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.     

Social Networks and Community-Based Natural Resource Management

We conducted case studies of three successful examples of collaborative, community-based natural resource conservation and development. Our purpose was to: (1) identify the functions served by interactions within the social networks of involved stakeholders; (2) describe key structural properties of these social networks; and (3) determine how these structural properties varied when the networks were serving different functions. The case studies relied on semi-structured, in-depth interviews of 8 to 11 key stakeholders at each site who had played a significant role in the collaborative projects. Interview questions focused on the roles played by key stakeholders and the functions of interactions between them. Interactions allowed the exchange of ideas, provided access to funding, and enabled some stakeholders to influence others. The exchange of ideas involved the largest number of stakeholders, the highest percentage of local stakeholders, and the highest density of interactions. Our findings demonstrated the value of tailoring strategies for involving stakeholders to meet different needs during a collaborative, community-based natural resource management project. Widespread involvement of local stakeholders may be most appropriate when ideas for a project are being developed. During efforts to exert influence to secure project approvals or funding, however, involving specific individuals with political connections or influence on possible sources of funds may be critical. Our findings are consistent with past work that has postulated that social networks may require specific characteristics to meet different needs in community-based environmental management.     

Building Local Community Commitment to Wetlands Restoration: A Case Study of the Cache River Wetlands in Southern Illinois, USA

Natural resource professionals are increasingly faced with the challenges of cultivating community-based support for wetland ecosystem restoration. While extensive research efforts have been directed toward understanding the biophysical dimensions of wetland conservation, the literature provides less guidance on how to successfully integrate community stakeholders into restoration planning. Therefore, this study explores the social construction of wetlands locally, and community members’ perceptions of the wetland restoration project in the Cache River Watershed of southern Illinois, where public and private agencies have partnered together to implement a large-scale wetlands restoration project. Findings illustrate that the wetlands hold diverse and significant meanings to community members and that community members’ criteria for project success may vary from those identified by project managers. The case study provides managers with strategies for building community commitment such as engaging local citizens in project planning, minimizing local burdens, maximizing local benefits, and reducing uncertainty.     

Understanding the role and influence of social norms: lessons for NRM

Much has been written about social norms in disciplines such as law and economics but they are less studied in the field of Natural Resource Management (NRM). Although norms are acknowledged to be an influence on decision–making, they are difficult to identify and measure in the field and their role is often implicit or not well understood or articulated. This paper addresses an important knowledge gap by combining social norms theory with the specifics of a particular case study. We examined the influence of social norms on landholder behaviour in a small rural community undergoing demographic change in Australia. Findings from interviews with landholders and government agency personnel indicate that established norms within the farming community are influencing incoming landholders; and that new norms and practices have also emerged as a result of government investment through the local Landcare group. We suggest that a better understanding of social norms in different contexts will give rise to strategies that make NRM interventions more effective.     

Does External Funding Help Adaptation? Evidence from Community-Based Water Management in the Colombian Andes

Despite debate regarding whether, and in what form, communities need external support for adaptation to environmental change, few studies have examined how external funding impacts adaptation decisions in rural resource-dependent communities. In this article, we use quantitative and qualitative methods to assess how different funding sources influence the initiative to adapt to water scarcity in the Colombian Andes. We compare efforts to adapt to water scarcity in 111 rural Andean communities with varied dependence on external funding for water management activities. Findings suggest that despite efforts to use their own internal resources, communities often need external support to finance adaptation strategies. However, not all external financial support positively impacts a community’s abilities to adapt. Results show the importance of community-driven requests for external support. In cases where external support was unsolicited, the results show a decline, or “crowding-out,” in community efforts to adapt. In contrast, in cases where communities initiated the request for external support to fund their own projects, findings show that external intervention is more likely to enhance or “crowds-in” community-driven adaptation.     

The community vs. the market and the state: Forest use inUttarakhand in the Indian Himalayas

Most writers on resource management presume that local populations, if they act in their self-interest, seldom conserve or protect natural resources without external intervention or privatization. Using the example of forest management by villagers in the Indian Himalayas, this paper argues that rural populations can often use resources sustainably and successfully, even under assumptions of self-interested rationality. Under a set of specified social and environmental conditions, conditions that prevail in large areas of the Himalayas and may also exist in other mountain regions, community institutions are more efficient in managing resources than either private individuals or the central government. In advancing this argument, the paper undermines the often dogmatic belief in the universal superiority of private forms of ownership and management.     

