Stewardship Of Natural Resources Research Articles

Soil Health as a Transformational Change Agent for US Grazing Lands Management

There is rapidly growing national interest in grazing lands’ soil health, which has been motivated by the current soil health renaissance in cropland agriculture. In contrast to intensively managed croplands, soil health for grazing lands, especially rangelands, is tempered by limited scientific evidence clearly illustrating positive feedbacks between soil health and grazing land resilience, or sustainability. Opportunities exist for improving soil health on grazing lands with intensively managed plant communities (e.g., pasture systems) and formerly cultivated or degraded lands. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to provide direction and recommendations for incorporating soil health into grazing management considerations on grazing lands. We argue that the current soil health renaissance should not focus on improvement of soil health on grazing lands where potential is limited but rather forward science-based management for improving grazing lands’ resilience to environmental change via 1) refocusing grazing management on fundamental ecological processes (water and nutrient cycling and energy flow) rather than maximum short-term profit or livestock production; 2) emphasizing goal-based management with adaptive decision making informed by specific objectives incorporating maintenance of soil health at a minimum and directly relevant monitoring attributes; 3) advancing holistic and integrated approaches for soil health that highlight social-ecological-economic interdependencies of these systems, with particular emphasis on human dimensions; 4) building cross-institutional partnerships on grazing lands’ soil health to enhance technical capacities of students, land managers, and natural resource professionals; and 5) creating a cross-region, living laboratory network of case studies involving producers using soil health as part of their grazing land management. Collectively, these efforts could foster transformational changes by strengthening the link between natural resources stewardship and sustainable grazing lands management through management-science partnerships in a social-ecological systems framework.

Governance Strategies for a Sustainable Digital World

Digitalization is changing society by the increased connectivity and networking that digital technologies enable, such as enhancing communication, services, and trade. Increasingly, policymakers within various national governments and international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are examining the original sustainability policy concepts applied within the Brundtland Report of 1987 through the lens of digitalization. While the growth of a digital economy may increase productivity and benefit local and global economies, digitalization also raises potential sustainability challenges pertaining to social (i.e., the benefits or costs imposed by disruptive digital technologies upon social networks and ways of life, including threats to economic sustainability and the rise of economic disparity) and environmental wellbeing (i.e., natural resource stewardship and concern for future generations) driven by the automation of information processing and delivery of services. Various perspectives have been raised regarding how the process of digitalization might be governed, and national governments remain at odds regarding a single best strategy to promote sustainable digitalization using the Brundtland concept to meet the development needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations (i.e., social and environmental well-being). This paper reviews three governance strategies that countries can use in conjunction with adaptive governance to respond to digitalization sustainability threats: (i) a laissez-faire, industry-driven approach; (ii) a precautionary and preemptive strategy on the part of government; and (iii) a stewardship and “active surveillance” approach by government agencies that reduce the risks derived from digitalization while promoting private sector innovation. Regardless of a state’s digital governance response and how it is shaped by political and institutional realities, adaptive governance approaches are likely necessary to address the economic and social sustainability challenges posed within differing manifestations of digitalization.

Devolving water governance in the Kenyan Arid Lands: from top-down drought and flood emergency response to locally driven water resource development planning

The Kenyan Constitution calls for a devolved response to the stewardship of water and other natural resources. A case study based on planners’ experiences illustrates the shift towards a governance approach that is inclusive, integrates available technologies to achieve resilience to both flood and drought, and works across scales from the settlement to the catchment. Devolution is a slow process, and the challenges are many. Recent observations show that increasing local agency in water resource development is helping alleviate drought and flood emergencies. Nevertheless, more concerted action is still needed from the centre.

Accounting for the commons: bookkeeping and the stewardship of natural resources in northern Spain (sixteenth to twentieth centuries)

ABSTRACTThe accountability, which both monitors and other officials have to users, is an important condition for long-lasting common pool resources. This study examines the historical use of accounting techniques as an ingredient of common property regimes, emphasising stewardship theory. The use of accounting by peasant communities, at least from the sixteenth century, is demonstrated through two case studies: a small irrigation community (Regadío de Arbanta) and a large intercommon forest (Sierra de Lóquiz), both in the Spanish province of Navarre. Although other hierarchical institutions, such as royal officers, religious entities and lords, made use of calculation at the time, the peculiarity of peasant accounting is that it was embedded in an egalitarian culture and served to ensure intergenerational reciprocity. Small size and low levels of inequality favoured accountability in a horizontal scheme. The article concludes that those rural communities made use of the calculation technologies available during the Renaissance mainly due to endogenous motivation. The use of accounting served the needs of local communities’ financial control, and reinforced community links, thereby favouring the sustainability of both the communities themselves and their resources.

