Global trends of local ecological knowledge and future implications
- Aswani, Shankar, Lemahieu, Anne, Sauer, Warwick H H
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Lemahieu, Anne , Sauer, Warwick H H
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421209 , vital:71829 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195440"
- Description: Local and indigenous knowledge is being transformed globally, particularly being eroded when pertaining to ecology. In many parts of the world, rural and indigenous communities are facing tremendous cultural, economic and environmental changes, which contribute to weaken their local knowledge base. In the face of profound and ongoing environmental changes, both cultural and biological diversity are likely to be severely impacted as well as local resilience capacities from this loss. In this global literature review, we analyse the drivers of various types of local and indigenous ecological knowledge transformation and assess the directionality of the reported change. Results of this analysis show a global impoverishment of local and indigenous knowledge with 77% of papers reporting the loss of knowledge driven by globalization, modernization, and market integration. The recording of this loss, however, is not symmetrical, with losses being recorded more strongly in medicinal and ethnobotanical knowledge. Persistence of knowledge (15% of the studies) occurred in studies where traditional practices were being maintained consiously and where hybrid knowledge was being produced as a resut of certain types of incentives created by economic development. This review provides some insights into local and indigenous ecological knowledge change, its causes and implications, and recommends venues for the development of replicable and comparative research. The larger implication of these results is that because of the interconnection between cultural and biological diversity, the loss of local and indigenous knowledge is likely to critically threaten effective conservation of biodiversity, particularly in community-based conservation local efforts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Lemahieu, Anne , Sauer, Warwick H H
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421209 , vital:71829 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195440"
- Description: Local and indigenous knowledge is being transformed globally, particularly being eroded when pertaining to ecology. In many parts of the world, rural and indigenous communities are facing tremendous cultural, economic and environmental changes, which contribute to weaken their local knowledge base. In the face of profound and ongoing environmental changes, both cultural and biological diversity are likely to be severely impacted as well as local resilience capacities from this loss. In this global literature review, we analyse the drivers of various types of local and indigenous ecological knowledge transformation and assess the directionality of the reported change. Results of this analysis show a global impoverishment of local and indigenous knowledge with 77% of papers reporting the loss of knowledge driven by globalization, modernization, and market integration. The recording of this loss, however, is not symmetrical, with losses being recorded more strongly in medicinal and ethnobotanical knowledge. Persistence of knowledge (15% of the studies) occurred in studies where traditional practices were being maintained consiously and where hybrid knowledge was being produced as a resut of certain types of incentives created by economic development. This review provides some insights into local and indigenous ecological knowledge change, its causes and implications, and recommends venues for the development of replicable and comparative research. The larger implication of these results is that because of the interconnection between cultural and biological diversity, the loss of local and indigenous knowledge is likely to critically threaten effective conservation of biodiversity, particularly in community-based conservation local efforts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Perspectives in coastal human ecology (CHE) for marine conservation
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421624 , vital:71866 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.05.047"
- Description: Coastal human ecology (CHE) is a mixture of different theoretical and thematic approaches straddling between the humanities and social and natural sciences which studies human and coastal/marine interactions at the local-scale and through intense fieldwork. Topics of interest include human coastal adaptations past and present; the historical ecology of fisheries and future implications; local forms of marine governance and economic systems; local food security and livelihoods, and indigenous/local ecological knowledge systems among many research themes. In this paper, I explore different strands of CHE in the study of tribal, artisanal, and small-scale industrial fisheries from the mid-90s onward that can contribute to the foundational knowledge necessary for designing and implementing successful coastal fisheries management and conservation programs. Marine conservation has often failed due to a lack of understanding of the fine grained marine human-environmental interactions at the local scale. In this context, I also examine developing and future research directions in CHE, and discuss their potential contribution for filling the gap in existing approaches to actionable scholarship in marine conservation. The strength of many CHE approaches lies in their potential for bridging humanism and natural science, and thus CHE approaches are well equipped to address many of the challenges faced by marine conservation practitioners today.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421624 , vital:71866 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.05.047"
- Description: Coastal human ecology (CHE) is a mixture of different theoretical and thematic approaches straddling between the humanities and social and natural sciences which studies human and coastal/marine interactions at the local-scale and through intense fieldwork. Topics of interest include human coastal adaptations past and present; the historical ecology of fisheries and future implications; local forms of marine governance and economic systems; local food security and livelihoods, and indigenous/local ecological knowledge systems among many research themes. In this paper, I explore different strands of CHE in the study of tribal, artisanal, and small-scale industrial fisheries from the mid-90s onward that can contribute to the foundational knowledge necessary for designing and implementing successful coastal fisheries management and conservation programs. Marine conservation has often failed due to a lack of understanding of the fine grained marine human-environmental interactions at the local scale. In this context, I also examine developing and future research directions in CHE, and discuss their potential contribution for filling the gap in existing approaches to actionable scholarship in marine conservation. The strength of many CHE approaches lies in their potential for bridging humanism and natural science, and thus CHE approaches are well equipped to address many of the challenges faced by marine conservation practitioners today.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
One size does not fit all: Critical insights for effective community-based resource management in Melanesia
- Aswani, Shankar, Albert, Simon, Love, Mark
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Albert, Simon , Love, Mark
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/420459 , vital:71745 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.03.041"
- Description: In recent years, Fiji's approach of combining traditional systems of community-based coastal management and modern management systems has become a successful blueprint for marine conservation, particularly the Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) network model. As a result of this success, conservation practitioners have imported the Fiji LMMA model to the Solomon Islands and in Vanuatu in hope of replicating the purported success attained in Fiji. This paper argues that because tenure systems and associated political systems in Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu are substantially different, one cannot simply extrapolate the more centralized tenurial and political Fiji model to the decentralized tenurial and politically eclectic Solomons and Vanuatu. This paper provides an analysis of some of the various approaches used in these countries to make a case for why socio-political diversity and historical particulars matter to resource management and conservation-in-practice (and for any development interventions). By examining examples of various nested and polycentric governance approaches—family, community, tribal, confederations, local community-based organizations (CBOs), and Church—it elucidate not only some of the differences between Fiji and Solomon Islands/Vanuatu, but also between Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. This provides critical insights into some of the myriad of factors impinging on conservation aspirations in these countries and may offer some alternative ways forward not currently considered by conservation practitioners. Finally, the paper provides some guidelines to how to increase the long-term success of marine conservation programs for fisheries management and community-based management initiatives in the region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Albert, Simon , Love, Mark
