Context Of Natural Resource Management Research Articles

“I don’t know if we should have that discussion now”

Abstract Collaborative governance within natural resource management relies on dialogical forums where people can negotiate complex issues through conversations. In this paper, we investigate situations where procedural frames around these discussions are negotiated in the conversations between its participants in a corpus from five different natural resource management contexts. We present how frame discussions are initiated, how actors express that actions are not aligned with the frames, and finally, how these openings of discourse about the frames are interactively managed, maintained, and closed. We argue norms of inclusiveness, consensus, and performance shape the interaction and hamper the joint investigation of the frames, and undermine the entire justification of the collaborative processes and the core quality of dialogical conversations.

Willingness to cooperate in shared natural resource management is linked to group identification through perceived efficacy and group norms

Cooperative management of shared natural resources is one of the most urgent challenges the world is facing today. While there have been advances in understanding institutional design features that enable sustainable management, there are few field studies that provide theory-based insights into social psychological predictors of willingness to cooperate around shared resources. Here, we address this issue in the context of shared land management in pastoralist community conservancies in Kenya. In a large survey of individuals from different conservancies, we test a path model that links willingness to cooperate to how strongly respondents identified with their conservancy. This relationship is mediated by how efficient conservancies were perceived to be, and to what extent other people in the community were perceived to share cooperative norms. The results also point towards several parameters that may be conducive to developing stronger conservancy identification: transparency of purpose, motive alignment, sense of ownership, and demonstrating benefit. The findings provide insights into the social psychological processes that impact whether cooperative outcomes can be achieved in real-world shared resource settings, and offer practical implications for strengthening governance within pastoralist conservancies and related shared natural resource management contexts.

Citizen Science and Natural Resource Management: A Social Network Analysis of Two Community-Based Water Monitoring Programs

In natural resource management contexts, citizen science programs often involve a diversity of actors collaborating in broad social networks. However, the characteristics and functioning of these networks has received limited attention. In this article, we demonstrate the benefits of applying social network research to citizen science practice. Through a mixed methods approach, we compare data sharing and collaboration networks of two community-based water monitoring programs in Australia. The quantitative component revealed that despite similarities in actor diversity and activities, both programs have created divergent network structures (centralized vs decentralized) corresponding to their scale of influence in environmental decision-making (regional vs local impacts). The qualitative component showed how individuals navigated their relationships and managed key tensions inherent to network functioning. This study provides new insights on the role of social networks in citizen science and concludes by recommending program leaders adopt a “networking mindset” to maximize their sphere of influence.

Extreme events, loss, and grief—an evaluation of the evolving management of climate change threats on the Great Barrier Reef

Coral reefs across the world have demonstrated an incredible resilience to disturbance, having persisted for over 200 million years withstanding local, short-term shocks such as cyclones and bleaching events, as well as large-scale, long-term global changes such as sea-level fluctuations. However, there are now many persistent and growing threats to the health and productivity of global reef systems such as the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), including water temperature change and subsequent coral bleaching, invasive species, severe weather events, and water quality degradation. Among these, it is widely acknowledged that climate change is the greatest threat to the GBR, with the GBR Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) releasing a position statement on climate change in 2019, compellingly arguing the urgent need for climate change action for the GBR. For the past two decades, researchers have strongly emphasized the need for vigorous implementation of management strategies that support global reef resilience. This study provides a critical review of the response to this call to action and the barriers and opportunities for implementing transformative resilience actions across a range of social-ecological and natural resource management contexts. Bringing the concepts of environmental grief and resilience thinking together, this study reflects on how back-to-back coral bleaching events in 2016–2017 have changed the framing of GBR management. However, there is more work to be done to ensure that all actors responsible for GBR management accept and embrace change in order to enable transformative resilience, which, for an environment feeling the heat of climate and non-climate pressures, will maintain at least some of their critical environmental, social, and economic values.

