NGOs come and go but business continues: lessons from co-management institutional arrangements for governance of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve in Kenya

The objective of this paper is to examine the current institutional arrangements for governance of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve (ASFR) and show their major contribution in the ASFR co-management business of conserving the forest and providing livelihoods to the poor forest-dependent communities. Despite the fact that funding from non-governmental organizations ended, the ASFR co-management business did not stall. The institutional arrangements for co-management were deemed to be the major component that contributed to the continuation of the ASFR co-management business. To demonstrate this hypothesis, the paper explores four main areas that shape the institutional arrangement of the ASFR co-management regime, informed by common property theories: (1) how governance arrangement structures for the ASFR are organized; (2) villagers’ perceptions and awareness of the co-management structure; (3) co-management arrangement for access, ownership and use of the various forest resources; and (4) importance of the forest resources to the households. The co-management piloting and non-piloting communities adjacent to the forest and who have been depending on the forest as a source of their livelihoods are compared in order to understand the role of the ASFR co-management institutional arrangements in the sustainability of its business.     

Assessing the impact of fisheries co-management interventions in developing countries: a meta-analysis

Co-management is now established as a mainstream approach to small-scale fisheries management across the developing world. A comprehensive review of 204 potential cases reveals a lack of impact assessments of fisheries co-management. This study reports on a meta-analysis of the impact of fisheries co-management in developing countries in 90 sites across 29 case-studies. The top five most frequently measured process indicators are participation, influence, rule compliance, control over resources, and conflict. The top five most frequently measured outcome indicators are access to resources, resource well-being, fishery yield, household well-being, and household income. To deal with the diversity of the 52 indicators measured and the different ways these data are collected and analysed, we apply a coding system to capture change over time. The results of the meta-analysis suggest that, overall fisheries co-management delivers benefits to end-users through improvements in key process and outcome indicators. However, the dataset as a whole is constituted primarily of data from the Philippines. When we exclude this body of work, few generalisations can be made about the impact of fisheries co-management. The lack of comparative data suitable for impact assessment and the difficulties in comparing data and generalising across countries and regions reiterates calls in other fields for more systematic approaches to understanding and evaluating governance frameworks.     

Bush Tucker, Bush Pets, and Bush Threats: Cooperative Management of Feral Animals in Australia's Kakadu National Park

Abstract:  Although feral animal management is often based on the proposition that introduced species threaten ecological and conservation values, that view is not necessarily shared by all stakeholders, including those indigenous people who own and co-manage Kakadu National Park with Australia's federal government. Drawing on field-based interviews with the Jawoyn people, we found that these indigenous people categorize water buffalo (  Bubalus bubalis ) as an important food source (tucker), view horses (  Equus caballus ) as bush pets, and consider pigs (  Sus scrofa ) a threat to their lands. As a result, Jawoyn people want more water buffalo in the park, have high tolerance of environmental damage caused by horses, and are open to the idea that pig population densities should be reduced. Jawoyn also advocate an adaptive and participatory approach to feral animal control so that the consequences of any management actions can be properly understood before irrevocable change occurs. These findings highlight one example of how indigenous people's ecological knowledge has adapted in response to changing landscapes and community aspirations. Co-management strategies that aim to incorporate the dynamics of indigenous people's views need to start with issues on which there is agreement between different groups and take a cautious approach to joint exploration of more contentious issues. That approach should include ongoing and on-site monitoring so that the consequences of management actions can be properly understood and comprehensively negotiated by all parties.     

Levels and Influencing Factors of Noise Pollution from Small-Scale Industries (SSIs) in a Developing Country

A study was carried out to determine levels and factors that influence noise pollution from small-scale industries (SSIs) in Dar es Salaam City Tanzania. Two sites for wood- and metalworks industries were investigated. Both sites exhibited equivalent noise levels higher than 90.0 dBA, the permissible exposure level limit for occupational noise. At a woodworks SSI, noise levels were found to correlate well with machine-use age, wood-feed speed, and wood-cut depth. Additionally, noise emanating from both types of SSIs was found to influence the level of environmental noise in the neighborhood of the SSIs. One woodworks SSI was found to have a circle of influence of about 140 m. The study concluded that SSIs present a serious source of environmental noise pollution in their neighborhoods. Noise pollution from SSIs is greatly influenced by the type of SSIs and the activities they carry out, the type and age of machines they use, their location relative to residential areas in their vicinity, and in-house noise control measures.     

Innovative approaches to rural development: Moving from state-controlled towards market-based land reform

Among the world's poor, approximately 75% of those in extreme poverty live and work in rural areas and two‐thirds of them depend mainly on farming or farm labour for their livelihood. Policies to grant the rural poor secure access to land and water for irrigation — and to improve the economic efficiency of small‐scale agriculture — can thus play a critical role in the implementation of rural development strategies, including efforts to combat rural poverty. Since inadequate access to arable land is probably the most important cause of rural poverty, redistributive land reform is increasingly seen as crucial for socio‐economic development and poverty alleviation in many developing countries with substantial amounts of (unused) arable state land or (under‐utilized) large private landholdings. This article argues that market‐based land redistribution schemes, such as the one being implemented in South Africa, can be considered one of the most innovative approaches to land reform that have emerged over the last decade. These schemes thus provide a useful alternative to more conventional, state‐controlled land redistribution programmes. The article concludes, however, that when countries opt for market‐based approaches to land redistribution, the State still has an important role to play, without necessarily deciding which land parcels change hands.     