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/420459 , vital:71745 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.03.041"
- Description: In recent years, Fiji's approach of combining traditional systems of community-based coastal management and modern management systems has become a successful blueprint for marine conservation, particularly the Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) network model. As a result of this success, conservation practitioners have imported the Fiji LMMA model to the Solomon Islands and in Vanuatu in hope of replicating the purported success attained in Fiji. This paper argues that because tenure systems and associated political systems in Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu are substantially different, one cannot simply extrapolate the more centralized tenurial and political Fiji model to the decentralized tenurial and politically eclectic Solomons and Vanuatu. This paper provides an analysis of some of the various approaches used in these countries to make a case for why socio-political diversity and historical particulars matter to resource management and conservation-in-practice (and for any development interventions). By examining examples of various nested and polycentric governance approaches—family, community, tribal, confederations, local community-based organizations (CBOs), and Church—it elucidate not only some of the differences between Fiji and Solomon Islands/Vanuatu, but also between Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. This provides critical insights into some of the myriad of factors impinging on conservation aspirations in these countries and may offer some alternative ways forward not currently considered by conservation practitioners. Finally, the paper provides some guidelines to how to increase the long-term success of marine conservation programs for fisheries management and community-based management initiatives in the region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Gestion hybride coutumière et écosystémique pour la conservation des ressources marines dans le Triangle de corail
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422678 , vital:71968
- Description: Le changement climatique a rendu le climat et l’environnement nettement plus imprévisibles dans des îles du Pacifique, avec une influence profonde sur la vulnérabilité et la survie même des communautés côtières. Les complexités sociales et écologiques qui lient les êtres humains et l’environnement sont extrêmement diffi ciles à saisir. C’est en particulier le cas dans les écosystèmes côtiers, qui dépendent d’interactions complexes entre leurs facteurs écologiques, sociaux, économiques et politiques (Cinner et al. 2005; Gelcich et al. 2006; Liu et al. 2007). Avec la dégradation progressive des écosystèmes marins, l’accent a été mis sur le développement d’outils de gestion plus effi caces et complets afin de juguler ou d’améliorer l’impact humain. Cela passe notamment par la mise en œuvre de diverses réglementations et quotas de pêche, par les réserves marines et, plus récemment, par la gestion écosystémique.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422678 , vital:71968
- Description: Le changement climatique a rendu le climat et l’environnement nettement plus imprévisibles dans des îles du Pacifique, avec une influence profonde sur la vulnérabilité et la survie même des communautés côtières. Les complexités sociales et écologiques qui lient les êtres humains et l’environnement sont extrêmement diffi ciles à saisir. C’est en particulier le cas dans les écosystèmes côtiers, qui dépendent d’interactions complexes entre leurs facteurs écologiques, sociaux, économiques et politiques (Cinner et al. 2005; Gelcich et al. 2006; Liu et al. 2007). Avec la dégradation progressive des écosystèmes marins, l’accent a été mis sur le développement d’outils de gestion plus effi caces et complets afin de juguler ou d’améliorer l’impact humain. Cela passe notamment par la mise en œuvre de diverses réglementations et quotas de pêche, par les réserves marines et, plus récemment, par la gestion écosystémique.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Change in Roviana Lagoon Coral Reef Ethnobiology
- Aswani, Shankar, Albert, Simon
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Albert, Simon
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421868 , vital:71892 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23763-3"
- Description: Coral reefs are iconic for their beauty and biodiversity, and are of great socioeconomic and cultural importance for many coastal communities across the tropics. However, little is known about people’s local classification and their social and ecological relationship with these habitats. This chapter describes Roviana people’s changing ecological and social relationship with their coral reefs, which are increasingly being damaged by humans. First, we combined ecological and social data to describe people’s classification of local coral reefs in tandem with the productive practices conducted in these habitats. Second, we examined local perceptions and recognized effects of environmental and climatic changes on reefs over the last two decades. Finally, we measured changes in fishing activities and in the taxonomic systems (between 1995 and 2011) to evaluate if recent social and economic change has led to the erosion of marine indigenous ecological knowledge and associated practices. Studying people’s changing perceptions of their coral reefs is crucial to understand their ability to identify and adapt to environmental transformations. Simply, the way local people perceive the state of the environment is not only important in terms of changes in local epistemology but also has important implications for how resources are used and managed, and this information can be coupled with scientific one for a broader management strategy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Albert, Simon
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421868 , vital:71892 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23763-3"
- Description: Coral reefs are iconic for their beauty and biodiversity, and are of great socioeconomic and cultural importance for many coastal communities across the tropics. However, little is known about people’s local classification and their social and ecological relationship with these habitats. This chapter describes Roviana people’s changing ecological and social relationship with their coral reefs, which are increasingly being damaged by humans. First, we combined ecological and social data to describe people’s classification of local coral reefs in tandem with the productive practices conducted in these habitats. Second, we examined local perceptions and recognized effects of environmental and climatic changes on reefs over the last two decades. Finally, we measured changes in fishing activities and in the taxonomic systems (between 1995 and 2011) to evaluate if recent social and economic change has led to the erosion of marine indigenous ecological knowledge and associated practices. Studying people’s changing perceptions of their coral reefs is crucial to understand their ability to identify and adapt to environmental transformations. Simply, the way local people perceive the state of the environment is not only important in terms of changes in local epistemology but also has important implications for how resources are used and managed, and this information can be coupled with scientific one for a broader management strategy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
The way forward with ecosystem-based management in tropical contexts: Reconciling with existing management systems
- Aswani, Shankar, Christie, Patrick, Muthiga, Nyawira A, Mahon, Robin, Primavera, Jurgenne H, Cramer, Lori A, Barbier, Edward B, Granek, Elise F, Kennedy, Chris J, Wolanski, Eric, Hacker, Sally
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Christie, Patrick , Muthiga, Nyawira A , Mahon, Robin , Primavera, Jurgenne H , Cramer, Lori A , Barbier, Edward B , Granek, Elise F , Kennedy, Chris J , Wolanski, Eric , Hacker, Sally
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422693 , vital:71969 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2011.02.014"
