Sustainable Resource Governance Research Articles

The cultural evolution of collective property rights for sustainable resource governance

With commons encompassing approximately 65% of Earth’s surface and vast tracts of the ocean, a critical challenge for sustainability involves establishing effective institutions for governing these common-pool resources (CPR). While examples of successful governance exist, the circumstances and mechanisms behind their development have often faded from historical records and memories. Drawing on ethnographic work, we introduce a generic evolutionary multigroup modelling framework that examines the emergence, stability and temporal dynamics of collective property rights. Our research reveals a fundamental insight: when intergroup conflicts over resources exist, establishing and enforcing ‘access rights’ becomes an essential prerequisite for evolving sustainable ‘use rights’. These access rights, in turn, enable cultural group selection and facilitate the evolution of sustainable use rights through the imitation of successful groups. Moreover, we identify four crucial aspects within these systems: (1) seizures in CPR systems create individual-level incentives to enforce use and access rights; (2) support for collective property rights is frequency dependent and prone to oscillations; (3) the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) is a tipping point that alters the interplay between individual and group-level selection pressures; (4) success-biased social learning (imitation) of out-group members plays a vital role in spreading sustainable institutions and preventing the tragedy of the commons.

Croatian hotel managers’ attitudes towards environmental management systems: perceived benefits and barriers

Researchers have pointed out significant adverse environmental impacts of the hotels and suggested environmental management systems (EMS) as a solution for identifying, managing and mitigating those impacts. EMS are adopted by the top management members based on perceived benefits and implementation barriers. The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes of general managers from Croatian hotels about perceived benefits of and barriers to EMS implementation. Data was collected with online questionnaires from April to June 2021. Sample included 32 general managers, representing hotels from Istria, Kvarner, North, Central and South Dalmatia. Collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Croatian hotel managers perceive improved reputation and sustainable resource governance, followed by cost reductions as the main benefits of EMS. Administrative burden, lack of human resources and lack of knowledge are perceived as the most significant barriers for managers of hotels with implemented EMS, while implementation costs, lack of human resources and infrastructure changes are perceived as considerable barriers by managers from hotels without EMS. The results of this study provide an insight about the perceived benefits and barriers of EMS in Croatian hospitality sector contributing to the field by testing the findings of previous research in different context.

Indigenous and Local Knowledge’s Role in Social Movement’s Struggles Against Threats to Community-Based Natural Resource Management Systems: Insights from a Qualitative Meta-analysis

Despite the international consensus about the benefits of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) for sustainable resource governance, Indigenous peoples and local communities continue to face threats to their self-governance stemming from shortsighted government regulations, marginalization, and other global political economy forces. To contribute to scholarship on the impact of social movements on CBNRM organization and robustness, in this article we focus on the role that Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) plays in the social movement’s struggles against threats to their CBNRM system. Specifically, we present the results from a qualitative meta-analysis of 20 cases extracted from a previous literature review (Villamayor-Tomas & García-López 2018). Through our analyses we explore the extent to which different ILK dimensions are a) part of the baseline CBNRM system; b) impacted by the threats to the CBNRM system; c) mobilized by social movements in their struggle to defend the CBNRM system; and d) affected by the outcomes of the social movement’s struggle. Our results show that ILK is affected by threats to CBNRM both directly (e.g., via the erosion of ILK-based institutions that govern the CBNRM system) and indirectly (e.g., via the erosion of the natural environments in which ILK develops). We also highlight that social movements mobilize different ILK dimensions depending on the socio-political context, the locally perceived nature of threats, and the perceived importance of certain ILK dimensions for community cohesion and collective action strengthening. Finally, we reflect on how, although conceptualizing ILK dimensions and CBNRM system separately and formalizing their linkages might offer new research opportunities, ILK systems are holistic knowledge commons that are hard to disentangle from the physical commons in the context of CBNRM systems.

