Natural Resource Management Research Research Articles

Managing biodiversity on private land: Directions for collaboration through reconciliation ecology

SummaryNatural resource management in Australia is beset with ‘wicked’ problems: diminishing biodiversity, increasing soil erosion, spreading soil salinity and global climate change all impact private landholders across rural Australia. These problems highlight the complexity of biodiversity conservation, and the need for inclusive, respectful approaches that enable the participation of rural communities, private landholders and government agencies to effectively manage biodiversity on public and private lands. To address these problems, some landholders, rural communities and other stakeholders are seeking evidence‐based solutions through directly applicable research. In this paper, we identify current barriers to such research and highlight principles and processes for co‐designing and managing research based on mutual trust, respect, power sharing and acceptance of various knowledge systems, as embodied in the theory of reconciliation ecology. We suggest that a ‘community of practice’ approach could assist in establishing effective deliberative relations as a basis for active collaboration in natural resource management research to address these complex problems.

Effective mission-oriented research: A new framework for systemic research impact assessment

Abstract Mission-oriented research combines a wide array of natural and social science disciplines to offer solutions for complex and multi-dimensional challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and scarcity of natural resources. The utilization of the outputs of mission-oriented research aims for changes in behavior, policy and practice resulting in real world impacts. Systematically assessing such research impacts and impact-generating processes is novel and offers great potential to plan for impactful research. This article develops a framework for systemic research impact assessment (RIA) on the basis of a literature review taking natural resource management (NRM) research as an example. The review compiles and analyzes 70 relevant RIA approaches. The resulting framework combines four components for improving societal impacts (1) an integrated component enabling reflection of impacts on all sustainability dimensions, (2) a missions component orienting toward societal goals to ensure societal relevance, (3) an inclusive component enabling wide participation to ensure legitimacy of research and its impact, and (4) a strategic component to choose appropriate assessment scales and time dimensions to ensure effectiveness. We provide suitable examples for the framework and we conclude with a call for an increased use of systemic and formative RIA that incorporate participatory strategies for research priority setting as well as socially deliberated target systems (e.g. SDGs), to plan for impactful mission-oriented research.

Inclusive simulation game development to enhance Florida research and management: Cedar Key oyster fishery

Simulation games have been an emerging field of research in many disciplines including natural resource management. However, in this discipline, simulation games have primarily been used to fulfill education and communication roles, and they have typically not been used for data collection. For simulation games to find use in data collection for natural resource management research, new design processes and testing criteria will be needed which ensure that players act in the game similarly to the way they interact with real-world natural resource systems. This research pilots such a process. This design process features inclusion of stakeholders in the earliest phases of development (empowering them to define parameters for the simulation game) and novel testing criteria which emphasizes Usability, Relevance, and Credibility of the game. This process involved multiple rounds of collaborative interactions with stakeholders and resulted in a finalized simulation game to be used in future research.

Experimental games in transdisciplinary research: The potential importance of individual payments

Laboratory experiments in social sciences are a powerful tool with which to study causal mechanisms in human interactions. Over the past several years, experimental games have been applied increasingly in transdisciplinary research in natural resource management with a strong purpose to develop capacity to promote learning and behavioral change. Yet, few studies have evaluated the potential of different experimental game designs to promote collective action outside of experiments. In a framed field experiment on water management in rural India, we compared within-game behavior and collective action outside the game between individuals who received individual payments and those who did not. Our results show little evidence for different behavior in the game. However, we find some evidence that our experimental game induced real-world changes compared to a control group without game intervention and that this change is slightly more likely to occur when individual payments are used.