- Description: This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities that can arise when implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) in tropical nations. EBM creates a new series of challenges, problems, and opportunities that must be considered in light of existing governance and management frameworks in a local context. The paper presents five case studies from different parts of the tropical world, including Oceania, insular and continental Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the Caribbean, which illustrate that the implementation of EBM in watershed and marine ecosystems offers a new series of challenges and opportunities for its inclusion with existing forms of environmental governance and management. The paper suggests that EBM is best thought of as an expansion of customary management (CM) and integrated coastal management (ICM), rather than a paradigm shift, and that it has certain benefits that are worth integrating into existing systems when possible. The paper concludes that the cultural and institutional context of CM as well as the experience, technical skills, and legal basis that serve ICM programs are logical platforms from which to build EBM programs. Some guidelines for creating hybrid management regimes are suggested. In sum, declining marine species and ecosystems require urgent action, necessitating utilization of existing paradigms such as ICM and CM as a foundation for building EBM.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Christie, Patrick , Muthiga, Nyawira A , Mahon, Robin , Primavera, Jurgenne H , Cramer, Lori A , Barbier, Edward B , Granek, Elise F , Kennedy, Chris J , Wolanski, Eric , Hacker, Sally
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422693 , vital:71969 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2011.02.014"
- Description: This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities that can arise when implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) in tropical nations. EBM creates a new series of challenges, problems, and opportunities that must be considered in light of existing governance and management frameworks in a local context. The paper presents five case studies from different parts of the tropical world, including Oceania, insular and continental Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the Caribbean, which illustrate that the implementation of EBM in watershed and marine ecosystems offers a new series of challenges and opportunities for its inclusion with existing forms of environmental governance and management. The paper suggests that EBM is best thought of as an expansion of customary management (CM) and integrated coastal management (ICM), rather than a paradigm shift, and that it has certain benefits that are worth integrating into existing systems when possible. The paper concludes that the cultural and institutional context of CM as well as the experience, technical skills, and legal basis that serve ICM programs are logical platforms from which to build EBM programs. Some guidelines for creating hybrid management regimes are suggested. In sum, declining marine species and ecosystems require urgent action, necessitating utilization of existing paradigms such as ICM and CM as a foundation for building EBM.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Indigenous people's detection of rapid ecological change
- Aswani, Shankar, Laucer, Matthew
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Laucer, Matthew
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421926 , vital:71896 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12250"
- Description: When sudden catastrophic events occur, it becomes critical for coastal communities to detect and respond to environmental transformations because failure to do so may undermine overall ecosystem resilience and threaten people's livelihoods. We therefore asked how capable of detecting rapid ecological change following massive environmental disruptions local, indigenous people are. We assessed the direction and periodicity of experimental learning of people in the Western Solomon Islands after a tsunami in 2007. We compared the results of marine science surveys with local ecological knowledge of the benthos across 3 affected villages and 3 periods before and after the tsunami. We sought to determine how people recognize biophysical changes in the environment before and after catastrophic events such as earthquakes and tsunamis and whether people have the ability to detect ecological changes over short time scales or need longer time scales to recognize changes. Indigenous people were able to detect changes in the benthos over time. Detection levels differed between marine science surveys and local ecological knowledge sources over time, but overall patterns of statistically significant detection of change were evident for various habitats. Our findings have implications for marine conservation, coastal management policies, and disaster-relief efforts because when people are able to detect ecological changes, this, in turn, affects how they exploit and manage their marine resources.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Laucer, Matthew
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421926 , vital:71896 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12250"
- Description: When sudden catastrophic events occur, it becomes critical for coastal communities to detect and respond to environmental transformations because failure to do so may undermine overall ecosystem resilience and threaten people's livelihoods. We therefore asked how capable of detecting rapid ecological change following massive environmental disruptions local, indigenous people are. We assessed the direction and periodicity of experimental learning of people in the Western Solomon Islands after a tsunami in 2007. We compared the results of marine science surveys with local ecological knowledge of the benthos across 3 affected villages and 3 periods before and after the tsunami. We sought to determine how people recognize biophysical changes in the environment before and after catastrophic events such as earthquakes and tsunamis and whether people have the ability to detect ecological changes over short time scales or need longer time scales to recognize changes. Indigenous people were able to detect changes in the benthos over time. Detection levels differed between marine science surveys and local ecological knowledge sources over time, but overall patterns of statistically significant detection of change were evident for various habitats. Our findings have implications for marine conservation, coastal management policies, and disaster-relief efforts because when people are able to detect ecological changes, this, in turn, affects how they exploit and manage their marine resources.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Design of Realistic Hybrid Marine Resource Management Programs in Oceania
- Aswani, Shankar, Ruddle, Kenneth
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Ruddle, Kenneth
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422721 , vital:71972 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.2984/67.3.11"
- Description: This review article synthesizes the authors' several decades of multidisciplinary natural and social science and applied marine resource management experience in the Asia-Pacific region to examine the strengthening of coastal and marine resource management and conservation using alliances between local communities and external institutions. The objective is to assist the design of resource management and conservation programs that enhance the capacity of coastal communities in Oceania to confront both diminishing marine resources and the effects of climate change by providing guidelines for protecting marine biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystem functions. This article describes a management framework that hybridizes local beliefs and institutions expressed in customary management (CM) with such modern management concepts as marine protected areas (MPAs) and ecosystem-based management (EBM). Hybrid management accommodates the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts of Oceanic communities and, compared with recent or conventional management approaches, can therefore better address fundamental local concerns such as coastal degradation, climate change, sea level rise, weak governance, corruption, limited resources and staff to manage and monitor marine resources, and increasing poverty. Research on the hybridization of management systems demonstrates opportunities to establish context-appropriate EBM and/or other managerial arrangements that include terrestrial and adjacent coastal-marine ecosystems. Formal and informal CM systems are widespread in Oceania and in some parts of Southeast Asia, and if appropriate strategies are employed rapid progress toward hybrid CM-EBM could be enabled.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Ruddle, Kenneth
