Misunderstanding the “Nature” of Co-Management: A Geography of Regulatory Science and Indigenous Knowledges (IK)

Governments, NGOs, and natural scientists have increased research and policy-making collaborations with Indigenous peoples for governing natural resources, including official co-management regimes. However, there is continuing dissatisfaction with such collaborations, and calls for better communication and mutual learning to create more “adaptive” co-management regimes. This, however, requires that both Western and Indigenous knowledge systems be equal participants in the “co-production” of regulatory data. In this article, I examine the power dynamics of one co-management regulatory regime, conducting a multi-sited ethnography of the practices of researching and managing one transnational migratory species, greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons frontalis), who nest where Koyukon Athabascans in Alaska, USA, practice subsistence. Analyzing the ethnographic data through the literatures of critical geography, science studies and Indigenous Studies, I describe how the practice of researching for co-management can produce conflict. “Scaling” the data for the co-management regime can marginalize Indigenous understandings of human–environment relations. While Enlightenment-based practices in wildlife biology avoid “anthropomorphism,” Indigenous Studies describes identities that operate through non-modern, deeply imbricated human–nonhuman identities that do not separate “nature” and “society” in making knowledge. Thus, misunderstanding the “nature” of their collaborations causes biologists and managers to measure and research the system in ways that erase how subsistence-based Indigenous groups already “manage” wildlife: by living through their ethical commitments to their fellow beings. At the end of the article, I discuss how managers might learn from these ontological and epistemological differences to better “co-produce” data for co-management.     

Harnessing community energy: the keys to climate mitigation policy adoption in US municipalities

Many US municipalities are engaged in climate change mitigation planning or efforts to reduce their communities' greenhouse gas emissions. However, most have adopted very few policies to implement their climate change mitigation goals, and many others are not pursuing climate change mitigation at all. This study examines municipalities' approaches to energy and climate issues and identifies the “keys to success” that influence the extent to which they adopt climate change mitigation policies.

Prior researchers have characterised climate change mitigation efforts as an example of multi-level governance, in which policies are formulated through a variety of networks and interactions between government actors and civil society. I find that municipalities that engage community interests and coordinate with neighbouring jurisdictions in their energy and climate planning processes are far more likely to adopt meaningful policies and conclude that such multi-level governance approaches are actually critical to the success of climate change mitigation planning.     

Seeking knowledge of traditional Indigenous burning practices to inform regional bushfire management

ABSTRACT

A transdisciplinary review of the current academic knowledge of Indigenous traditional fire management is presented for the Mt Lofty Ranges in South Australia. For a long time, the roles of Indigenous management of the landscape have either been overlooked or discounted within environmental studies. That situation is beginning to change in many parts of Australia. However, this review of knowledge of traditional Indigenous burning practices specifically for the Mt Lofty Ranges suggests that there is very little formalised, academic knowledge available that could be utilised to inform prescribed burning practices in the region. Perhaps Indigenous peoples’ use of fire was strongly governed by individual choices, or perhaps established regimes demarcated roles across groups; perhaps some areas were burnt regularly and others were left unaltered – there is still no clear evidence from the academic literature to provide even limited understandings of such elements of pre-colonial fire regimes. That gap in knowledge will become increasingly problematic as the need for appropriate, sophisticated burning practices to respond to risk in peri-urban Adelaide increases with a changing climate. To learn from traditional Indigenous land management: (a) formal knowledge needs to be generated on past regional burning practices; and (b) understanding needs to be developed as to whether past burning practices could lead to effective hazard management and biodiversity outcomes within contemporary landscapes. Such an integration of Indigenous knowledge for effective environmental management will only be possible if the injustices of past exclusions of the importance of Indigenous biocultural practices are recognised.     