Potential Use of Biological Herbicides in a Circular Economy Context: A Sustainable Approach

In recent years, synthetic herbicides’ intense and disordered use has triggered severe contamination of soils and water bodies, causing damage to living organisms, including vegetal herbicide-resistance. In-part, biological herbicides, offer promise in addressing these problems, especially for sustainable weed management in both agricultural and natural resource management contexts. The search for culture media to serve as alternatives to the existing conventional synthetic media has focused on microalgae biomass. The natural properties of these organisms make them ideal raw materials for fermentative processes. Therefore, this study aimed to integrate bioprocesses producing bioherbicidal extract using a submerged fermentation process. For this, a substrate of microalgae recycled biomass to replace commercially used media for fungal growth for relatively cheap biomass obtained from wastewater phycoremediation after anaerobic treatment (UASB). We also verified its potential for weed control. Preliminary tests of microalgae fermentation were conducted in the raw and lyophilized form, using the fungus Trichoderma koningiopsis. To evaluate their phytotoxic potential, the biocompounds were applied to Bidens pilosa, Conyza bonariensis, Urochloa plantaginea, and Euphorbia heterophylla weeds. A central composite rotatable design (CCRD) was used to evaluate the influence of temperature (20–45oC), agitation (0–200 RPM), and pH (3–14) on the improvement of enzyme activities, fungal growth and the effects on Cucumis sativus germination tests. We found that microalgae could be used as a substrate for obtaining bioherbicides. The biocompounds produced in this study were relevant for pre- and post-emergence control of model plants (Cucumis sativus ), with vigor indexes of up to 8.05% and herbicide-resistant plants (Conyza bonariensis) with phytotoxic damage of up to 100% after 15 days. From the experiments’ design, we found that agitation was the variable that had the most significant effect on enzyme and biomass production, followed by pH and temperature. The enzymes also showed synergistic action when acting together with microalgae and fungi, potentiating the control effect on weeds. Finally, the system integrated bioprocesses through agro-industrial effluent recovery and reuse, considered one of the essential economic viability mechanisms by enhancing the development of more sustainable technologies that embrace the principles of a circular economy.

Network analysis of collaboration and information sharing in the management of the Lower Mekong River Basin

Collaboration in a natural resource management setting is vital to effective management. This paper evaluates collaboration and information and data exchange among organizations involved in the management of the Lower Mekong River Basin (LMB). As in other major river basins throughout the world, the LMB faces complex management challenges related to transboundary cooperation and competing demands from users in different countries. In response to stakeholder interest in strengthening collaboration and information sharing and identifying organizations well positioned to serve as research and information hubs to foster collaboration in LMB resource management, we conducted an organizational network survey of national, regional and international organizations that work in the LMB. An examination of network structure was conducted using key network measures and Jackson's (2017) social capital typology was used to examine which organizations in the network were well suited to serve as research and information hubs. The analysis showed that while the LMB network was relatively dense compared to other natural resource research and/or management networks, a lack of connections across national and organizational type boundaries could be a hindrance to transboundary collaboration and communication. The analysis also identified two organizations that were particularly well situated within the LMB network to act as brokers for knowledge and information exchange, with each organization occupying a complementary position in the network. This study illustrates the utility of social network analysis in identifying opportunities and hindrances for collaboration and information exchange and the potential roles of key actors in complex multi-scaled natural resource management contexts.

Towards good governance of urban greening: insights from four initiatives in Melbourne, Australia

ABSTRACT Urban greening can enhance sustainability and liveability, through conserving biodiversity, mitigating urban heat and enhancing people’s health and wellbeing. However, urban greening is complex, as it occurs in unique ecological settings, with social, cultural and economic factors shaping the forms it takes. This raises questions about the governance of urban greening, including what counts as ‘good governance’. In this paper, we first outline principles of good governance drawn from the natural resource management context. We then present four urban greening initiatives from Melbourne Australia representing different scales, land tenures and organising structures. Following this, we analyse how governance of the four initiatives addresses good governance principles. Our analysis shows that there are diverse ways in which urban greening can be practiced and governed. The importance of more ‘informal’ initiatives should not be discounted relative to formalised initiatives, as a spectrum of approaches can be seen as strength. Further, in determining what constitutes good governance, the standards against which initiatives are assessed should be tailored to their specific circumstances, and consider impacts to the environment itself. These findings point to good urban greening governance being both situated and principled.