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422721 , vital:71972 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.2984/67.3.11"
- Description: This review article synthesizes the authors' several decades of multidisciplinary natural and social science and applied marine resource management experience in the Asia-Pacific region to examine the strengthening of coastal and marine resource management and conservation using alliances between local communities and external institutions. The objective is to assist the design of resource management and conservation programs that enhance the capacity of coastal communities in Oceania to confront both diminishing marine resources and the effects of climate change by providing guidelines for protecting marine biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystem functions. This article describes a management framework that hybridizes local beliefs and institutions expressed in customary management (CM) with such modern management concepts as marine protected areas (MPAs) and ecosystem-based management (EBM). Hybrid management accommodates the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts of Oceanic communities and, compared with recent or conventional management approaches, can therefore better address fundamental local concerns such as coastal degradation, climate change, sea level rise, weak governance, corruption, limited resources and staff to manage and monitor marine resources, and increasing poverty. Research on the hybridization of management systems demonstrates opportunities to establish context-appropriate EBM and/or other managerial arrangements that include terrestrial and adjacent coastal-marine ecosystems. Formal and informal CM systems are widespread in Oceania and in some parts of Southeast Asia, and if appropriate strategies are employed rapid progress toward hybrid CM-EBM could be enabled.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Insights from experimental economics on local cooperation in a small-scale fishery management system
- Aswani, Shankar, Gurney, Georgina G, Mulville, Sara, Matera, Jaime, Gurven, Michael
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Gurney, Georgina G , Mulville, Sara , Matera, Jaime , Gurven, Michael
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422746 , vital:71974 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.08.003"
- Description: Cooperation is central to collective management of small-scale fisheries management, including marine protected areas. Thus an understanding of the factors influencing stakeholders’ propensity to cooperate to achieve shared benefits is essential to accomplishing successful collective fisheries management. In this paper we study stakeholders’ cooperative behavioral disposition and elucidate the role of various socio-economic factors in influencing it in the Roviana Lagoon, Western Solomon Islands. We employed a Public Goods Game from experimental economics tailored to mimic the problem of common pool fisheries management to elucidate peoples’ cooperative behavior. Using Ostrom's framework for analyzing social-ecological systems to guide our analysis, we examined how individual-scale variables (e.g., age, education, family size, ethnicity, occupational status, personal norms), in the context of village-scale variables (e.g., village, governance institutions, group coercive action), influence cooperative behavior, as indexed by game contribution. Ostrom's framework provides an effective window for conceptually peeling back the various socio-economic and governance layers which influence cooperation within these communities. The results of our research show that the most important resource user characteristics influencing cooperative behavior were age, occupation and beliefs about giving access to others to fish for commercial gain. Through elucidating the factors affecting stakeholders’ propensity to cooperate to achieve shared benefits, our analysis provides guidance in understanding cooperation in relation to collective management of marine resources.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Insights from experimental economics on local cooperation in a small-scale fishery management system
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Gurney, Georgina G , Mulville, Sara , Matera, Jaime , Gurven, Michael
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422746 , vital:71974 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.08.003"
- Description: Cooperation is central to collective management of small-scale fisheries management, including marine protected areas. Thus an understanding of the factors influencing stakeholders’ propensity to cooperate to achieve shared benefits is essential to accomplishing successful collective fisheries management. In this paper we study stakeholders’ cooperative behavioral disposition and elucidate the role of various socio-economic factors in influencing it in the Roviana Lagoon, Western Solomon Islands. We employed a Public Goods Game from experimental economics tailored to mimic the problem of common pool fisheries management to elucidate peoples’ cooperative behavior. Using Ostrom's framework for analyzing social-ecological systems to guide our analysis, we examined how individual-scale variables (e.g., age, education, family size, ethnicity, occupational status, personal norms), in the context of village-scale variables (e.g., village, governance institutions, group coercive action), influence cooperative behavior, as indexed by game contribution. Ostrom's framework provides an effective window for conceptually peeling back the various socio-economic and governance layers which influence cooperation within these communities. The results of our research show that the most important resource user characteristics influencing cooperative behavior were age, occupation and beliefs about giving access to others to fish for commercial gain. Through elucidating the factors affecting stakeholders’ propensity to cooperate to achieve shared benefits, our analysis provides guidance in understanding cooperation in relation to collective management of marine resources.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
An integrated framework for assessing coastal community vulnerability across cultures, oceans and scales
- Aswani, Shankar, Howard, J A, Gasalla, Maria A, Jennings, Sarah, Malherbe, W, Martins, I M, Salim Shyam, Van Putten, Ingrid E, Swathilekshmi, P S, Narayanakumar, R, Watmough G R
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Howard, J A , Gasalla, Maria A , Jennings, Sarah , Malherbe, W , Martins, I M , Salim Shyam , Van Putten, Ingrid E , Swathilekshmi, P S , Narayanakumar, R , Watmough G R
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421581 , vital:71863 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2018.1442795"
- Description: Coastal communities are some of the most at-risk populations with respect to climate change impacts. It is therefore important to determine the vulnerability of such communities to co-develop viable adaptation options. Global efforts to address this issue include international scientific projects, such as Global Learning for Local Solutions (GULLS), which focuses on five fast warming regions of the southern hemisphere and aims to provide an understanding of the local scale processes influencing community vulnerability that can then be up-scaled to regional, country and global levels. This paper describes the development of a new social and ecological vulnerability framework which integrates exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity with the social livelihoods and food security approaches. It also measures community flexibility to understand better the adaptive capacity of different levels of community organization. The translation of the conceptual framework to an implementable method is described and its application in a number of “hotspot” countries, where ocean waters are warming faster than the rest of the world, is presented. Opportunities for cross-cultural comparisons to uncover similarities and differences in vulnerability and adaptation patterns among the study’s coastal communities, which can provide accelerated learning mechanisms to other coastal regions, are highlighted. The social and ecological framework and the associated survey approach allow for future integration of local-level vulnerability data with ecological and oceanographic models.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Howard, J A , Gasalla, Maria A , Jennings, Sarah , Malherbe, W , Martins, I M , Salim Shyam , Van Putten, Ingrid E , Swathilekshmi, P S , Narayanakumar, R , Watmough G R
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421581 , vital:71863 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2018.1442795"