Whose limit? Water and democracy in a Green Californian Desert

Groundwater governance in Cuyama Valley, California unites the structural dilemmas of neoliberal environmental governance: a weak state, powerful corporations, a population called to participate but not to decide, and a limited vital resource. Creating institutions of self-governance in the conflictual domain of groundwater use draws local actors into the center of political struggles and strategies, as the State of California avoids governing or limiting groundwater use, purportedly for fear of getting embroiled in costly and lengthy lawsuits with private agroindustry. The SGMA process illustrates the power of property and money in the political game of sustainable resource governance, but it also confronts powerful actors with objectivizing satellite surveys, that point to absolute limits and challenge the growth myth. Institution-building for groundwater governance in Cuyama exposes the strategies of agricultural corporations towards local residents, highlighting the tensions inscribed in the very design of SGMA's polycentric governance structure, between the power to decide and the power to advise. Local residents have appropriated the language of science to contest strategies of denial by the agro-corporations, and to speak reason to unreasonable water users.

Towards an integrated approach for zero coal mine waste storage: solutions based on materials circularity and sustainable resource governance

ABSTRACT Around 25 million tons of coal mine waste rock (CMWR) are stored in many places in Morocco due to coal mining activities. As a result, air and water quality of the neighborhood is polluted and large lands are occupied. This study aimed to investigate the use of an integrated and circular approach based on coal recovery and waste rock recycling. More than 30 drill core samples were taken from the big coal dump reaching a depth of 60 m and analyzed to evaluate the chemical composition variability. Froth flotation was used to recover coal particles using diesel as a collector and Methyl Isobutyl Carbinol as a frother, 100 g/t each. The tailings of coal flotation process (CFT) were used to manufacture fired bricks at a pilot scale. The results of this study highlighted the possibility to valorize the whole waste material toward an objective of zero waste in the future. On a basis of 100t feed, (i) 10-15t can be recovered as high-quality anthracite coal with a calorific value over 7500 kcal/kg using flotation processing at a recovery yield over 80%, (ii) 45-60t can be reused as shales for bricks production with a compressive strength over 16MPa, (iii) 20-30t can be reused as aggregates for concrete production with a compressive strength over 20MPa. The remaining material can be reused as sand. The recovered anthracite can be reused to manufacture coal briquettes or used at it is in the thermal power plant next to the dump site.

Towards Inclusive Indonesian Forestry: An Overview of a Spatial Planning and Agrarian Perspective

Forest area is the largest and most important part of the territory of the Republic of Indonesia but still faces many challenges, including deforestation, forest fires, peat swamp degradation and poverty of local communities due to horizontal and vertical forestry conflicts. This paper focuses on the analysis of forestry development based on spatial planning and agrarian perspective by conveying various facts. A single and centralistic authority over forest areas does not provide an effective basis for sustainable resource governance. There is a dualism of spatial and agrarian planning system namely between forest areas and non-forest areas. It should be integrated by mainstreaming inclusive collaborative management. We recommend promoting forest areas' arrangement under the control of an integrated spatial planning system for the people's greatest possible prosperity, including forestry management principles and objectives. Rationalisation of forest allocation (spatial pattern plan), which the optimum forest allocation must be viewed from the perspective of the overall spatial balance (both forest and non-forest areas, and between protected and cultivated areas) to provide land for food production, social welfare and environmental functions. Forestry implementation needs to consider the principles of economies of scale and prioritise benefits for local communities living bordering forests areas, especially for food cultivation areas. The government should commit to allocating at least 15 million ha inclusively by prioritising landless farmers and smallholder farmers. Increasing community participation in forest area utilisation and functions is pursued through increasing forest access for the community (social forestry and other schemes) without neglecting conservation functions.

Evaluating California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: The First Five Years of Governance and Planning

AbstractCalifornia’s landmark 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires local officials to form new Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) and to write new groundwater sustainability plans capable of eliminating overdraft within 20 years. To assess progress achieved during SGMA’s first five years of implementation, we surveyed officials who manage or participate in GSA governance. The most common obstacles to GSA formation have involved horizontal and network governance issues such as too many diverse interests or lack of trust among stakeholders. The most common obstacles to groundwater planning include a lack of financial resources and the requirement to coordinate plans among GSAs in the same basin. Respondents usually report that their own GSA performs well on seven measures of good governance, such as representing all major stakeholders, granting members sufficient power, and generating trusted data for decision making. On the other hand, many GSA managers acknowledge that some types of stakeholders remain underrepresented in the governing structure despite SGMA’s mandate to “consider the interests of all beneficial uses and users of groundwater.” Overall, most respondents are optimistic that SGMA will enhance groundwater sustainability locally and statewide. If successfully implemented and fully funded, SGMA could become a model worldwide for sustainable resource governance that combines top‐down mandates and local incentives.