Depleting Fish Resources,Declining Fishing Communities,and the State Revitalization Project in Korea

This paper reviews recent declines in fish resources and fishing communities in Korea, evaluates major factors of declines, and examines a subsequent community-based revitalization project. Factors leading to depleting fish resources include global regulations, technological advances in fishing, national economic development policies, land reclamation projects, and pollution. The negative economic and societal impact of depleting fish resources is addressed using demographic and income levels of the communities. In response, the state initiated revitalization projects and invested in local fishing cooperatives promoting community-based management. The result has been less than effective as it led to mismanagement of investment and created an attitude of dependence on the government for financial assistance.     

Reforestation Strategies Amid Social Instability: Lessons from Afghanistan

Foreign and domestic government agencies and other international organizations pursue reforestation programs in rural upper watershed areas of Afghanistan over the past decade to alleviate poverty, combat the insurgency and rehabilitate a depleted forest resource base. Popular programs incorporate cash-for-work to conduct hillside terracing, check dam construction and tree-planting for nut production, fuel wood, timber, dune stabilization, and erosion abatement. Programmatic approaches have varied as a function of accessibility, security and local objectives. Uncertain land tenure and use rights, weak local environmental management capacity, and a focus on agricultural production to meet immediate needs limit interest, nationally and locally. Unreliable security, a lack of high quality tree planting stock, limited technical knowledge and coordination among government agencies, and poor security hamper program expansion. Reforestation success would be most likely where these issues are least acute. The Afghan government should focus on supporting community based natural resource management, developing and disseminating improved conservation tree nursery strategies, and promoting watershed management schemes that incorporate forestry, range management and agronomic production. Reforestation practitioners could benefit from the human and material resources now present as part of the international war effort. Successes and failures encountered in Afghanistan should be considered in order to address similar problems in insecure regions elsewhere when reforestation may help reverse environmental degradation and contribute to broader social stabilization efforts.     

Climate Change Adaptation Among Tibetan Pastoralists: Challenges in Enhancing Local Adaptation Through Policy Support

While researchers are aware that a mix of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK), community-based resource management institutions, and higher-level institutions and policies can facilitate pastoralists' adaptation to climate change, policy makers have been slow to understand these linkages. Two critical issues are to what extent these factors play a role, and how to enhance local adaptation through government support. We investigated these issues through a case study of two pastoral communities on the Tibetan Plateau in China employing an analytical framework to understand local climate adaptation processes. We concluded that LEK and community-based institutions improve adaptation outcomes for Tibetan pastoralists through shaping and mobilizing resource availability to reduce risks. Higher-level institutions and policies contribute by providing resources from outside communities. There are dynamic interrelationships among these factors that can lead to support, conflict, and fragmentation. Government policy could enhance local adaptation through improvement of supportive relationships among these factors. While central government policies allow only limited room for overt integration of local knowledge/institutions, local governments often have some flexibility to buffer conflicts. In addition, government policies to support market-based economic development have greatly benefited adaptation outcomes for pastoralists. Overall, in China, there are still questions over how to create innovative institutions that blend LEK and community-based institutions with government policy making.     

Local and Regional Partnerships in Natural Resource Management: The Challenge of Bridging Institutional Levels

Although collaboration and multi-stakeholder partnerships have become a common feature in natural resource management throughout the world, various problems are associated with attempts to up-scale community-based natural resource management from the local to the regional level. To analyze the reasons behind these problems, this article reports on two examples of collaboratives in Australia: local Landcare groups, and regional natural resource management (NRM) bodies. Recent government-induced changes have shifted the focus from local Landcare group action to strategic planning and implementation by regional NRM bodies. Two typologies of collaboratives are applied to analyze the characteristics of both these groups. The study uses data from 52 qualitative interviews with key informants at the local and regional level in Victoria and Tasmania, participant observation, as well as literature and document analysis. The article illustrates how the groups’ distinct characteristics can cause conflicts when the different types of collaboratives operate in parallel. In addition, the article reports how stakeholders perceive the level of community participation in decision-making processes. The key message is that the benefits of community participation and collaboration that arise at the local level can be lost when these approaches are up-scaled to the regional level unless there is an intermediary or ‘mediating structure’ to facilitate communication and create the link between different types of collaboratives.     

