Ecology and Society最新文献

In recent years, governments and international organizations have initiated numerous large-scale tree planting projects with the dual goals of restoring landscapes and supporting rural livelihoods. However, there remains a need for greater knowledge of drivers and conditions that enable positive social and environmental outcomes over the long term. In this study, we used interpretable machine learning (IML) to explore win–win and win–lose outcomes between livelihood benefits and forest cover using four decades of tree plantation data from northern India. Our results indicated that, in areas with a larger population of socioeconomically marginalized groups, moderate levels of education, and existing histories of community collective action, there is a higher probability of achieving joint positive outcomes. We also found that joint positive outcomes are more common within a consolidated local institutional space, suggesting that decentralized governance structures with cross-sectoral duties and functions may be better equipped to mediate conflicts between intersecting forest and land use challenges. Finally, our findings showed that non-forestry and anti-poverty interventions such as universal labor generation programs and universal education are associated with improved forest cover alongside livelihood benefits from plantations. Whereas contemporary policy discussions have given substantial attention to tree plantation schemes, our work suggests that effective restoration requires much more than planting alone. A broad mixture of socioeconomic, institutional, and policy interventions is needed to create favorable conditions for long-term success. In particular, anti-poverty programs may serve as important indirect policy pathways for ensuring restoration gains.

The post Using machine learning to uncover synergies between forest restoration and livelihood support in the Himalayas first appeared on Ecology & Society.

The imperative to include stakeholders and rightsholders in fisheries management over the past 30 years has led to many changes in management regimes around the world, a key one being a move toward collaboration and co-management. This is reflected, for example, in Canada, where the newly revised Fisheries Act (2019, c.14, s.3) incorporates this imperative in part by citing “community knowledge” as a component in decision making for fisheries management. However, the lack of a formal definition makes it unclear what exactly is meant by “community” and when and how community knowledge can play a role in management. To investigate what community contributions to fisheries management can entail, and who these communities might include, we conducted a scoping literature review using the Scopus database to synthesize common outcomes from research on community involvement in fisheries management toward the goals of ecological, social, economic, and institutional sustainability. Enablers and barriers for successful collaborative initiatives were identified, covering conceptual, logistical, and communication-related factors. Key recommendations were compiled from a range of case studies to map a path toward full-spectrum sustainability for fisheries. From these principles and practices, we ultimately identified major considerations for the Canadian context, including the need to (1) clarify the distinction between fishing communities and the fishing industry; (2) strengthen social networks and communication channels to facilitate collective action; (3) track and transparently share successes and failures in collaborative efforts and outcomes; and (4) more explicitly consider community well-being as a fisheries management objective. From our synthesis, there are lessons to be learned for fisheries (social) scientists and managers working to enhance evidence-based fisheries management, whether within Canada or in other collaborative management settings globally.

The post Community knowledge as a cornerstone for fisheries management first appeared on Ecology & Society.

Wetlands are important ecosystems that contribute to the sustainability of global ecosystems and provide ecosystem functions and services to human civilization. However, many anthropogenic land use practices have led to the degradation of wetlands, making them globally imperiled ecosystems. Within the United States, wetland mitigation is a federally regulated restoration strategy that offsets and compensates for impacts on aquatic resources through restoration. Performance standards assess post-restoration ecosystem development and help regulate management actions. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the organization and interactions of states and federal agencies in determining wetland mitigation performance standards. Using a mixed method approach, including semi-structured interviews and online database reviews, we identify decision-making drivers from the state agency perspective. We develop a ranking classification of state legislation that references performance standards and describes guidance documents by type of authorship. Our findings detail the results of our inquiry into each state’s procedures, including performance standards, revealing diverse management approaches across the nation as states play various implementation and regulatory roles and are driven by collaboration and negotiation among regulators, state and federal legislation, and guidance documents. In addition, we found performance standards most often assess biotic characteristics, with vegetative criteria being the most common. This study synthesizes performance-standard determination and criteria derived from interviews across a spectrum of federal and state participants and a series of guidance documents. We have built a database of these criteria by state and theme to improve our understanding of the dynamic interplay between wetland mitigation science, practice, and policy. Our findings are discussed in the context of the 2023 Sackett vs. United States Environmental Protection Agency ruling.

The post State role and involvement in determining wetland mitigation performance standards in the United States first appeared on Ecology & Society.