Domestication of international norms for sustainable resource governance: Elite capture in Peru

AbstractIn recent years, international actors have promoted international norms related to sustainable and inclusive resource governance. However, we know little about how such attempts are contested and adapted in domestic reform processes. Drawing on insights from norm diffusion and institutionalist theories, this article traces how first bilateral aid agencies and then OECD have influenced the institutionalisation of a contested land‐use planning (LUP) reform in Peru from 1990 until 2017. Based on 145 interviews and written primary sources, we demonstrate that aid agencies have partially empowered policy coalitions (e.g., civil society and subnational actors) in favour of LUP, whereas OECD's interventions have favoured national elites opposed to LUP. In both cases, we argue that by failing to foresee the political resistance among economic actors and national elites, international actors have contributed to the weakening and elite capture of LUP. Hence, our analysis represents a case of weakly institutionalized norms. The findings extend the existing literature on extractive governance by providing a fine‐grained analysis of the process in which national elites and societal coalitions domesticate the institutionalisation of international norms for sustainable and inclusive resource governance. Our findings have broader implications for debates about extractive governance as well as policy strategies for promoting institutional change in resource‐rich middle‐income countries.

Stability and Sustainability of a Networked Resource Consumption Model

In this paper, we examine both stability and sustainability of a network-based model of natural resource consumption. Stability is studied from a dynamical systems perspective, though we argue that sustainability is a fundamentally different notion from stability in social- ecological systems. Accordingly, we also present a criterion for sustainability that is guided by the existing literature on sustainable development. Assuming a generic social network of consuming agents’ interactions, we derive sufficient conditions for both the stability and sustainability of the model as constraints on the network structure itself. We complement these analytical results with numerical simulations and discuss the implications of our findings for policy-making for sustainable resource governance.

Policy Impacts on Africa’s Extractive Sector: Botswana, Diamond Dependence, and Diversification in the Post-Diamond Period

This paper investigates the topic of sustainable natural resource governance, and policy and politics thereof, in the context of Botswana. The authors endeavour to provide a preliminary justification for why Botswana, as a country of investigation, is a potential role model and a site of deep study for researchers of contemporary sustainable resource governance. This paper argues that the rest of Africa can learn from the Government of Botswana’s policies regarding multinational corporations operating in the mining sector, particularly in terms of attracting investment, but, too, Botswana could learn much from others in terms of economic diversification and linkage promotion.

Sustainable resource governance in global production networks – challenges for human geography

Sustainable resource governance in global production networks – challenges for human geography

The influence of neoliberalization on the success and failure of fishing cooperatives in contemporary small-scale fishing communities: A case study from Yucatán, Mexico

This paper examines the effects of neoliberalization on the opportunities and constraints that fishing cooperatives face in Yucatán, Mexico. Cooperatives have the potential to enhance small-scale fishing livelihoods and participate in sustainable resource governance. However, promoting cooperatives’ success entails developing a realistic understanding of the political and economic contexts in which they operate. Drawing on interview and census data, the analysis employs the theory of club goods to examine how the neoliberalization of Mexican fisheries policies in the 1980s and 1990s has affected cooperatives’ ability to provide members with collective benefits, and thus the success and failure of fishing cooperatives in the region. In general, neoliberalization has reduced support to fishing cooperatives and generated greater challenges for their success in Yucatán. The results of this study are likely relevant to many other small-scale fisheries in the South that have undergone similar processes of neoliberalization.