Testing the scoping phase of a bottom-up planning guide designed to support Australian Indigenous rangers manage the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage sites

Since the early 1990s archaeologists have suggested archaeological and cultural heritage sites (cultural sites) will face major challenges from anthropogenic climate change. While techniques to manage such impacts are emerging, no planning tools exist for bottom-up, community-based management of the issue. This paper forms part of an overarching research project that aims to fill this gap by developing a bottom-up planning guide (the Guide). The paper tests the first of the proposed Guide’s five phases: the scoping phase. It presents the results of workshops conducted with two Australian Indigenous rangers groups. While existing studies document Indigenous peoples’ perceptions of climate change in general, none have focussed on their perceptions of impacts on cultural heritage sites. Here, Indigenous rangers related strong perceptions of particular climate change impacts on specific cultural sites in particular bio-regions. While the rangers were actively engaged with sites, they felt site management should be extended in the face of additional threats from climate change. Rangers were able to nominate a preferred methodological approach, based on a risk analysis of biophysical hazards, as well as local adaptive capacity building in the face of governance challenges. Various barriers to adaptation planning and resource limitations were identified but these were not regarded as insurmountable in terms of the current project. Testing of the scoping phase of the Guide suggested rangers had a strong organisational capacity to achieve practical adaptation results.     

Responding to climate change as a transformative stressor through metro-regional planning

This paper characterises climate change as a “transformative stressor”. It argues that institutional change will become increasingly necessary as institutions seek to reorientate governance frameworks to better manage the transformative stresses created by climate change in urban environments. Urban and metropolitan planning regimes are identified as central institutions in addressing this challenge. The operationalisation of climate adaptation is identified as a central tenet of a comprehensive urban response to the transformative stresses that climate change is predicted to create. Operationalisation refers to climate adaptation becoming incorporated, codified and implemented as a central tenet of urban planning governance. This paper has three purposes. First, it examines conceptual perspectives on the role of transformative stressors in compelling institutional change. Second, it establishes a conceptual approach that characterises climate change as a transformative stressor requiring institutional change within planning frameworks. Third, it reports emergent results and analysis from an empirical inquiry which examines how the metro-regional planning regime of Southeast Queensland has responded to climate change as a transformative stressor via institutional change and the operationalisation of climate adaptation.     

Climate change adaptation at different levels of government: Characteristics and conditions of policy change

Climate change adaptation strategies that aim to minimize harm and maximize benefits related to climate change impacts have mushroomed at all levels of government in recent years. While many studies have explored barriers that stand in the way of their implementation, the factors determining their potential to mainstream adaptation into various sectors are less clear. In the present paper, we aim to address this gap for two international, six national, and six local adaptation strategies. Based on document analyses and 35 semi‐structured interviews, the 14 case studies also explore in how far the factors facilitating climate change adaptation are similar across levels of government or level‐specific. Although located at three different levels of government, we find that the 14 adaptation strategies analyzed here represent “one‐size‐fits‐all governance arrangements” that are characterized by voluntariness and a lack institutionalization. Since adaptation strategies are relatively weak coordination hubs that are unable to force adaptation onto sectoral policy agendas, they rely mainly on sectoral self‐interest in adapting to climate change, largely determined by problem pressure. We conclude that one‐size‐fits‐all governance arrangements are rarely adequate responses to complex challenges, such as climate change. Although climate change adaptation depends more on framework conditions such as problem pressure than on administrative or governance features, the findings presented here can help to understand under what circumstances adaptation is likely to make progress.     

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.     

Adapting to Climate Change at the Local Level: The Spatial Planning Response

Abstract

Climate change is a major issue for all levels of government, global, national and local. Local authorities' responses to climate change have tended to concentrate on their role in reducing greenhouse gases. However, the scientific consensus is that we also need to adapt to unavoidable climate change. Spatial planning at a local level has a critical anticipatory role to play in promoting robust adaptation. This paper reviews the shift in local authorities' planning policies for climate change adaptation in the UK since 2000, and provides evidence of underlying attitudes amongst planning professionals to climate change. It shows that, while the issue of climate change is becoming recognized with respect to flood risk, the wider implications (for instance, for biodiversity and water resources) are not yet integrated into plans. The reasons for this lie in lack of political support and lack of engagement of the planning profession with climate change networks. But the paper also argues there are difficulties in acknowledging the need for adaptation at the local level, with the short-term horizons of local plans at odds with perceptions of the long-term implications of climate change.     