Planning and development strategy for effective management of community forestry: lessons from the Thai experience

The forestry laws and regulations imposed by the Thai government to solve chronic deforestation have created conflicts between rural communities and government agencies over the use and control of forest resources. Therefore, the research carried out for this article focused on the study of community-based forest management practices in the northern region of Thailand to determine whether community-based forest management can lead to sustainable use and reverse the deteriorating situation and related problem of deforestation.
This study was conducted in a district of Phayao Province in northern Thailand, where a natural watershed has recently been managed jointly among ethnically diverse local communities living in upstream and downstream areas under the promulgation of the National Park Act. Research was based on both secondary and primary sources of data and information. An intensive field survey was also conducted through a standard questionnaire, supplemented by group discussions and informal interviews to understand the historical development of settlements in the study area.
The joint management of the community forest by the community, government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) was recommended under the decentralised and participatory planning framework in the study area and also in other areas with similar environmental conditions. Equally important in promoting community forest management were the facilitating role of forest officials, the provision of support services, monitoring and enforcement of control mechanisms, and capacity building of local organisations.     

Building the role of local government authorities towards the achievement of the human right to water in rural Tanzania

In recent decades, many changes have occurred in the approach to financing and operating water services in developing countries. The demand‐responsive approach is now adopted in many countries in a context of donor‐supported decentralization processes, which gives more responsibility to end users. However, the government's responsibility at different levels is enforced by the international recognition of the human right to water. This paper examines specific actions that build the role of local government authorities in this scenario. A collaboration between an international NGO and a rural district in Tanzania from 2006 to 2009 is used as an action research case study that is representative of local capacity‐building needs in decentralized contexts and rural areas. Three main challenges were detected: i) lack of reliable information; ii) poor allocation of resources in terms of equity; and iii) lack of long‐term community management support from the district. Two mechanisms were established: i) water point mapping as a tool for information and planning; and ii) a District Water and Sanitation Unit Support (DWUS) for community management. The results show how the framework provided by the goal of human right to water helps to define useful strategies for equity‐oriented planning and post‐project support at the local level.     

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.     

An Examination of Governance Arrangements at Kisakasaka Mangrove Reserve in Zanzibar

This study employs insights largely derived from critical reflections on the common pool resources (CPR) theory to examine the current governance arrangements in place to manage the mangrove forest at Kisakasaka, in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Kisakasaka was used as a site for a community-based management pilot project of forest resources in Zanzibar. After some initial success in setting up a local management structure and regulating access to the mangrove for mainly charcoal production, there are now clear indications that forest conditions have deteriorated dramatically with concomitant ongoing resource use problems for local villagers who have relied heavily on forest resources as a source of cash income. Extra-local factors, such as urban population increases and associated market pressures for charcoal, are also conjectured to overlay and interact with the institutional problems at Kisakasaka. As a result, over concern about the deterioration in the condition of the mangrove forest, the responsible government authority decided not to renew the community-based governance arrangements after an initial five-year pilot period. While revealing the inadequacies of existing governance arrangements and of its relationship to deteriorating forest conditions at Kisakasaka, this study concludes by suggesting an approach to more fully understand forces driving local resource management and use.     

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.     

A Framework for Assessing Collaborative Capacity in Community-Based Public Forest Management

Community-based collaborative groups involved in public natural resource management are assuming greater roles in planning, project implementation, and monitoring. This entails the capacity of collaborative groups to develop and sustain new organizational structures, processes, and strategies, yet there is a lack of understanding what constitutes collaborative capacity. In this paper, we present a framework for assessing collaborative capacities associated with community-based public forest management in the US. The framework is inductively derived from case study research and observations of 30 federal forest-related collaborative efforts. Categories were cross-referenced with literature on collaboration across a variety of contexts. The framework focuses on six arenas of collaborative action: (1) organizing, (2) learning, (3) deciding, (4) acting, (5) evaluating, and (6) legitimizing. Within each arena are capacities expressed through three levels of social agency: individuals, the collaborative group itself, and participating or external organizations. The framework provides a language and set of organizing principles for understanding and assessing collaborative capacity in the context of community-based public forest management. The framework allows groups to assess what capacities they already have and what more is needed. It also provides a way for organizations supporting collaboratives to target investments in building and sustaining their collaborative capacities. The framework can be used by researchers as a set of independent variables against which to measure collaborative outcomes across a large population of collaborative efforts.     