Ecological restoration and the law: recovering nature’s past for the future

Environmental law worldwide dwells on nature’s future, not its past. The plethora of environmental regulations and policies orients society, ostensibly, to avoid impending threats and nurture long-term stewardship of natural resources. The ‘past’, in the sense of the natural world’s historic condition before the human onslaught, is relegated for protection in discrete enclaves we commonly call national parks while the much larger, remaining spaces have been left open for dramatic transformation for anthropocentric needs. With each successive human generation, our memories of nature’s former riches are dissipated. Incremental, attritional environmental decline unfolds mostly too gradually to be observed by individuals within their own lives, thereby rendering most insouciant about their degrading surroundings. We see congested roads, sprawling housing, busy shopping malls and so on, as the environment’s ‘normal’ condition, oblivious to the biodiversity riches that once graced the landscape. To the extent that environmental law looks to the past, to undo some of our mischief, it tends to intervene only in spatially and temporally narrow parameters such as to rehabilitate former mining sites or to remediate pollution contamination. Rarely does the law seek to repair holistically the ubiquitous degraded landscapes and ecosystems in our midst despite emerging duties on states to do so in transnational environmental law.1 The challenges for environmental governance are thus particularly onerous in a world infatuated with its future.2

Ecological sustainability of material resources – Why material efficiency just isn’t enough

In a finite system like the earth economical use and preservation of resources is mandatory. The aspiration to fulfil the demand of an increasing population with raised standards of living and to generate on-going economic growth leads to certain dilemmas concerning material resources. The paper will elaborate on the differences of economics with relatively scarce resources and economics with absolutely scarce resources with a focus on material resources. Currently many sustainability initiatives try to solve the problem of scarce resources by increasing efficiency. But general economic principles which increase efficiency such as economies of scale and learning curve effects demand high quantities and high lot sizes. Thus, efficiency in an economic sense does not always mean resource efficiency, which should not only include material efficiency but also preservation of resource availability and resource stewardship. If sustainability research takes the definition of the Brundtland report seriously and wants to meet “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” then in the long run there needs to be a shift to renewable resources. This shift leads to new problems concerning overuse and tragedy of the commons as well as competition for acreage. The paper argues that sustainability research needs to change its focus from a mere increase of material efficiency to the problems of resource stewardship and preservation of natural resources taking a system dynamics perspective. It will elaborate on some of the possible directions these more wide-spread approaches may lead to.

What’s good for the soil is good for the soul: scientific farming, environmental subjectivities, and the ethics of stewardship in southwestern Oklahoma

Based on 10 months of mixed ethnographic and archival research, this study is concerned with ways in which contemporary agro-environmental subjectivities and practices in a southwestern Oklahoma farming community are rooted in the massive state-level interventions of the New Deal era and their successors. We are likewise concerned with how those interventions have become interdigitated with moral discourses and community ethics, as simultaneous expressions of both farmers’ identities and the systems of power in which they practice farming. Through historic and ethnographic evidence, we demonstrate the ways in which the localization of American agricultural conservation and the attendant, edificatory role of resource bureaucracies have shaped contemporary practices and ideologies of natural resource stewardship among conventional farmers and ranchers.

Strategies for sustainable nutrient management: insights from a mixed natural and social science analysis of Chinese crop production systems

In China intensification of agriculture has been achieved at a cost to the environment. The extension service is the leading public resource to address this but remains focused by a historic national ethos for food security, production and economic growth, whilst its administrative structure is hierarchical, slow to change and lacking in relevant functional integration. Investigation of three case study farming systems identifies how to rebalance productivity with stewardship of farm inputs and natural resources. Substance flow analyses for each case demonstrate that crop nutrient management can potentially be improved to reduce environmental risk without yield loss. Complementary stakeholder surveys and social network analyses identify barriers to change relating to the knowledge, attitudes, practices and operational constraints of farmers and extension agents, and to the structure and performance of agricultural knowledge and innovation systems. This combination of analyses offers an original synthesis of needs, planning priorities and strategies.

CHRISTIAN IDENTITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

A quick glance at the campus of many a theological college in Zimbabwe reveals the need to entrench environmental ethics which transcend personal and traditional convictions. This paper seeks to be a prophetic voice on this topic by exploring the essentials of Christian ethics and the way in which the entrenchment of such ethics may impede or enhance our stewardship of natural resources. We will explore the hopelessness of religious fatalism and the entrenched beliefs that prevent us from making optimal environmental decisions. The article specifically focuses on the impact of waste management in Zimbabwe. The errors of being short-sighted in our religiosity will be scrutinised, especially regarding the impact of our decisions on environmental management.