Resource efficiency and the imagined public: Insights from cultural theory

Resource efficiency initiatives seek to moderate how water and energy are used at a domestic level. They can address local and regional issues of resource supply while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions and water in-security, hence enabling both mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. Although they form an increasingly important part of our resource governance landscape, these interventions have received relatively little academic scrutiny to date. Utilising the concept of the ‘imagined public’ as a lens through which to apply an interpretive version of Douglas’ cultural theory, this paper presents a novel conceptual framework to analyse the governance of such initiatives. The framework distinguishes between interventions based on assumptions about potential householder participants, ‘the imagined public’, which are reflected in the initiatives’ design and implementation. The framework is applied to compare three initiatives located in the increasingly populous, but water-scarce, county of Kent (south-east England). The analysis reveals whether and how institutional objectives are met; it also describes the interventions’ environmental and socio-political contributions, and uncovers how learning occurs between initiatives.This research suggests that whilst the target interventions differed in their assumptions, design and implementation, they all made a small contribution to more sustainable resource governance. Fundamentally, the initiatives’ impact on resource consumption was limited due to a shared techno-rational approach and a narrow framing of their household participants. Moreover, while all three initiatives demonstrated aspects of cumulative institutional learning, the closer involvement of resource providers and a modified funding framework are suggested as a means to engender the transformative change required for achieving greater resource efficiency.The paper concludes that the proposed conceptual framework provides a useful means to analyse, map, and enhance resource efficiency initiatives. Further, it is argued that the framework also has wider application in addressing broader environmental and social governance challenges.

Governing large-scale social-ecological systems: Lessons from five cases

This paper compares lessons drawn from five case studies of large scale governance of common-pool resources: management of forests in Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Rhine River in western Europe, the Ozone layer (i.e. the Montreal Protocol), and the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (i.e. the International Convention on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna). The goal is to assess the applicability of Ostrom’s design principles for sustainable resource governance to large scale systems, as well as to examine other important variables that may determine success in large scale systems. While we find support for some of Ostrom’s design principles (boundaries, monitoring, sanctions, fit to conditions, and conflict resolution mechanisms are all supported), other principles have only moderate to weak support. In particular, recognition of rights to organize and the accountability of monitors to resource users were not supported. We argue that these differences are the result of differences between small and large scale systems. At large scales, other kinds of political dynamics, including the role of scientists and civil society organizations, appear to play key roles. Other variables emphasized in common-pool resource studies, such as levels of dependence on resources, group size, heterogeneity, disturbances, and resource characteristics also receive mixed support, pointing to the need to reinterpret the meaning of common-pool resource theories in order for them to be applicable at larger scales.

Participation, politics, and panaceas: exploring the possibilities and limits of participatory urban water governance in Accra, Ghana

Water governance debates have increasingly recognized the importance of adaptive governance for short- and long-term sustainability, especially with respect to increasing climate unpredictability and growing urbanization. A parallel focus on enhancing community participation pervades international development recommendations and policy literature. Indeed, there are often implicit and explicit connections made between the participatory character of water governance institutions and their adaptive capacity. The social-ecological systems literature, however, has also urged caution with respect to embracing panaceas, with increasing calls to be attentive to the limitations of proposed solutions. We discuss the parallels between the adaptive governance, comanagement, and participatory resource governance literatures and analyze efforts to encourage such participation in urban water governance through Local Water Boards in Accra, Ghana. Drawing on interview data, participant observations, and a survey of 243 individuals, we explored what participatory spaces have been opened or foreclosed as well as the possibilities for adaptive urban water governance in Accra. Applying insights from recent debates about panaceas, we argue that discerning the potential and limits for sustainable resource governance and associated development goals requires that participatory mechanisms be subjected to systematic and contextual analysis.

Interactions between organizations and networks in common-pool resource governance

a b s t r a c t Research on common property and renewable resources has come to be one of the more successful research programs on social‐ecological systems. Much of this research has focused on how different kinds of institutions shape the incentives of users who rely on a common-pool resource system for a variety of their needs. In the process, this body of work has greatly advanced knowledge about how organizations and their rules for managing resources can be designed to improve sustainable resource governance. A significant puzzle that has occupied the scholarship on the commons concerns (1) the differences between formally designed and introduced institutions vs. self-organized informal network norms, and 2) the effects of these differences on resources and governance outcomes. This paper analyzes the different effects of informal norms and formal organizations and their rules through an agent-based model. We examine a model of villagers who choose levels of forest consumption based on the information they derive from social interactions with their neighbors (an informal network with two-way flow of information) and an organization that announces prescribed limits on forest product extraction. The paper investigates how changes in the relative dependence of users on information from formal rules vs. informal norms, and the structure of their social networks affect user behavior, harvesting levels, and forest-related outcomes.