Search

Web3, the third generation of the internet, aims to deliver decentralized and democratic control of information, addressing issues of data privacy, incentivization, and trust through transparency, participation in decision-making and the distribution of value using digital assets. Web3 technologies are starting to change the higher education research and development landscape, offering potential solutions to many of the most entrenched challenges facing applied science, including inefficiency, inequity, bias, exploitation, and exclusion. In this Roadmap, I sketch the various components of Web3 that are likely to be most relevant to the future of decentralized ecological and conservation sciences and encourage greater participation by established scientists to ensure that Web3 technologies genuinely address the problems facing the incumbent science model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature and empirical research show that both trust and collaboration are of great importance for effective fishery management. The application of Machine Learning (ML) to fishery management offers exciting new opportunities for data synthesis and analysis and integrated insights across typically siloed domains. Yet, challenges remain as ML approaches provide new means of monitoring, enforcement and data analysis. Trust is among the underlying bases of collaboration, and control is the main means of shaping collaborative decision‐making techniques. As ML changes the dynamics of governance and enhances management control mechanisms, ML affects trust. ML methods are being introduced into a context that suffers a lack of transparency and trust between fishers and managers. As ML technologies continue to be used to inform fishery management and influence knowledge sharing and communication within the fishery network, forms of trust existing in the management network will be impacted differently. This article provides a concise review of a subset of potential ML applications to fishery management to explore how these emerging methods may impact forms of trust between fishery stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In remote peripheral regions like the Arctic, research networks have been identified as an important mechanism for nurturing science-informed innovation. Given that relatively little is known about the network structures that support Arctic innovation processes, we employ social network analysis techniques to examine the structural organization and evolution of ArcticNet, a large Canadian Arctic scientific research network over a 13-year period (2004-17). ArcticNet funded 152 multidisciplinary research teams, connecting multiple types of science-based innovation actors, not including students (301 organizations and 1659 individuals). The research network grew without reaching saturation (increasing size, decreasing density), suggesting that ArcticNet was successful in recruiting new actors over the 13-year period. ArcticNet was centralized around non-local, public-sector actors (mainly Canadian academics). The emergence of collaborations across several boundaries (sectoral, geographic, thematic) suggests that non-local Canadian academic actors played an important boundary-spanning role, particularly in the early stages of the network. Participation by local northern actors doubled from Phase 1 to Phase 4, and with time, local northern actors had an increasing propensity for carrying out boundary-spanning roles and addressing structural holes. This study presents new insights into the networked nature of Arctic scientific research with potential implications for future research and innovation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's forest landscapes are reeling under severe demographic and developmental pressures. These tensions are particularly pronounced in peri-urban regions that are marked by rapid land use change, weak and overlapping institutions and competing claims on land. This paper examines how rapid urbanization influences place-making and the practice of forest management in Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), India. BNP is an elephant corridor traversing through a human-dominated landscape bordering the megacity of Bangalore. Straying of elephants and leopards into village settlements has led to significant destruction of crops and life. Unregulated real-estate development driven by a boom in the information technology (IT) industry, combined with granite quarries that operate illegally around BNP have altered the characteristics of the surrounding villages. These processes have revealed or created newer forms of inequity that challenge forest institutions to respond ingeniously. Applying concepts from critical institutionalism and ethnography, our research aims to inform policy efforts to incorporate pluralism in sustainable forest management and rural development. Through data collected over 16 months via observation, interviews, and oral histories we examine the workings of forest management institutions in everyday social life. We map specific modes through which four marginalized agents navigate institutional plurality and intersect with each other in the peri-urban forest landscape. The results illustrate the potency of 'institutional bricolage', wherein agents renegotiate their space in the landscape by actively drawing from available resources to ensure workable institutional arrangements, challenging government efforts to conserve and manage ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ecosystem governance, due to the ecological, social, and jurisdictional complexity of these systems, pluralities of knowledge are increasingly necessary for informed decision-making. However, there are frictions between different kinds of knowledges, whether scientific, bureaucratic, or local. The bringing together of Indigenous and Western knowledge systems is an especially