Coastal Peloids as Geological Heritage: Evidence from the Taman Peninsula (Southwestern Russia)

The coastal peloidis a peculiar and poorly-studied geological substance. Peloids occurin the Bugaz, Kiziltash, and Vityazevolimans and the Chemburka Lake on the southern coast of the Taman Peninsula. The studied peloids are dark-colored mud enriched in hydrogen sulfide and methane and constitute the uppermost 10–20 cm of bottom sediments. Being geologically unique, the coastal peloids of the Taman Peninsula can be recognized as ageoheritage site. Their uniqueness is linked to sediment type, biogeochemical processes, economic value, and depositional environment. The most typical peloids are found in the BugazLiman and the Chemburka Lake, proposed as geosites. The recognized coastal geoheritage site can be used for the purposes of science, education, and tourism, and its utility seems to be especially high because of its close location to the big resort area of Anapa. It appears to be important to balance management of this geoheritagesite with peloid extraction for balneological purposes. The studied coastal muds should be involved into the regional planning programs aimed at sustainable development (international experience and, particularly, some examples from the British coasts should be taken into consideration). Particularly, it is necessary to put peloid use into the context of regional planning and sustainable natural resource management.

Social return on investment: application for an Indigenous rangelands context

Social Return on Investment (SROI) is an internationally recognised methodology used to measure and value the economic impact of program outcomes. Like a traditional cost-benefit analysis, SROI examines economic outcomes, but also includes the social, environmental and cultural outcomes created by the investment. These outcomes are evaluated against their cost, using financial proxies to estimate their relative economic worth. SROI is particularly valuable in the indigenous natural resource management context, because of the strong ‘value’ or importance of non-economic (particularly cultural) costs and benefits. The Alinytjara Wilurara Natural Resources Management Board undertook a study of the economic, social, environmental and cultural impacts and benefits of the presence of large feral herbivores in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, in the far north-west of South Australia. Camels, donkeys and horses present significant impacts for the community in terms of vehicle collisions, community health, damage to infrastructure and water pollution, as well as impacts on sites of cultural and spiritual significance to the local communities. With the annual cost impacts incurred by society caused by large feral herbivores in the APY lands valued at $4.2million and possible dollar value of those animals valued at $140000, the study found that there was a net cost impact of ~$4million from not managing the impact of these animals. The study also found significant cultural impacts of large feral herbivores, such as the fouling of natural springs and other culturally sensitive sites, and further analysis would be required to determine the economic cost of these impacts. Investment models that consider a broad range of costs and benefits are considered necessary for Australian rangelands, particularly Indigenous-owned land. This paper presents a case study of the development of a ranger program that employs local community members to manage the impacts of large feral herbivores that will provide a net benefit to society of ~$3million every year, aside from the additional benefits of employment and economic participation. The $3-million net benefit accrues from saving human lives and costs associated with vehicle accidents, and reduced management costs and increased income for pastoral areas of the APY Lands. APY community members, and the APY Pastoral business are core beneficiaries; however, there are several external beneficiaries that this SROI approach recognises including the Motor Accident Commission, Health Departments and South Australian Police. The strongly positive SROI in this case presents an excellent co-investment opportunity for agencies whose core focus is on road safety and health. Importantly, the SROI approach to creation of social value can be implemented in a way that is consistent with stated community aspirations for development.

Using Multiple Methods to Understand the Nature of Relationships in Social Networks

ABSTRACTEffective natural resource management (NRM) often depends on collaboration through formal and informal relationships. Social network analysis (SNA) provides a framework for studying social relationships; however, a deeper understanding of the nature of these relationships is often missing. By integrating multiple analytical methods (including SNA, evidence ratings, and perception matrices), we were able to investigate the nature of relationships in NRM social networks across five service types (e.g., technical advice, on-ground support) in our case study region, Daly catchment Australia. Only one service type was rated as highly associated with free choice in establishing relationships: technical advice/knowledge. Beneficial characteristics of NRM organizations, such as collaborative and transparent, were associated with the presence of freely chosen relationships between organizations. Our results suggest a need to improve our understanding of organizational roles and characteristics, in particular for use in applied NRM contexts, such as network weaving or disseminating information.

Measuring farmer conservation behaviors: Challenges and best practices

This article presents a guide for understanding the purposes and appropriate uses of different measures of conservation behavior. While applicable across natural resource management contexts, we primarily draw upon agricultural conservation research to illustrate our points. Farmers are often of interest to researchers, program managers, extension professionals, and non-governmental environmental organizations due to the significant impact of agricultural production practices on environmental resources. Practitioners are often interested in producer behaviors when they are planning or evaluating a project, developing or evaluating policy, or developing and testing theory. Within those bounds, we identify when it is most useful to assess an actual behavior (self-reported or observed) or behavioral intention (willingness or intent to pay/accept, support/participate in a policy or program, or engage in a conservation practice), and present examples of how they have been used in the past. We close with three recommendations for those conducting research related to agricultural producer behaviors: 1) research should be theoretically grounded, even when the purpose isn’t to develop theory; 2) great care should be used when selecting behavior measures, dependent upon the purpose of the research, and 3) composite measures should be used when possible and appropriate.