Remobilizing netukulimk: indigenous cultural and spiritual connections with resource stewardship and fisheries management in Atlantic Canada

Recent global initiatives such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have brought the issues facing and needs of Indigenous peoples to the forefront of international attention. While underscoring respect for traditional practices, these initiatives have yet to appreciate fully the extent to which Indigenous peoples’ practices engage ways of being, living and believing that encompass a holistic understanding of the relations between humans and all facets of their ecosystems. The Mi’kmaw, a nation of Indigenous peoples in Atlantic Canada, work to recapture and express ancient holistic understandings through their contemporary natural resource management aspirations and practices. In this paper we review key colonial events that have impacted Indigenous relations with settlers and resulted in historical marginalization of the Mi’kmaw from fishery policy and management processes. We provide an overview and discussion of recent developments wherein the Mi’kmaw are working to revitalize the place of netukulimk, a concept that embraces cultural and spiritual connections with resource stewardship, in the exercise of treaty-based rights, particularly within self-governing fisheries management initiatives. We conclude with the core attributes of Two-Eyed Seeing, a methodological framework for collaborative, decolonizing research practices and Indigenous knowledge mobilization strategies. The Mi’kmaw experiences provide insights regarding the challenges and requirements for achieving respect for Indigenous traditional practices and point a way forward for more effective and inclusive stewardship of natural aquatic resources into the future.

Two weeks in the woods: Noise from a natural-gas compressor station

Natural gas development is permitted on Pennsylvania State Forest land; however, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry is tasked not only with stewardship of natural resources but also with maintaining a natural environment for wildlife and recreational users of the land. As a precursor to human-impact studies of gas-compressor noise, a two-week long series of measurements was made near a natural-gas compressor station in the Tiadaghton State Forest in north-central Pennsylvania. Although several standard metrics were determined, the intent was to collect and analyze full time-series data at a number of different distances and directions from the station. Recordings were made in two bands: 5 to 10 000 Hz with 5 min of recording every hour for two weeks and 0.1 to 250 Hz recorded continuously for one week. Analyses of the narrowband spectral densities and of the spectrograms of the noise reveal specific source mechanisms and source variability. The high-fidelity recordings will be used subsequently both for ...

Christian identity and the environment

A quick glance at the campus of many a theological college in Zimbabwe reveals the need to entrench environmental ethics which transcend personal and traditional convictions. This paper seeks to be a prophetic voice on this topic by exploring the essentials of Christian ethics and the way in which the entrenchment of such ethics may impede or enhance our stewardship of natural resources. We will explore the hopelessness of religious fatalism and the entrenched beliefs that prevent us from making optimal environmental decisions. The article specifically focuses on the impact of waste management in Zimbabwe. The errors of being short-sighted in our religiosity will be scrutinised, especially regarding the impact of our decisions on environmental management.

Discarding the evidence: The place of natural resources stewardship in the creation of the Peel Island Lazaret Midden, Moreton Bay, southeast Queensland

Middens are created from the discard of natural resources, collected by people for consumptive purposes: mainly subsistence, but also for artefact manufacture (e.g. stone, bone and shell artefacts); warmth and/or shelter (e.g. firewood [charcoal] and timber windbreaks); or for ceremony. Taphonomic processes act on the discarded cultural materials to modify the evidence originally deposited by the creators of the archaeological site as a result of consumptive behaviour.There is nothing particularly new or unusual in this description of the accumulation of midden material. Interpretations of midden deposits in the literature are based around the interaction between consumptive behaviour and taphonomy. However, all archaeological sites also reflect a process other than consumption and taphonomy: discard.In this paper, we argue that a focus on consumption and taphonomy that ignores discard activity may overlook an important aspect of site creation. Using the Peel Island Lazaret Midden as a case study, we demonstrate that an understanding of past discard patterns may generate new understandings of human behaviour as represented in midden deposits. In particular, we argue that the formation of the Peel Island Lazaret Midden is due as much to the creation and stewardship of oyster beds, and to the consequent cultural materials that did not find their way into the midden, as artificial to the collection of shellfish for food consumption.