intractable challenge. Indigenous knowledge is frequently incommensurable with dominant scientific frameworks, particularly in how many Indigenous Peoples conceptualize the social roles of nonhumans. Nonetheless, Indigenous and scientific knowledges are regularly brought together in contexts ranging from wildlife co-management to global environmental assessments, and this can involve Indigenous knowledge being selectively adopted, integrated, translated, or just ignored to fit within those frameworks. In this literature review we suggest that Actor-Network Theory--a way of accounting for the webs of relations constituting and generating social and natural worlds--has the potential to help researchers and practitioners challenge the ontological boundaries that make this work difficult. ANT, as well as other approaches under the wider umbrella of posthumanism, could fit within existing pluralist frameworks like Two-Eyed Seeing which strive to address entrenched power dynamics in work involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples, and help inspire new participatory methods for understanding and enhancing knowledge pluralism in governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The designation of dark sky areas (DSAs) is an increasingly popular regulatory tool for mitigating light pollution in rural communities with tourism-based economies. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence available on how the DSA model functions in practice, including the opportunities, challenges and controversies that can arise. Focusing on the world's first permanent DSA, the Torrance Barrens Dark Sky Preserve in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada, we examine the stakeholder dynamics involved in DSA establishment and management. Using key informant interviews and survey research, our case study analysis illustrates the nuances of regulating light, showing how various socio-political barriers to light pollution abatement were (or were not) overcome through sustained 'dark sky activism'. The findings inform management strategies for reducing light pollution, while also providing practical information for environmental planners and managers of DSA communities. Future research needs are also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the history of Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), a deciduous forest south of Bengaluru city, India that is undergoing rapid socio-ecological transformations. Using remotely sensed data combined with interviews, oral histories and archival material we map the changing landscape to discern continuity and change in BNP across pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. Our findings show that complexity is historically contingent and is core to the understanding of contemporary forest governance challenges. Legacies of past social structures such as caste remain a visible presence in the landscape and affect institutional functioning significantly. Our findings also uncover the role of exogenous factors such as the park's peri-urban location and post-liberalization policies in adversely affecting "rules-in-use". A historical approach can offer analysts better grounded and "situated" understandings of the complex interplay between institutions (formal, informal, traditional, modern) and the patterned social practices operating in natural resource systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing and managing sustainable agro-ecosystems remains a significant challenge for society. This is largely because their expected functions and values are multiple, and diverse networks of actors and institutions control common pool resources at different scales. Networks are expected to play an important role in facilitating collective innovation in agro-ecosystems, through enabling knowledge acquisition and transfer, resource mobilization for effective governance, and cooperation. However, in order to realize their potential benefit networks require effective management. Drawing on case studies located in the peri-urban agro-ecosystems surrounding Montreal (Quebec, Canada) and Paris (France), we analyze four collective innovation initiatives aiming to reduce the negative impacts of agriculture on the environment. For each case, we assess the contribution of network managers to the core tasks of: “Connecting” (initiating and facilitating interaction processes between actors), “Framing” (guiding interactions through process agreement), “Knowledge brokering” (facilitating knowledge transfer and capitalization) and “Exploring” (searching for goal congruency by creating new content). We then pay particular attention to the activities associated with Exploring across our cases and consider the implications for more collective approaches to designing innovation in agricultural landscapes. Our results suggest that, despite heterogeneity in the activities of network managers in each context, network managers devoted efforts across each of the four tasks. Yet, building a shared vision and engaging diverse stakeholders in a common goal over time were reported as challenging. We identify that the network managers tended to set objectives at the outset, and that design processes were often confined to a limited subgroup of actors. While these strategies were viewed as being efficient in the short term, they likely limited the success of the collective enterprise in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has identified an urgent need to renew agriculture's traditional design organization and foster more open, decentralized, contextualized and participatory approaches to design and innovation. While the concepts of co-design and co-innovation used in agriculture resemble features of open innovation, they may benefit from ‘inbound open innovation’ themselves through cross-fertilization with management studies, design science, science and technology studies, and