Perceptions and attitudes towards gas flaring in the Niger Delta,Nigeria

Gas flaring is the burning of crude oil’s associated gas. In Nigeria’s Niger Delta, the flaring process is usually very close to communities and their farmlands and has been implicated in serious environmental degradation of the region. Studies have suggested links between gas flaring and health problems in the communities and others have established relationships between gas flaring and poor agricultural yields. This study explores how the people in the region perceive gas flaring and what their attitudes are toward it. Ubeji town, a community where gas flaring takes place, was selected as a case study. It was found that the residents perceive gas flaring as hazardous to health, environment, and general well-being of the community. Most residents seem to be resigned to the continued presence of gas flaring activities in the community. The study, however, raised several questions on modeling perception and attitudes toward environmental problems in areas where political tension and economic adversity are prevalent.     

Building Trust in Natural Resource Management Within Local Communities: A Case Study of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

Communities neighboring federally protected natural areas regularly weigh the costs and benefits of the administering agency’s programs and policies. While most agencies integrate public opinion into decision making, efforts to standardize and formalize public involvement have left many local communities feeling marginalized, spurring acrimony and opposition. A significant body of research has examined barriers to effective public participation as well as strategies for relationship building in planning processes; many of which point to trust as a key factor. Trust is especially tenuous in local communities. This paper explores perceptions of trust, expectations for management, as well as constraints to building trust. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 community members and USDA Forest Service personnel at the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in northeastern Illinois. The interviews revealed that trust is perceived as important to effective management. Distinct expectations for management outcomes and processes emerged, including the values, knowledge, and capacity demonstrated in management decisions and actions and opportunities provided for communication, collaboration, and cooperation within the agency-community relationship. The case study identified several constraints to building trust, including competing values, knowledge gaps, limited community engagement, and staff turnover.     

Ethnobotany and Management of Dimorphandra gardneriana in a Protected Area of Chapada do Araripe Semiarid Ceará, Northeastern Brazil

The development of conservation strategies for nontimber forest products requires the characterization of the management systems and ethnoecological knowledge of the used species, as well as the analysis of the biological impacts of these processes. This study aimed to evaluate management systems and extractivist areas and related ethnoecological knowledge of Dimorphandra gardneriana (fava d’anta) in the semiarid region of Ceará, Northeast of Brazil. Fava d’anta produces fruits with high concentration of bioflavonoids, substances with various pharmacological properties, being exploited by extractivist communities in the mosaic of protected areas in Chapada do Araripe, Ceará. Ethnoecological knowledge has been concentrated on collectors who have been in activity for a longer time and/or plant the species. We identified three management systems that can impact in different ways on fava d’anta populations, depending on the area and level of human interference with the species. The extractivists respect the zoning of protected areas and do not enter in the full protection area, choosing areas with the highest tree density. The different systems produce a mosaic that creates different extraction opportunities and modifications to the local landscape and to fava d’anta populations. Factors that may have effects on the conservation of the species are the lack of supervision and overexploitation of the resource in native areas, while the factors that affect the health of extractivists are the infrastructure of the work and exposure to wild environments.     

A Global Analysis of Protected Area Management Effectiveness

We compiled details of over 8000 assessments of protected area management effectiveness across the world and developed a method for analyzing results across diverse assessment methodologies and indicators. Data was compiled and analyzed for over 4000 of these sites. Management of these protected areas varied from weak to effective, with about 40% showing major deficiencies. About 14% of the surveyed areas showed significant deficiencies across many management effectiveness indicators and hence lacked basic requirements to operate effectively. Strongest management factors recorded on average related to establishment of protected areas (legal establishment, design, legislation and boundary marking) and to effectiveness of governance; while the weakest aspects of management included community benefit programs, resourcing (funding reliability and adequacy, staff numbers and facility and equipment maintenance) and management effectiveness evaluation. Estimations of management outcomes, including both environmental values conservation and impact on communities, were positive. We conclude that in spite of inadequate funding and management process, there are indications that protected areas are contributing to biodiversity conservation and community well-being.     

