Resident Involvement in Natural Resource Management: Open space conservation design in practice

The open space conservation sub-division offers an alternative to large-lot residential sub-divisions often seen as the culprit when urban sprawl transforms rural landscapes. Homes are sited on somewhat smaller lots, preserving natural areas for the local residents who share ownership of these communal areas and assume responsibility for their management. The article focuses on the experiences of residents of 13 relatively new open space communities. The interviews revealed that most of the communities have already confronted conflicting values with respect to natural areas, low resident participation and challenges in accessing appropriate information. While the open space conservation design holds great promise as a tool for innovative approaches to managing residential growth, it also calls for ways to anticipate and assist communities in caring for their local environment. Recommendations are offered for planning professionals based upon the experience of these open space community residents.     

Valuation of open space and conservation features in residential subdivisions

Conservation subdivision design has been promoted as a way to protect ecologically sensitive areas while maintaining housing densities comparable to standard subdivisions, but many developers and planners question the appeal of conservation design to consumers. This study was conducted to compare economic aspects of conservation subdivision design to standard subdivision design in the midwestern United States. Three methods were used to determine the value homebuyers have for embedded conservation features in residential areas: transactional analyses (to indicate the value homebuyers have expressed for such features in the past); hedonic analyses (to determine the proportion of present value of homes attributable to such features); and contingent valuation (to examine willingness to pay according to homebuyers' preferred features, an indicator of potential future investment). Transactional analyses were based on assessment and transaction data for homes in three conservation-oriented subdivisions and three standard subdivisions in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. Hedonic price models were also derived from assessment and transaction data. Contingent valuation analyses were based on a survey of residents in the same six subdivisions. Transactional data indicated higher 5-year appreciation rates for conservation versus standard subdivision design. Hedonic price models revealed that well-integrated conservation features (e.g. protected stream corridors) within subdivisions have a positive effect on home prices. Sixty-six percent of all respondents indicated willingness to pay for more embedded open space. Maximum willingness to pay was related to several factors including income, gender, desired level of open space, and concern about urban development. Overall, these results indicate that consumer demand and willingness to pay for conservation subdivision design are positive and should not be considered a barrier to implementation.     

Decentralized Natural Resource Management: From State to Co-management in India

In India, as in many parts of the developing world, the dominant view has been that local people are causing natural resource degradation. New thinking in the natural resource management domain is gradually replacing the older views blaming local people for decline of natural resources. The new approach advocates decentralization of natural resource management. This is discussed in this paper in relation to the ongoing decentralization reforms in India. The centralized approach dominated natural resource management in India during the colonial period. The government after independence conveniently adopted the same approach, excluding local people from forests. Recent research and resistance from grassroot movements led to a paradigm shift towards decentralization at the policy level in natural resource management. It is not clear whether the new Joint Forest Management (JFM) policy in India is an attempt to institutionalize state dominance, or if it will lead to real decentralization. The data from several villages adjacent to the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), Rajasthan, India show that state dominance is still prevalent, despite constraints. The real challenge lies in providing flexibility within the JFM policy to adapt to local conditions in natural resource management.     

Adaptive Capacity and Community-Based Natural Resource Management

Why do some community-based natural resource management strategies perform better than others? Commons theorists have approached this question by developing institutional design principles to address collective choice situations, while other analysts have critiqued the underlying assumptions of community-based resource management. However, efforts to enhance community-based natural resource management performance also require an analysis of exogenous and endogenous variables that influence how social actors not only act collectively but do so in ways that respond to changing circumstances, foster learning, and build capacity for management adaptation. Drawing on examples from northern Canada and Southeast Asia, this article examines the relationship among adaptive capacity, community-based resource management performance, and the socio-institutional determinants of collective action, such as technical, financial, and legal constraints, and complex issues of politics, scale, knowledge, community and culture. An emphasis on adaptive capacity responds to a conceptual weakness in community-based natural resource management and highlights an emerging research and policy discourse that builds upon static design principles and the contested concepts in current management practice.     

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.     

