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Collective action for changing forests: A spatial, social-ecological approach to assessing participation in invasive plant management
Abstract
Environmental governance research has discovered much about what drives collective action to address human-environment issues, including factors such as risk perceptions and self-efficacy. Yet the design of many studies limits our ability to draw conclusions about collective action under conditions of environmental change, especially across spatial or temporal scales. In this study, we integrate social and biophysical data—assessing data over time and examining the influence of space—to analyze efforts by community members to manage rapid environmental change in the form of an invasive plant (Mikania micrantha) in community forests in Chitwan, Nepal. Invasive species are an increasingly complex ethical, cultural, and ecological issue that is becoming more pressing with global environmental and social changes. We combine household surveys, ecological surveys, and spatial data in Bayesian hierarchical linear models to explore changes in the drivers of collective action since initial household surveys in 2014. We find that risk perceptions, reliance on forest resources, perceptions of forest safety, and M. micrantha abundance were the most influential factors in our models. Additionally, our findings suggest that the influence of M. micrantha abundance on collective action varies across spatial scales, indicating important interactions between social and biophysical drivers of collective action. Ultimately, our results highlight the importance of considering social and biophysical factors across space and time to inform the design of institutions that will be effective in addressing collection action problems tied to environmental change.
... CS is growing worldwide in marine and coastal ecological matters such as climate change (Marlowe et al., 2021), marine litter and debris (Papakonstantinou et al., 2021;Uhrin et al., 2020), environmental status assessment of communities, and habitats (Johnson et al., 2020;Turicchia et al., 2021), beach erosion (Pucino et al., 2021), early detection of invasive species (Datta et al., 2021;Sullivan & York, 2021), phytoplankton seawater discolorations (Siano et al., 2020), inland and coastal water quality (Malthus et al., 2020;Menon et al., 2021), microplastics (Camins et al., 2020), threatened species (LaRue et al., 2020), noise and air pollution (El-Kholei, 2020), and other areas of concern. Nevertheless, their success may be undermined by one very common setback in CS: the struggle to maintain citizens' motivation for continuous and sustained long-term participation (Kloetzer et al., 2021;Paul et al., 2020). ...
Environmental and nature conservation authorities are calling for a collective effort to break or reduce the current cycle of environmental degradation. Much of the response depends on scientific knowledge production based on thematically and geographically comprehensive datasets. Citizen science (CS) is a cost-effective support tool for scientific research that provides means for building large and comprehensive datasets and promoting public awareness and participation. One of the greatest challenges of CS is to engage citizens and retain participants in the project. Our work addresses this challenge by (1) defining the role that technological, cultural, and environmental dimensions play in the adoption of CS apps for coastal environment monitoring, and (2) providing base knowledge about the profile of the apps’ most likely users and the functional features they require to be successful. Collectivists and people who assume a green identity are the most likely users of these apps. Drivers of their use are the promotion of citizen empowerment, habit development, provision of facilitating conditions, and proof of environmental performance.
The outcome of this study is a set of guidelines for project managers, app developers, and policymakers for citizens’ engagement and retention in CS coastal environment monitoring projects through their apps.
... This study acknowledges collective action, similarly, focusing on efforts of individuals in collective action to act in an equitable manner to strengthen just urban climate adaptation through activism and social capital. The vast literature on collective action in the environmental governance domain has unpacked many variables, including how and why individuals cooperate and what variables affect collective actions, including social capital, group size, and market access (Meinzen-Dick and Knox, 1999;Sullivan and York, 2021). On the other hand, we argue that much has been uncovered about how collective actions in the context of climate justice lead to governance learning. ...
Environmental policy research fails to integrate procedural and recognitional justice perspectives and collective actions in governance learning for just climate adaptations. Drawing on the insights of two cities experiencing climate impacts differently, Bergen (Norway) and Istanbul (Turkey), this paper assesses how collective actions influence different levels of governments (local to national) to learn from these actions to implement just climate actions in their localities. Using environmental justice (specifically recognition and procedural) and policy learning literature, we contextualize a three-governance learning typology that emerges through collective actions that may trigger governance structures for policy integration: governance learning by resisting, co-opting, and expanding. We identify what kind of learning is introduced to the existing governance structures in Bergen and Istanbul, and how that learning shapes or is shaped by the governance structures, local government in Bergen and local to national governments in Istanbul, while developing climate adaptation policies and actions. Overall, this paper shows what types of knowledge and information are incorporated or ignored after collective actions and how power mediates interactions between actors across multiple urban settings for just climate adaptation.