Perceptions of Community Benefits from Two Wild and Scenic Rivers

Wild and Scenic Rivers provide a host of psychological, social, ecological, and economic benefits to local communities. In this study, we use data collected from recreational users of two Wild and Scenic Rivers to examine perceptions of the benefits provided by the rivers to local communities. Our purposes are (1) to determine if similar perceptions of community benefits exist across the two rivers, (2) to determine if individuals’ proximity to the rivers are related to the benefits they perceive, (3) to determine if individuals’ prior recreation experience on the river is related to variations in perceived benefits, (4) to determine if users’ sociodemographic characteristics are related to perceived community benefits, and (5) to determine if the influence of these characteristics on perceived community benefits is similar across the two resource areas. Perceived benefits were found to be analogous across both rivers as individuals consistently ranked ecological/affective benefits as well as tangible benefits similarly. Recreationists living further from the river ranked ecological and affective benefits as significantly less important than those individuals living closer to the river. Women perceived the community benefits produced by the resource areas to be significantly more important when compared to men. Significant relationships were also found between perceived benefits and recreationists’ previous use of the river, their age, and their level of education. With the exception of resource proximity and prior use history, the effects of user characteristics on perceived community benefits were not statistically different across the two rivers. These findings imply similar patterns of perceived community benefits exist across distinct resource areas and that the relationships between user characteristics and perceived benefits are also similar across the study rivers.     

Local people's attitudes towards conservation and wildlife tourism around Sariska Tiger Reserve, India

Conservationists in the recent years view local peoples' support for protected areas management as an important element of biodiversity conservation. This is often linked to the direct benefits, which local communities get from the protected areas. These benefits could be in the form of biomass resources, park funds diverted to local villages by state agencies and revenue from wildlife tourism. There are a very few studies which have attempted to study the direct relationship between benefits from wildlife tourism and local support for conservation. In India, wildlife tourism is restricted, and mostly controlled by state and private agencies. Wildlife conservation policy does not view tourism in protected areas as a source of revenue for the local communities. The present study examines the local people's attitudes towards wildlife tourism and the impact of benefits from tourism on the local support for Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), India. STR is a flagship for tourism where protected areas are increasingly being visited and where local support for wildlife tourism has not been studied adequately. Results indicate that two-thirds of the respondents were positive towards tourism and support for conservation. The respondents were aware that more tourism benefits are possible from a well-conserved protected area. There appears to be correlation between benefits obtained by local people from wildlife tourism and other sources, and support for protected area existence, suggesting that benefits impact people's attitudes towards conservation. Some of the main problems are the unequal distribution of tourism benefits, lack of locals' involvement in tourism and development. There is a need to clearly address these issues, so that protected areas may get the support of local people, which may lead to sustainable development.     

Using Participatory Rural Appraisal to explore coastal fishing in Badagry villages,Nigeria

Fish production and marketing are as old as the rural communities involved in the lucrative occupation in Badagry area of Lagos State, Nigeria. A random sampling of 200 fishermen using Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques (PRA) in five Badagry villages was used to explore coastal fishing and socio-economic development in the study area with a view to enhancing local productivity and sustainability. The findings show that an average fisherman in Badagry is aware of the resources available in his environment, and can affect productivity levels positively if given adequate incentives. There are two lessons from this study; one has to do with what PRA tells us about the fishing community, the other is the importance of facilitators that have, amongst other things, good listening skills. The experience also revealed that field workers’ ability to listen and learn from local fishermen was a critical factor in collecting in-depth information that could be used for rural community planning.     

Integrating corporate social responsibility,health improvement,and community support in development programmes: a case for enhancing the application of health impact assessment in programme implementation in the Niger Delta region

Transnational corporations (TNCs) invest enormous resources in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. However, the effectiveness and mode of execution of these CSR activities have been subjects of continuing debate. This research was therefore carried out to elicit the perspectives of members of four local communities about the impact of the CSR interventions in the areas of health improvement and participation by members of the communities in the Niger Delta. Semi-structured questionnaires were self-completed by 182 members of the local communities in the Niger Delta; the respondents gave detailed feedback about community feelings for TNCs and their CSR efforts. The findings showed that the people generally have negative views towards the CSR practices of the TNCs. The result of a two-paired t-test showed this to be true for both men and women (P =?.888, CI 95). While 69.8% of the respondents felt that the TNCs did not bring any development to their community, 87.9% had high fear of getting a disease due to the community they live in; interestingly, 90.1% wanted to be involved in decisions concerning their communities. This research therefore proposes the increased use of health impact assessment as an approach to integrate health considerations and community participation into the evaluation and implementation of development programmes in the Niger Delta. Such an approach has the potential to make CSR initiatives more effective, transparent, and minimise the tensions between communities and TNCs.     