Climate Zone Delineation: Evaluating Approaches for Use in Natural Resource Management

Recent efforts by the United States Department of the Interior (DOI) have the potential to make climate zones the basic geographic units guiding monitoring and resource management programs in the western U.S. We evaluated a new National Park Service approach for delineating climate zones that will likely be a model for other DOI agencies. Using the test case of the Greater Yellowstone Area in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, we conducted three separate analyses, each based on a different dataset. Cluster analysis of 1971–2000 temperature and precipitation normals grouped weather stations according to similarities in seasonal patterns. Principal Components Analysis (PCAs) of 1895–2008 monthly data grouped stations by similarities in long-term variability. Finally, an analysis of snow data further subdivided the zones defined by the other two analyses. The climate zones produced by the cluster analysis and the PCAs were roughly similar to each other, but the differences were significant. The two sets of zones may be useful for different applications. For example, studies that analyze links between climate patterns and the demography of threatened species should focus on the results of the PCAs. The broad similarity among results produced by the different approaches supported the application of these zones in climate-related monitoring and analysis. However, since choices in data and methodology can affect the details of maps depicting zone boundaries, there are practical limitations to their use.     

Making It Work: Keys to Successful Collaboration in Natural Resource Management

This paper explores the positive aspects of collaboration in natural resources. Its purpose was to investigate participants' overall attitudes about keys to successful collaboration. The sample for the study consisted of 671 participants involved in 30 collaborative initiatives (CI) with the Forest Service. Using a mailed questionnaire, this study profiled the collaborative initiatives investigating purpose, problems addressed, groups involved, and years in existence. Respondents were queried on their overall perspectives on keys to successful collaboration. A total of more than 300 comments was collected from respondents and six categories emerged: development, information exchange, organizational support, personal communication, relationships/team building, and accomplishments. Continued research will need to explore the short- and long-term impacts of collaboration in natural resources.     

Natural Resource Management at Four Social Scales: Psychological Type Matters

Understanding organisation at different social scales is crucial to learning how social processes play a role in sustainable natural resource management. Research has neglected the potential role that individual personality plays in decision making in natural resource management. In the past two decades natural resource management across rural Australia has increasingly come under the direct influence of voluntary participatory groups, such as Catchment Management Authorities. The greater complexity of relationships among all stakeholders is a serious management challenge when attempting to align their differing aspirations and values at four social institutional scales—local, regional, state and national. This is an exploratory study on the psychological composition of groups of stakeholders at the four social scales in natural resource management in Australia. This article uses the theory of temperaments and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI^®) to investigate the distribution of personality types. The distribution of personality types in decision-making roles in natural resource management was markedly different from the Australian Archive sample. Trends in personality were found across social scales with Stabilizer temperament more common at the local scale and Theorist temperament more common at the national scale. Greater similarity was found at the state and national scales. Two temperaments comprised between 76 and 90% of participants at the local and regional scales, the common temperament type was Stabilizer. The dissimilarity was Improviser (40%) at the local scale and Theorist (29%) at the regional scale. Implications for increasing participation and bridging the gap between community and government are discussed.     

Guiding Climate Change Adaptation Within Vulnerable Natural Resource Management Systems

Climate change has the potential to compromise the sustainability of natural resources in Mediterranean climatic systems, such that short-term reactive responses will increasingly be insufficient to ensure effective management. There is a simultaneous need for both the clear articulation of the vulnerabilities of specific management systems to climate risk, and the development of appropriate short- and long-term strategic planning responses that anticipate environmental change or allow for sustainable adaptive management in response to trends in resource condition. Governments are developing climate change adaptation policy frameworks, but without the recognition of the importance of responding strategically, regional stakeholders will struggle to manage future climate risk. In a partnership between the South Australian Government, the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges Natural Resource Management Board and the regional community, a range of available research approaches to support regional climate change adaptation decision-making, were applied and critically examined, including: scenario modelling; applied and participatory Geographical Information Systems modelling; environmental risk analysis; and participatory action learning. As managers apply ideas for adaptation within their own biophysical and socio-cultural contexts, there would be both successes and failures, but a learning orientation to societal change will enable improvements over time. A base-line target for regional responses to climate change is the ownership of the issue by stakeholders, which leads to an acceptance that effective actions to adapt are now both possible and vitally important. Beyond such baseline knowledge, the research suggests that there is a range of tools from the social and physical sciences available to guide adaptation decision-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.     

An Evaluation of Multiple Objective Decision Support Weighting Techniques in Natural Resource Management

Multiple objective decision support (MODS) is a structured framework for evaluating decision alternatives against multiple, and often conflicting, criteria. Its ability to handle complex trade-offs in a variety of quantitative and qualitative units gives it much potential in the field of natural resource management (NRM). A key component of MODS is the process used to obtain information from decision makers on the relative importance of evaluative criteria. Ranking algorithms then use this information to determine the relative value of each decision alternative. This paper explores how practising community based NRM decision makers respond to five generic methods for weighting the criteria. It presents a study in which 55 decision makers throughout five regions in Queensland, Australia, applied MODS to evaluate environmental projects seeking funding under the Australian Natural Heritage Trust. Weighting methods applied include fixed point scoring, rating, ordinal ranking, a graphical method and paired comparisons. Decision makers evaluated each weighting method in terms of ease of use and of how much it helped clarify the decision problem. Results show that decision makers felt uncomfortable applying fixed point scoring and generally preferred to express their preferences through ordinal ranking. This has implications for the types of ranking algorithms that can be applied to evaluate the decision alternatives.     