Place influences in framing and understanding climate change adaptation challenges

The climate change literature emphasises the importance of geographical understanding for guiding adaptation, in which “place” perspectives are particularly significant. After “scale”, the term “place” within the climate change adaptation literature is most often implicitly used in reference to a delineated and localised region, such as place-based risk assessment or place-based adaptation planning. Here, we use a case study of the Australian island-state of Tasmania to demonstrate the importance and particularity of place in the formation of climate change adaptation issues, problem definition and framing, and the dynamics of knowledge and praxis development across a range of research and industry sectors. We describe the significance of the place Tasmania with regard to its geographical location; its portrayal as an island place; and its cultural meaning and relations. Through a synthesis of climate change adaptation research, policy literature and engagement with researchers and stakeholders, we identify three emergent thematic place characterisations of Tasmania. We find that these characterisations have contributed directly or indirectly to the: initiation and extent of research and practical activities; the framing of adaptation issues and perspectives on potential adaptation responses in different sectors including the marine biodiversity and resources sector, small business and human health sectors. Exposing these influences is essential for focusing future adaptation activities, including research, planning, investment and practice, in Tasmania and other locations where place is a central issue.     

Institutional innovation in urban governance: The case of climate change adaptation

Urban governance systems need to be adaptive to deal with emerging uncertainties and pressures, including those related to climate change. Realising adaptive urban governance systems requires attention to institutions, and in particular, processes of institutional innovation. Interestingly, understanding of how institutional innovation and change occurs remains a key conceptual weakness in urban climate change governance. This paper explores how institutional innovation in urban climate change governance can be conceptualised and analysed. We develop a heuristic involving three levels: (1) “visible” changes in institutional arrangements, (2) changes in underlying “rules-in-use”, and (3) the relationship to broader “governance dilemmas”. We then explore the utility of this heuristic through an exploratory case study of urban water governance in Santiago, Chile. The approach presented opens up novel possibilities for studying institutional innovation and evaluating changes in governance systems. The paper contributes to debates on innovation and its effects in urban governance, particularly under climate change.     

Governance Change and Institutional Adaptation: A Case Study from Harenna Forest, Ethiopia

Many common pool resources have traditionally been managed through intricate local governance arrangements. Over time, such arrangements are confronted with manifold political, social, economic and ecological changes. However, the ways in which local governance arrangements react to such changes are poorly understood. Using the theoretical concept of institutional adaptation, we analyse the history of Harenna forest, Ethiopia, to examine processes of institutional change over the last 150 years. We find that the traditional institutions that governed Harenna’s resources persisted, in essence, over time. However, these institutions were modified repeatedly to address changes caused by varying formal, supra-regional governance regimes, the development of markets for forest products, increasing population pressure and changes in formal property rights. A key mechanism for adaptation was combining elements from both informal and formal institutions, which allowed traditional rules to persist in the guise of more formal arrangements. Our findings also highlight several constraints of institutional adaptation. For example, by abolishing fora for collective decision-making, regime changes limited adaptive capacity. To conclude, we argue that such insights into traditional resource governance and its adaptability and dynamics over time are essential to develop sustainable approaches to participatory forest management for the future, both in Harenna and more generally.     

Economic risk and mineral taxation on Indigenous lands

Mining generates risk of environmental and social harm for Indigenous peoples but can also generate substantial revenues for them, creating opportunities for community development in a context where economic and social disadvantage is the norm. Especially as mining revenues should, in part, compensate for mining’s negative social and environmental impacts, it is vital that mineral taxation on Indigenous lands reflect a careful assessment of appropriate tax mechanisms and a matching of these with community priorities. Yet little has been written that could serve as a guide for Indigenous decision makers. This article contributes to an understanding of the issues and choices facing Indigenous communities in designing mineral taxation regimes, by focusing on the question of economic risk. Risk arises as a key variable in choosing or designing a mineral taxation regime in three ways. Different approaches to mineral taxation are inherently more or less risky, in the sense that they are more or less certain to generate tax revenues. A second aspect of risk involves the degree of economic certainty or predictability associated with different types of commodities and projects. Third, the risk tolerance of Indigenous peoples and communities can vary significantly. We show how Indigenous groups can integrate and address these different dimensions of risk, by recognising the ‘risk consequences’ associated with different approaches to mineral taxation and choosing an approach that reflects, as fully as possible, the group’s risk tolerance.     