Turmoil, Hubris, and Hope: Recent Retrospectives on the Great Society

Turmoil, Hubris, and Hope: Recent Retrospectives on Great SocietyREFORMERS TO RADICALS: The Appalachian Volunteers and War on Poverty. By Thomas Kiffmeyer. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. 2008.BLOODY LOWNDES: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt. By Hasan Kwame Jeffries. New York: New York University Press. 2009.THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION: How 1965 Transformed America. By James T. Patterson. New York: Basic Books. 2012.BENDING TOWARD JUSTICE: The Voting Rights Act and Transformation of American Democracy. By Gary May. New York: Basic Books. 2013.THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and Battle for Great Society. By Julian E. Zelizer. New York: Penguin Press. 2015.The current round of fiftieth-anniversary celebrations of events of 1960s are reminder that American civic conversation is still framed in Great Society terms. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society effort-comprised of nearly two hundred major domestic measures during his five years in office-restructured policy in areas of health, education, immigration, urban governance, mass transit, public housing, and stewardship of natural and cultural resources, in addition to epochal civil rights reforms. Whether viewed as point at which American experience veered off course or as moment nation renewed its commitment to equality and civic excellence, Johnson years identified goals and launched programs that remain at center of domestic policy arguments. We delve into Great Society record in hopes of understanding what produced Sixties' great burst of political creativity and what led it to fade and also to seek basis for judging value of effort. The five works reviewed here inquire after social and political conditions that made enactment of Great Society program possible and, ultimately, led policymaking enthusiasm to subside. They explore intertwined roles of activism at grassroots and in Washington, first in facilitating passage of landmark legislation of those years (paying particular attention to Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965), and then in working out its implementation in American communities.James T. Patterson's The Eve of Destruction reminds readers of tumult of 1965, year in which Eighty-Ninth Congress convened and Lyndon Johnson launched his Great Society in earnest. The year opened with fulsome promises of LBJ's first State of Union address as president in his own right. It was darkened by February launch of Operation Rolling Thunder (the U.S. bombing campaign against North Vietnam), first landing of U.S. Marine combat forces at Da Nang in March, and fateful decision to escalate American involvement in Asian ground war in July. The year saw assassination of Malcolm X in February, mauling of civil rights activists in Selma next month, and explosion of Watts in August. Yet same year also witnessed federal legislative achievement of magnitude not seen since heyday of New Deal, including creation of Medicare and Medicaid, passage of landmark Elementary and Secondary Education (ESEA) and Voting Rights (VRA) acts, and enactment of fundamental immigration reform.Patterson describes 1964 as a buoyant time . . . prosperous year that promoted extraordinarily high expectations about future (1). They were the most hopeful times in all years since Christ was born in Johnson's own illadvised Christmas 1964 phrasing (ix). Against this rosy background, Patterson sees 1965 as hinge year, year when America's social cohesion began to unravel and turbulent phenomenon that would be called 'the Sixties' broke into view (xi). What evaporated over those twelve months was, essentially, that broad public consensus on American goals at home and abroad which is condition precedent for national policymaking. …

Phosphorus: From the Stars to Land & Sea

The chemistry of the element phosphorus offers a window into the diverse field of inorganic chemistry. Fundamental investigations into some simple molecules containing phosphorus reveal much about the ramifications of this element's position in the periodic table and that of its neighbors. Additionally, there are many phosphorus compounds of commercial importance, and the industry surrounding this element resides at a crucial nexus of natural resource stewardship, technology, and modern agriculture. Questions about our sources of phosphorus and the applications for which we deploy it raise the provocative issue of the human role in the ongoing depletion of phosphorus deposits, as well as the transfer of phosphorus from the land into the seas.

Resilience design: toward a synthesis of cognition, learning, and collaboration for adaptive problem solving in conservation and natural resource stewardship

Curtin, C. G. 2014. Resilience design: toward a synthesis of cognition, learning, and collaboration for adaptive problem solving in conservation and natural resource stewardship. Ecology and Society 19(2): 15. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06247-190215

Data management approach to multidisciplinary agricultural research and syntheses

Agricultural scientists are increasingly asked to address challenges related to natural resource stewardship, agricultural productivity, and environmental protection while simultaneously being mindful of the impact and risks associated with climate change (ASA CSSA SSSA 2011; Hatfield et al. 2011; OSTP CAST 2012). Measuring and predicting the effects of climate on agricultural systems adds a layer of complexity that is challenging using traditional data management methods; these methods also limit the potential for full data discovery and innovation (Overpeck et al. 2011; Wolkovich et al. 2012). To properly address challenges, access to multidisciplinary data spanning environments, timescales, treatments, and management is necessary (White and van Evert 2008; Reichman et al. 2011; Eigenbrode et al. 2014). Disciplinary scientists, data scientists, and data managers need to increasingly work in a collaborative manner in this data-rich era. While scientists generally desire to share data, time constraints, limited funding, a lackluster reward system, and reuse concerns are cited as barriers (Michener et al. 2011; Tenopir et al. 2011; Marx 2012; Wolkovich et al. 2012). A concerted and well-executed approach is necessary to overcome these barriers and move toward transformative science.