三江源国家公园自然资源资产管理体制改革实践与经验研究

健全全民所有自然资源资产管理体制,是实现自然资源资产合理使用和有效保护、发挥社会主义公有制优势、推动生态文明建设的重要举措.提炼三江源国家公园在自然资源资产管理体制改革过程中的典型实践,梳理其改革经验与启示,为探索建设以国家公园为代表的自然保护地体系内自然资源资产管理积累青海经验、做出青海贡献.     

Success Factors for Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM): Lessons from Kenya and Australia

Recent concerns over a crisis of identity and legitimacy in community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) have emerged following several decades of documented failure. A substantial literature has developed on the reasons for failure in CBNRM. In this paper, we complement this literature by considering these factors in relation to two successful CBNRM case studies. These cases have distinct differences, one focusing on the conservation of hirola in Kenya on community-held trust land and the other focusing on remnant vegetation conservation from grazing pressure on privately held farm land in Australia. What these cases have in common is that both CBNRM projects were initiated by local communities with strong attachments to their local environments. The projects both represent genuine community initiatives, closely aligned to the original aims of CBNRM. The intrinsically high level of “ownership” held by local residents has proven effective in surviving many challenges which have affected other CBNRM projects: from impacts on local livelihoods to complex governance arrangements involving non-government organizations and research organizations. The cases provide some signs of hope among broader signs of crisis in CBNRM practice.     

Role of traditional conservation practice: highlighting the importance of Shivbari sacred grove in biodiversity conservation

Recognizing the importance of sacred groves in biodiversity conservation and management, and the recent threats to them, the present study was conducted in Shivbari sacred grove of Himachal Pradesh. The study aimed at documenting the floral wealth of Shivbari and promoting plantation of indigenous species in participation with local people. For this, systematic field surveys in different seasons were conducted in Shivbari from April 2005 to November 2009, and liaison was maintained with the local community and temple management authority for gaining insight into the history and problems of Shivbari and initiating plantation activities. A total of 69 flowering plant species were identified inside the grove, which include 14 trees, 9 shrubs, 3 lianas and 43 herbs. This represents almost 2% of the total flowering plant species occurring in the state of Himachal Pradesh. Mallotus philippensis followed by Putranjiva roxburghii was the most dominant tree species. Adhatoda zeylanica was the most common shrub species, while Achyranthes aspera was the most common herb species. The grove harbours 23 plants species that are in high demand in the market, and at the same time also influences the microclimate of the area. The temperature inside the grove was significantly lower than the temperature outside the grove. The recent changes in socio-economic status of the local people and a shift towards market-oriented economy have threatened the survival of Shivbari. However, the deeply held beliefs of the pilgrims, local people and priest offer a ray of hope. During the course of the study, 3,000 plants were planted inside the grove out of which 60% have survived.     

The Best Laid Plans: Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Group Capacity and Planning Success

As community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) increases in popularity, the question of the capacity of such groups to successfully manage natural resources becomes increasingly relevant. However, few studies have quantifiably analyzed how the amount or type of capacity in a CBNRM organization directly affects the outputs or the environmental outcomes produced. This paucity of research exists in part due to the diversity of indicators for CBNRM group capacity, as well as the ensuing debate over how to best define and measure success in CBNRM initiatives. Although concrete outputs vary widely, many efforts center on creating natural resource management plans (RMPs). The primary objective of our research was to explore the link between capacity and RMP implementation success, as perceived by practitioners among CBNRM groups across Illinois. A short online survey was constructed, utilizing findings from focus groups in combination with an extensive literature review, to measure CBNRM participants’ (n = 190) perceptions of 10 key capacity indicators and RMP implementation success. Results show that capacity perceptions varied significantly among respondents in low, moderate, and high RMP implementation success groups, and that group capacity was predictive of the degree of perceived RMP implementation success. Further, our findings suggest that bonding social capital and outreach are crucial in predicting low versus moderate RMP success, while leadership, motivation, and vision best distinguish the moderately successful and highly successful groups.     

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.