Adaptation in Practice: How Managers of Nature Conservation Areas in Eastern England are Responding to Climate Change

Although good general principles for climate change adaptation in conservation have been developed, it is proving a challenge to translate them into more detailed recommendations for action. To improve our understanding of what adaptation might involve in practice, we investigated how the managers of conservation areas in eastern England are considering climate change. We used a written questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to collect information from managers of a range of different conservation areas. Topics investigated include the impacts of climate change perceived to be of the greatest importance; adaptation goals being set; management actions being carried out to achieve these goals; sources of information used; and perceived barriers to taking action. We identified major themes and issues that were apparent across the sites studied. Specifically, we found ways in which adaptation had been informed by past experience; different strategies relating to whether to accept or resist change; approaches for coping with more variable conditions; ways of taking a large-scale approach and managing sites as networks; some practical examples of aspects of adaptive management; and examples of the role that other sectors can play in both constraining and increasing a conservation area’s capacity to adapt. We discuss the relevance of these findings to the growing discussion in conservation about identifying adaptation pathways for different conservation areas and a potential progression from a focus on resilience and incremental change to embracing “transformation.” Though adaptation will be place-specific, we believe these findings provide useful lessons for future action in both England and other countries.     

Local Governance and Climate Change: Reflections on the Swedish Experience

Abstract

The focus of this article is the Swedish experience of local governance and climate change, including mitigation and adaptation. The municipal response to these two challenges is set within a broader policy context that acknowledges Sweden as a pioneer in environmental governance, including its comparatively high ambitions with regard to the reduction of greenhouse ga emissions. Central–local relations in climate policy are analysed, and climate change mitigation and adaptation are exemplified by some snapshots of municipal initiatives, including the popular habit of networking between municipalities within as well as across national borders. In conclusion we briefly evaluate the Swedish local governance experience of climate change mitigation and adaptation to date as characterized by radical rhetoric and ambitious goals combined with a lot of promising initiatives, although still with fairly modest results in terms of tangible outcomes. Finally, we reflect upon what we consider to be the most important questions for future research on local governance and climate change.     

Universities and Climate Change Mitigation: Advancing Grassroots Climate Policy in the US

Abstract

While US climate change mitigation policy has stalled at the national level, local and regional actors are increasingly taking progressive steps to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Universities are poised to play a key role in this grassroots effort by targeting their own emissions and by working with other local actors to develop climate change mitigation programmes. Researchers at the Pennsylvania State University have collaborated with university administrators and personnel to inventory campus emissions and develop mitigation strategies. In addition, they have facilitated a stakeholder-driven climate change mitigation project in one Pennsylvania county and started an ongoing service-learning project aimed at reducing emissions in another county. These campus and community outreach initiatives demonstrate that university-based mitigation action may simultaneously achieve tangible local benefits and develop solutions to broader challenges facing local climate change mitigation efforts. Outcomes include improved tools and protocols for measuring and reducing local emissions, lessons learned about service-learning approaches to climate change mitigation, and methods for creating climate change governance networks involving universities, local governments and community stakeholders.     

Indigenous people and mineral taxation regimes

Indigenous people in a number of major mineral-producing countries have established a substantial and growing capacity to tax mineral resources extracted from their traditional lands. However, almost no analysis has been conducted regarding the conceptual and practical issues involved in designing mineral taxation regimes for use by indigenous people. The general literature on mineral taxation is of limited relevance because basic assumptions it makes regarding the nature of the taxing authority (national or state governments) do not apply to indigenous peoples. This article discusses some key characteristics of indigenous communities as they relate to taxation of mineral resources. Against this background, it identifies a number of approaches to mineral taxation which might be utilized by indigenous groups and which acknowledge the specific constraints and circumstances they face while at the same time recognizing their need to attract and maintain investment on their traditional lands. It also reviews the inter-relationship between indigenous and state or governmental tax regimes.     

Reflexive capacity in local networks for sustainable development: integrating conflict and understanding into a multi-level perspective Transition Framework

ABSTRACT

One core element of reflexive governance is the reflexive capacity-building of actors involved in governance networks. A wider range of actors have to be empowered to understand and improve governance arrangements in order to create second-order reflexivity. As a contribution to this challenge, a heuristic framework is developed from two complementary approaches to reflexive governance: the multi-level perspective (MLP) and the conflict-orientated understanding (COU) approach. The new framework is applied to two case studies – water management and long-term climate adaptation – where it has helped to develop a participatory process to analyse and reflect on local networks and multi-stakeholder arenas. The two contrasting processes are analysed and their contribution to reflexive capacity building is assessed. Building on the findings, further advancements of MLP, COU, and the concept of reflexive governance are recommended.     