- Description: Coastal communities are some of the most at-risk populations with respect to climate change impacts. It is therefore important to determine the vulnerability of such communities to co-develop viable adaptation options. Global efforts to address this issue include international scientific projects, such as Global Learning for Local Solutions (GULLS), which focuses on five fast warming regions of the southern hemisphere and aims to provide an understanding of the local scale processes influencing community vulnerability that can then be up-scaled to regional, country and global levels. This paper describes the development of a new social and ecological vulnerability framework which integrates exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity with the social livelihoods and food security approaches. It also measures community flexibility to understand better the adaptive capacity of different levels of community organization. The translation of the conceptual framework to an implementable method is described and its application in a number of “hotspot” countries, where ocean waters are warming faster than the rest of the world, is presented. Opportunities for cross-cultural comparisons to uncover similarities and differences in vulnerability and adaptation patterns among the study’s coastal communities, which can provide accelerated learning mechanisms to other coastal regions, are highlighted. The social and ecological framework and the associated survey approach allow for future integration of local-level vulnerability data with ecological and oceanographic models.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
New directions in maritime and fisheries anthropology
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406537 , vital:70283 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13380"
- Description: Maritime and fisheries anthropology is a mixture of different themes couched under various theoretical frameworks that straddle the humanities and the sciences. In this subject survey, I explore different thematic and theoretical strands of maritime and fisheries anthropology and illustrate broader changes in this subdiscipline since around the mid‐1990s. I also review developing and future thematic and theoretical research frontiers, and discuss their potential contribution to a public and actionable anthropology/scholarship that can better inform fisheries management and conservation. This is important because in the twenty‐first century, coastal peoples are facing socioeconomic and environmental challenges that are increasingly becoming hazardous. To create a more actionable discipline, anthropology needs to be more accessible, inform innovation, and recapture a more pluralistic scholarship that champions interdisciplinary work. This will require the consilience between the humanities and natural sciences for studying human–marine interactions more broadly and for protecting the marine environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406537 , vital:70283 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13380"
- Description: Maritime and fisheries anthropology is a mixture of different themes couched under various theoretical frameworks that straddle the humanities and the sciences. In this subject survey, I explore different thematic and theoretical strands of maritime and fisheries anthropology and illustrate broader changes in this subdiscipline since around the mid‐1990s. I also review developing and future thematic and theoretical research frontiers, and discuss their potential contribution to a public and actionable anthropology/scholarship that can better inform fisheries management and conservation. This is important because in the twenty‐first century, coastal peoples are facing socioeconomic and environmental challenges that are increasingly becoming hazardous. To create a more actionable discipline, anthropology needs to be more accessible, inform innovation, and recapture a more pluralistic scholarship that champions interdisciplinary work. This will require the consilience between the humanities and natural sciences for studying human–marine interactions more broadly and for protecting the marine environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Detecting change in local ecological knowledge: An application of an index of taxonomic distinctness to an ethnoichthyological classification in the Solomon Islands
- Aswani, Shankar, Ferse, Sebastien C, Stäbler, Moritz, Chong-Montenegro, Carolina
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Ferse, Sebastien C , Stäbler, Moritz , Chong-Montenegro, Carolina
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406521 , vital:70282 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106865"
- Description: The global accelerating loss of biodiversity is having immediate repercussions for ecosystems and human wellbeing, particularly in areas where people depend intimately on their natural environment for their livelihoods. Dovetailing this loss is the demise of local/traditional knowledge systems resulting from factors such as changing lifestyle and the transformation of local belief systems. While the importance of local ecological knowledge (LEK) for documentation of biodiversity and environmental change and development of management responses is well established, quantitative tools to analyze and systematically compare LEK are scarce. In this research, we analyze the complexity of local ecological knowledge used by respondents to classify locally-recognized marine species. We do so by applying a modified index of taxonomic distinctness to an ethnoichthyological classification in coastal communities in the Solomon Islands. In addition, we assess simple taxonomic diversity (richness in locally-recognized species names) by comparing taxonomies collected in 1992–1995 and 2014–2015. Results indicate that both endogenous (gender, age) and exogenous (proximity to market) factors have discernible effects on folk taxonomic knowledge in the region, with younger respondents and communities closer to a regional market center displaying a significantly lower richness of local species names. Folk taxonomic distinctness was significantly reduced closer to the regional market. The modified index of taxonomic distinctness applied in this research provides a useful tool to explore facets of local ecological knowledge in addition to simple richness of terms, and to compare across different regions and cultural backgrounds. Understanding changes in LEK is important because such knowledge enables communities who are highly dependent on living natural resources to harvest and manage resources more efficiently and also to detect and react to environmental change.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Ferse, Sebastien C , Stäbler, Moritz , Chong-Montenegro, Carolina
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/406521 , vital:70282 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106865"
- Description: The global accelerating loss of biodiversity is having immediate repercussions for ecosystems and human wellbeing, particularly in areas where people depend intimately on their natural environment for their livelihoods. Dovetailing this loss is the demise of local/traditional knowledge systems resulting from factors such as changing lifestyle and the transformation of local belief systems. While the importance of local ecological knowledge (LEK) for documentation of biodiversity and environmental change and development of management responses is well established, quantitative tools to analyze and systematically compare LEK are scarce. In this research, we analyze the complexity of local ecological knowledge used by respondents to classify locally-recognized marine species. We do so by applying a modified index of taxonomic distinctness to an ethnoichthyological classification in coastal communities in the Solomon Islands. In addition, we assess simple taxonomic diversity (richness in locally-recognized species names) by comparing taxonomies collected in 1992–1995 and 2014–2015. Results indicate that both endogenous (gender, age) and exogenous (proximity to market) factors have discernible effects on folk taxonomic knowledge in the region, with younger respondents and communities closer to a regional market center displaying a significantly lower richness of local species names. Folk taxonomic distinctness was significantly reduced closer to the regional market. The modified index of taxonomic distinctness applied in this research provides a useful tool to explore facets of local ecological knowledge in addition to simple richness of terms, and to compare across different regions and cultural backgrounds. Understanding changes in LEK is important because such knowledge enables communities who are highly dependent on living natural resources to harvest and manage resources more efficiently and also to detect and react to environmental change.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Environmental and social recovery asymmetries to large-scale disturbances in small island communities