organization studies. This special issue brings together different streams of research providing novel perspectives on co-design and co-innovation in agriculture, including methods, tools and organizations. It compares empirical experiences and theoretical advances to address a variety of issues (e.g., innovation ecosystems, collective design management, participatory design methods, affordances of system analysis tools and network leadership) that shed new light on co-design and co-innovation in support of sustainable agriculture and more broadly transitions towards a diversity of food systems and a circular bioeconomy. This introductory paper presents crosscutting insights and distills from these three directions for future research and practice in agricultural design and innovation: 1) Further opening design and innovation techniques and tools to better account for visual, auditory, tactile and olfactory expressions in evolving designs and what they afford users; 2) Further opening innovation networks in view of creating and stimulating integrative niches that can foster sustainability transitions, which also requires network managers instilling a reflexive stance of network members and broader awareness of power structures attached to organizational, sector and paradigmatic silos in agricultural systems; and 3) Further opening the range of innovation actors to include non-human actants to better account for the agency of the material and ecological. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a novel methodological approach for better understanding how different capital assets can be organized, transformed, and used in different combinations to reduce livelihood sensitivity to climatic stresses – an area that requires greater research attention in the context of adaptation policy. Research was conducted in the northeastern floodplain communities of Bangladesh, regarded as one of the most climate sensitive, resource poor, and highly understudied areas of the country. This wetland-dominated ecosystem is home to diverse resources user groups (e.g., farmer and fisher) who are subjected to regular seasonal flooding, excessive rainfall, drought, and flash floods. Working in 12 adjacent villages of two significant wetlands (Hakaluki haor and Tanguar haor ), qualitative and quantitative data were collected through 15 focus groups ( n  = 15), 35 key informant interviews, and 356 household surveys to better understand how community members adapt in response to their livelihood sensitivity to the climatic stresses. Results indicate that community members organize and transform capital assets in diverse ways to escape climate-induced “poverty traps”. Findings also reveal that interventions from external agencies (e.g., government, non-governmental organizations and market institutions) are an important key to livelihood sustainability for many households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Well-designed and supported innovation niches may facilitate transitions towards sustainable agricultural futures, which may follow different approaches and paradigms such as agroecology, local place-based food systems, vertical farming, bioeconomy, urban agriculture, and smart farming or digital farming. In this paper we consider how the existing agricultural innovation systems (AIS) approach might be opened up to better support the creation of innovation niches. We engage with Innovation Ecosystems thinking to consider the ways in which it might enhance efforts to create multi-actor, cross-sectoral innovation niches that are capable of supporting transitions to sustainable agricultural systems across multiple scales. While sharing many similarities with AIS thinking, Innovation Ecosystems thinking has the potential to broaden AIS by: emphasizing the role of power in shaping directionality in innovation platforms or innovation communities that are connected to niches and their interaction with regimes; highlighting the plurality of actors and actants and the integral role of ecological actants in innovation; and offering an umbrella concept through which to cross scalar and paradigmatic or sector boundaries in order to engage with a variety of innovation systems affecting multifunctional agricultural landscapes and systems. To this end, an Agricultural Innovation Ecosystems approach may help design and support development of transboundary, inter-sectoral innovation niches that can realize more collective and integrated innovation in support of sustainability transitions, and help enact mission oriented agricultural innovation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the architecture of collaboration that exists within inter-organizational natural resource management (NRM) networks. It presents an integrative conceptual framework designed to help operationalize the multi-level interactions that occur between different dimensions of trust, risk perception, and control as key concepts in inter-organizational collaboration. The objective is to identify and justify a series of propositions considered suitable for assessing inter-organizational NRM network collaboration through empirical work. Such an integrative conceptualization goes beyond the existing trust scholarship related to collaborative NRM, and, we argue, offers a useful starting point for further exploring some of the 'inner' social dynamics affecting collaborative performance using complex systems thinking. To help establish the relevance of the conceptual framework to transboundary resource governance, a survey operationalizing different dimensions of trust, perceived risk, and control is piloted in the Salish Sea, an ecosystem that spans the Canada-US border between British Columbia and Washington State. Key challenges associated with operationalizing the framework and future research needs are identified. • Reviews inter-organizational trust, control, and perceived risk in