Adaptation in situ or retreat? A multivariate approach to explore the factors that guide the peoples' preference against the impacts of sea level rise in coastal Bangladesh

This paper is aimed to identify the factors that influence peoples' preference for adaptation against the impacts of sea level rise (SLR). A total of 285 respondents from three coastal villages in Bangladesh are randomly interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. First, employing the principal component analysis various factors that influence adaptation preferences of people are identified. These factors are related to “demographic and social aspects”, “wealth and economic standing”, “past coping and adaptive behaviour”, “climate knowledge and information” and “spatial aspect” of life. What is common in these factors is their ability to influence peoples' vulnerability. Finally, the binomial logistic regression model is employed to compute the explanatory power of these factors to predict the respondents' preference for adaptation in situ over retreat or vice versa. Model findings are robust for two scenarios of SLR, i.e. 2050–2075 (LR χ ²?=?133.65, pseudo-R ²?=?0.53, p?<?0.001) and 2080–2100 (LR χ ²?=?282.61, pseudo-R ²?=?0.85, p?<?0.001). Therefore, it is concluded that to avoid relocation of substantial number of people initiative for encouraging adaptation in situ must be taken along side establishment of safe shelter, community radio service and campaign for raising climate awareness.     

Blocking pipelines,unsettling environmental justice: from rights of nature to responsibility to territory

ABSTRACT

Indigenous peoples are among the most affected by environmental injustices globally, however environmental justice theory has not yet meaningfully addressed decolonisation and the resistance of Indigenous communities against extractivism in the settler-colonial context. This paper suggests that informing environmental justice through decolonial analysis and decolonising practices can help transcend the Western ontological roots of environmental justice theories and inform a more radical and emancipatory environmental justice. The Unist’ot’en Resistance and Action Camp blocking pipelines in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, their “Reimagined Free Prior and Informed Consent protocol” and the Delgamuukw case are described to discuss limitations of the state and legal framework for accommodating a decolonial and transformative environmental justice. A decolonial analysis informed by these two moments of Wet’sewet’ten history suggests limits and adaptations to the trivalent EJ framework based on recognition, participation and distribution. It is argued that a decolonising and transformative approach to environmental justice must be based on self-governing authority, relational ontologies of nature and epistemic justice and the unsettling of power through the assertion of responsibility and care through direct action. This discussion is placed in the context of the expansion of the concept of ecological rights, for example through the enshrining of the “Rights of Nature” in the constitutions of countries such as Bolivia and Ecuador, to highlight the Inherent tensions in the translation of Indigenous cosmo-visions into legal systems based on universalist values.     

A green garden on red clay: creating a new urban common as a form of political gardening in Cologne,Germany

In March 2012, a brownfield site in Cologne was transformed into “a green garden on red clay”, when a community garden called NeuLand (new land) was created. This paper investigates in how far NeuLand is typical for a new form of political engagement 2.0, focused on local problems at people's doorstep rather than global critiques of political systems, which finds its expression in direct actions typical for the networked society, e.g. “green flash mobs.” Its potential to provide a blueprint for imagining and enacting alternative futures and new ways for citizens to claim their “right to the city” is being assessed. NeuLand provides an experiment with new forms of (urban) commons and possibly a (re)turn to the “liveable city” to replace the current neoliberal ideal of the “entrepreneurial city” [Harvey, D., 1989. From manageralism to entrepreneuralism: the transformation of urban governance in late capitalism. Geografiska Annaler, Series B, Human Geography, 71 (1), 3–17], developing new solutions to problems of urban management and city development that extend beyond the voluntary engagement of citizens within the logic of the neoliberal “big society.” Extending the scope beyond the analysis of urban gardening projects as examples of sustainable food production, or as vehicles for fostering community cohesion, integration or social capital, the NeuLand experiment is linked to wider debates of alternative and more sustainable socio-ecological futures than those currently practised in the newly “neoliberalizing cities” of Germany.