Climate change and indigenous natural resource management: a review of socio-ecological interactions in the Alinytjara Wilurara NRM region

This article examines key socio-ecological interactions identified during a climate change vulnerability assessment in the Alinytjara Wilurara natural resources management (NRM) region of South Australia. The complex local socio-ecological interactions are highlighted to guide a response to the challenge of adapting to climate change within the region. Recognising several key desert drivers which perpetuate degraded socio-ecological systems, this article recommends that a range of strategies be employed simultaneously to enhance local environmental management in association with remote indigenous communities, including: linking people and NRM more closely; tracking funding but ensuring systems can withstand periods of limited financial support; developing cross-sectoral and cross-institutional links; empowering and engaging communities; communicating effectively; and actively supporting local and traditional environmental knowledge. Unless climate change adaptation responses within the region are conceptualised and enacted within the context of complex local socio-ecological systems, NRM will not improve and social vulnerability will increase.     

Towards sustainable community‐based natural resource management in the indigenous Meqmegi community in Taiwan: Rethinking impacts of local participation

This paper examines approaches for local resident participation in community‐based natural resource management (CBNRM); focusing particularly on the potential impacts that local participation imposes on the natural environment. This study used qualitative methods to collect data, and selected Meqmegi, an indigenous community in Taiwan, as a case study. The findings indicate that many opportunities can be created that stimulate a community to participate in natural resource management; moreover, residents are prone to use their own ways to participate. Therefore, although local participation is praised for its people‐oriented way of natural resource management, impacts from the participation process will ultimately be imposed on the environment. We suggest that more consideration be given to the environmental conditions during the process of local participation via CBNRM to make sure that impacts on the environment are positive, and lead to a truly sustainable future.     

Toward Sustainable Management of National Parks in Japan: Securing Local Community and Stakeholder Participation

Japan’s national park system constitutes a potentially viable mechanism for securing local community participation and building stakeholder consensus for sustainable park management, although the potential of this system is yet to be fully maximized. This article gives an overview of the system of protecting natural resources in Japan, focusing on the national park system. Parks are managed by zoning and regulation, which is unique in that land is not “set aside” for nature conservation, but designated as national park wherever the need to preserve “scenic beauty” has been recognized, regardless of land ownership or land use. Although resource conservation under this system has been problematic, it has advantages, especially in terms of community participation. This article demonstrates that in order to reach the system’s potential, the park authority must act as coordinator of stakeholders and facilitator of bottom-up approaches to decision-making. In order to do this, steps that must be taken include the following: identifying the various stakeholders in park management and defining the “local community”; clarifying the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder; and supporting consensus-building among stakeholders regarding the objectives and long-term vision of each park. By taking these steps, it would be possible to build a park management system that overrides government boundaries and involves local communities. This will enable the park authority to address the challenges facing Japan’s complex system of conserving natural resources, and move towards sustainable management of natural resources in Japan.     

A picture of change: using photovoice to explore social and environmental change in coastal communities on the Andaman Coast of Thailand

Coastal communities experience a wide array of environmental and social changes to which they must constantly adapt. Further, a community's perception of change and risk has significant implications for a community's willingness and ability to adapt to both current and future changes. As part of a larger study focusing on the adaptive capacity of communities on the Andaman Coast of Thailand, we used Photovoice to open a dialogue with communities about changes in the marine environment and in coastal communities. This article presents the results of two exploratory Photovoice processes and discusses prospects for using the Photovoice method for exploring social and environmental change. Changes examined included a number of broader environmental and social trends as well as ecological specifics and social particularities in each site. Participants also explored the social implications of environmental changes, the impacts of macro-scale processes on local outcomes, and emotive and active responses of individuals and communities to change. Photovoice is deemed a powerful method for: examining social, environmental, and socio-ecological change, triangulating to confirm the results of other scientific methods, revealing novel ecological interactions, and providing input into community processes focusing on natural resource management, community development, and climate change adaptation.     