collaborative NRM networks. • Presents propositions relevant to assessing inter-organizational collaborative NRM performance. • Describes challenges with operationalizing such a multi-dimensional and multi-level perspective. • Trials a survey instrument measuring trust, risk and control in a transboundary NRM network. • Tests and validates the empirical performance of survey measures for further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, multi-stakeholder processes have been recognized as being necessary to the development of public policies seeking to promote systemic innovation in response to complex and multidimensional challenges, such as household food security, rural development, and environmental change. Saint Lucia, a small island developing state located in the Caribbean, has been grappling with a wide range of agriculture, food and nutrition security challenges with varying degrees of policy success. Recognizing the significance of the challenge, this paper explores the nature of the stakeholder interactions surrounding the development of Saint Lucia’s 2009–2015 National Agricultural Policy and considers some of the implications for food and agriculture-related policy outcomes. Results reveal a general lack of supportive conditions for effective multi-stakeholder processes, including low stakeholder participation levels, conflicting roles of different forms of social capital in the interactions between stakeholders, and missing “boundary” organizations capable of facilitating a transition towards more flexible and adaptive institutions, enhanced knowledge exchange and learning, and greater trust among stakeholders in the policy network. Future avenues for research and development are subsequently identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically quantifies and analyses (i) the economic contribution of wild foods to rural households, (ii) the household socio-economic, demographic, and geographical correlates of wild food income, and (iii) how wild foods can be better incorporated into integrative food security policies. We used household income data from 7975 households in 24 developing countries across three continents collected by the Poverty Environment Network (PEN). We found 77% of households to be engaged in wild food collection from forest and non-forest environments even though the share of wild food income in total household income was on average only 4%. Poorer households and households experiencing shocks derived higher income shares from wild foods. State land is the main source of forest-derived wild food income while private lands are most important for non-forest wild food income. Considerable regional variation in determinants and the direction of significant relationships indicate there is no one-size-fits-all approach to integrating wild foods into food and forest policies. However, our results reveal potential to increase household food security by integrating wild foods into national food policies in more customized ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines contemporary challenges of formal seed sector participation for resource-poor farmers in Tharaka and engages in a wider discussion of national seed policy and formal seed sector development in Kenya. While many farmers reported utilising modern seed varieties developed by the formal seed sector, the majority of these were introduced through seed aid and maintained through seed saving, supporting seed system integration strategies. Building on these findings, the article discusses ways in which national seed policy in Kenya might be refined to better meet national and regional development goals focused on decreasing the incidence of hunger and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Value chains are an increasingly popular approach to understanding complex policy challenges in agricultural development. However, value chain research and development has often been too narrowly focused on the structural elements of production, resulting in lack of adaptive capacity. Drawing on the concept of communities of practice, this paper seeks to operationalize an understanding of how the social relations that underpin smallholder-related value chains can be better supported to enhance resilience. Case studies from the Caribbean are then used to illustrate how a community of practice approach to value chain development might facilitate the formation of social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tiger conservation often requires local-level support to avoid facing serious political challenges. In order to address the political challenges, the social capital of communities can be utilized to create community action and to help understand local dynamics. We studied the social capital in two villages bordering Corbett Tiger Reserve, India. Our results indicate that social capital of local communities is a significant determinant of potential for community action to support or oppose tiger conservation outcomes. Our results also indicate that specific components of social capital (solidarity, reciprocity and cooperation, networks, and mutual support) were critical in this potential community action. Further, the data suggest that the decline of social capital was led by the financial disparities created by unplanned growth of tourism outside the reserve boundaries. We suggest that policy and management interventions should consider social capital of local communities and ways in which it may support tiger conservation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Wild edible plants (WEPs) are known to make important contributions to food baskets and livelihoods in the smallholder and subsistence farming communities of sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, protecting and promoting the sustainable use of WEPs in concert with more mainstream agricultural innovation efforts has the potential to build