Analysis of Land Use and Land Cover Using Machine Learning Algorithms on Google Earth Engine for Munneru River Basin, India

The growing human population accelerates alterations in land use and land cover (LULC) over time, putting tremendous strain on natural resources. Monitoring and assessing LULC change over large areas is critical in a variety of fields, including natural resource management and climate change research. LULC change has emerged as a critical concern for policymakers and environmentalists. As the need for the reliable estimation of LULC maps from remote sensing data grows, it is critical to comprehend how different machine learning classifiers perform. The primary goal of the present study was to classify LULC on the Google Earth Engine platform using three different machine learning algorithms—namely, support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and classification and regression trees (CART)—and to compare their performance using accuracy assessments. The LULC of the study area was classified via supervised classification. For improved classification accuracy, NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) and NDWI (normalized difference water index) indices were also derived and included. For the years 2016, 2018, and 2020, multitemporal Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 data with spatial resolutions of 10 m and 30 m were used for the LULC classification. ‘Water bodies’, ‘forest’, ‘barren land’, ‘vegetation’, and ‘built-up’ were the major land use classes. The average overall accuracy of SVM, RF, and CART classifiers for Landsat-8 images was 90.88%, 94.85%, and 82.88%, respectively, and 93.8%, 95.8%, and 86.4% for Sentinel-2 images. These results indicate that RF classifiers outperform both SVM and CART classifiers in terms of accuracy.

A SYSTEM DESIGN OPTIMIZATION MODEL FOR INTEGRATED NATURAL RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN AN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY

AbstractIntegrated Natural Resource Conservation and Development (INRCD) Projects are efforts at worldwide locations to promote economic development of local communities consistent with conservation of natural resources. This umbrella term includes Integration Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs) introduced by the World Wide Fund to combine social development and conservation s through the use of socio-economic investments, and the Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) research and development efforts that have employed a systems approach for quantitative modeling and optimization. In the spirit of the INRCD framework, we describe the development of a system-level agriculture and energy model comprising engineering and economic models for crop, irrigation, and energy subsystem designs for a community in Central Uganda. The model architecture is modular allowing modifications for different system configurations and project locations. We include some initial results and discuss next steps for system optimization, refining model assumptions, and modeling community social benefits as drivers of such projects.

INTEGRATED NATURAL RESOURCE AND CONSERVATION DEVELOPMENT PROJECT: A REVIEW OF SUCCESS FACTORS FROM A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE

AbstractIntegrated Natural Resource and Conservation Development (INRCD) Projects is an umbrella term for a variety of Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs), a concept first introduced by the World Wide Fund for Nature in the mid 1980s to target practice-oriented efforts in developing countries; and Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) research and development projects introduced as adaptive management for fisheries, wildlife, forest, and rangeland to target analysis-oriented efforts in developing and developed countries. Both efforts seek to balance economic development and natural resource conservation. This paper reviews the literature over the past four decades in an attempt to determine which planning and execution methods lead to greater success. A thematic analysis revealed three broad areas of importance: community inclusion and income diversification, inadequate training and management, and inability to properly quantify data. A systems design optimization approach for such projects is advocated to support project decision making in these areas of importance.

Better Game Worlds by Design: The GAS Framework for Designing and Analyzing Games Based on Socio-Ecological Systems Thinking, Demonstrated onNusfjord(2017)

The goal of this article is to propose Game World Design and Analysis for Socio-Ecological Systems (GAS), a framework for the design and analysis of game worlds through socio-ecological systems lenses. Game World Design and Analysis for Socio-Ecological Systems invites designers to a structured reflection of their choices regarding game world correspondence with a real or fictional reference system (assessed through accuracy, comprehensiveness, and balance) and game world consistency. The framework spells out the main elements to be included in the game world for that to be a credible socio-ecological system. The GAS framework is demonstrated on Nusfjord (2017) as an exemplar of natural resource management–themed analog game. The framework is built using an interdisciplinary approach to game studies, history, media and literary studies, and natural resource management research. The application of the framework has the potential of making the design and analysis of game worlds more relevant to the sustainability discourse of the 21st Century.