Tourism Partnerships in Protected Areas: Exploring Contributions to Sustainability

Partnerships between natural-area managers and the tourism industry have been suggested to contribute to sustainability in protected areas. This article explores how important sustainability outcomes of partnerships are to their members, how well they are realised and the features of partnerships leading to their achievement. In 21 case studies in Australia, interviews (n = 97) and surveys (n = 100) showed that of 14 sustainability outcomes, improved understanding of protected areas values and improved biodiversity conservation were the most important. Other highly ranked outcomes were greater respect for culture, heritage, and/or traditions; improved quality of environmental conditions; social benefits to local communities; and improved economic viability of the protected area. Scores for satisfaction with outcomes were, like those for importance, all high but were less than those for importance for the majority, with improvement in quality of environmental conditions showing the largest gap. The satisfaction score exceeded that for importance only for increased competitiveness of the protected area as a tourist destination. “Brown” aspects of sustainability, i.e., decreased waste or energy use, were among the lowest-scoring outcomes for both importance and satisfaction. The most important factor enabling sustainability outcomes was provision of benefits to partnership members. Others were increased financial support, inclusiveness, supportive organisational and administrative arrangements, direct involvement of decision makers, partnership maturity, creation of new relationships, decreased conflict, and stimulation of innovation. Improving sustainability outcomes, therefore, requires maintaining these partnership attributes and also increasing emphasis on reducing waste and resource use.     

Predicting the economic and demographic impacts of long distance commuting in the resources sector: A Surat basin case study

Predicting the economic and demographic impacts of resource development on regional areas is difficult to assess because of limited availability of analysis, difficulties of predicting where workforce are likely to be based, and different impacts on communities because of variations in size and economic structures. In this study modelling has been employed to identify future employment and demographic impacts of future resource developments on communities in the Surat Basin in southern Queensland, Australia. The analysis summarises potential employment increases over multiple projects and uses multipliers from Input–Output models to assess likely impacts by local government area when future workforce might commute to or live locally in the region. The results demonstrate that recent moves to commuting workforces limit the economic impacts on local and regional communities in complex ways.     

Potential of Corporate Social Responsibility for Poverty Alleviation among Contract Sugarcane Farmers in the Nzoia Sugarbelt, Western Kenya

Although contract sugarcane farming is the most dominant and popular land use among farmers in Nzoia Sugarbelt, results from a 2007 study suggests that the intended goal of increasing farmers’ incomes seems to have failed. With a mean monthly income of Kenya Shillings 723 (US $ 10) from an average cane acreage of 0.38 hectares, it would be difficult for a household of eight family members to meet their basic needs and lead a decent life. Analysis of farmer statements showed that up to 86% of the changes in net income were significantly determined by six cost variables as a group (i.e., acreage, tillage costs, seedcane costs, transport costs, yield, and farmer’s education level). Area under sugarcane had the greatest influence on net income whereby an increase in one hectare under cane would result in an increase of Kenya Shillings 110,427 in net income (per crop cycle of 21 months), holding other variables constant. This translates into Kenya shillings 5,258 per month (or 175 per day per household, or for a family of eight people—KES 22 or US $ 10) from an average cane acreage of 0.38 hectares, it would be difficult for a household of eight family members to meet their basic needs and lead a decent life. Analysis of farmer statements showed that up to 86% of the changes in net income were significantly determined by six cost variables as a group (i.e., acreage, tillage costs, seedcane costs, transport costs, yield, and farmer’s education level). Area under sugarcane had the greatest influence on net income whereby an increase in one hectare under cane would result in an increase of Kenya Shillings 110,427 in net income (per crop cycle of 21 months), holding other variables constant. This translates into Kenya shillings 5,258 per month (or 175 per day per household, or for a family of eight people—KES 22 or US 0.3) per member, which is far below the international standard of absolute poverty. Key net income depressors were tillage, seedcane, and transportation costs, all of which were determined by the company with no input from farmers. To bridge income gaps between the company and farmers in favor of sustainable community livelihoods, this paper argues strongly for the need to institutionalize Corporate Social Responsibility within the daily operations of the company particularly to address net-income depressors. Ten key building blocks for such a policy for Nzoia Sugar Company are suggested, based on farmers’ responses and ethical considerations.     

The impact of tidal flooding on a coastal community in Semarang, Indonesia

The article presents household vulnerability, local community adaptive capacity, and government’s response to tidal flood hazard in the Semarang coastal area, Central Java Province, Indonesia. Using data gathered from a survey of households, the study revealed a number of important factors about the interaction between people and flood. The coastal community has been experiencing problems related to tidal floods. They have adapted to tidal flooding with structural measures, such as increasing the floor level, making small dams in front of houses, increasing yard and street levels in the neighborhood area, and creating dykes around residential areas. Tidal flood mitigation in the Semarang coastal area should incorporate governmental action and local community capacities for proper protection of the population.     