Social-ecological systems (SES) research has gained substantial momentum, as witnessed by the growth in SES publications, theories, and frameworks, and the traction these concepts have gained in development and policy arenas. However, the growth and development of the SES field has only been partially examined, which limits our ability to make sense of and support the future development of the field and its ability to inform pressing sustainability challenges. The aim of this study is to understand how SES research has grown and changed over time as a field of study using bibliometric methods, co-authorship and co-citation network analysis. Our study is informed by broader bodies of work that have sought to understand the development of scientific fields, concepts, and research agendas. We highlight key trends that have influenced the organization of the field as well as how key thematic areas of SES research have evolved over time. Our results indicate that the research on SES is (i) mainly carried out by authors located in North America and Europe, (ii) characterized by changes in the terminology employed, as identified through our search terms, (iii) linked to the emergence of major conferences and centers dedicated to SES research, as well as its growth over time, (iv) characterized by a highly interconnected structure, with almost 80% of scholars being connected to each other, and (v) characterized by a shift in citation patterns, with newcomers in the network carving out their niche and replacing the founding figures as the central focus. We discuss the implications of these findings, including the nature of SES research as an “epistemic network,” the highly collaborative nature of SES research, and the role played by open-access journals in the growth of SES research in the digital era. We further suggest that the SES research field is at a critical transition point, with contending visions of its future following a more disciplinary path or remaining as a more open interdisciplinary space. We conclude with the questions this raises for future SES research regarding the implications of this duality on the nature, production, and validation of knowledge and its evolution.

The post The evolution of social-ecological systems (SES) research: a co-authorship and co-citation network analysis first appeared on Ecology & Society.

Polycentric systems are widespread globally and studied extensively, but cross-sectional studies are more prominent than longitudinal studies, and limited attention has been paid to how polycentric systems develop. We present an evolutionary framework to help identify the dynamic factors that shape polycentric system variations and that drive particular trajectories of polycentric formation. Building on prior work, we argue that polycentric institutions for resource management emerge out of spatially delimited conflicts over resource use and the externalities that they entail. Our perspective points to the characteristics and conditions of the resource itself as a starting point that crescively shapes landscape-level patterns of resource use. We illustrate this process through a case study of the evolution of a polycentric system in California’s San Gabriel River Watershed. The study found a relationship between pronounced hydrologic linkages and stronger institutional linkages, suggesting that the physical characteristics of common-pool resources are one driver of subsequent institutional linkages. We also found that the impacts from resource use leads to both conflict and cooperation between basin users that shapes institutional formation and subsequent institutional interactions. This points to user impacts as a second important driver of polycentric formation over time. A better understanding of the evolutionary process of polycentric formation can illuminate opportunities to develop more cooperative relationships that support sustainable groundwater management.

The post How did we get here? The evolution of a polycentric system of groundwater governance first appeared on Ecology & Society.

We propose the core collaborative community science framework, an original conceptual framework that integrates and modifies best practices from community science and collective impact groups to support investigations of environmental health and justice. The core collaborative community science framework differs from more typical frameworks for community science, which often frame projects as static and either scientist or community led; these framings can limit the potential for co-production and action-oriented models of science. Frameworks are lacking to help community science collaborators determine the contributions and leadership needed to initiate, sustain, and link together multiple projects that jointly support local learning and action, as well as contribute to broader scientific knowledge of complex social-ecological systems. The core collaborative community science framework offers three main innovations and contributions: (1) It invests in a core collaborative group structure, designed to increase community capacity and resilience through an expanded network of partners dedicated to the reduction of systematic inequities and injustices; (2) It seeds and supports multiple, diverse research projects implemented across complex social-ecological systems, focusing first on community-identified needs, and then on the questions community science can help answer; and (3) It facilitates dynamic shared responsibilities and leadership for partners from community, research, and government institutions, recognizing the need for shared contributions at all project phases. We offer examples from the Green Duwamish Learning Landscape in Washington, USA to show how project partners have coordinated their work focused on social, ecological, and human health and navigated challenges related to funding, staffing, and governance. We share insights on how to help integrate community science within the social fabric of communities, especially those faced with environmental health and justice challenges.

The post Joining collective impact and community science: a framework for core collaborative community science first appeared on Ecology & Society.

Fire has cultural and economic significance for Indigenous and rural peoples worldwide, being used to manage landscapes for activities such as hunting, gathering, cropping, and forestry, and for ceremonial and spiritual purposes. Policy interventions by state and non-state organizations, such as regulations, economic incentives, and communication campaigns, can target fire use directly, or affect it indirectly, for example, by restricting land access. Yet evidence of such impacts has not been synthesized at the global scale. We analyzed 512 examples in 68 countries to describe the range of policy interventions by state and non-state organizations that target and/or affect fire use, categorizing interventions based on the broad actor types involved, their mode of operation (e.g., regulation) and their intentionality and/or possible effects vis-a-vis fire use. Of these interventions, 74% involved only state agencies in policy design and implementations, 4% involved only non-state organizations, and 18% involved collaboration between state and/or non-state organizations and/or communities. Three hundred and nine interventions directly targeted fire use, of which 87% aimed to eliminate or constrain fire use. Two hundred and three affected fire use indirectly, of which 88% led to reductions in or constraints upon fire use. Though there is some recognition in the 21st century of a need, in certain contexts, to support local fire use, for reasons related to environmental justice, ecology, wildfire risk and climate change, the literature we reviewed points to several challenges for contemporary efforts toward this end. These include contradictions between policy interventions, mistrust between actors following histories of fire suppression, greater fuel loads increasing the risk of burning where fire has been suppressed, and the need to consider the indirect effects of other types of policy, such as those related to land tenure.