A generalized knowledge of social-ecological relationships is needed to address current environmental challenges. Broadly comparative and synthetic research is a key method for establishing this type of knowledge. To date, however, most work on social-ecological systems has applied idiosyncratic methods to specific systems. Several projects, each based on the frameworks developed by Elinor Ostrom and colleagues, stand out for their application of consistent methods across a broad range of cases. In this paper we compare seven of these projects and draw conclusions regarding their potential benefits and the challenges that scholars can expect in conducting this type of research. The two main challenges that we identified are (1) the collective-action dilemmas that collaborators face in producing and maintaining the social and technical infrastructure that is needed for such projects; and (2) balancing complexity and comparability in the structure of the databases used and the associated methods for characterizing complex social-ecological cases. We discuss approaches for meeting these challenges, and present a guiding checklist of questions for project design and implementation to provide guidance for future broadly comparative research.
This article synthesizes and compares environmental governance theories. For each theory we outline its main tenets, claims, origin, and supporting literature. We then group the theories into focused versus combinatory frameworks for comparison. The analysis resonates with many types of ecosystems; however, to make it more tangible, we focus on coastal systems. First, we characterize coastal governance challenges and then later link salient research questions arising from these challenges to the theories that may be useful in answering them. Our discussion emphasizes the usefulness of having a diverse theoretical toolbox, and we argue that if governance analysts are more broadly informed about the theories available, they may more easily engage in open-minded interdisciplinary collaboration. The eight theories examined are the following: polycentricity, network governance, multilevel governance, collective action, governmentality (power / knowledge), adaptive governance, interactive governance theory (IGT), and evolutionary governance theory (EGT). Polycentricity and network governance both help examine the links or connections in governance processes. Polycentricity emphasizes structural configurations at a broader level, and network governance highlights agency and information flow within and between individuals or organizations. Collective action theory is helpful for examining community level governance, and helps analyze variables hindering or enabling self-organization and shared resource outcomes. In contrast, multilevel governance helps understand governance integration processes between localities, regions, and states across administrative, policy, or legal dimensions. Governmentality is helpful for understanding the role of discourse, power, knowledge, and narratives in governance, such as who creates them and who becomes governed by them with what effect. Adaptive governance helps analyze the links between context, change, and resilience. IGT helps examine the interdependencies between the systems being governed and the governing systems. EGT is helpful for unpacking how coevolutionary processes shape governance and the options for change.
The two-third populations of Nepal reside in rural areas. Most of them depend on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods. Nepal is severely suffering from the effects of climate change, and hence, the effect of climate change in rural Nepal is more concerned. This paper aims to explore the adverse effects of climate change in terms of natural disaster, loss of agriculture land, loss of people and domestic animal's lives, and livelihood in relation to the Badarjhula village and discusses some measures for minimizing climate change's effect adopting both qualitative and quantitative approaches, though qualitative is dominant. The empirical study of Badarjhula village reveals that the huge amounts of agricultural lands have been destroyed by unexpected-flooding and drought due to climate changes for decades. According to the National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA) of Nepal Government, this village lies in the highest "Flood Vulnerability Index" in Nepal. Badarjhula lies in a tropical climate zone and climate prone area. The rural populations belonging to the indigenous and vulnerable community, and poor people of the area mainly depend on subsistence form of agriculture are more vulnerable to climate change. It was found that huge and unexpected induced-disasters such as extreme rains, floods, drought, and fire (both settlements and forests) are making hard rural livelihoods. The frequent conflict between human and wild animals causes both agriculture and property losses. The results also expose that the water sector was also badly hit. Agriculture is the most vulnerable sector in this village and their direct effects are seen in the household livelihood. The effects of climate change need to be addressed in order to secure the livelihood in terms of food security of poor rural people in a sustainable way.
Monitoring invasive species distribution and prevalence is important, but direct field-based assessment is often impractical. In this paper, we introduce and validate a cost-effective method for mapping understory invasive plant species. We utilized Landsat imagery, spectral mixture analysis (SMA) and a maximum entropy (Maxent) modeling framework to map the spatial extent of Mikania micrantha in Chitwan National Park, Nepal and community forests within its buffer zone. We developed a spectral library from reference and image sources and applied multiple endmember SMA (MESMA) to selected Landsat imagery. Incorporating the resultant green vegetation and shade fractions into Maxent, we mapped the distribution of understory M. micrantha in the study area, with training and testing Area under Curve (AUC) values around 0.80, and kappa around 0.55. In vegetated places, especially mature forests, an increase in green vegetation fraction and decrease in shade fraction was associated with higher likelihood of M. micrantha presence. In addition, the inclusion of elevation as a model input further improved map accuracy (AUC around 0.95; kappa around 0.80). Elevation, a surrogate for distance to water in this case, proved to be the determining factor of M. micrantha's distribution in the study area. The combination of MESMA and Maxent can provide significant opportunities for understanding understory vegetation distribution, and contribute to ecological restoration, biodiversity conservation, and provision of sustainable ecosystem services in protected areas.