household resilience to food insecurity. There is, however, a need to better understand how WEPs contribute to rural livelihoods on a daily basis and act as emergency safety nets during periods of hunger. Focusing on two villages in rural eastern Kenya, we sought to determine which household conditions are correlated with household reliance on WEPs as a coping strategy during times of food insecurity, while also investigating the role of access restrictions on adaptive capacity and the ability to obtain these important food resources. Results reveal that reliance on WEPs is greater in households that report food insecurity, lack off-farm income, and have lower asset levels. Access to WEPs is also a major factor in consumption frequency, with smaller farm sizes and increased distance to harvest areas significantly correlated with lower levels of WEP use. By combining vulnerability and adaptive capacity measures for each household, we created a more complete accounting of the factors that influence WEP consumption frequency, with implications for policy. This study represents an important first step in taking a more holistic view of the subsistence value of WEPs and the myriad factors that influence households' reliance on, and ability to obtain, uncultivated natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arctic science is often claimed to have been transformed by the increased involvement of local people, but these claims of a new research paradigm have not been empirically evaluated. We argue that the "new" participatory research paradigm emerging in Arctic science embodies many of the principles of the Mode 2 knowledge production framework. Using the Mode 2 thesis as an assessment framework, we examined research articles appearing between 1965 and 2010 in the journal Arctic to assess the extent to which there has been a paradigm shift toward more participatory approaches. Results suggest that the involvement of local people has increased only slightly over the last half century and continues to vary systematically among disciplines, organizations, and regions. Analysis of three additional journals focused on Arctic and circumpolar science establishes the generality of these slight increases in local involvement. There is clearly room for more community involvement in Arctic science, but achieving this will require either increasing the proportional representation of the organizations, disciplines, and regions with a track record of successful Mode 2 research, or encouraging Mode 2 research innovation within the organizations, disciplines, and regions currently predominated by Mode 1 approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study into the science–policy experiences of former Environment Ministers (senior politicians) and Department Secretaries/Deputy Ministers (senior public servants) to better understand the role of science-based knowledge in the Executive decision-making processes of Westminster-based governments. Our participants identified a number of factors affecting the value of science-based evidence to strategic public policy processes. They described a lack of access to appropriately contextualized knowledge and a lack of accountability to demonstrate how science was considered in Cabinet decision-making. Many participants felt senior academics had an obligation to be more involved in public policy debates, to advocate policy positions based on their research and to ask questions that could assist governments on environmental issues. Concomitant was the desire for fundamental institutional changes, including greater use of deliberative public participation tools in environmental science and policy and more networked approaches to science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public sector environmental management involves complex and dynamic interactions between those responsible for the science, management and policy responsibilities of government. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study into the perspectives, experiences and understandings of senior bureaucrats from provincial/state and federal government agencies dealing with environmental issues across Canada and Australia. Participants described numerous social capital-related factors as influencing the use of science-based knowledge in government policy processes, including a lack of communication, trust and collaboration. Further, knowledge integration was raised as a major challenge facing governments seeking to enhance co-ordination among agencies and foster innovation. Participants also outlined a desire for more inter-disciplinary and socially robust environmental science to increase its understanding, legitimacy and relevance to decision-making. This paper offers grounded insights into some of the contemporary challenges and opportunities facing senior bureaucrats as they work to improve the connection between environmental science and policy in government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential for collaborative governance approaches to support Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) in the Cree territory of Eeyou Istchee, located in Northern Quebec, Canada, where a long history of large-scale hydroelectricity development, mining and forestry activities have negatively affected wildlife populations, imposing burdens on the traditional food systems and livelihoods of local Indigenous communities. Drawing on key informant interviews with policy actors from government, non-government and private sector organizations working on Impact Assessment in Eeyou Istchee, the potential for more decentralized and networked approaches to regional wildlife monitoring and baseline data collection in support of CEA is considered. Results suggest a shared willingness to collaborate towards improving the overall regional environmental conditions and to generate long-term data on wildlife population and