Natural Resource Management Activities Research Articles

Lessons learned from environmental management of the Iraqi marshlands in the post-conflict period

As part of the United Nations assistance for the reconstruction of Iraq, the United Nations Environment Programme implemented a large-scale initiative in the Iraqi marshlands to help address critical environmental degradation that hampered the stability and livelihoods of the Marshland communities. The project demonstrated environmentally sound technologies and management practices for rehabilitating wetlands and maintaining water-quality management, provided safe drinking water to residents in selected rural communities, and also carried out pilot-scale sanitation service provision. This case study summarizes two types of natural-resource management activities undertaken within the project, namely drinking-water provision and wetland rehabilitation.

Economic valuation of selected direct and indirect use values of the Makgadikgadi wetland system, Botswana

Economic valuation of wetlands aims to investigate public preferences for changes in the state of the wetland and the natural resources it constitutes in monetary terms. It provides a means of quantifying the direct and indirect benefits that people derive from wetlands. In addition, it informs management planning and practice about resource options, optimal allocation and also provides information for conservation of the resource. The Makgadikgadi wetland is a unique system that mostly consists of dry pans during most of the year. This study aimed at estimating the value of groundwater recharge and community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) activities within the Makgadikgadi wetland and how these goods and services contribute to the local and national economy. The study used the Total Economic Valuation approach, which considers both the direct and indirect use values of the resource. In essence, the study concentrated on one direct use value (use of resources through CBNRM) and one indirect use value (groundwater recharge). With regard to CBNRM, three community-based organisations (CBOs) were selected for the study and static and dynamic cost–benefit models for these CBOs were developed. The groundwater recharge value was largely determined through desktop review and interviews with stakeholders. The results indicate a small positive contribution of CBOs towards the economy of Botswana and a high potential for communities to derive substantial benefits from the projects because currently benefits realised by communities are limited. CBOs involved in joint venture partnerships with tourism and hunting enterprises benefit more from utilising the wetland’s resources. Groundwater recharge often occurs in areas away from the physical location of the wetland and may not be easily attributable to the wetland. However, the study assessed the value taking into consideration the various sectors which rely on the groundwater resource. The groundwater recharge value is significant (BWP 9–10 million) but lower when compared with the value generated by the Okavango delta (BWP 16 million). Given future increases in water demands, groundwater abstraction will exceed recharge, thus hampering the availability of the resource for the future generations and maintenance of the environment.

Collective Action for Smallholder Market Access: Evidence and Implications for Africa

It is widely acknowledged that the involvement of small farmers into markets can contribute to higher productivity and income growth, which in turn can enhance food security, poverty reduction efforts, and overall economic growth. In Africa, as in other parts of the developing world, agricultural production systems and their participants face significant challenges as a result of changing economic, environmental, and sociopolitical context. New dynamics in the global agricultural economy, such as the growth of supermarkets, are providing smallholders with both the new opportunities and new constraints to participate in and benefit from market exchanges. Collective action in the form of producer groups can enable African smallholders to take advantage of the new value chains and deal with existing market imperfections. However, certain conditions must be in place to create and sustain incentives for farmers to organize around marketing. Experiences from collective action in natural resource management (NRM) have shown that the types of markets and products, characteristics of user groups, institutional arrangements, and external environment need to be considered in order to determine the effectiveness and sustainability of collective marketing for smallholders. This paper applies the lessons from collective action in NRM to marketing, using existing case studies of producer groups in Africa, and offers policy recommendations on the factors that contribute to the success of collective marketing efforts.

Geographic Information Networks in American Indian Governments and Communities

This article describes advantages and disadvantages of federal government centralized geographic information networks and decentralized peer-to-peer geographic information networks as they pertain to North American Indian tribal governments and communities. Geographic information systems (GIS) are used by indigenous groups for natural resource management, land claims, water rights, and cultural revitalization activities on a global-scale. North American groups use GIS for the same reasons, but questions regarding culturally appropriate GIS, cross-cultural understandings of geographic knowledge, and cultural assimilation through Western digital technologies have been raised by scholars. Two network models are germane to American Indian government operations and community organizations. The first is a prescriptive top-down network emanating from federal government agencies. Federal agencies are responsible for the diffusion of nationwide GIS programs throughout indigenous communities in the United States. A second, potentially more inclusive model is a decentralized peer-to-peer network in which all nodes are responsible for the success of the network.