On the role of traditional ecological knowledge as a collaborative concept: a philosophical study

The concept of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), along with synonymous or closely related terms like indigenous knowledge and native science, has some of its origins in literatures on international development and adaptive management. There is a tendency to want to determine one definition for TEK that can satisfy every stakeholder in every situation. Yet a scan of environmental science and policy literatures reveals there to be differences in definitions that make it difficult to form a consensus. What should be explored instead is the role that the concept of TEK plays in facilitating or discouraging cross-cultural and cross-situational collaboration among actors working for indigenous and non-indigenous institutions of environmental governance, such as tribal natural resources departments, federal agencies working with tribes, and co-management boards. This is a philosophical paper that explores how the concept of TEK is defined in science and policy literatures and what purpose it serves for improving cooperative environmental and natural resources stewardship and management between indigenous and non-indigenous institutions. The philosophical method applied here is one that outlines numerous possible meanings of a concept (TEK, in this paper) and the implications of each meaning for science and policy. In science and policy literatures, there are different definitions of TEK. Controversy can brew over TEK when people hold definitions that are based on different assumptions. There are two kinds of assumptions about the meaning of TEK. The first kind refers to assumptions about the mobilization of TEK, or what I call knowledge mobilization. The second kind involves assumptions about how to understand the relationship between TEK and disciplines like ecology or biology, or, in other words, the relation between TEK and science. Different positions that fall under the two kinds of assumptions (knowledge mobilization; TEK and science) can generate disagreements because they imply differences about “whose” definition of TEK gets privileged, who is counted as having expert authority over environmental governance issues, and how TEK should be factored into policy processes that already have a role for disciplines like forestry or toxicology in them. In light such disagreements, I argue that the concept of TEK should be understood as a collaborative concept. It serves to invite diverse populations to continually learn from one another about how each approaches the very question of “knowledge” in the first place, and how these different approaches can be blended to better steward natural resources and adapt to climate change. The implication is that environmental scientists and policy professionals, indigenous and non-indigenous, should not be in the business of creating definitions of TEK. Instead, they should focus more on creating long term processes that allow the different implications of approaches to knowledge in relation to stewardship goals to be responsibly thought through.

Listening and Learning from Traditional Knowledge and Western Science: A Dialogue on Contemporary Challenges of Forest Health and Wildfire

Native Americans relied on fire to maintain a cultural landscape that sustained their lifeways for thousands of years. Within the past 100 years, however, policies of fire exclusion have disrupted ecological processes, elevating risk of wildfire, insects, and disease, affecting the health and availability of resources on which the tribes depend. On Indian Reservations, tribal forest plans include prescribed fire to restore and maintain the lands. Public land managers are now considering ways to restore the fire-based ecosystem, but tribal knowledge about the use and effects of fire has largely been left out of the discussion. For 2 days in June 2010, 7 tribal elders joined with 20 native and nonnative scientists, resource managers, and academics to explore ways to integrate Native American stewardship practices, traditional knowledge, and philosophies with western science to address contemporary forest health and wildfire challenges. The workshop, convened on the Flathead Indian Reservation of the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes located in western Montana, provided a forum for candid dialogue and knowledge sharing. This article, coauthored by all 27 participants, offers a summary background followed by candid highlights of dialogue along with recommendations for progress based on lessons learned. The central conclusion is that integration and application of traditional knowledge with western science for improved stewardship of natural resources will require enduring commitments to knowledge sharing that extend beyond the usual boundaries of professional training and cultural orientation such that learning can proceed, legacy myths might be corrected, and the forests and the people will benefit.

Determining water management training needs through stakeholder consultation: Building users’ capacity to manage their water demand

South Africa is a water-stressed country and the efficient management of the demand for and frugal use of water is a topic that can no longer be avoided. Community-based natural resource management is an alternative approach to government stewardship of natural resources, and in the instance of water management it is a particularly relevant and logical avenue to consider. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa enshrines the right of the citizens of the country to a healthy environment and to a supply of safe water. These rights are attained through relevant legislation and government action. In this study, the residents of two rural villages in the Steelpoort River basin, South Africa, were interviewed and observed in relation to their water consumption needs and water use practices. The analysis of the research findings resulted in the design of a framework to guide the development of community-based educational programmes related to the management of water demand and water conservation in the Mangabane and Makgemeng communities in the Steelpoort River basin.