Transparency About Values and Assertions of Fact in Natural Resource Management

Worldwide, unsustainable use of nature threatens many ecosystems and the services they provide for a broad diversity of life, including humans. Yet, governments commonly claim that the best available science supports their policies governing extraction of natural resources. We confront this apparent paradox by assessing the complexity of the intersections among value judgments, fact claims, and scientifically verified facts. Science can only describe how nature works and predict the likely outcomes of our actions, whereas values influence which actions or objectives society ought to pursue. In the context of natural resource management, particularly of fisheries and wildlife, governments typically set population targets or use quotas. Although these are fundamentally value judgments about how much of a resource a group of people can extract, quotas are often justified as numerical guidance derived from abstracted, mathematical, or theoretical models of extraction. We confront such justifications by examining failures in transparency about value judgments, which may accompany unsupported assertions articulated as factual claims. We illustrate this with two examples. Our first case concerns protection and human use of habitats harboring the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), revealing how biologists and policy scholars have argued for divergent roles of scientists within policy debates, and how debates between scientists engaged in policy-relevant research reveal undisclosed value judgments about communication of science beyond its role as a source of description (observation, measurement, analysis, and inference). Our second case concerns protection and use of endangered gray wolves (Canis lupus) and shows how undisclosed value judgments distorted the science behind a government policy. Finally, we draw from the literature of multiple disciplines and wildlife systems to recommend several improvements to the standards of transparency in applied research in natural resource management. These recommendations will help to prevent value-based distortions of science that can result in unsustainable uses and eventual extinctions of populations. We describe methods for communicating about values that avoid commingling factual claims and discuss approaches to communicating science that do not perpetuate the misconception that science alone can dictate policy without consideration of values. Our remedies can improve transparency in both expert and public debate about preserving and using natural resources, and thereby help prevent non-human population declines worldwide.

What’s Trust Got to do With it? Lessons From Cross-Sectoral Research on Natural Resource Management in Australia and the U.S.

Natural resource management (NRM) is conducted within a complex context. This is particularly true at the interface of public and private interests where policy and management actions are often closely scrutinized by stakeholders. In these settings, natural resource managers often seek to achieve multiple objectives including ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation, commodity production, and the provision of recreation opportunities. While some objectives may be complementary, in many cases they involve tradeoffs that are contested by stakeholders. Substantial prior work has identified concepts related to trust as critical to the success of natural resource management particularly in cases of high complexity and uncertainty with high stakes for those involved. However, although regularly identified as a central variable of influence, trust appears to be conceptualized differently or entangled with related constructs across this prior research. Moreover, much of the research in NRM considers trust as an independent variable and considers the influence of trust on other variables of interest (e.g., acceptance of a particular management practices, willingness to adopt a best management practice). In this paper, we develop a conceptualization of trust drawing on different literature areas and consider how trust is related to constructs such as trustworthiness and confidence. We then consider trust in the context of natural resource management drawing on examples from the U.S. and Australia. We then consider implications of these findings for building trust in natural resource management.

Multiple method modelling reveals lack of robustness in natural resource management research

Research on natural resource management like fisheries, irrigation systems or forestry traditionally uses case studies providing us with a rich, in-depth perspective on many single systems. This comes with a disadvantage - lacking comparability as differences between studies exist in variables examined, their operationalization or methods used. Thus, studies often disagree on important drivers for ecological success. However, due to design differences the reasons behind different results often remain unknown. One reason might be the impact of method choice. Hence, this article tests the influence of methods on model results. We use a high-quality data set, the Nepal Irrigation Institutions and Systems database (NIIS), developed at the Ostrom Workshop. It contains 263 cases, each record having information on around 600 variables. Multiple machine learning methods - random forests (RF), gradient boosting (GBM), shallow neural networks (SNN) and deep neural networks (DNN) - are compared with a standard statistical approach (multivariate linear regressions (MLR)). We try to answer the question whether these methods differ in estimating the relevance for success of such well-known concepts like participation of users, resource size, relations with other groups, and social capital among others. The results indicate that both agreements and substantial differences exist across methods which casts doubt on the robustness of previous results. Hence, we advise more caution in interpreting existing results. We see this research as a step towards increasing the robustness of results and improving both generalisability and reproducibility of natural resource management research.