Perceptions of pastoralists and conservation reserve managers on managing feral camels and their impacts

The perceptions of people living within the current range of feral camels and involved in the pastoral industry and conservation reserve management were assessed through a questionnaire survey. The survey was designed to gauge understanding about the distribution and abundance of feral camels, perspective on camel impacts, and attitudes towards different camel management options. Camels occurred on 74.2% of pastoral properties and 51.4% of reserves that were surveyed. Camels were reported to be increasing on more than 50% of pastoral properties and 88% of reserves and were reported to cause damage on most properties where they occurred. The total monetary value of this damage (including management to mitigate it) was estimated to be $7.15 million per annum on the pastoral estate and $0.37 million per annum across the conservation estate within or on the margins of the camel range. On the pastoral estate, ~$2.40 million of the damage per annum was to infrastructure whereas production losses amounted to $3.42 million per annum. A minority of pastoral properties and reserves reported tangible benefits that accrued from selling camels, eating camels and using camels for natural resource management activities including weed control. The monetary value of the benefit was estimated to be about $0.58 million per annum across the pastoral estate, compared with ~$34 379 per annum across the conservation estate. Pastoralists and reserve managers generally saw a need to control camels and their impacts and currently play an active role in this regard. Both landholder groups favoured culling and commercial use to manage camel impacts but were comfortable using all of the available approaches and willing to consider new ones.

Understanding Social Complexity Within the Wildland–Urban Interface: A New Species of Human Habitation?

The lack of knowledge regarding social diversity in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) or an in-depth understanding of the ways people living there interact to address common problems is concerning, perhaps even dangerous, given that community action is necessary for successful wildland fire preparedness and natural resource management activities. In this article, we lay out the knowledge and preliminary case study evidence needed to begin systematically documenting the differing levels and types of adaptive capacity WUI communities have for addressing collective problems such as wildland fire hazard. In order to achieve this end, we draw from two theoretical perspectives encompassing humans' interactions with their environment, including (1) Kenneth Wilkinson's interactional approach to community, (2) and certain elements of place literature. We also present case study research on wildfire protection planning in two drastically different California communities to illustrate how social diversity influences adaptive capacity to deal with hazards such as wildland fire. These perspectives promote an image of the WUI not as a monolithic entity but a complex mosaic of communities with different needs and existing capacities for wildland fire and natural resource management.

Collective action for smallholder market access

The opportunity for smallholders to raise their incomes increasingly depends on their ability to compete in the market; yet there are many failures in rural markets in developing countries that make it difficult for them to do this. Understanding how collective action can help address the inefficiencies, coordination problems or barriers to market access is particularly important. This paper draws on the case studies in this special issue and on other literature to examine the conceptual issues and empirical evidence on the role of collective action institutions in improving market access for the rural poor. Applying insights from studies of collective action in natural resource management, the paper examines what conditions facilitate effective producer organizations for smallholders’ market access, with special attention to the characteristics of user groups, institutional arrangements, types of products (staples, perishables and other commodities), markets (local, domestic and international), and external environment. The paper also identifies policies and interventions that facilitate collective action for market access among smallholders, and examines whether the public sector, private sector and/or civil society is best positioned to provide such interventions.

Assessing the role of learning devices and geovisualisation tools for collective action in natural resource management: Experiences from Vietnam

In northern Vietnam uplands the successive policy reforms that accompanied agricultural decollectivisation triggered very rapid changes in land use in the 1990s. From a centralized system of natural resource management, a multitude of individual strategies emerged which contributed to new production interactions among farming households, changes in landscape structures, and conflicting strategies among local stakeholders. Within this context of agrarian transition, learning devices can help local communities to collectively design their own course of action towards sustainable natural resource management. This paper presents a collaborative approach combining a number of participatory methods and geovisualisation tools (e.g., spatially explicit multi-agent models and role-playing games) with the shared goal to analyse and represent the interactions between: (i) decision-making processes by individual farmers based on the resource profiles of their farms; (ii) the institutions which regulate resource access and usage; and (iii) the biophysical and socioeconomic environment. This methodological pathway is illustrated by a case study in Bac Kan Province where it successfully led to a communication platform on natural resource management. In a context of rapid socioeconomic changes, learning devices and geovisualisation tools helped embed the participatory approach within a process of community development. The combination of different tools, each with its own advantages and constraints, proved highly relevant for supporting collective natural resource management.

Potential environmental contaminant risks to avian species at important bird areas in the Northeastern United States