- Aswani, Shankar, van Putten, Ingrid, Miñarro, Sara
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , van Putten, Ingrid , Miñarro, Sara
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/420428 , vital:71743 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2685-2"
- Description: People’s livelihoods in tropical small-island developing states are greatly dependent on marine ecosystem services. Yet services such as fisheries and coastal buffering are being degraded at an alarming rate, thus making people increasing vulnerable to protracted and sudden environmental changes. In the context of the occurrences of extreme events such as earthquakes and tsunamis, it is vital to uncover the processes that make people in these island states resilient, or not, to environmental disruptions. This paper compares people’s perceptions of social and environmental impacts after an extreme event in the Western Solomon Islands (11 different villages on 8 different islands) to better understand how knowledge systems influence the coupling of human and natural systems. We examine the factors that contributed to perceptions of respective recovery in the environmental versus the social domains across communities with different traditional governance and modernization characteristics in a tsunami impact gradient. First, we separately assessed, at the community and individual level, the potential determinants of perceived recovery in the environmental and social domains. At the community level, the average values of the perceived environmental and social recovery were calculated for each community (1 year after the tsunami), and at the individual level, normally distributed environmental and social recovery variables (based on the difference in perceptions immediately and 1 year after the tsunami) were used as dependent variables in two General Linear Models. Results suggest that environmental and social resilience are not always coupled correspondingly and, less unexpectedly, that asymmetries during recovery can occur as a result of the underlying social and ecological context and existing adaptive capacity. More generally, the study shows how by evaluating post-disturbance perceptional data in tsunami-affected communities, we can better understand how subjective perceptions of change can affect the (de)-coupling of human and natural systems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , van Putten, Ingrid , Miñarro, Sara
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/420428 , vital:71743 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2685-2"
- Description: People’s livelihoods in tropical small-island developing states are greatly dependent on marine ecosystem services. Yet services such as fisheries and coastal buffering are being degraded at an alarming rate, thus making people increasing vulnerable to protracted and sudden environmental changes. In the context of the occurrences of extreme events such as earthquakes and tsunamis, it is vital to uncover the processes that make people in these island states resilient, or not, to environmental disruptions. This paper compares people’s perceptions of social and environmental impacts after an extreme event in the Western Solomon Islands (11 different villages on 8 different islands) to better understand how knowledge systems influence the coupling of human and natural systems. We examine the factors that contributed to perceptions of respective recovery in the environmental versus the social domains across communities with different traditional governance and modernization characteristics in a tsunami impact gradient. First, we separately assessed, at the community and individual level, the potential determinants of perceived recovery in the environmental and social domains. At the community level, the average values of the perceived environmental and social recovery were calculated for each community (1 year after the tsunami), and at the individual level, normally distributed environmental and social recovery variables (based on the difference in perceptions immediately and 1 year after the tsunami) were used as dependent variables in two General Linear Models. Results suggest that environmental and social resilience are not always coupled correspondingly and, less unexpectedly, that asymmetries during recovery can occur as a result of the underlying social and ecological context and existing adaptive capacity. More generally, the study shows how by evaluating post-disturbance perceptional data in tsunami-affected communities, we can better understand how subjective perceptions of change can affect the (de)-coupling of human and natural systems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Marine resource management and conservation in the Anthropocene
- Aswani, Shankar, Basurto, Xavier, Ferse, Sebastian, Glaser, Marion, Dalton, Tracey, Jenkins, Lekelia D, Miller, Marc L, Pollnac, Richard, Vaccaro, Ismael, Christie, Patrick
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Basurto, Xavier , Ferse, Sebastian , Glaser, Marion , Dalton, Tracey , Jenkins, Lekelia D , Miller, Marc L , Pollnac, Richard , Vaccaro, Ismael , Christie, Patrick
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421233 , vital:71831 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892917000431"
- Description: Because the Anthropocene by definition is an epoch during which environmental change is largely anthropogenic and driven by social, economic, psychological and political forces, environmental social scientists can effectively analyse human behaviour and knowledge systems in this context. In this subject review, we summarize key ways in which the environmental social sciences can better inform fisheries management policy and practice and marine conservation in the Anthropocene. We argue that environmental social scientists are particularly well positioned to synergize research to fill the gaps between: (1) local behaviours/needs/worldviews and marine resource management and biological conservation concerns; and (2) large-scale drivers of planetary environmental change (globalization, affluence, technological change, etc.) and local cognitive, socioeconomic, cultural and historical processes that shape human behaviour in the marine environment. To illustrate this, we synthesize the roles of various environmental social science disciplines in better understanding the interaction between humans and tropical marine ecosystems in developing nations where issues arising from human–coastal interactions are particularly pronounced. We focus on: (1) the application of the environmental social sciences in marine resource management and conservation; (2) the development of ‘new’ socially equitable marine conservation; (3) repopulating the seascape; (4) incorporating multi-scale dynamics of marine social–ecological systems; and (5) envisioning the future of marine resource management and conservation for producing policies and projects for comprehensive and successful resource management and conservation in the Anthropocene.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Basurto, Xavier , Ferse, Sebastian , Glaser, Marion , Dalton, Tracey , Jenkins, Lekelia D , Miller, Marc L , Pollnac, Richard , Vaccaro, Ismael , Christie, Patrick
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421233 , vital:71831 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892917000431"
- Description: Because the Anthropocene by definition is an epoch during which environmental change is largely anthropogenic and driven by social, economic, psychological and political forces, environmental social scientists can effectively analyse human behaviour and knowledge systems in this context. In this subject review, we summarize key ways in which the environmental social sciences can better inform fisheries management policy and practice and marine conservation in the Anthropocene. We argue that environmental social scientists are particularly well positioned to synergize research to fill the gaps between: (1) local behaviours/needs/worldviews and marine resource management and biological conservation concerns; and (2) large-scale drivers of planetary environmental change (globalization, affluence, technological change, etc.) and local cognitive, socioeconomic, cultural and historical processes that shape human behaviour in the marine environment. To illustrate this, we synthesize the roles of various environmental social science disciplines in better understanding the interaction between humans and tropical marine ecosystems in developing nations where issues arising from human–coastal interactions are particularly pronounced. We focus on: (1) the application of the environmental social sciences in marine resource management and conservation; (2) the development of ‘new’ socially equitable marine conservation; (3) repopulating the seascape; (4) incorporating multi-scale dynamics of marine social–ecological systems; and (5) envisioning the future of marine resource management and conservation for producing policies and projects for comprehensive and successful resource management and conservation in the Anthropocene.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Customary management as TURFs: social challenges and opportunities