Understanding climate,adapting to change: indigenous cultural values and climate change impacts in North Queensland

Many authors have suggested that Indigenous communities are especially vulnerable to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change, yet there remains a paucity of fine-grained geographic data on the particular impacts of climate change on specific places and on local communities, especially Australian Indigenous communities. While there are some recent studies being undertaken with Australia's Torres Strait Island people, our research takes up the issues of vulnerability and resilience with two Indigenous communities from different environments on the mainland in North Queensland. They are the Aboriginal peoples of the rainforest and reef environments of the Wet Tropics and the Aboriginal people of the discontiguous rainforest, grasslands, dry forests and marine environments of Cape York. The results demonstrate variability in their understandings of climate change and in their capacities to anticipate and manage its impacts, while at the same time illustrating some common held themes about environmental and cultural values, observed environmental change, attributions of cause and effect, and of climate in general.     

Livelihood change and livelihood sustainability in the uplands of Lembang subwatershed, West Sumatra, Indonesia, in a changing natural resource management context

This paper analyzes livelihood change and livelihood sustainability of households in the upland part of the Lembang subwatershed, West Sumatra, in response to changes in the natural resource management context during the last decade. Using the sustainable livelihood framework (SLF), we measured livelihood changes at two separate points in time, 1996 and 2006, and assessed their environmental, economic, social, and institutional sustainability. We found that people with a low income had less access to capital assets than people from middle- and high-income groups. Our analysis revealed, however, that access to capital assets increased over time, and that poor households experienced economic improvement, indicating an overall increase in economic sustainability. Environmental sustainability, however, is threatened by intensive agricultural practices such as high agrochemical input and intensive soil tillage on steep slopes, leading to pollution and soil erosion. Social sustainability is also a matter of concern: while social exclusion has been reduced, income inequity has increased. Institutional sustainability is likely to remain uncertain, as local institutions for natural resource management are still weak, despite the fact that decentralization has been implemented during the last 8 years. External facilitation is needed to improve the livelihood of upland people while, at the same time, enhancing the sustainability of watershed management. Strengthening local institutions, conserving natural resources, and promoting environmentally sound agricultural practices are the three most important policies to be promoted within the watershed.     

Sustainable coasts? Perceptions of change and livelihood vulnerability in Nordland,Norway

ABSTRACT

Northern coastal regions are facing multiple challenges from accelerating global environmental and socioeconomic changes, such as ecosystem degradation, climate change, intensified resource extraction, land use change and declining populations. Based on interviews with 13 farmers, fishers and aquaculture employees from coastal Nordland, northern Norway, this study demonstrates how the local stakeholders’ perceptions of change and experiences of vulnerability are closely linked to their livelihood values and worldviews. What the informants consider a sustainable and meaningful way of coastal living does not coincide with national goals for sustainable, natural resource dependent development of the region. The article demonstrates the importance of attending to local values if policymakers and managers are to ensure successful local mobilisation, reduce vulnerability to ongoing and future processes of change, and ensure legitimacy and consistency in development goals of coastal zone management. Insights from this study are useful for local and regional decision makers with responsibility for natural resource policies and development efforts.     

Coastal resource complexes of South India: options for sustainable management

India's coastal resource complexes were traditionally characterized by a continuum of 'common property resources' or 'commons' that stretched from the shores to the seas. The continuum aided the existence of sustainable livelihood systems for local communities. Today, fragmented policy approaches and economic welfare schemes have caused the disintegration of community control over the continuum. As a consequence, livelihood systems of local communities have declined. The introduction of coastal management guidelines in the 1990s has exacerbated the situation. With reference to a coastal village located in the State of Kerala in South West India, the paper describes the trajectory of unsustainable change that has taken place in the coastal area resource complexes of the country. The paper argues for restoring the continuum of commons in the study area through community driven systems of natural resource management that are based on networks of nested institutions.     

Indigenous Knowledge and Long-term Ecological Change: Detection, Interpretation, and Responses to Changing Ecological Conditions in Pacific Island Communities

When local resource users detect, understand, and respond to environmental change they can more effectively manage environmental resources. This article assesses these abilities among artisanal fishers in Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. In a comparison of two villages, it documents local resource users’ abilities to monitor long-term ecological change occurring to seagrass meadows near their communities, their understandings of the drivers of change, and their conceptualizations of seagrass ecology. Local observations of ecological change are compared with historical aerial photography and IKONOS satellite images that show 56 years of actual changes in seagrass meadows from 1947 to 2003. Results suggest that villagers detect long-term changes in the spatial cover of rapidly expanding seagrass meadows. However, for seagrass meadows that showed no long-term expansion or contraction in spatial cover over one-third of respondents incorrectly assumed changes had occurred. Examples from a community-based management initiative designed around indigenous ecological knowledge and customary sea tenure governance show how local observations of ecological change shape marine resource use and practices which, in turn, can increase the management adaptability of indigenous or hybrid governance systems.     