The post How policy interventions influence burning to meet cultural and small-scale livelihood objectives first appeared on Ecology & Society.

There is an urgent need to engage with deep leverage points in sustainability transformations—fundamental myths, paradigms, and systems of meaning making—to open new collective horizons for action. Art and creative practice are uniquely suited to help facilitate change in these deeper transformational leverage points. However, understandings of how creative practices contribute to sustainability transformations are lacking in practice and fragmented across theory and research. This lack of understanding shapes how creative practices are evaluated and therefore funded and supported, limiting their potential for transformative impact. This paper presents the 9 Dimensions tool, created to support reflective and evaluative dialogues about links between creative practice and sustainability transformations. It was developed in a transdisciplinary process between the potential users of this tool: researchers, creative practitioners, policy makers, and funders. It also brings disciplinary perspectives on societal change from evaluation theory, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and more in connection with each other and with sustainability transformations, opening new possibilities for research. The framework consists of three categories of change, and nine dimensions: changing meanings (embodying, learning, and imagining); changing connections (caring, organizing, and inspiring); and changing power (co-creating, empowering, and subverting). We describe how the 9 Dimensions tool was developed, and describe each dimension and the structure of the tool. We report on an application of the 9 Dimensions tool to 20 creative practice projects across the European project Creative Practices for Transformational Futures (CreaTures). We discuss user reflections on the potential and challenges of the tool, and discuss insights gained from the analysis of the 20 projects. Finally, we discuss how the 9 Dimensions can effectively act as a transdisciplinary research agenda bringing creative practice further in contact with transformation research.

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Several international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) function as boundary organizations and try to promote ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) as a pivotal climate change adaptation strategy for coastal areas. This is being done in Vietnam. Few studies, however, have investigated how these INGOs operate, what challenges they face, and what conditions support them to successfully promote the implementation of EbA. To address this knowledge gap, the literature on international boundary work and boundary organizations was first reviewed, deriving four categories of conditions for a successful promotion of EbA: knowledge, networks, resources, and context. Next, we applied this framework in a case study of the International Union for Conservation (IUCN) and the Foundation of Netherlands Volunteers (SNV) led EbA project on the restoration and sustainable use of mangroves in two provinces, Ca Mau and Ben Tre, which are located in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. We interviewed 25 key informants representing INGOs, Vietnamese governmental agencies, farmers, scientists, and market parties. Our case study not only revealed how most literature-based success conditions were met but also found some additional conditions. We found that INGOs will have a greater chance of successfully promoting the implementation of the EbA in cases in which they can act as a knowledge broker, have a strong international network, can supply enough resources, and use context-specific strategies. A supportive context appeared to be essential.

The post Enhancing the role of International NGOs in promoting the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation policies: insights from an International Union for Conservation and Foundation of Netherlands Volunteers led project in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta first appeared on Ecology & Society.

Portions of group ranches of northern Kenya communally held by pastoralists have been removed from grazing to support wildlife and encourage tourism and the resources that follow. These community-based conservancies (CBCs) were designed to benefit CBC members through regular payments, potential for wages, improved security, etc. We used a coupled-systems simulation approach to quantify potential changes in livestock numbers and pastoral well-being associated with the presence of CBC core and buffer areas, and we did so under the current frequency of droughts and increased frequency associated with climate change. The interannual precipitation coefficient of variation (CV) for our focal CBCs in Samburu County was 22% (706 mm average precipitation). We altered precipitation variability to span from 10% to 60% CV while maintaining the average. Compared to a simulation with observed precipitation and all rangelands available, when herders did not use the CBC core areas and seasonally avoided buffer areas, there was an 11% decline in tropical livestock units supported. More predictable precipitation patterns supported more livestock and improved pastoral well-being. At CVs above 30%, dramatic declines in livestock populations were simulated. When drought was made moderately more frequent (i.e., CV from 22% to 27%) there was a 15% decline in the number of livestock. Members receive a variety of benefits as part of CBC communities, but payments are small for these CBCs, and most households do not receive payments. Our results suggest that, from an economic perspective alone, payments must be raised to make membership of residents in conservancies more tenable. Additional adaptive pathways and perhaps external supports will be needed in the future as the frequency of drought increases and livestock populations decrease.

The post Drought frequency, conservancies, and pastoral household well-being first appeared on Ecology & Society.