Review on the Work Done For the Last Decade on Acid Soil Management for Better Yields in Southwestern Ethiopia

Population is increasing exponentially over time but resources are limited. To support this population, increasing productivity of the resources is importantly inevitable. One of the resources, the base of production, is soil. Its fertility is declining due to expansion of soil acidity and its low inherent fertility status. Soil fertility management is therefore, a key for sustainable crop production for food security. Last10-15 years of research and its achievement in soil acidity management in annual crops by Jimma Agricultural research center have been reviewed. To fulfill the increasing demand for food and raw materials, soil health and fertility has remained as the major factor to increase and sustain crop yields. This calls for proper use of knowledge of soil acidity and its amelioration to maximize agricultural productivity. Farmers require simple and sustainable techniques to amend acid soils and improve yields of crops of their choices. Recommendations on reclamation of acid soils need to change with new developments, such as liming, use of acid-tolerant crop varieties and integrated soil fertility management. Liming has played an important role in raising soil pH and enhancing crop productivity. In Ethiopia, southwestern area the gap between potential and actual yield is very wide because of soil acidity and associated nutrient availability. Acidic soils are not responsive to the application of inorganic fertilizers without amendments-it is simply wastage of resources. Thus, developing effective and efficient acid soil management practices is indispensable for enhancing crop productivity and thereby sustaining yield gains. Natural Resources Management Research process, acid soil management research program of the Jimma Agricultural Research center has been conducting different research activities on soil acidity management to enhance, and sustain agricultural productivity in the country. Using amendments such as lime and organic fertilizer for acid soil management showed good result in maize and soybean productivity in acidic soils in Jimma and Illubabor. This review finding provides important information on management options to amend soil acidity and improve the entire fertility of soils, and other organic amendments that can be applied to remedy soil acidity to the desired pH level and improve soil quality. Integrated acid soil management enhances the stability of yields and maximizes nutrient use efficiency. The information contained in this finding serves the interests of policymakers, researchers, students, agronomists and users associated with acid soils management.

Phenology-based classification of crop species and rotation types using fused MODIS and Landsat data: The comparison of a random-forest-based model and a decision-rule-based model

The spatial and temporal variations of crop species and rotation types play a key role in crop yield estimation, natural resources management and climate change research. Remote sensing is an effective approach for monitoring agricultural management at the regional scale. However, the lack of remote sensing data with high spatiotemporal resolutions results in a generally limited crop mapping accuracy. To overcome this limitation, we employed an improved flexible spatiotemporal data fusion (IFSDAF) model to conduct data fusion using MODIS and Landsat imagery and extract NDVI time series with both high spatial and temporal resolution. Following this, we proposed a Random-Forest-based model and a decision-rule-based model for mapping crop species and rotation types. According to the accuracy assessment, the Random-Forest-based model with an overall accuracy of 90 % was more suitable for mapping crops with two or more growing seasons, such as double-cropping rice. Meanwhile, the decision-rule-based model with an overall accuracy of 89.7 % was more suitable for monitoring crops with only one growing season compared to the Random-Forest-based model. In comparison with traditional ways such as field survey, the classification models proposed in this study provide useful information for better monitoring spatiotemporal variations of crops species and rotation types, and guiding agricultural management accordingly.

Development of Protocols and Tools to Manage and Archive Data from Aquatic Biodiversity Surveys

Traditionally the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB 2020) has focused on discovering and publishing taxonomic knowledge of fishes. Continuing work now encompasses a broader taxonomic range, and over the last decade, research in ecology, conservation biology and natural resource management has become more important. The objective of this case study was to elicit the data management requirements of researchers conducting aquatic biodiversity field surveys (or biodiversity inventories, in the broadest sense of the term, including opportunistic sampling). These requirements were used to develop a prototype solution for research data management (data curation and archiving), supported by various tools, templates and protocols. An important motivation was to publish records standardised according to the Darwin Core Event Class (GBIF 2020a). This would enable analysts to infer species absences, a requirement to develop occupancy models. The scope of the case study included: underwater photographic surveys (using baited remote underwater systems, or BRUVs, as well as video and still photography using a remotely-operated vehicle, and scuba-enabled still photography using a tripod-mounted camera); underwater acoustic telemetry surveys; collection of specimens of fish and fish larvae, invertebrates and amphibians (including opportunistic collecting as well as systematic sampling). underwater photographic surveys (using baited remote underwater systems, or BRUVs, as well as video and still photography using a remotely-operated vehicle, and scuba-enabled still photography using a tripod-mounted camera); underwater acoustic telemetry surveys; collection of specimens of fish and fish larvae, invertebrates and amphibians (including opportunistic collecting as well as systematic sampling). An important part of the case study was to test the degree to which the schema and applications of the Specify suite of software (Specify 2020) could be reused to manage data in which the Darwin Core Event class is as important as the Darwin Core Occurrence class GBIF 2020b. Preliminary findings indicate that this software suite is potentially useful to curate and archive data from these kinds of biodiversity surveys in the described context. In this presentation I will discuss my experience in developing a prototype solution to manage and archive data from biodiversity surveys, specifically to publish data standardised according to the Darwin Core Event class.