distribution. Challenges include the absence of essential supporting programs (land-use plans, regional environmental frameworks, lead monitoring agencies, designated funding), and high levels of distrust between proponents and NGOs which combine to suppress the initiation of collaborative governance processes as well as the potential utility of any regional monitoring program that might be established. The need for leadership to facilitate reciprocal knowledge flows among actors, build trust and enable long-term cooperative structures based on a shared vision and goal congruency is identified. • Traditional wild food species are core to sustainable development in Eeyou Istchee. • Cumulative effects (CE) of development are negatively impacting traditional foods. • Could collaborative governance approaches enhance regional wildlife monitoring? • A foundation for the collaborative governance of wildlife monitoring is identified. • Policy experimentation with collaborative approaches to monitoring is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Surveyed tiger conservation viewpoints held by conservation professionals. [•] Five major viewpoints identified; moral/ethical viewpoints were most popular. [•] Tiger–tribal viewpoints identified as driving debate with negative policy outcomes. [•] We identify areas of agreement and possible consensus in conservation debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tiger conservation in India represents an excellent case study of the many challenges facing conservation programs internationally. It is well understood that tigers are sensitive to human disturbances and large areas of habitat need to be protected for their conservation. Such protected areas in India are managed by the governments using an exclusionary approach. However, this approach is known to create several issues with local communities, including historical, legal, livelihood and management issues; with a volume of literature suggesting the inclusion of local communities in management. Yet, other evidence suggests that inclusion of communities in tiger conservation may lead to anthropogenic disturbances that can jeopardize tigers. The gravity of the situation is reflected in the recent disappearance of tigers from two key protected areas in India, the Sariska and Panna Tiger Reserves. This review paper connects the key literature from conservation biology, environmental history, management sciences, policy and political sciences to underline the gridlock of tiger conservation: it needs exclusive protected areas that antagonize communities, and it depends on the support of the same communities for success. We examine the possibility of reconciliation between these disciplines, and assert that research on tiger conservation needs to allow for an increasingly interdisciplinary approach. We call for a more integrated approach to tiger conservation, to examine the values inherent in conservation and to shed more light on the social factors that affect tiger conservation schemes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The decentralization of resource property rights has become an increasingly popular policy in many natural resource-dependent communities of the developing world. However, the success of this policy approach depends on both collective action and institutionalization. It is therefore important to evaluate collective action and institutionalization where the process of property rights decentralization is in progress. This paper presents a modified version of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework designed to analyze the decentralization of property rights and the collective action of community members to obtain these rights. It describes a three-phased framework for analyzing: i) the government property right decentralization policy, ii) the stock of capital assets in the community required to achieve property rights by initiating collective action, and iii) the development of an informal institution for effective property right distribution in the community. Finally, to demonstrate its utility to collective action research, we present a case study application of our modified framework to the fisheries property right decentralization policy of the Bangladesh government and the subsequent collective action of a wetland-dependent community. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In 2007 and 2008, the world experienced a significant Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Several factors were perceived as drivers of the crisis, however, its dynamics and consequences for natural resources and the environment remain largely unknown, particularly in Brazil. Combining grounded theory and case study methodologies, this research explores and contrasts the perspectives of highly knowledgeable stakeholders on how the GFC impacted sustainable forest management in the Brazilian Amazon, using the State of Pará as a case study. Our findings indicate that the GFC cannot be considered as a unique phenomenon impacting SFM and that it is intimately linked to other political, social and environmental events unfolding within Brazil and at the global level. Decreased deforestation was perceived to have occurred due to restrained production, increased risk aversion, increased public awareness and enhanced government efforts towards law enforcement. The forest-based exporting segment was seen to suffer the most severe impacts of the crisis. Environmentally friendly initiatives were perceived to offer forest product differentiation in the market; while investments in non-market-oriented initiatives were restrained. Our results suggest that in times of economic crisis, forest policy-makers need to focus on both formal and informal forest economies in order to promote sustainable forest management objectives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Formal cross-sector research networks in