Applying Gap Analysis and a Comparison Index to Evaluate Protected Areas in Thailand

Protected areas in Thailand were first established 40 years ago. The total area of existing protected areas covers 18.2% of the country’s land area and the Class 1 Watershed, another form of protection, encompasses 18.1%. The government of Thailand intends to increase protected area systems to 25% of the country in 2006 and 30% in 2016. There are always questions arising about how much is enough protected areas to effectively protect biodiversity. The objective of this article is to assess the representation of ecosystems in the protected area network. This article also recommends which underrepresented ecosystems should be added to fill the gaps in representativeness. The research applies a gap analysis and a comparison index to assess the representation of ecosystems within the protected area network. The spatial analyses were applied to measure three aspects of representativeness, namely forest type, altitude, and natural land system. The analyses indicate that the existing protected area system covers 24.4% of the country’s land area, nearly meeting the 25% target proposed by the National Forest Policy; and 83.8% of these areas are under forest cover. Most protected areas are situated in high altitudes, where biological diversity is less than in lowlands. Mangrove forest and riparian floodplain are extremely underrepresented in the existing system. Peat swamp forest, dry dipterocarp forest, and beach forest are relatively well represented. In addition, these five ecosystems are threatened by human pressures and natural disasters; therefore, they should be targeted as high priorities for the selection of new reserves. Future research should incorporate aquatic and marine ecosystems, as well as animal distributions, which were not included in this research due to data unavailabilities.     

Green jobs,livelihoods and the post-carbon economy in African cities

This article examines the potential contribution of household scale off-grid renewable energy generation to the post-carbon economy. The large-scale focus of the green jobs agenda in high-income countries obscures how small-scale technologies can be a transformative source of employment in developing economies. Debates about what constitutes a green job and their value leaves out the everyday practice of green livelihoods carried out by the urban poor across the African continent in unfavourable institutional contexts where nonrenewable fuel is subsidised and renewable energy inputs are heavily taxed. The article presents experiences from field work in several countries, including Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya to provide practical examples of communities pursuing strategies of income generation, community empowerment and environmental preservation. We argue that scholars and practitioners concerned with both social justice and environmental preservation should embrace a definition of green jobs that is bottom-up or people-centred. The grassroots experiences highlighted illustrate the important role of non-governmental organisations in supporting transformative, locally sustainable green employment and livelihoods by piloting demonstration projects, fostering innovation, conducting research, forming coalitions and engaging in advocacy when local institutions and market conditions make both consumers and providers risk averse to off-grid renewable energy adoption.     

Local Residents Perception of Benefits and Losses From Protected Areas in India and Nepal

High densities of people living around protected areas (PAs) in South Asia require management strategies to balance conservation goals and livelihood needs. Based on a survey of 777 households around five PAs in India and Nepal, this paper provides a comparative perspective of Indian and Nepali households’ views of protected area benefits and costs, their attitude toward conservation in general, and attitude toward protected area staff. Results indicate mixed responses towards tourism, varying from very favorable in Nepal to less favorable in India. The majority (81%) held positive attitudes towards the existence and importance of PAs but had negative perceptions of PA staff (69%). Most residents perceived benefits from access to fuel wood, fodder and other PA resources including benefits from tourism, while crop and livestock losses from wildlife were the main costs. Households overall positive attitudes towards the PAs and conservation despite high losses from living around PAs suggests that local residents may support conservation if their livelihood needs are met. Comparisons of household attitudes and perceptions suggest that locally based strategies rather than top-down approaches are likely to be more effective. Extending PA benefits to smaller landholders, households that are highly resource-dependent or experiencing higher income losses from human-wildlife conflicts, and less educated residents are particularly important to balance costs and losses from living around protected areas.     

Social Capital and Fisheries Management: The Case of Chilika Lake in India

This article shows how social capital impacts fisheries management at the local level in Chilika Lake, located in the state of Orissa in India. In Chilika, the different fishing groups established norms and “rules of the game” including, but not limited to, spatial limits that determine who can fish and in what areas, temporal restrictions about when and for how long people may fish, gear constraints about what harvesting gear may be used by each group, and physical controls on size and other characteristics of fish that may be harvested. A survey of the members of fishing groups has shown that the bonding social capital is strong within the Chilika fishing groups. Bonding and bridging social capital keeps the fishers together in times of resource scarcity, checks violations of community rules and sanctions, and strengthens the community fisheries management. In contrast, linking social capital in Chilika appears to be weak, as is evident from the lack of trust in external agencies, seeking the help of formal institutions for legal support, and increasing conflicts. Trust and cooperation among fishers is crucial in helping to build the social capital. A social capital perspective on fisheries governance suggests that there should be a rethinking of priorities and funding mechanisms, from “top-down” fisheries management towards “co-management” with a focus on engendering rights and responsibilities for fishers and their communities.     