Sustainable natural resource management paradigms and research priorities in context to Indian agriculture

Sustainable natural resource management paradigms and research priorities in context to Indian agriculture

Economic development through the implementation of environment policies

Climate change is a reality and, it affects the lives of poor and vulnerable people in developing countries like Bangladesh. In order to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable people, it is urgent to set up a link between environmental policy implementation and poverty reduction. In this article, a natural resource management research approach is suggested. It consists of two steps (1) Identifying the extents related to environmental sustainability and, (2) The role of the areas to the income generation process. Descriptive research design is used to achieve the objectives, and for the purpose of the research primary data is collected from 201 respondents in South-West coastal zone of Bangladesh with the help of a closed-ended questionnaire. The authors analyzed the data with the help of IBM SPSS-21 and, found that environmental sustainability is one of the most important precondition for economic development at the coastal zone in Bangladesh delta. It also found that the income generation process of the local people is significantly influenced by the environmental sustainability.

Developing ocean climate change indicators for the north-central California coast and ocean

The Ocean Climate Indicators Project, developed for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (GFNMS), yielded the first set of physical and biological ocean climate indicators specifically developed for the north-central California coast and ocean region, which extends from Point Arena to Point Año Nuevo and includes the ocean shorelines of the San Francisco metropolitan area. This case study produced a series of physical and biological indicator categories through a best professional judgment (BPJ) process with an interdisciplinary group of over 50 regional research scientists and marine resource managers from a wide range of state and federal agencies, NGOs, and universities. A working group of research scientists and marine resource managers used this set of ocean climate indicators to develop the Ocean Climate Indicators Monitoring Inventory and Plan. The Plan includes monitoring goals and objectives common for eight physical and four biological indicators; specific goals for each indicator; monitoring strategies and activities; an inventory of available monitoring data; opportunities for expanding or improving existing or new monitoring approaches; and case studies with specific examples of the indicators’ utility for natural resource management and basic scientific research. Beyond developing indicators that support effective science-based management decisions, this scalable process established and strengthened mutually beneficial connections between scientists and managers, resulting in indicators that had broad support of project participants, were quickly adopted by the GFNMS, and could be used by managers and scientists from this region and beyond.

Natural Resource Utilization and Problems in Haryana

There is a need for strengthening the Department of Agro-meteorology for mainstreaming the climate change related mitigation and adaptation measures into natural resource management research and development to begin with climate smart and weather forecast based agriculture in the State. Increased use of fossil fuel, puddled rice cultivation and large bovine cattle population in the country are major sources of emission of GHG and global warming. The research results suggest that the C3 crops will be benefited from CO2 enrichment, but the elevated temperature will increase water use, reduce maturity duration and productivity due to global warming.

Recent Changes in Agricultural Land Use in the Riverine Area of Nakhon Phanom Province, Northeast Thailand