Viability analysis of management frameworks for fisheries

The pressure on marine renewable resources has rapidly increased over past decades. The resulting scarcity has led to a variety of different control and surveillance instruments. Often they have not improved the current situation, mainly due to institutional failure and intrinsic uncertainties about the state of stocks. This contribution presents an assessment of different management schemes with respect to predefined constraints by utilizing viability theory. Our analysis is based on a bio-economic model which is examined as a dynamic control system in continuous time. Feasible development paths are discussed in detail. It is shown that participatory management may lead to serious problems if a purely resource-based management strategy is employed. The analysis suggests that a less risky management strategy can be implemented if limited data are available.     

Mekong River Fish Conservation Zones in Southern Laos: Assessing Effectiveness Using Local Ecological Knowledge

Small-scale fisheries are important in Laos, where rural people heavily depend upon Mekong River and tributary fish stocks for their livelihoods. Increasing pressures from human exploitation and habitat disturbance, however, have raised serious concerns about the potential depletion of various species. This has led to the establishment of large numbers of Fish Conservation Zones (FCZs) or “no-take” fish sanctuaries in southern Laos based on a “community-based fisheries co-management” framework. This study uses the local ecological knowledge (LEK) of fishers to assess the effectiveness of village-managed FCZs in enhancing fish stocks in the mainstream Mekong River in Khong District, Champasak Province. Focus group interviews about species that are believed to have benefited from different FCZs are compared with parameters such as FCZ area, age, depth, localized gradient, water velocity, and the presence of wetland forests nearby. The results suggest that no one aspect is likely to account for variations in fish stocks; rather, it is the interaction between numerous factors that has the largest impact. Secondly, the results indicate that microhabitat diversity and protection are critical for maintaining and enhancing Mekong fisheries. Deep-water pools are particularly important as dry season refuges for many fish species, and FCZ depth may be the single most important environmental factor affecting the success of FCZs in the Mekong River. FCZs have the most potential to benefit relatively sedentary species, but may also benefit highly migratory species, given the right conditions. This study shows that integrated approaches to stock assessment that employ LEK and scientific fisheries management have considerable potential for improving Mekong capture-fisheries management.     

Achieving sustainable development goals through participatory forest management: Examples from South-Eastern Bangladesh

Forests managed through peoples' participation can help to achieve a number of sustainable development goals (SDGs). This paper, drawing data from four participatory forest management (PFM) projects in south-eastern Bangladesh, explored: (a) the factors that influenced the outcomes of PFM; and (b) contribution of PFM towards achieving selected SDGs. The research used observation, semi-structured household interviews, group discussions, vegetation survey and Ostromʼs design principles for data collection, Divergent forest conditions and factors in four PFM sites have had differential contribution to SDGs. Heterogeneity of user groups, insufficient coordination, absence of motivation, and land tenure conflicts had affected the attainment of SDGs. The PFM helped to achieve 9–11 SDGs comprising poverty reduction (Goal 1), improving food security (Goal 2), maintaining health and well-being (Goal 3), enhancing childrensʼ education (Goal 4), fair access to jobs and committees (Goals 5 and 10), sources of clean drinking water (Goal 6), affordable energy for cooking (Goal 7), increased household economy (Goal 8), climate change through carbon sequestration (Goal 13), forest conservation (Goal 15), and partnerships with relevant institutions (Goal 16). In order to achieve SDGs, PFM could be viewed as an integral part of government development strategies, which needs sectoral coordination and integration of relevant policies.     

On the influence of faulting on small-scale soil-gas radon variability: a case study in the Iberian Uranium Province

In order to evaluate the influence of faulting on the variability of geogenic radon at detailed scale (1:2000), data on gamma ray fluxes, U and Th concentrations in rocks, radon in soil-gas and radon in groundwater were collected in three target areas on the Oliveira do Hospital region (Central Portugal). This region stands on the Iberian Uranium Province, and is dominantly composed of Hercynian granites and metasedimentary rocks of pre-Ordovician age, crosscut by faults with dominant strike N35°E, N55°E and N75°E. Radiometric anomalies are frequent, associated with faults of the referred systems and metasedimentary enclaves; the analytical data confirms that these anomalies are produced by local high uranium contents in rocks and fault-filling materials (n = 34, range 13-724 ppm), while other radiogenic elements are relatively constant (e.g. Th 4-30 ppm). Radon concentration in soil can be extremely high, up to 12,850 kBq m⁻³ (n = 215), with a large proportion of results above 100 kBq m⁻³. Unsurprisingly, groundwater also shows high radon concentrations, with observed values in the range 150-4850 Bq.L⁻¹ (n = 17). From the results it is concluded that metasedimentary enclaves, as well as faults, can accumulate uranium from circulating fluids, and as a consequence, strongly locally enhance geogenic radon potential. Due to this fact, for the purpose of land use planning in such uranium-enriched regions, very detailed geological mapping is needed to precisely recognize radon high risk areas. A correlation between radon concentration in soil or in groundwater and gamma ray fluxes was established pointing to the possible use of these fluxes as a first step in assessing geogenic radon potential, at least to geological setting similar to the study area.     

Is adaptive co-management ethical?

‘Good’ governance and adaptive co-management hold broad appeal due to their positive connotations and ‘noble ethical claims’. This paper poses a fundamental question: is adaptive co-management ethical? In pursuing an answer to this question, the concept of adaptive co-management is succinctly summarized and three ethical perspectives (deontology, teleology and existentialism) are explored. The case of adaptive co-management in Cambodia is described and subsequently considered through the lens of ethical triangulation. The case illuminates important ethical considerations and directs attention towards the need for meditative thinking which increases the value of tradition, ecology, and culture. Giving ethics a central position makes clear the potential for adaptive co-management to be an agent for governance, which is good, right and authentic as well as an arena to embrace uncertainty.