Environmental care in agricultural catchments: Toward the communicative catchment

Substantial land degradation of agricultural catchments in Australia has resulted from the importation of European farming methods and the large-scale clearing of land. Rural communities are now being encouraged by government to take responsibility for environmental care. The importance of community involvement is supported by the view that environmental problems are a function of interactions between people and their environment. It is suggested that the commonly held view that community groups cannot care for their resources is due to inappropriate social institutions rather that any inherent disability in people. The communicative catchment is developed as a vision for environmental care into the future. This concept emerges from a critique of resource management through the catchment metaphors of the reduced, mechanical, and the complex, evolving catchment, which reflect the development of systemic and people-centered approaches to environmental care. The communicative catchment is one where both community and resource managers participate collaboratively in environmental care. A methodology based on action research and systemic thinking (systemic action research) is proposed as a way of moving towards the communicative catchment of the future. Action research is a way of taking action in organizations and communities that is participative and informed by theory, while systemic thinking takes into account the interconnections and relationships between social and natural worlds. The proposed vision, methodology, and practical operating principles stem from involvement in an action research project looking at extension strategies for the implementation of total catchment management in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales.     

Understanding consumer behaviour and adaptation planning responses to climate-driven environmental change in Canada's parks and protected areas: a climate futurescapes approach

Parks and protected areas are a global ecological, social and health resource visited by over 8 billion people annually. Their use can yield substantial benefits, but only if a balance between ecological integrity and sustainable visitation is struck. This research explores the potential influence of climate-driven environmental change on visitation to North America's most popular glacier, the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park, Canada. Photorealistic environmental visualizations were used to gauge visitors’ perceptions of environmental change and potential impacts on consumer behaviour. Results suggest that impacts could substantially diminish the site's pull as a tourism destination. Rather than improving visitation prospects, expert-proposed adaptations underestimated the importance of perceived naturalness and contributed to further potential decline. Findings are relevant to protected areas planning and management. They suggest that a natural path to climate change adaptation is the best way to support both ecological integrity and the long-term tourism pull of protected areas.     

A Case-study of ISO 14001-based Environmental Management System Implementation in the People's Republic of China

The ISO 14001 implementation process among certified firms in China was examined by conducting a questionnaire survey distributed to all certified firms as of December 1998. Results showed that the ISO 14001-based environmental management system (EMS) has a significant effect on firms' daily environmental activities and performance. Recycling, natural resource consumption and released pollutants have been managed in a better way and, in some cases, pollutants have been reduced. The study showed that firms' main targets for adopting the system were to: enhance the firm's public image; enhance employees' environmental awareness; improve the EMS inside the firm; improve the environmental aspects and performance inside the firm; and improve relations with government offices and local citizens. ISO 1400-based EMS implementation showed that it is a promising tool for helping build a better partnership between three main stakeholders, government, local citizens and enterprises. The system has enabled firms to consider the role of the local people in a more effective way. For example, special consideration is given to involving local citizens in health and emergency preparedness during firms' daily environmental activities. Moreover, enhancing environmental awareness among the local citizens and giving more consideration to co-operation with other firms from the same industrial groups are reported by certified firms. Finally, there are strong demands for government support to build more reliable information systems, ISO 14001-related research, more incentives for eco-labelling and tax exemptions.     

