Social equity is key to sustainable ocean governance

Calls to address social equity in ocean governance are expanding. Yet ‘equity’ is seldom clearly defined. Here we present a framework to support contextually-informed assessment of equity in ocean governance. Guiding questions include: (1) Where and (2) Why is equity being examined? (3) Equity for or amongst Whom? (4) What is being distributed? (5) When is equity considered? And (6) How do governance structures impact equity? The framework supports consistent operationalization of equity, challenges oversimplification, and allows evaluation of progress. It is a step toward securing the equitable ocean governance already reflected in national and international commitments

The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Marine Conservation

Non-governmental organization (NGO) engagement in marine conservation can be understood by analyzing the roles that such organizations play. Document and website analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to identify five NGO roles: advocate, expert, manager, watchdog and enabler. Semi-structured interviews were also used to explore the nuances of the enabler role, an approach that works with and through stakeholders to define and reach conservation goals. Drivers of the enabler role were found to be organizational mission, conservation context, and funding needs. Benefits of the enabler role were better coordination and inclusivity, better long term conservation outcomes, targeting capacity and resource needs, better access to some contexts, and extended organizational capacity and resources. Challenges of the enabler role centered on resources needs, defining success and walking away, engaging with stakeholders, and tensions between roles. Facilitating factors included organizational trust, a commonly understood problem, and aligned interests. Strategies for enabling were cultivating trust, working collaboratively, clear communications, and shared responsibilities. The typology and improved delineation of the enabler role presented here may aid NGOs in explicitly identifying the approach(es) necessary to achieve their goals. It may also help observers of the non-profit sector better frame discussion of how roles interact. It is hoped that the systems understanding cultivated here provides organizations, funders and scholars with a new lens into NGO engagement in marine conservation.Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99557/1/Crosman_Roles_of_NGOs_in_Marine_Conservation_Final.pd

Stakeholder Buy-In to Marine and Coastal Resource Management

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2019Many marine and coastal resources can be classed common pool resources and are thus challenging to manage, especially where central government capacity is limited. As a result, marine and coastal resource management often 1) depends on stakeholders’ cooperation with management efforts, and 2) involves systems of complex governance, in which multiple actors including resource users, local communities, local nonprofits, government across levels, and international non-profits and funders work together to undertake management. International non-governmental conservation organizations (INGOs) are prevalent in such settings, working across levels to increase the sustainability and conservation value of resource management, often with the explicit intent of increasing stakeholder buy-in – that is, attitudes towards, support for, willingness to engage in, and willingness to comply with management. Yet little research to date has examined how INGO involvement, and in particular INGO direct engagement with users and other stakeholders, influences buy-in. The three papers presented in this dissertation seek to address this gap by presenting research derived from a novel synthesis of common pool resource theory, theories of participation, and theories of NGOs. Paper 1 presents results of an experimental test of an INGO-supported decision-support tool, FishPath, which solicits stakeholder knowledge to better specify management options in data- and capacity-limited fisheries. Thirty-two Australian fishery stakeholders participated in the test. FishPath use significantly increased both the perceived ease and perceived effectiveness of management; stakeholders’ support for management trended upwards but the increase was not significant. Paper 2 presents content and process-tracing analysis of document (n=4) and original interview data (n=46) to examine how INGOs influence community-level incentives for the adoption and implementation of community-based marine and coastal resource management (CBM) in Fiji. INGO activities increase the perceived benefits of both adoption and implementation. However, implementation is experienced as much more costly by community members; INGO activities are not always sufficient to incentivize full implementation of CBM. Paper 3 applies process-tracing and content analysis to the same documents and original interviews analyzed in Paper 2, exploring how INGOs influence resource user participation in Fijian CBM decision making. Despite rhetorical support for increased participation, and the creation of new advisory and implementation structures, INGOs do not broaden user participation in decision-making, which remains in the hands of traditional elite decision-makers who may or may not be responsive to community needs. Furthermore, where community members perceive that they have been excluded from decision-making and their needs left unmet, implementation of CBM appears more likely to fail. Together, the three papers highlight ways in which INGOs successfully increase stakeholder buy-in to marine and coastal resource management, as well as gaps in current INGO efforts. Together, these papers demonstrate the benefits of focused inquiry into the activities of INGOs and other actors engaged in complex governance of marine and coastal resource management, how those activities are experienced by resource users, and how resource users’ experiences in turn influence management outputs and outcomes

The socio-ecological system of razor clams and the Quinault Indian Nation: modeling the potential impacts of ocean change on a steadfast fishery