Environmental contaminants can have profound effects on birds, acting from the molecular through population levels of biological organization. An analysis of potential contaminant threats was undertaken at 52 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) within the northeastern Atlantic coast drainage. Using geographic information system methodology, data layers describing or integrating contamination (impaired waters, fish or wildlife consumption advisories, toxic release inventory sites, and estimates of pesticide use) were overlaid on buffered IBA boundaries, and the relative threat at each site was ranked. Some species of birds residing at Jefferson National Forrest (NF), Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Great Dismal Swamp NWR, Blue Ridge Parkway, Shenandoah National Park (NP), Adirondack Park, Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, George Washington NF, Green Mountain NF, Long Island Piping Plover Beaches, and Merrymeeting Bay may be threatened by environmental contaminants. These sites exhibited moderate to high percentages of impaired waters and had fish consumption advisories related to mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, and were located in counties with substantial pesticide use. Endangered, threatened, and Watch List bird species are present at these sites. The Contaminant Exposure and Effects-Terrestrial Vertebrates database was searched within buffered IBA boundaries, and for a moderate number of sites there was concordance between the perceived risk and contaminant exposure. Several of the IBAs with apparently substantial contaminant threats had no avian ecotoxicological data (e.g., George Washington NF, Shenandoah NP). Based upon this screening level risk assessment, contaminant biomonitoring of birds is warranted at such sites, and data generated from these efforts could foster natural resource management activities.

Sustainable Village Organizations, the Successful Route to Sustainable Livelihoods? A Case Study in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan

The study is based on the impact of development interventions on the rural households in the Abbottabad district of Pakistan. Methodological approaches used include a qualitative analysis of natural resource management and NGOs' impact on development activities and quantitative analysis of households' livelihood status and strategies. The key findings are that the role of social capital can ensure sustainable natural resource management and sustainable livelihood improvement activities. Formation of community-based organizations can lead to the formation of social capital that is much needed for other management and livelihood support activities. Also, natural resource management and livelihood improvement activities need to be interrelated with each other to involve the poor as they need incentives.

RESTORING PISCIVOROUS FISH POPULATIONS IN THE LAURENTIAN GREAT LAKES CAUSES SEABIRD DIETARY CHANGE

Ecosystem change often affects the structure of aquatic communities thereby regulating how much and by what pathways energy and critical nutrients flow through food webs. The availability of energy and essential nutrients to top predators such as seabirds that rely on resources near the water's surface will be affected by changes in pelagic prey abundance. Here, we present results from analysis of a 25-year data set documenting dietary change in a predatory seabird from the Laurentian Great Lakes. We reveal significant declines in trophic position and alterations in energy and nutrient flow over time. Temporal changes in seabird diet tracked decreases in pelagic prey fish abundance. As pelagic prey abundance declined, birds consumed less aquatic prey and more terrestrial food. This pattern was consistent across all five large lake ecosystems. Declines in prey fish abundance may have primarily been the result of predation by stocked piscivorous fishes, but other lake-specific factors were likely also important. Natural resource management activities can have unintended consequences for nontarget ecosystem components. Reductions in pelagic prey abundance have reduced the capacity of the Great Lakes to support the energetic requirements of surface-feeding seabirds. In an environment characterized by increasingly limited pelagic fish resources, they are being offered a Hobsonian choice: switch to less nutritious terrestrial prey or go hungry.

Factors Affecting Households' Participation in the Natural Resource Management Activities in District Abbottabad, NWFP, Pakistan

In this article the factors affecting the attitudes and preferences of households regarding natural resource management in the Abbottabad district of Pakistan are analysed. The findings suggest that non-government organizations were doing better than government agencies in motivating the user groups towards sustainable use and management of natural resources through local organizations. However, it depends on the households' socio-economic status and its linkage with their livelihoods to participate in natural resource management activities. The study can assist policymakers by identifying the key areas for the implementation of their programmes related with natural resource management activities through community participation.

Fifteen Years of Empirical Research on Collective Action in Natural Resource Management: Struggling to Build Large-N Databases Based on Qualitative Research

Many debates exist among social scientists that relate to the “best” way of collecting data about important theoretical questions. As scholars, who conduct individual case studies as well as participate in large-N studies combining qualitative and quantitative data, we recognize the value of each research strategy and trade-offs in choosing between them. We support the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to build on the strengths of each. A meta-analysis of the scholarly literature indexed during 1990–2004 on collective action related to natural resource governance yielded strong evidence that small-N studies are still the dominant empirical method. The continued reliance on research designs with limited comparative scope reflects practical challenges that limit the quantity and geographic breadth of data that any one researcher can collect using field-based research. We discuss the relative merits and shortcomings of two strategies for overcoming those challenges: Meta-databases constructed from existing qualitative studies and large-N field-based studies. Resource constraints, career incentives, and, ironically, collective action problems among researchers currently limit adoption of these strategies.

Systematic regional planning for multiple objective natural resource management

On-ground natural resource management actions such as revegetation and remnant vegetation management can simultaneously affect multiple objectives including land, water and biodiversity resources. Hence, planning for the sustainable management of natural resources requires consideration of these multiple objectives. However, planning the location of management actions in the landscape often treats these objectives individually to reduce the process and spatial complexity inherent in human-modified and natural landscapes. This can be inefficient and potentially counterproductive given the linkages and trade-offs involved. We develop and apply a systematic regional planning approach to identify geographic priorities for on-ground natural resource management actions that most cost-effectively meet multiple natural resource management objectives. Our systematic regional planning approach utilises integer programming within a structured multi-criteria decision analysis framework. Intelligent siting can capitalise on the multiple benefits of on-ground actions and achieve natural resource management objectives more efficiently. The focus of this study is the human-modified landscape of the River Murray, South Australia. However, the methodology and analyses presented here can be adapted to other regions requiring more efficient and integrated planning for the management of natural resources.