Indicators for change: Taking a lead

The authors argue that sustainable development is a political concept arising from interactions between socio-economic and physical systems. As such, political values are implicit in many qualitative aspects of sustainability and its communication through indicators. In Great Britain, local government has played the lead role in Local Agenda 21, involving interest groups and community organisations in varying degrees, through public participation. However, the need for local solutions to sustainability problems also exists in Northern Ireland, where governmental bodies are unwilling or unable to accept responsibility for Local Agenda 21. In the Northern Ireland context, the evolving role of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the community sector in the indicators issue has been markedly different to that in the rest of the UK. There are potential problems concerning political values and mandates when the NGO/community sector assumes the lead in such tasks. The authors argue that, while criticisms of explicit and/or implied political values can be well grounded, addressing these must go beyond questions of objectivity in collection and presentation of indicators and projects must be understood by developing feedback and review mechanisms. The authors review the Northern Ireland sustainability indicators project and evaluate the feedback procedures in place. Lessons learnt from this exercise are explored with reference to (i) the current organisation of Local Agenda 21 within local government in Northern Ireland and (ii) national and international parallels.     

The Tribal Environment: Solid Waste in Indian Country

The issue of solid waste management in Indian country is multidimensional in scope because it affects more than just regulatory concerns. There are more than 550 federally recognized Alaska Native and American Indian Tribes in the United States. Tribes are sovereign nations that have a special relationship to the federal government and a unique legal status. The environmental problems faced by tribes are many, and it is only fair that tribes, as sovereigns, specify the levels of protection on their lands. The one-size-fits-all regulatory approach to environmental problems and solid waste management in particular does not work and often leads to conflict between tribes and the federal and state governments. Inherent tensions also exist between tribes and various levels of government concerning jurisdiction of lands and managing solid waste. These intergovernmental relationships are often complex and present unique challenges to all. More research needs to be done on targeting resources to meet the capacity-building needs of tribes, as well as the overall environmental management needs of Indian country under the federal trust obligation. Successful intergovernmental relationships can be fostered through partnership arrangements between tribes and federal, state, and local governments. In the area of solid waste such partnerships have worked. It requires that all levels of government deal with tribes with careful consideration of their cultural, historic, and socioeconomic aspects, which are often intertwined.     

Adaptive capacity and climate change: the role of community opinion leaders

The contribution of the informal community sector to the development of collective response strategies to socioecological change is not well researched. In this article, we examine the role of community opinion leaders in developing and mobilising stocks of adaptive capacity. In so doing, we reveal a largely unexplored mechanism for building on latent social capital and associated networks that have the potential to transcend local-scale efforts – an enduring question in climate change adaptation and other cross-scalar sustainability issues. Participants drawn from diverse spheres of community activity in the Sunshine Coast, Australia, were interviewed about their strategies for influencing their community objectives and the degree to which they have engaged with responding to climate change. The results show community opinion leaders to be politically engaged through rich bridging connections with other community organisations, and vertically with policy-makers at local, state, national and international levels. Despite this latent potential, the majority of community opinion leaders interviewed were not strategically engaged with responding to climate change. This finding suggests that more work is needed to connect networks knowledgeable about projected climate change impacts with local networks of community opinion leaders. Attention to the type of community-based strategies considered effective and appropriate by community opinion leaders and their organisations also suggests avenues for policy-makers to facilitate community engagement in responding to climate change across sectors likely to be affected by its impacts. Opportunities to extend understanding of adaptive capacity within the community sector through further research are also suggested.     

Community involvement in marine protected areas: the case of Puerto Morelos reef, México

The case of Puerto Morelos reef marine protected area (MPA) provides an example of a community-based marine conservation initiative to protect a coral reef ecosystem. The establishment and maintenance of this MPA had five stages: (a) identification of community leaders who would participate in the project; (b) generation of consensus on the need to protect the reef through discussions among local stakeholders, NGOs and reef scientists; (c) involvement of government agencies in establishing the status of a MPA; (d) take-over of decision-making by centralized governmental agencies; and (e) continuous problem-solving process between the government and stakeholders. Over a 9-year period, the control of the MPA was taken over by government and stakeholders' participation downgraded from a decision-making to an advice-giving role. Government shortcomings to manage this MPA could be circumvented via collaborative co-management. Given the small population size of the community and strong sense of ownership, there was a high level of participation in the decision-making processes and scientific advisors are present in the area.