The evolution of socio-ecological systems: changing palm species management in the Colombian Amazon as an indicator of ecological and institutional change

We investigate natural resource governance in three indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. We base our analysis on an evolutionary governance model in which governance dimensions emerge as relevant through time. The less accessible of the communities represents earlier steps in governance evolution, while the more physically accessible is more integrated into the western scene. We observe how increased physical accessibility in a community brings in western governance models which hybridize with more traditional ones, influencing the couplings between the social and ecological systems. We zoom in on changing management of three commonly used palm species and illustrate how detailed studies of natural resource management contribute to understanding governance evolution. By comparing governance evolutions we were able to gain insights and improve our understanding on how natural resource management changes in communities transiting into western ways of living. In doing so we recognized points of rigidity and flexibility which might influence the social ecological systems capacity to adapt to changing conditions.     

The role of citizen scientist in nature resource decision-making: Lessons from the spruce budworm problem in Canada

Summary An increased role for citizen participation in natural resource decision-making has been advocated by, amongst others, the United Nations (Brundtland Commission) as a means of initiating fundamental changes in the way we exploit natural resources. However, attempts at meaningful participation by the public are met with resistance, commonly by the dominant elites who control environmental and economic policies. Citizen groups press for involvement, only to be dismissed by local establishments as ill-informed amateurs. The resulting conflicts seldom lead to innovations in policy or to constructive cooperation in the face of new environmental problems. This leads the author to feelings of pessimism about prospects for genuine public participation in the absence of political change. In arguing in support of such change, a case study is offered which illustrates the unfortunate consequences that ensue when participation is sought and rejected. The paper closes with recommendations for the way in which citizen groups could contribute in a meaningful way to natural resource decision-making, were they to be given the opportunity.Dr Alan Miller is currently Professor of Psychology at the University of New Brunswick. He has published previously in this journal on the topic of Ideology and Environmental Risk Management (The Environmentalist,5(1), 21–30.)     

Assessing the sustainability of forest management: An application of multi-criteria decision analysis to community forests in northern Ethiopia

Continuous deterioration of the natural resource base has become a serious threat to both the ecological systems and economic production in Ethiopia. Many of these problems have been attributed directly or indirectly to the rapid dwindling of the country's forest cover which is associated with unsustainable forest use and management. Closing community woodlands from human and livestock intervention to promote natural regeneration of forests has been one of the environmental restoration strategies pursued in the degraded highland areas of northern Ethiopia. However, local pressure to use reforested community lands for economic benefit has become a major threat to forest sustainability.Using locally identified sets of criteria and indicators for sustainable community forest management, this paper applies a multi-criteria decision analysis tool to evaluate forest management problems in the northern province of Tigray, Ethiopia. Three MCA methods – ranking, pair-wise comparison, and scoring – were used in evaluating the sets of criteria and indicators and alternative forest management scenarios.Results from the study indicate a number of noteworthy points: 1) MCA techniques both for identifying local level sustainability criteria and indicators and evaluating management schemes in a participatory decision environment appear to be effective tools to address local resource management problems; 2) Evaluated against the selected sets of criteria and indicators, the current forest management regime in the study area is not on a sustainable path; 3) Acquainting local people with adequate environmental knowledge and raising local awareness about the long-term consequences of environmental degradation ranked first among the set of sustainability criteria; and 4) In order to harmonize both environmental and economic objectives, the present ‘ecological-biased’ forest management regime needs to be substituted by an appropriate holistic scheme that takes into account stakeholders' multiple preferences and priority rankings.     

Environmental change in the mid-Boteti area of north-central Botswana: Biophysical processes and human perceptions

Increased interest in environmental change issues has led researchers to consider more integrated approaches to change dynamics. This paper examines change in terms of land degradation in north-central Botswana from both biophysical and human perspectives. Although seasonal and periodic droughts were prevalent, analysis of rainfall data over the past 70 years revealed no downward trend. However, indicators of declining productivity such as soil erosion, loss of vegetation cover, and a declining groundwater table were amply evident. The GIS analysis of remotely sensed data has shown that complete vegetation recovery after drought is not taking place, particularly in the south-central part of the study area. These areas contained the highest human and livestock population densities. The local people acknowledged facing increasing resource depletion and indicated drought as the main cause. Pressures on available resources, particularly during drought periods, appeared to have impeded the regenerative capacity of the natural vegetation cover, thereby inducing land degradation. This situation may not easily be rectified because of widespread poverty and inappropriate local perceptions of the solutions. Both of these hinder the adoption of sustainable land management.     