On the outer coast of Washington state, cultural values and traditional lifestyles are closely entwined with the marine resources affected by ocean change. Our research explores how ongoing ocean change may challenge the social-ecological system surrounding the Quinault Indian Nation’s razor clam harvest. We conducted semi-structured interviews with Quinault tribal members, scientists, and resource managers to generate a conceptual model of the social-ecological system, which we use to 1) understand the emergent effects of changes in availability of razor clams and 2) explore how the tribal community might prepare for or adapt to these impacts. We find that razor clams are a staple food and key income source for the Quinault people due to their high abundance, low cost to harvest, and long season of availability relative to other natural resources. Low-income families experience disproportionate economic impacts during razor clam harvest closures, but less tangible social and cultural impacts are felt broadly throughout the community. Although razor clams have been abundant and safe for harvest in many recent years, the Quinault perceive many threats to the resource, including climate change, harmful algal blooms, pollution, and habitat damage. We will extend our initial conceptual model using formal analysis of interview responses, supplemented with expert interviews of western scientists, to craft a Bayesian belief network of the Quinault-razor clam system. This will enable the exploration of qualitative connections between ocean change, razor clam availability and community-level variables such as indigenous health and well-being, income, and social network composition. Uncertainty around human responses will be incorporated to the extent possible. This work is an ongoing effort from graduate students in natural resource policy and fisheries science as part of the IGERT Program on Ocean Change at the University of Washington

Clam hunger and the changing ocean: characterizing social and ecological risks to the Quinault razor clam fishery using participatory modeling

On the outer coast of Washington state, traditional lifestyles are closely entwined with the marine resources affected by ocean change, e.g., ocean warming, ocean acidification, fishing, coastal development, etc. Our research explores how ongoing ocean change may challenge the social-ecological system surrounding the Quinault Indian Nation's razor clam (Siliqua patula) harvest. We conducted semistructured interviews with Quinault tribal members, scientists, and resource managers to build a conceptual model of the social-ecological system, which we use to (1) understand the emergent effects of changes in availability of razor clams and (2) explore how the tribal community might prepare for or adapt to these changes. Razor clams are a staple food and key source of income for the Quinault people because of their lasting abundance, low cost to harvest, and long season of availability relative to other natural resources. Lower income families experience disproportionate economic impacts during razor clam harvest closures, but less tangible social and cultural impacts are felt broadly throughout the community. Although razor clams have been, in general, available and safe for harvest in recent years, the Quinault people perceive many threats to the resource, including climate change, harmful algal blooms, pollution, and habitat loss. We used the perceived risks identified from the interview results, along with peer-reviewed scientific literature, to develop several ocean change scenarios. Using a stage-based population model of the Pacific razor clam, we explored the relative impacts of these scenarios on annual razor clam harvest over a 20-year period. The simulation of scenarios was developed into a user-friendly web-based application as a planning tool for the Quinault Indian Nation, to help them explore connections between ocean change and razor clam availability, and to support their efforts to plan for and adapt to the impacts of change

An equity lens on behavioral science for conservation

In recent decades, interest in and application of behavioral insights to conservation theory and practice have expanded significantly. Yet the growth of integrated strategies to adapt and guide human behavior in service of conservation outcomes has included limited engagement with questions of equity and power. Here we examine the use of behavioral approaches in conservation efforts, emphasizing potential misapplications that may result from omitting equity and power considerations. Such omission may lead to an overemphasis on the role of individual behaviors relative to system-level drivers of biodiversity loss, result in misalignment between behavioral interventions and the actual drivers of behavior in situ, and incur unanticipated negative social welfare and distributional costs, all of which may undermine conservation success. We offer recommendations for centering equity when applying behavioral insights to conservation, including strategies for high-level agenda setters (scholars, advocates, funders and programmatic leaders) as well as conservation practitioners. The urgent need for biodiversity conservation is insufficient reason to side-step equity and power considerations; we contend that centering equity is consistent with this urgency and key for developing sustainable conservation theory and practice

Social equity is key to sustainable ocean governance

Calls to address social equity in ocean governance are expanding. Yet ‘equity’ is seldom clearly defined. Here we present a framework to support contextually-informed assessment of equity in ocean governance. Guiding questions include: (1) Where and (2) Why is equity being examined? (3) Equity for or amongst Whom? (4) What is being distributed? (5) When is equity considered? And (6) How do governance structures impact equity? The framework supports consistent operationalization of equity, challenges oversimplification, and allows evaluation of progress. It is a step toward securing the equitable ocean governance already reflected in national and international commitments.Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center at EarthLab, University of Washingto