Exploring Natural Resource Management with Metaphor Analysis

In the following pages I reflect on the nature of natural resource management by exploring some of the metaphors used during planning, implementing, and reflecting on two watershed management projects. Metaphors are used to understand one idea through another, and their use in everyday dialogue can provide a means to understand the conceptual frameworks that underpin behaviours. Within the case studies presented here, natural resource management was conceptualized variously as journeying, revealing a picture, and treating watershed illness. Understanding the world through each of these conceptual frameworks appears to have influenced the planning, delivery, and evaluation of natural resource management activities undertaken in the case-study areas. The qualitative, interpretive study of conceptual frameworks presented here helps to explain participant behaviours, and could be used to predict the acceptance or otherwise of particular program approaches within these and similar projects.

Political Deadlock and Devolved Wildlife Management in Zimbabwe

Since February 2000, Zimbabwe has been experiencing an unparalleled period of political, economic, and social uncertainty. The most prominent features are the political deadlock generated by (a) confrontation between the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party; (b) the illegal invasion of private land; (c) hyperinflation; and (d) the withdrawal of bilateral donor funds. Generally, a culture of impunity exists that compromises the rule of law. Within this crisis, very little attention has been given to the impact that this political deadlock and uncertainty have on natural resource management in the communal lands of Zimbabwe. Between 1990 and 2000, Zimbabwe's Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) was considered one of the leading community conservation initiatives attracting considerable international interest and analysis. This article analyzes the changes that are taking place within Nenyunga Ward, Gokwe North Rural District Council (RDC), since 2000. By comparing selected natural resource management activities before and after 2000, the article demonstrates how the larger macroeconomic and political processes are undermining natural resource management at the ward level.

Vegetation condition mapping at a landscape‐scale across Victoria

Vegetation condition mapping at a landscape‐scale across Victoria

Question of Partnerships: Environmental Management in Queensland's Sugar Cane Industry

Effective partnerships among government, industry and community actors are increasingly being identified as crucial to the effectiveness of natural resource management activities both in Australia and overseas. Three types of partnerships are identified from the literature and discussed. This paper describes the nature of partnerships affecting land use allocation in Queensland's sugar industry, based on a case study of the Herbert River District in north Queensland. By reviewing relevant government and industry documents, the process of sugarcane land allocation, and the role of non-industry officials in that process, it is suggested that substantial scope for improvement exists.

Healthy Country: Healthy People? Exploring the health benefits of Indigenous natural resource management

Objective: Decades of health‐related research have produced a large body of knowledge describing alarming rates of morbidity, mortality and social/cultural disruption among Indigenous Australians, but have failed to deliver sustainable interventions to arrest the deepening spiral of ill‐health. This paper explores the potential of Indigenous natural resource management (NRM) activities to promote and preserve Indigenous health in remote areas of northern Australia.Method: A literature review of the health, social science and ecology peer‐reviewed journals and secondary literature.Conclusions and Implications: Effective interventions in Indigenous health will require trans‐disciplinary, holistic approaches that explicitly incorporate Indigenous health beliefs and engage with the social and cultural drivers of health. Aboriginal peoples maintain a strong belief that continued association with and caring for ancestral lands is a key determinant of health. Individual engagement with ‘country’ provides opportunities for physical activity and improved diet as well as boosting individual autonomy and self‐esteem. Internationally, such culturally congruent health promotion activities have been successful in programs targeting substance abuse and chronic diseases.NRM is fundamental to the maintenance of biodiversity of northern Australia. Increased support for Indigenous involvement in land and sea NRM programs would also deliver concrete social benefits for communities including opportunities for sustainable and culturally apt regional employment, applied education and economic development. NRM may also reinvigorate societal/cultural constructs, increasing collective esteem and social cohesion.

A Question of Partnerships: Environmental Management in Queensland's Sugar Cane Industry

Effective partnerships among government, industry and community actors are increasingly being identified as crucial to the effectiveness of natural resource management activities both in Australia and overseas. Three types of partnerships are identified from the literature and discussed. This paper describes the nature of partnerships affecting land use allocation in Queensland's sugar industry, based on a case study of the Herbert River District in north Queensland. By reviewing relevant government and industry documents, the process of sugarcane land allocation, and the role of non-industry officials in that process, it is suggested that substantial scope for improvement exists.