Fisheries in Kenya are experiencing social-ecological changes, impacting how they are governed via co-management. At the local level, these changes influence collective action, by influencing ecosystems, livelihoods and social cohesion. A critical research gap is to understand how fisheries conflict influences outcomes of collective action and the broader development of fisheries. In this article, we present a novel inquiry that contributes to this gap by examining the interplay between conflict and collective action within the frame of social-ecological systems research. We apply qualitative research methods, integrating Bennett's conflict typology into Ostrom's social-ecological systems framework, to present new evidence linking within and between group conflicts, to outcomes of collective action. We find leadership, gear technology, market dynamics, trust, cultural dependencies and past experiences influential in explaining dissimilar fisheries co-management outcomes in three cases. A closer look at fisheries co-management reveals that a sequence of early events, including conflict, has undermined collective action and sustainable resource use within fisheries, by altering social licence to operate and increasing transaction costs for decision making and cooperation. We use this empirical evidence to consider potential actions (e.g., recognising issue interdependencies and history) that can improve fisheries co-management in Kenya and thereby contribute to broader societal transformation.
Elinor Ostrom and colleagues developed the social-ecological system framework with the aim of synthesizing knowledge to foster a better understanding of the relationship between people, institutions and the environment. Although the framework has facilitated the diagnosis of complex systems; it has thus far struggled to account for the role of history in structuring the range of opportunities and constraints that actors face as they interact with the environment and each other. More recent innovations in measuring institutions and the integration of process-oriented approaches are beginning to provide the tools required to systematically trace the co-evolution of institutions and social-ecological systems. We review the history and development of social-ecological system scholarship, including longstanding concerns regarding the weak inclusion of temporal dynamics. We highlight the contributions of three novel advances – namely the combined IAD-SES framework, the institutional grammar tool, and the power in polycentric governance approach.
Studying social–ecological interactions systematically is difficult when dealing with case study data. The methodological flexibility inherent in case studies facilitates the discovery of complex relationships between social and ecological variables; however, it also poses problems for knowledge accumulation given the diverse ways that variables are measured, as well as the descriptive approaches to causal inference that are typically employed. This article builds on the Social-Ecological Systems Framework (SESF) to systematically compare interactions among variables across case studies. We adopt a ‘model-centered’ meta-analysis of existing SESF case studies, in which the units of analysis are causal explanations including sets of variables and their effects on outcomes (i.e. ‘models’). Our analysis encompassed 30 studies and resulted in the formalization of 125 models. The analysis illustrates opportunities to assess interactions at different levels of detail. The paper concludes by proposing strategies to advance the study and reporting of interactions in case studies to foster a better understanding of dynamics and outcomes of environmental sustainability.
Encouraging pro-environmental behavior is an urgent global challenge. An interdisciplinary framework covering governance, economic, social, ecological, and psychological dimensions is required to understand the salient features that encourage pro-environmental outcomes within and across contexts. We apply the Ostrom social-ecological systems framework to model voluntary investments by members of civil society into the aquatic environment. Using a data set of 1,809 angling clubs managing water bodies for fish stocking and habitat management in Germany and France, we show that a small set of factors, most crucially social-ecological and governance context as well as social norms and other bottom-up social pressures, drive environmental investments. These factors appear to override behavioral influences from psychological variables of the decision-maker. By contrast, the contextual setting related to property rights, size of the resource system, and social expectations were found to be strongly related to behavioral decisions, highlighting that the social-ecological context as well as incentives may be more important than knowledge and cognitions in driving certain pro-environmental actions.
Scale mismatches in social–ecological systems constrain conservation by obscuring signals of environmental change, which could otherwise feed back to inform adaptive responses and solutions. We argue that engaging indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC) in place-based environmental management could generate the fine-resolution information and workforce needed to alleviate scale mismatches. We illustrate our argument using a case study initiated by Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand and demonstrate that the current broad scales of hunting regulation and assessment in black swan (kakī anau, Cygnus atratus) management could obscure local ecological drivers of populations. Many IPLC can facilitate adaptive place-based management by continually monitoring ecological feedbacks (e.g., population numbers, habitat conditions) at fine resolutions through customary resource use and observations. However, disregard for IPLC rights, scepticism of traditional ecological knowledge, restricted opportunity to connect with resources, compartmentalization of resource management, and insufficient funding limit IPLC engagement and must be overcome to alleviate scale mismatches.
Institutions are vital to the sustainability of social-ecological systems, balancing individual and group interests and coordinating responses to change. Ecological decline and social conflict in many places, however, indicate that our understanding and fostering of effective institutions for natural resource management is still lacking. We assess theoretical and methodological challenges facing positivist institutional analysis, focusing on natural resource governance according to Ostrom’s social-ecological systems (SES) framework. Rather than adding more variables, progress requires a clearer, more consistent approach to selecting, defining and measuring institutional elements; stronger links between theory and empirical research; a greater focus on mechanisms and causality; and the development and application of new methods, including quantitative approaches. Strengthening the connections between theory, models, and data suggests several promising avenues for advancing institutional analysis through the study of relationships between institutional structure, process, function, context, and outcomes.