Trust, Trustworthiness, and Motivation in the Natural Resource Management Context

ABSTRACTTrust is critical for natural resource management (NRM). In recognition of this, a noteworthy body of literature has investigated the construct but is, as yet, still developing. The current research proposes and tests an increasingly complete model that integrates the major advances in not only the NRM literature but in the social psychological literature addressing trust more generally as well. To that end, the current analyses were conducted with a large sample of Michigan hunters (n = 23,954). The results suggest that, as hypothesized, the theoretical model is a statistically defensible account of trust in this context and suggest that both trustworthiness and motivation have important roles to play in driving cooperation intention and behavior. Thus, the current work suggests that although it is important for NRM institutions to attend to their trustworthiness, they should not ignore the motivation that arises from benefits they provide.

A framework for mapping and comparing behavioural theories in models of social-ecological systems

Formal models are commonly used in natural resource management (NRM) to study human-environment interactions and inform policy making. In the majority of applications, human behaviour is represented by the rational actor model despite growing empirical evidence of its shortcomings in NRM contexts. While the importance of accounting for the complexity of human behaviour is increasingly recognized, its integration into formal models remains a major challenge. The challenges are multiple: i) there exist many theories scattered across the social sciences, ii) most theories cover only a certain aspect of decision-making, iii) they vary in their degree of formalization, iv) causal mechanisms are often not specified. We provide a framework- MoHuB (Modelling Human Behavior) - to facilitate a broader inclusion of theories on human decision-making in formal NRM models. It serves as a tool and common language to describe, compare and communicate alternative theories. In doing so, we not only enhance understanding of commonalities and differences between theories, but take a first step towards tackling the challenges mentioned above. This approach may enable modellers to find and formalize relevant theories, and be more explicit and inclusive about theories of human decision making in the analysis of social-ecological systems.

Adapting prospective structural analysis to strengthen sustainable management and capacity building in community-based natural resource management contexts

Local communities collectively managing common pool resources can play an important role in sustainable management, but they often lack the skills and context-specific tools required for such management. The complex dynamics of social-ecological systems (SES), the need for management capacities, and communities’ limited empowerment and participation skills present challenges for community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) strategies. We analyzed the applicability of prospective structural analysis (PSA), a strategic foresight tool, to support decision making and to foster sustainable management and capacity building in CBNRM contexts and the modifications necessary to use the tool in such contexts. By testing PSA in three SES in Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina, we gathered information regarding the potential of this tool and its adaptation requirements. The results suggest that the tool can be adapted to these contexts and contribute to fostering sustainable management and capacity building. It helped identify the systems’ dynamics, thus increasing the communities’ knowledge about their SES and informing the decision-making process. Additionally, it drove a learning process that both fostered empowerment and built participation skills. The process demanded both time and effort, and required external monitoring and facilitation, but community members could be trained to master it. Thus, we suggest that the PSA technique has the potential to strengthen CBNRM and that other initiatives could use it, but they must be aware of these requirements.

A simplified approach to stakeholder engagement in natural resource management: the Five-Feature Framework

We distill complex frameworks for stakeholder engagement into five main principles that scientists and natural resource managers can use in planning stakeholder engagement efforts. Many natural resource management professionals, including practitioners and scholars, increasingly recognize the need for, and potential benefits of, engaging stakeholders in complex decision-making processes, yet the implementation of these efforts varies wildly, reflecting great methodological and conceptual diversity. Given the dynamic and diverse natural resource management contexts in which engagement occurs and the often significant stakes involved in making decisions about natural resources, we argue that stakeholder engagement would benefit from a theoretical framework that is both agile and robust. To this end, five essential elements of stakeholder engagement are evaluated and organized to form the Five-Feature Framework, thereby providing a functional and approachable platform with which to consider engagement processes. Aside from introducing and developing the Five-Feature Framework, we apply the framework as a measure to evaluate the empirical case study literature involving stakeholder engagement in natural resource management in an effort to better understand the obstacles facing robust and genuine engagement in natural resource management. Our results suggest that the most basic principles of engagement are often absent from stakeholder engagement projects, which confirms the need for a functional framework. The Five-Feature Framework can be used to plan flexible, adaptable, and rigorous engagement projects in a variety of contexts and with teams that have varying backgrounds and experience. By virtue of its simplicity and functionality, the framework demystifies stakeholder engagement in order to help natural resource professionals build opportunities for collaborative decision-making and integrate citizen values and knowledge into complex management issues.