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)IntroductionAlthough it is known that the agrarian transformation in Northeast Thailand has resulted in major changes in land use in the region, including a decline in the area of natural forest due to the expansion of cash crops and the conversion of agricultural land into the new housing estates that surround the region's rapidly expanding urban centers, detailed empirical studies on the nature and causes of land use changes in specific areas are lacking. Therefore, the present study was carried out in order to describe recent changes in agricultural land use and identify the factors influencing these changes in two districts along the bank of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom Province. This area is of particular interest because it is characterized by more fertile soil and a higher amount of rainfall than is typical in Northeast Thailand. It also borders the Lao People's Democratic Republic, to which it has been linked by the Third Friendship Bridge between Nakhon Phanom and Khammouane Provinces, which was officially opened on November 11, 2011. This and other transportation links, which are being built in the context of the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Corridor and ASEAN Economic Community, may be influencing changes in land use in the area.MethodologyResearch SiteThis study was conducted in Mueang and That Phanom Districts in Nakhon Phanom Province (coordinates: Upper left 17.99N, 103.96E, Upper right 17.99N, 104.86E, Lower left 16.70N, 103.96E, and Lower right 16.70N, 104.86E) in the valley of the Mekong River (Fig. 1). Neighboring provinces (clockwise from the south) are Mukdahan, Sakon Nakhon, and Bueng Kan. In the northeast, the province borders Khammouane of Laos. The northern part of the province has both uplands and forest-covered plains and is drained by the Song Kram and the smaller Oun Rivers. The southern part is mostly flatland, with the Kum the only notable river. The provincial capital, the city of Nakhon Phanom, is located directly on the bank of the Mekong.Mueang Nakhon Phanom is the capital district of Nakhon Phanom Province. Mueang District is subdivided into 15 subdistricts (tambol), which are further subdivided into 169 villages (muban). The city of Nakhon Phanom (thesaban mueang) covers all of Nai Mueang and Nong Saeng Subdistricts as well as parts of At Samat and Nong Yat Subdistricts.That Phanom District is in the southern part of Nakhon Phanom Province. The district is named after Wat Phra That Phanom, the most important Buddhist temple in the region. The district is divided into 12 subdistricts, which are further subdivided into 142 villages. That Phanom Municipality covers parts of That Phanom and That Phanom Nuea Subdistricts.Data SourcesLand use maps for 2006 and 2010 of both districts were obtained in shapefile format from Land Development Department Office 4 in Ubon Ratchatani. These maps were made from unclouded and terrain corrected Landsat images in 2006 and 2010. Image processing and data manipulation were conducted using ERDAS IMAGINE 8.6 and ArcGIS 9.1. A handheld Garmin GPS eTrex HC (12-15 m accuracy) was used to obtain the coordinates of plots with different types of land uses. Some ancillary data were also used as references in image processing (Land Development Department 2010).Information on the causes of some important types of land use changes in several localities was collected from local officials and farmers by holding focus groups. This was done after the changes in land use were analyzed and several problematic types of change were identified, especially conversion of paddy fields to forests and vice versa.Method of AnalysisSpatial analysis employing the Decision Support System Research and Development Network for Agricultural and Natural Resource Management (DSSARM)4 Program was used to identify all plots that had been converted from one land use to a different one between 2006 and 2010. …

A roadmap for knowledge exchange and mobilization research in conservation and natural resource management.

Scholars across all disciplines have long been interested in how knowledge moves within and beyond their community of peers. Rapid environmental changes and calls for sustainable management practices mean the best knowledge possible is needed to inform decisions, policies, and practices to protect biodiversity and sustainably manage vulnerable natural resources. Although the conservation literature on knowledge exchange (KE) and knowledge mobilization (KM) has grown in recent years, much of it is based on context-specific case studies. This presents a challenge for learning cumulative lessons from KE and KM research and thus effectively using knowledge in conservation and natural resources management. Although continued research on the gap between knowledge and action is valuable, overarching conceptual frameworks are now needed to enable summaries and comparisons across diverse KE-KM research. We propose a knowledge-action framework that provides a conceptual roadmap for future research and practice in KE/KM with the aim of synthesizing lessons learned from contextual case studies and guiding the development and testing of hypotheses in this domain. Our knowledge-action framework has 3 elements that occur at multiple levels and scales: knowledge production (e.g., academia and government), knowledge mediation (e.g., knowledge networks, actors, relational dimension, and contextual dimension), and knowledge-based action (e.g., instrumental, symbolic, and conceptual). The framework integrates concepts from the sociology of science in particular, and serves as a guide to further comprehensive understanding of knowledge exchange and mobilization in conservation and sustainable natural resource management.