of addressing Australia's environmental problems, we argue that a tension is emerging in association with the simultaneous pursuit of these goals: ‘effectiveness’ has been defined in terms of the accountability of regional communities to central governments for the achievement of short-term results, an approach which is undermining the democratic promise that regional bodies would be responsive to wider community concerns. The notion of ‘responsibility’ provides a means of investigating this tension, as accountability and responsiveness are both elements of the overarching concept of responsibility. The examination of NRM institutions through this theoretical lens indicates that the shared substantive interests required to motivate a sense of shared responsibility amongst regional actors have been sidelined by the procedural demands of accountability. We argue that, if NRM planning is to be genuinely accountable and responsive to substantive public ends, the properly social and dialogical nature of responsibility relationships must be recovered. The paper concludes with a discussion of the social and political relations of responsibility that appear to provide the best opportunities for effective environmental governance, and thus for the achievement of more sustainable NRM outcomes, at the regional level.

Networks and Institutions in Natural Resource Management

Networks and Institutions in Natural Resource Management

Rural community and leadership in the management of natural resources: Tensions between theory and policy

Rural communities are increasingly called upon to maximize application of their own resources to solve environmental problems. Many communities have been seen to organize themselves and establish lasting institutions for natural resource management. Leadership, alongside social capital, has been identified by governments as well as the research literature to be an important element in community organization. Policies and programmes have been developed to foster leadership. However, there is a tension between leadership and social capital. This tension and potential contradiction become apparent when the concept of power is introduced. Focusing particularly but not exclusively on Australia, the paper looks at the theory and practice of leadership programmes in relation to the findings of empirical studies of community power relations. It specifies the kinds of leadership appropriate to natural resource management in terms of leader–follower relations, arguing that the leader–follower relationship, rather than the individual characteristics of leaders, should command research and policy attention. Some consideration of factors to be taken into account in designing leadership programmes is offered in conclusion.

Cooperation, Games, and Ecological Feedback: Some Insights from Bali

Cooperation, Games, and Ecological Feedback: Some Insights from Bali

Command and control in natural resource management: Revisiting Holling and Meffe

Command and control in natural resource management: Revisiting Holling and Meffe

Examining the Potential of Indigenous Institutions for Development: A Perspective from Borana, Ethiopia

AbstractThis article examines an institutional approach to development in which indigenous institutions are viewed as a resource for achieving development. It concentrates on indigenous natural resource management (NRM) institutions which have been seen by some development agencies to be a means to address the needs of people and the environment in a way that is also participatory. Using material from Borana, Ethiopia, the article describes the indigenous NRM institutions and examines the outcome of one attempt to work with them. In the process, it shows that partnerships between development agencies and indigenous NRM institutions are often fragile, and tend to dissolve when they fail to meet the preconceptions of the developers. Through an examination of this approach to development, the article also examines the usefulness of recent broad approaches to institutions.