The Utility of a Collective Identity Construct to Explore the Influence of Farming Identity on Natural Resource Management

ABSTRACTChange in the occupational identity of rural residents is expected to influence natural resource management (NRM). Self-declaration is the most common way of assessing occupational identity (OI) but is largely atheoretical. Researchers have suggested that the collective identity construct (CIC) might provide a theoretically derived and reliable measure of OI. In this article we reflect on the first attempt to evaluate the application of the CIC in the NRM context. Rural landholders in Australia and the United States were interviewed to assess whether the CIC would distinguish between full-time farmers, part-time farmers, and nonfarmers, and to determine whether there were opportunities to refine the lengthy list of CIC dimensions and elements for future studies. This research suggests the CIC will be an effective measure of OI in that differences between the landholder cohorts emerged for five of seven CIC dimensions. We conclude by suggesting how these dimensions might be operationalized in a survey.

The development and validation of a collective occupational identity construct (COIC) in a natural resource context

The trend to multifunctional rural landscapes in developed economies is characterised by the contrasting values, land uses and land management practices of rural property owners. In agricultural regions, it seems these trends are, at least in part, an expression of the extent rural landholders identify as farmers. Investigation of these trends has been hampered by the absence of robust approaches to measuring occupational identity amongst rural landholders. Research discussed in this paper addresses that gap. The objective was to develop a valid, reliable and efficient measure of occupational identity. We did that using the collective identity construct (CIC) and adapted a widely accepted 17-item CIC scale to explore the extent rural landholders in south eastern Australia held a farmer identity. Drawing on a survey of 1900 rural landholders we assessed the reliability, validity and utility of that scale. Those tests resulted in a 12-item scale that we suggest provides a valid and reliable measure of occupational identity that can be applied in natural resource management contexts.

Eliciting Inter-Temporal Value Trade-Offs: A Deliberative Multi-Criteria Analysis of Vietnam’s Bai Tu Long National Park Management Scenarios

Background : While different notions of sustainability and sustainable de- velopment have been adopted in the key policy goals of agencies at multiple gov- ernance levels, initial enchantment with sustainable development as a win-win panacea has given way to the emerging notion of hard choices and difficult trade- offs that entail inter-generational allocation of environmental resources. Two hy- potheses are explored: (i) Negative Discounting Hypothesis : Hyperbolic discount- ing and positive discount rates do not accurately describe the decision behavior of policy actors in all natural resource management contexts; rather, negative discount rates for ecological and natural resource conservation values could also be observed in some management contexts. (ii) Value Pluralism Hypothesis : Ecological, social, political and other values could be accorded higher weights than economic values in some natural resource management contexts. Materials and Methods : A deliberative multi-criteria analysis (DMCA) model for eliciting trade-offs among values across multiple space-time scales is presented in the management context of Vietnam's Bai Tu Long National Park (BTLNP). Five management scenarios for BTLNP - business-as-usual, total conservation, total de- velopment, multi-use, and community-owned - are evaluated on six criteria: eco- nomic welfare, social welfare, good governance, ecosystem services and biodiver- sity protection, price of land and accessibility. Results : After group discussions, Vietnamese participants revealed negative dis- counting for economic welfare, social welfare, and ecosystem services, while posi- tive discounting for the other three criteria. Economic welfare is accorded relatively lesser weight than ecosystem services and good governance. Conclusions : Deliberative process reveals that multiple use area and community ownership management scenarios could better serve pluralistic stakeholder values.

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.

Social science and socialising: adopting causal layered analysis to reveal multi-stakeholder perceptions of natural resource management in Australia

The social context of Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Australia is now considered to be a major contributing factor behind the success or failure of landscape improvement programmes. This paper investigates NRM social issues via an alternative interpretative method, Causal Layered Analysis (CLA). CLA was utilised in nine focus groups, comprising landholders and staff from NRM regional bodies in central west New South Wales. A multitude of stakeholder concerns emerged, particularly regarding the concept of sustainability and confusion over roles and responsibilities. We propose that continued use of CLA by those in the local catchment community can help overcome complexity in the social landscape and lead to more engaged and empowered communities.