scholarly journals The political ecology of local environmental narratives: power, knowledge, and mountain caribou conservation

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 273 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Patrick Bixler
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Local Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Conservation Science

Political ecology seeks to address notable weaknesses in the social sciences that consider how human society and the environment shape each other over time.   Considering questions of ideology and scientific discourse, power and knowledge, and issues of conservation and environmental history, political ecology offers an alternative to technocratic approaches to policy prescriptions and environmental assessment.  Integrating these insights into the science-policy interface is crucial for discerning and articulating the role of local resource users in environmental conservation. This paper applies political ecology to addresses a gap in the literature that exists at the interface of narratives of local environmental change and local ecological knowledge and doing so builds a nuanced critique of the rationality of local ecological knowledge.  The ways that we view nature and generate, interpret, communicate, and understand the "science" of environmental problems is deeply embedded in particular economic, political, and ecological contexts.  In interior British Columbia, Canada, these dynamics unfold in one of the most rigorously documented examples of the negative effect of anthropogenic disturbance on an endangered species – declining mountain caribou population.  Science notwithstanding, resource users tell narratives of population decline that clearly reflect historical regularities deeply embedded in particular economic, political, and ideological constructions situated in local practices. This research assesses these narratives, discusses the implications, and explores pathways for integrating local knowledge and narratives into conservation science and policy. A more informed understanding of the subjectivities and rationalities of local knowledges can and should inform conservation science and policy.Keywords: Political ecology, local ecological knowledge, narrative, environmental change, environmental management, British Columbia, Rangifer tarandus caribou. 

scholarly journals Political ecologies of biopower: diversity, debates, and new frontiers of inquiry

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connor J Cavanagh
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Multiple Modes ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Political Ecologies ◽  
Change Mitigation

This article reviews recent literature on the political ecologies of conservation and environmental change mitigation, highlighting the biopolitical stakes of many writings in this field. Although a large and apparently growing number of political ecologists engage the concept of biopower directly – in its Foucauldian, Agambenian, and various other formulations – recent writings across the humanities and social sciences by scholars utilizing an explicitly biopolitical lens provide us with an array of concepts and research questions that may further enrich writings within political ecology. Seeking to extend dialogue between scholars of biopolitics, of political ecology, and of both, then, this article surveys both new and shifting contours of the various ways in which contemporary political ecologies increasingly compel us to bring the very lives of various human and nonhuman populations, as Foucault once put it, "into the realm of explicit calculations." In doing so, 'new frontiers' of biopolitical inquiry are examined related to: i) species, varieties, or 'multiple modes' of governmentality and biopower; ii) critical (ecosystem) infrastructure, risk, and 'reflexive' biopolitics; iii) environmental history, colonialism, and the genealogies of biopower, and iv) the proliferation of related neologisms, such as ontopower and geontopower.

A Political Ecology of Sovereignty in Practice and on the Map: The Technicalities of Law, Participatory Mapping, and Environmental Governance

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 595-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
TYLER MCCREARY ◽  
VANESSA LAMB
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Local Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Effective Governance ◽  
Resource Governance ◽  
Natural Resource Governance ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Territorial Boundaries ◽  
Governance Processes

AbstractThis article examines the relationships between representations and operations of sovereignty in natural resource governance. We advance a ‘political ecology of sovereignty’, examining the participation of non-state actors in resource governance processes. We particularly argue that processes of integrating subaltern populations through mapping local ecological knowledge can modify effective governance practices while nonetheless reproducing the legibility of state sovereign authority and its territorial boundaries. Exploring the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline in Canada, we suggest that state jurisdictional authority is secured through incorporating indigenous interests as a delimited geography of tradition. Examining the Hatgyi hydroelectric development along the Thai–Burmese border, we argue that the territorial boundaries of those nation-states are rearticulated through the governance of this transboundary development. Through these cases, we demonstrate how the insertion of local knowledge works not only to reconfigure effective governance processes but also to reinforce the effect of state sovereignty in new ways.

scholarly journals Political ecology of asymmetric ecological knowledges: diverging views on the eucalyptus-water nexus in the Taita Hills, Kenya

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Hohenthal ◽  
Marinka Räsänen ◽  
Paola Minoia
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Local Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Taita Hills ◽  
Eucalyptus Plantations ◽  
Local Water

Environmental resource management policies worldwide have long insisted on the need to involve local communities and their diverse ecological knowledges in management planning and decision-making. In SubSaharan post-colonial countries, however, formal resource management is still largely dominated by bureaucratic governance regimes that date back to colonial power structures and that rely mainly on professional or formal knowledge. In this study, we use a political ecology approach to analyze disputes over eucalyptus plantations in the Taita Hills, Kenya. The approach recognizes the plurality of socially constructed and powerladen perceptions of environmental resources. We found that local people regard eucalyptus plantations not only as a threat to local water resources but they also highlight historical injustices and the loss of control over, and cultural relationships to their land. Bureaucratic resource management institutions, however, support the planting of eucalyptus to meet national demands for commercial forestry. Management officials also plead a lack of "valid" evidence for the negative impacts of eucalyptus on local water resources, diverting attention away from the formal environmental governance system which has unequal sharing of benefits, unclear policies, and internal incoherence. Recognition of historically rooted asymmetries of knowledge and power provides a step towards social transformation, ending a long-standing reproduction of subalternity, and promoting environmental justice and pluralism in decision-making.Keywords: bureaucratic knowledge; environmental justice; eucalyptus; Kenya; knowledge asymmetries; local ecological knowledge; political ecology; resource management

scholarly journals Ethnozoological knowledge of traditional fishing villages about the anadromous sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) in the Minho river, Portugal

