scholarly journals Managing inequality: the political ecology of a small-scale fishery, Mweru-Luapula, Zambia

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bram Verelst
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Common Property ◽  
Environmental Knowledge ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Management Regime ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Management Approaches ◽  
Common Property Resource Management

This paper starts from the perspective that resource management approaches are based upon a body of environmental knowledge. By analysing fisheries management in Mweru-Luapula, Zambia, I argue that this body of environmental knowledge has 1) remained largely unchanged throughout the recent shift to co-management and 2) is to a great extent based upon general paradigmatic conventions with regard to common property regimes. The article outlines the historical trajectories of both resource management and the political ecology of Mweru-Luapula's fishing economy. Using a relational perspective – by looking at interaction of the local fishing economy with external developments, but also by examining socioeconomic relations between individual actors – this article exposes constraints and incentives within the local fishing economy that are not absorbed in the current co-management regime. These findings challenge both policy goals and community-based resource management itself. I argue that governance of small-scale fisheries – in order to close the gap between locally based understandings, policy and legislation – should always be built upon all dimensions (social, economic, ecological, and political) that define a fisheries system.Keywords: co-management, common-property resource management, political ecology, Mweru-Luapula fishery, Zambia.

scholarly journals Negotiating the Political Ecology of Aboriginal Resource Management: How Mi'kmaq Manage Their Moose and Lobster Harvest in Unama'ki, Nova Scotia, Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Bernard Huber
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication

<p>Since the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the fishing and hunting rights of the Mi'kmaq nation in 1985 and 1990, the government has failed to accommodate these in appropriate and effective resource management frameworks. In Unama'ki/Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, the subsistence harvest of lobster and moose by Mi'kmaq has therefore caused cross-cultural conflict and ecological concerns. Since 2006, the Lobster Management Plan (Unama'kik Jakejue'ka'timk) and the Moose Management Plan are being developed under Mi'kmaq leadership to manage the Mi'kmaq harvest communally. These innovative management initiatives will serve as case studies for this thesis to explore how Mi'kmaq negotiate the political ecology of co-management in Nova Scotia and effectively assert Mi'kmaq rights to resource harvest and selfgovernance. Most notably, the management plans employ cultural principles of sustainability and pro-active approaches to cross-cultural communication. This research shows how Mi'kmaq communities have developed resource management capacities and frameworks that can also inspire the self-government aspirations of other aboriginal nations in Canada. Mi'kmaq strategies and experience suggests that aboriginal leadership and cultural principles are integral to the meaningful implementation of aboriginal resource rights. Semi-structured interviews with Mi'kmaq and governmental resource managers illustrated diverse discourses of aboriginal resource rights, ecological knowledge and sustainability. Aiming to represent research insights appropriately, this thesis follows the decolonization agenda of aboriginal methodologies and features reflective discussions of the author's positionality within the Mi'kmaq research community. This also allows for a review of how the author came to terms with conflicting discourses and aboriginal ontologies of ecological knowledge, as well as the requirements for decolonizing research. Supporting reflective insights, a framework of anthropological political ecology and poststructuralist arguments for ontological diversity explain the validity of aboriginal perspectives on ecological knowledge and resource rights, which is the premise of decolonization paradigms. A review of engaging with aboriginal culture both in theory and practice concludes that the practical experience is essential for an appreciation of aboriginal perspectives and thus integral to cross-cultural communication and co-management relationships.</p>

scholarly journals Successful small-scale irrigation or environmental destruction? The political ecology of competing claims on water in the Uluguru Mountains,Tanzania

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Harrison ◽  
Anna Mdee
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
External Support ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Uluguru Mountains ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Small Scale Farmers ◽  
Nearby City

Abstract In the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania, an expansion in informal hosepipe irrigation by small-scale farmers has enabled the development of horticulture, and resulted in improvements in farmers' livelihoods. This has largely taken place independently of external support, and can be seen as an example of the 'private' irrigation that is increasingly viewed as important for sub-Saharan Africa. However, these activities are seen by representatives of government and some donors as the cause of environmental degradation and water shortages downstream, especially in the nearby city of Morogoro. As a result, there have been attempts to evict the farmers from the mountain. Negative narratives persist and the farmers on the mountainside are portrayed as a problem to be 'solved.' This article explores these tensions, contributing to debates about the formalization of water management arrangements and the place of the state in regulating and adjudicating rights to access water. We argue that a focus on legality and formalization serves to obscure the political nature of competing claims on resources that the case illustrates. Keywords: irrigation; Tanzania; ethnography; political ecology; water

scholarly journals Decentralization for Increased Sustainability in Natural Resource Management? Two Cautionary Cases from Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6885
Author(s):  
James Natia Adam ◽  
Timothy Adams ◽  
Jean-David Gerber ◽  
Tobias Haller
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Central Administration ◽  
African Countries

In Sub-Saharan African countries, governments are increasingly devolving natural resource management from central administration to the local government level as a trend toward subsidiarity. In parallel, efforts to implement formalization processes have resulted in a puzzling institutional arena, wherein mixed actors are struggling to influence the paths of institutional change and the associated distribution of land and land-related resources. Relying on political ecology and new institutionalism in social anthropology, we investigate how the decentralization of formalization of rights in artisanal and small-scale gold mining can lead to paradoxical outcomes, often negatively impacting social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Two comparative case studies are performed in Ghana. Our results show that the negative effects of formalization efforts for resource end users are to be understood in the broad context of actors’ repositioning strategies following the selective implementation of decentralization. The authors conclude that increasing the power of the central government and line ministries to control local resources can influence the disenfranchisement of local people’s participation and control of natural resources, resulting in a relentless environmental crisis.

scholarly journals Community forestry in Nepal: a model of common property resource management

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.P. Acharya
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Common Property ◽  
Community Forestry ◽  
Forest Land ◽  
Community Forest ◽  
Common Property Resource ◽  
User Groups ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Property Resource Management ◽  
Forest User

The management of common forest land as community forest in Nepal is in practice since 1978. Studies showing the linkages between community forestry and common property resource are scanty in the country. This article discusses characteristics of common property resources and the principles and practices of community forestry in Nepal which is an example of common property resource management between Government agencies and users (co-managers). Forest User Groups (FUGs ) are the institutions responsible to manage the common property.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document