The Efficacy of a Programme of Landslide Risk Reduction in Areas of Unplanned Housing in the Eastern Caribbean

Poor countries are disproportionately affected by the cost of disasters. Yet there is evidence of the benefits of seeking to mitigate the impact of a disaster, compared with the costs incurred in ‘making good’ after a major event has occurred. This article reviews a programme of landslide risk reduction in unplanned communities in the Eastern Caribbean. The construction of appropriate surface water management measures, based on the application of scientific and engineering principles, has been demonstrated to reduce the hazard from rainfall-triggered landslides. Adopting a community-based approach additionally delivers social and environmental benefits relating to employment generation, improvements in the environmental conditions within the community, and improvements slope management practices. The sustained implementation of the community-based projects has provided the necessary evidence-base for these practices to influence Government policy and practice, and gain recognition from regional development agencies. The strategic and incremental uptake of the community-based methodology is demonstrated to be an effective means for delivering physical landslide risk reduction measures in the most ‘at risk’ areas of unplanned housing.     

Science-Seeking Behaviour of Conservation Authorities in Ontario

The communication of science to science users is evolving to an approach that translates knowledge to targeted audiences. Under this evolution, knowledge brokers play an increasingly important role and users help ‘pull’ the required science to meet a policy or management imperative. To do this effectively, more insight is required into the knowledge seeking behaviour of science users and practitioners. The findings from a series of interviews that identify the science needs of Ontario’s Conservation Authorities (CAs) are presented. Results indicate that emerging functions, such as source water protection and integrated water resource planning, require more science input than mature functions. Senior CA officials view personal communication with their knowledgeable staff as the most used, accessible, trustworthy, relevant, shared, and preferable source of science information. While the internet and media were considered highly accessible, they were not viewed as trustworthy. We found no relationship between CA size and science use. Further research is needed to identify where junior and intermediate CA staff obtain their science knowledge from and whether this varies as a function of CA size. Our findings will be of interest to both policy/program communities and science providers.     

Riverbanks and the law: The arbitrary nature of river boundaries in New South Wales,Australia

Key aspects of environmental management exist within a legislative framework. The Rivers and Foreshores Improvement Act 1948 (NSW) and several Regional Environmental Plans created under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) make reference to ‘the top of the bank’ for defining areas of protected land adjacent to rivers, within which development consent may be required. It is an arbitrary term and its use within the Rivers and Foreshores Improvement Act 1948 (NSW) leads to confusion. This paper examines the range of definitions of ‘the top of the bank’ in respect of natural watercourses and aims to provide a more lucid and effective definition that will clarify existing ambiguities in legal interpretation. The paper examines the historical origins of the phrase ‘top of the bank’, finding that stereotyped Eurocentric views of what a river ‘should look like’ have impaired the legal definition for Australian rivers, thereby influencing common law and the development of statutory definitions. Judicial applications of the phrase ‘top of the bank’ are examined from a geomorphological perspective, demonstrating the misconceptions of the term in a legal context. The paper identifies the existence of widespread support for the need to protect land adjacent to rivers in the interests of environmental, economic and social sustainability. It concludes by calling for legislative reform that is both tailored to the individual site and consistent with overarching goals at the catchment scale.     

Resource Use Among Rural Agricultural Households Near Protected Areas in Vietnam: The Social Costs of Conservation and Implications for Enforcement

This article examines the use of forests in a protected area by nearby agriculturalists in central Vietnam. Research indicates that the majority of rural farmers interviewed who lived near a state designated protected area were receiving both subsistence and cash incomes from forest-based activities, primarily from the collection of forest products. However, much of the collection of forest produce was officially illegal, as it occurred in state protected forests, and interdiction efforts were on the increase. Yet, little attention has been paid in Vietnam to the need for income substitution for households who lose access to forest produce as a result of conservation enforcement, particularly in the case of farmers who live near, but not in, protected areas; their resources use has been ‘invisible’ due to a lack of attention and research on the topic. This misunderstanding of the importance of forests to rural farmers has the potential to result in households facing adverse welfare and livelihood outcomes as protected areas boundaries are tightened, and local communities face increased opportunity costs due to stricter conservation enforcement. The article concludes that substitution for loss of income due to conservation activities would best be achieved through carefully targeted interventions to specific high-impact and high-dependency households. Additionally, investments in new sources of wage labor and other low capital-input activities, rather than in agriculture, would likely be of most benefit.