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heitor Oliveira Braga ◽  
Mário Jorge Pereira ◽  
Fernando Morgado ◽  
Amadeu M. V. M. Soares ◽  
Ulisses Miranda Azeiteiro
Keyword(s):  
Local Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Petromyzon Marinus ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Sea Lamprey ◽  
Artisanal Fisheries ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
Fishing Villages ◽  
Informal Knowledge ◽  
Minho River

Abstract Background Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is a diadromous fish compromised by various stressors, which can lead to population decline and the urgency of stronger conservation regulation. In the absence of documentation of direct knowledge of local populations, a broader zoological and ecological understanding of sea lamprey fishing has become vital for the preservation of traditional practices and conservation of this migratory fish. To this purpose, we collected data from the P. marinus about the artisanal fisheries profile, folk taxonomy, habitat, reproduction, migration, and displacement using a low-cost methodology, through ethnobiology tools, in the four riverine fishing villages in Portugal. Methods A total of 40 semi-structured interviews were carried out during the winter of 2019 in crucial fishing villages in the Minho river. Fishers were selected by random sampling and the snowball technique when appropriate. Interviews applied contained four parts (fisher’s profile, projective test, knowledge about fishing, and ethnozoological knowledge about the sea lamprey). Informal knowledge was analyzed following an emic-etic approach and the set-theoretical Union of all individual competences. The Code of Ethics of the International Society of Ethnobiology (ISE) was the main parameter for the conduction of this ethnozoological research and related activities in the Cooperminho project. Results This first ethnobiological study of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) in Portugal showed a sample of predominantly male fishers, averaging 57.13 years old, and average fishing experience of 37.18 years. The average income of fishers is about 688.28 Euros, and the level of education was predominantly basic. Data from artisanal fisheries showed the time and frequency of fishing, the characterization of fishing boats, and general information on catching lamprey in the Minho river. Three new folk names were attributed to P. marinus. Fishers mentioned sites with rock fragments and sandy bottoms and depth ranges ranging from 0 to 8 m as likely sea lamprey habitats. The villages of Monção and Melgaço are the last areas of the river where you could spot sea lamprey, as well as the last probable spawning grounds for this fish in the Minho river. The hydroelectric dams and predatory fisheries were considered the main obstacles to the migration of sea lamprey. Finally, local fishers also shared the lamprey migration season to feed and spawn. Conclusions Fishers shared a vast informal knowledge of sea lamprey zoology and ecology typical of anadromous species of the Petromyzontidae family, in the central traditional Portuguese communities on the Minho river. This fisher’s knowledge becomes essential to preserve cultural practices of the sea lamprey, which is currently highly susceptible to anthropogenic pressures. Given the real warning of population extinction in the Portuguese rivers (such as the Minho river) and a similar trend in Spanish territory, ethnozoological studies of sea lamprey in Spanish fishing communities may support our findings. Also, this study may assist in the adaptive participatory management of these anadromous fish, as well as in documentation of local ecological knowledge (LEK) and centuries-old fishing practices that are also vulnerable in modern times on the international frontier Minho river.

Use of local ecological knowledge in the management of algal blooms

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS A. SCHLACHER ◽  
STEWART LLOYD ◽  
AARON WIEGAND
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Waters ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Cross Validation ◽  
Local Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Wind Regimes

SUMMARYMore frequent and severe algal blooms are symptomatic of increasing ecosystem stress in coastal waters. Economic losses typically follow and local governments are forced to ‘manage’ this issue. Because many blooms are not monitored, local ecological knowledge (LEK) and oral history are the only practical tools to obtain data on bloom characteristics and identify their drivers. LEK was applied to outbreaks of brown algae on popular tourist beaches in south-east Queensland (Australia). Structured interviews with local citizens who had a close and frequent connection with the ocean provided 541 bloom records, which showed that blooms are regional (≥400 km) rather than local, and that they are a historical (≥40 years) rather than a recent phenomenon. LEK frequently cited that particular wind regimes coincided with the arrival of blooms, but this could not be verified by statistical cross-validation with empirical data. Harnessing LEK was valuable in engaging citizens, in generating testable hypotheses about plume causes, in providing a previously unrecognized historical perspective and in identifying the correct spatial scale of the issue. Multi-pronged approaches will be most effective in addressing blooms where local mitigation actions are combined with broader regional coastal environmental conservation efforts.

scholarly journals The Endangered Coastal Fishers along the Coast of the Archipelago Sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 5-35
Author(s):  
Kirsi Sonck-Rautio
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Local Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Great Cormorant ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Small Scale Fisheries ◽  
Current State ◽  
Fishing Sector

The small-scale fisheries of the Finnish archipelago are in crisis. Three major problems were identified during an ethnographic study of the different stake- holders in the fishing sector: the grey seal, the great cormorant, and regulation of pikeperch harvesting. Within the framework of political ecology, develop- ments in the current state of the fisheries are examined and the policy-mak- ing processes are analysed. Additionally, the notion of knowledge and the role of both scientific knowledge and local ecological knowledge in the context of fisheries management and fisheries management science are discussed.

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