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/420407 , vital:71741 , "https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2015.1084"
- Description: There is a growing interest in working with customary management (CM) systems to effectively manage benthic resources and small-scale fisheries. The underlying notion is that CM institution as territorial use rights in fisheries (TURFs) can be sufficiently adaptive and dynamic to create the local incentives that are necessary for promoting sustainable fishing practices and marine conservation more generally in a given region. This paper reviews the social opportunities and challenges of working with CM systems as a form of TURF, particularly in Oceania. A key conclusion is that policy makers and managers not only need to recognize natural interconnectivity in any one marine space, but also consider the social interconnectivity of stakeholders that covers customary TURFs. Only by recognizing and working with the existing social networks that overlay any given marine territory can the operational principles of CM (as reviewed in this paper) be effectively deployed for achieving some kind of bioeconomic efficiency and creating an equitable rights-based fisheries management system.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/420407 , vital:71741 , "https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2015.1084"
- Description: There is a growing interest in working with customary management (CM) systems to effectively manage benthic resources and small-scale fisheries. The underlying notion is that CM institution as territorial use rights in fisheries (TURFs) can be sufficiently adaptive and dynamic to create the local incentives that are necessary for promoting sustainable fishing practices and marine conservation more generally in a given region. This paper reviews the social opportunities and challenges of working with CM systems as a form of TURF, particularly in Oceania. A key conclusion is that policy makers and managers not only need to recognize natural interconnectivity in any one marine space, but also consider the social interconnectivity of stakeholders that covers customary TURFs. Only by recognizing and working with the existing social networks that overlay any given marine territory can the operational principles of CM (as reviewed in this paper) be effectively deployed for achieving some kind of bioeconomic efficiency and creating an equitable rights-based fisheries management system.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Investigating Coral Reef Ethnobiology in The Western Solomon Islands for Enhancing Livelihood Resilience
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421958 , vital:71899
- Description: Coral reefs are of great socio-economic and cultural importance for many coastal communities across the tropics, yet little is known about the way people classify reefs locally and their close ecological and social relationships with these habitats. In a world in which coral reefs are increasingly threatened (Hughes et al. 2003, McClanahan et al. 2008), understanding how people perceive and use coral reefs is essential for predicting future ecological and social impacts, as well as for understanding human adaptation mechanisms to ecological change in these tropical marine ecosystems. This is particularly true for Oceanic islands, which are vulnerable socially and ecologically to deteriorating coral reefs, rising sea levels, and increasingly unpredictable climatic and geological phenomena (Lazarus 2012, McClanahan and Cinner 2012). Increasing human vulnerability to changing coral reefs, consequently, has resulted in numerous calls for comprehensive management using tools that include fishing regulations and quotas, marine protected areas (MPAs), and ecosystem-based management (EBM) for protecting coral reefs and other marine ecosystems. Other interventions, such as social safety nets, evacuation from vulnerable sites, and diversification within fisheries, have been proposed to enhance adaptive capacity, ameliorate social and economic sensitivity, and reduce exposure to changing coral reefs (Cinner et al. 2012).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421958 , vital:71899
- Description: Coral reefs are of great socio-economic and cultural importance for many coastal communities across the tropics, yet little is known about the way people classify reefs locally and their close ecological and social relationships with these habitats. In a world in which coral reefs are increasingly threatened (Hughes et al. 2003, McClanahan et al. 2008), understanding how people perceive and use coral reefs is essential for predicting future ecological and social impacts, as well as for understanding human adaptation mechanisms to ecological change in these tropical marine ecosystems. This is particularly true for Oceanic islands, which are vulnerable socially and ecologically to deteriorating coral reefs, rising sea levels, and increasingly unpredictable climatic and geological phenomena (Lazarus 2012, McClanahan and Cinner 2012). Increasing human vulnerability to changing coral reefs, consequently, has resulted in numerous calls for comprehensive management using tools that include fishing regulations and quotas, marine protected areas (MPAs), and ecosystem-based management (EBM) for protecting coral reefs and other marine ecosystems. Other interventions, such as social safety nets, evacuation from vulnerable sites, and diversification within fisheries, have been proposed to enhance adaptive capacity, ameliorate social and economic sensitivity, and reduce exposure to changing coral reefs (Cinner et al. 2012).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Change in Roviana Lagoon Coral Reef Ethnobiology
- Aswani, Shankar, Albert, Simon
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Albert, Simon
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421863 , vital:71891 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23763-3"
- Description: Coral reefs are iconic for their beauty and biodiversity, and are of great socioeconomic and cultural importance for many coastal communities across the tropics. However, little is known about people’s local classification and their social and ecological relationship with these habitats. This chapter describes Roviana people’s changing ecological and social relationship with their coral reefs, which are increasingly being damaged by humans. First, we combined ecological and social data to describe people’s classification of local coral reefs in tandem with the productive practices conducted in these habitats. Second, we examined local perceptions and recognized effects of environmental and climatic changes on reefs over the last two decades. Finally, we measured changes in fishing activities and in the taxonomic systems (between 1995 and 2011) to evaluate if recent social and economic change has led to the erosion of marine indigenous ecological knowledge and associated practices. Studying people’s changing perceptions of their coral reefs is crucial to understand their ability to identify and adapt to environmental transformations. Simply, the way local people perceive the state of the environment is not only important in terms of changes in local epistemology but also has important implications for how resources are used and managed, and this information can be coupled with scientific one for a broader management strategy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Albert, Simon
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/421863 , vital:71891 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23763-3"
- Description: Coral reefs are iconic for their beauty and biodiversity, and are of great socioeconomic and cultural importance for many coastal communities across the tropics. However, little is known about people’s local classification and their social and ecological relationship with these habitats. This chapter describes Roviana people’s changing ecological and social relationship with their coral reefs, which are increasingly being damaged by humans. First, we combined ecological and social data to describe people’s classification of local coral reefs in tandem with the productive practices conducted in these habitats. Second, we examined local perceptions and recognized effects of environmental and climatic changes on reefs over the last two decades. Finally, we measured changes in fishing activities and in the taxonomic systems (between 1995 and 2011) to evaluate if recent social and economic change has led to the erosion of marine indigenous ecological knowledge and associated practices. Studying people’s changing perceptions of their coral reefs is crucial to understand their ability to identify and adapt to environmental transformations. Simply, the way local people perceive the state of the environment is not only important in terms of changes in local epistemology but also has important implications for how resources are used and managed, and this information can be coupled with scientific one for a broader management strategy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Socioecological approaches for combining ecosystem-based and customary management in Oceania