Ecotourism,sustainable development,and conservation education: Development of a tour guide training program in Tortuguero,Costa Rica

A tour guide training program was developed for rural communities near Costa Rica's Tortuguero National Park to respond to the impacts of the 24-fold increase in park visitation in the past decade, to involve local communities in resource management, and to provide regional environmental education. The development of the training course involved a survey of scientists and park managers to ascertain resource management needs, priorities for information to be disseminated, and impacts of tourism on the resource base. Current and potential tour guides were surveyed to identify their information needs, solicit their input in the training program, and to determine their knowledge and skills. Written questionnaires were developed and given to 400 tourists to determine their activities and environmental information needs, and hotel owners were censused to examine the economic feasibility of a local guide program. A pilot training course and guide program involving 12 Tortuguero residents demonstrated that a tour guide program: (1) helped mitigate negative tourism impacts on Tortuguero National Park's natural resources, particularly by regulating tourists on the park's 35-km beach used for nesting by endangered sea turtles; (2) provided environmental education to an important segment of the local community not traditionally reached through school or government development projects; (3) provided environmental information to tourists, thus enhancing their visit; and (4) provided local economic benefits through lucrative part-time employment, thereby allowing local people to participate more fully in the tourism system. An extended training course is being planned to provide further environmental education programming and to increase year-round employment opportunities for the tour guides.     

A Case-study of ISO 14001-based Environmental Management System Implementation in the People's Republic of China

The ISO 14001 implementation process among certified firms in China was examined by conducting a questionnaire survey distributed to all certified firms as of December 1998. Results showed that the ISO 14001-based environmental management system (EMS) has a significant effect on firms' daily environmental activities and performance. Recycling, natural resource consumption and released pollutants have been managed in a better way and, in some cases, pollutants have been reduced. The study showed that firms' main targets for adopting the system were to: enhance the firm's public image; enhance employees' environmental awareness; improve the EMS inside the firm; improve the environmental aspects and performance inside the firm; and improve relations with government offices and local citizens. ISO 1400-based EMS implementation showed that it is a promising tool for helping build a better partnership between three main stakeholders, government, local citizens and enterprises. The system has enabled firms to consider the role of the local people in a more effective way. For example, special consideration is given to involving local citizens in health and emergency preparedness during firms' daily environmental activities. Moreover, enhancing environmental awareness among the local citizens and giving more consideration to co-operation with other firms from the same industrial groups are reported by certified firms. Finally, there are strong demands for government support to build more reliable information systems, ISO 14001-related research, more incentives for eco-labelling and tax exemptions.     

Plant indicator status and implications for natural disaster management in both developed communities and indigenous communities

Only a few rigorous studies have attempted to focus on the topic of plant indicators in relation to natural disasters, although recently an increasing number of people have realized its significance. In an effort to aid disaster management, this article studied and aimed to improve the status of plant indicators in predicting or signaling natural disasters. Using a qualitative content analysis, the plant indicators’ uncertain status and certain status are systematically compared using specific plants, developed community efforts, indigenous community traditions, and characteristics of natural disaster management. A key tenet is that all stakeholders must change plant indicators’ uncertain status to certain status by comprehensively elaborating on the integration between developed communities and indigenous communities, plant indicators as a research agenda, the inclusion of plant indicators in disaster management policy and local plans, and education and training.     

From wasteland to wetland: creating a community ecological resource from waste water in regional New South Wales

In areas where rivers have been altered and regulated through dams, the effect on wetland ecosystems can lead to 'wastage' of the land as natural systems are destroyed. In response to the effects of streamflow regulation on a wetland near the city of Albury, on the Murray River, the development of the Wonga Wetlands and associated site rehabilitation addresses two key issues: wasteland and waste water. A Community Advisory Committee has been actively and directly involved in the project, initiated and implemented by the Albury City Council, to restore an area of original wetland into a community ecological resource that utilises 100% of the domestic, commercial and industrial urban 'waste' water from the city's water treatment plant. This project represents a significant direction in the way communities and local governments approach resource recovery. This paper analyses the Wonga Wetlands project from the perspective of sustainable management of waste in terms of water resources and presents it as a model for community-based environmental application and long-term resource sustainability.