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422157 , vital:71916 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/845385"
- Description: This paper summarizes various integrated methodological approaches for studying Customary Management for the purpose of designing hybrid CM-Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) systems in Oceania. Using marine conservation in the Western Solomon Islands as an example, the paper illustrates various interdisciplinary human ecological methods that can assist in designing hybrid conservation programs. The study of human-environmental interactions from a socio-ecological perspective allows us to discern people's understanding of their immediate environment, differential forms of local resource governance and use (e.g., sea tenure and foraging strategies), and existing conflicts between various stakeholders, among other social and ecological factors. More generally, the paper shows how coupled studies of natural and social processes can foster management regimes that are more adaptive and effective and that move toward holistic, ecosystem-based marine conservation in the Pacific Island region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422157 , vital:71916 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/845385"
- Description: This paper summarizes various integrated methodological approaches for studying Customary Management for the purpose of designing hybrid CM-Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) systems in Oceania. Using marine conservation in the Western Solomon Islands as an example, the paper illustrates various interdisciplinary human ecological methods that can assist in designing hybrid conservation programs. The study of human-environmental interactions from a socio-ecological perspective allows us to discern people's understanding of their immediate environment, differential forms of local resource governance and use (e.g., sea tenure and foraging strategies), and existing conflicts between various stakeholders, among other social and ecological factors. More generally, the paper shows how coupled studies of natural and social processes can foster management regimes that are more adaptive and effective and that move toward holistic, ecosystem-based marine conservation in the Pacific Island region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Hybrid customary and ecosystem-based management for marine conservation in the Coral Triangle
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422144 , vital:71915
- Description: Climate change has dramatically increased the levels of climatic and environmental unpredictability in the Pacific Islands region and, consequently, the vulnerability and survival of coastal communities. Understanding the social and ecological complexities that mediate between humans and the environment are extremely challenging. This is particularly true in coastal ecosystems, given the complex interactions among ecological, social, economic and political factors that occur within them (Cinner et al. 2005; Gelcich et al.2006; Liu et al. 2007). As marine ecosystems have become increasingly degraded, emphasis has been placed on finding more effective and holistic management tools to halt or ameliorate human impacts. These include, the implementation of multiple fishing regulations and quotas, marine reserves, and, more recently, ecosystem-based management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422144 , vital:71915
- Description: Climate change has dramatically increased the levels of climatic and environmental unpredictability in the Pacific Islands region and, consequently, the vulnerability and survival of coastal communities. Understanding the social and ecological complexities that mediate between humans and the environment are extremely challenging. This is particularly true in coastal ecosystems, given the complex interactions among ecological, social, economic and political factors that occur within them (Cinner et al. 2005; Gelcich et al.2006; Liu et al. 2007). As marine ecosystems have become increasingly degraded, emphasis has been placed on finding more effective and holistic management tools to halt or ameliorate human impacts. These include, the implementation of multiple fishing regulations and quotas, marine reserves, and, more recently, ecosystem-based management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Hopes and disenchantments of religious community forestry in the Western Solomon Islands
- Aswani, Shankar, Racelis, Alexis E
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Racelis, Alexis E
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422133 , vital:71914
- Description: The commercial exploitation of tropical timber is the key economic sector in the Solomon Islands. However, despite several decades of continuous large-scale logging, few efforts have been sustained at a regional level for reforestation of resulting degraded lands. Reforestation efforts have been limited to small, local and independent initiatives, with no movement on a regional or national level. In the past decade, however, the Christian Fellowship Church (CFC), a religious group in the Western Solomon Islands, has initiated a regional reforestation program in its member communities—a movement that has accelerated quickly and successfully. We use interviews and open-ended discussions with villagers and village leaders to explore how CFC has undertaken an apparently effective, large-scale reforestation project where the government, corporate logging companies, or localized kin groups have not. Results from the interviews reveal a diverse gamut of drivers, incentives, investments, and expectations for reforestation. Although respect of the power of the leader of the CFC was the most commonly cited reason for enrolling in reforestation, promises of income and land were also important in the success and widespread participation in the program. However, as this paper reveals, the significant time investment on a community level and by individual households, the growing expectation of financial return, and the distribution of land among community members for forestry, all will likely lead to unforeseen tensions in land tenure and resource ownership. Still, this reforestation initiative is a rare example of reforestation on customary land in Solomon Islands and one of the first models of a long-term, grassroots, religion-inspired community forestry effort in the Pacific.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Aswani, Shankar , Racelis, Alexis E
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/422133 , vital:71914
- Description: The commercial exploitation of tropical timber is the key economic sector in the Solomon Islands. However, despite several decades of continuous large-scale logging, few efforts have been sustained at a regional level for reforestation of resulting degraded lands. Reforestation efforts have been limited to small, local and independent initiatives, with no movement on a regional or national level. In the past decade, however, the Christian Fellowship Church (CFC), a religious group in the Western Solomon Islands, has initiated a regional reforestation program in its member communities—a movement that has accelerated quickly and successfully. We use interviews and open-ended discussions with villagers and village leaders to explore how CFC has undertaken an apparently effective, large-scale reforestation project where the government, corporate logging companies, or localized kin groups have not. Results from the interviews reveal a diverse gamut of drivers, incentives, investments, and expectations for reforestation. Although respect of the power of the leader of the CFC was the most commonly cited reason for enrolling in reforestation, promises of income and land were also important in the success and widespread participation in the program. However, as this paper reveals, the significant time investment on a community level and by individual households, the growing expectation of financial return, and the distribution of land among community members for forestry, all will likely lead to unforeseen tensions in land tenure and resource ownership. Still, this reforestation initiative is a rare example of reforestation on customary land in Solomon Islands and one of the first models of a long-term, grassroots, religion-inspired community forestry effort in the Pacific.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011