Canada face enormous organizational challenges to attain the goals of enhancing the economic and social relevance of science, attracting and retaining world-class researchers, fostering innovation, and improving science communication between societal sectors. This paper presents the results of an exploratory concept mapping policy Delphi exercise that aimed to map the essential characteristics of an ideal cross-sector research network in the natural resource sector. The results suggest that the most important and feasible design features for a future research network are the scope of research, knowledge management and knowledge exchange, which relate to three critical functions of research networks: knowledge production, coordination, and translation. The results also suggest that a future research network should involve all stakeholders affected by, and affecting, natural resource management and that the network be flexible and responsive to various stakeholders' research needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the social capital that evolved in the Sustainable Forest Management Network (SFMN), one of the Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence. Our longitudinal study shows a sevenfold increase in the total number of researchers and a high density of relationships among (researchers from) provinces across the country. The results of a social network analysis revealed that 52.6 percent of the network researchers maintained the same number of collaborators while 46.7 percent increased their number of collaborators enormously: the maximum increase in number of collaborators being 6900 percent and the minimum 6 percent. A bibliometric analysis suggested that the number of publications was strongly correlated to measures of social capital. From a science and innovation policy perspective, the finding that more than half of the researchers in the SFMN did not increase their personal networks of collaborators raises important questions. A theoretical model is proposed to examine whether funding agencies should focus on fostering various network structures and evolutions or rely on competition in the distribution of research funds through networks. The proposed model is designed to measure the impact of various network structures on the development of social capital and research output. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In large cross-sector research networks, good communication is critical to the effective management of research partnerships. In this paper we report on a communication audit conducted to identify the communication pathways and flow of information within the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Network, a Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE). The results indicate a range of communication challenges that can be related to an inherent problem in network management-that of orchestrating some kind of "harmony" among the different and sometimes competing voices of the multiple sectors involved. Our findings confirm the need to design and implement formal organizational communication structures to facilitate the process of creating a shared language and unified goals for the different sectors entering into partnerships in large, collaborative network organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Many organizations and individuals are developing sustainable forestry criteria and indicator (C&I) research and monitoring initiatives at various scales. In support of Canada''s international commitments, the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM) recently (2003) revised a set of national C&I, broadly based on the Montreal Process. Meanwhile, the Province of British Columbia, Canada, has implemented new, results-based, legislation, the Forest and Range Practices Act 2003, which sets objectives for 11 public ‘Values’ that require appropriate C&I for effectiveness evaluation. At the local-level, British Columbia''s forest industry requires indicators to achieve third-party certification. Each of these parties seeks to assess and report on performance. There is, therefore, a recognized desire to define a collaborative approach to C&I research and monitoring frameworks in British Columbia. This paper discusses the results of a rigorous review of indicators related to sustainable forest management (SFM) in British Columbia. Based on the 6 CCFM indicators, 47 SFM questions were developed to guide the selection of potential indicators for British Columbia. A hierarchical framework of proposed SFM indicators was then proposed to provide trend information on resource condition at both the macro (landscape) and local (management unit) levels of forest management. However, a number of key challenges remain for British Columbia as it continues towards a scientifically sound, useful, and effective indicator framework that will demonstrate progress towards SFM at the provincial level. These include stakeholder consultation, practicality, data interpretation and long-term commitment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The concepts underlying the post-Brundtland drive towards sustainable forest management (SFM) have been relatively well defined since 1995. While substantial progress has been made in the science and policy fields related to SFM internationally, a number of significant challenges remain. Inter-jurisdictional examples include determining the appropriate sampling frequencies required to obtain meaningful trends or develop well-founded opinions, the correlation of indicators from different jurisdictions, and problems associated with extrapolation to varying scales of application. More specifically, issues related to monitoring and information reporting (including incentives, funding, the level of streamlined data and information systems, linkages between organizations, critical analyses designed to identify indicators, structured reports and the effectiveness of extension services), remain as challenges for policy makers and forest managers internationally. The papers included in this Special Issue of Ecological Indicators describe a range of innovative approaches to developing forest-related indicator frameworks at varying scales of management, and mark some significant developments in the science underlying indicator utility. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) [1992, Agenda 21: programme of action for sustainable development. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), 3–14 June 1992. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 294pp.], the management of information has become central to the management of forest resources. In the cases of North America and Europe, similar issues have been challenging policy makers as they determine the information suitable for monitoring progress towards sustainable forest management (SFM). Using an ‘online’ survey, this research explored multiple stakeholder perspectives on monitoring and information reporting for SFM in different jurisdictions. The research was based on the premise that an analysis of the variation in stakeholder observations across a range of SFM ‘issue areas’ could provide valuable insight into the perceived need for SFM-related monitoring and information reporting in the regions of Europe, Canada and the USA. Despite the traditional limitations associated with exploratory survey research, the results indicate a demand for more information on SFM-related issues. The results also highlight the degree to which the perceptions of a sample of stakeholders can differ between Europe, USA and Canada. While these results cannot be generalized beyond the present study, they do suggest that further studies are needed to understand stakeholder perspectives on forestry-related monitoring and information reporting in different jurisdictions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Pacific Rim is rich in forest resources. It contains the world's largest contiguous forest areas, high levels of biodiversity, mil- lions of forest-dependent people, and the world's leading wood-product exporting and importing nations. However, because of a range of issues, the Pacific Rim region is also experiencing high rates of deforestation and forest degradation. An important step in addressing these issues and moving toward sustainable forest management is improved monitoring and information reporting at the local, national, and international levels. A number of criteria and indicators initiatives have been developed throughout the countries of the Pacific Rim. These have ranged from international processes to local initiatives such as forest certification. Although there is considerable variability in the issues facing forest policy makers in the countries of the Pacific Rim, it is often expected that criteria and indicators will reflect a level of comparability. This paper presents the results of a comparative analysis designed to identify similarities and differences in sustainable forest management criteria and indicators initiatives in the Pacific Rim region. When considered in the context of globalization, the research findings support international efforts to encourage comparability in sustainable forest management-related monitoring and information reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hazardous chemicals are one of the greatest environmental challenges facing our planet, testing governments in the face of economic and social development. Chemical risks are often complex systemic risks, which require particular governance processes, stakeholder participation mechanisms, and communication procedures to manage. In this article we explore how such processes, mechanisms, and procedures could offer more effective pathways for international chemical risk assessment and management. Combining document analysis with 69 key informant interviews and four focus groups with experts from across government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and industry in Canada, the USA and Europe (n = 24), the results highlight the importance of increasing stakeholder participation and risk communication in existing chemical risk assessment and management frameworks. Similarities and differences between the three jurisdictions are discussed with a view to inform future risk governance strategies. The contemporary insights are of relevance to decision-makers seeking to improve the effectiveness of chemical risk governance in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note presents the results of a bibliometric analysis that was conducted to better understand the impact that Sustainable Forest Management Network (SFMN) funded research had in the forest-related social and Aboriginal research communities. We applied two indicators of research impact: (i) research outputs and (ii) citations. Our results suggest that the SFMN's research outputs were highest in the fields of economics, sociology, and political science and law. The number of research articles that acknowledged the SFMN was 30% of the total research output of the SFMN-funded Principal Investigators. These articles represented 3% of the social science articles published in the Forestry Chronicle (the journal most frequently used by SFMN-funded Principal Investigators). Research output related to Aboriginal forestry indicated that the SFMN had a significant influence on the development of the field. Our citation analysis indicated that the average number of citations per SFMN-acknowledged publication in the social sciences was approximately the same as the international impact standard in the field. These results suggest that the SFMN-funded research in the social sciences compared very well with the international research standards in forest-related social sciences. Cette note de recherche expose les résultats d'une analyse bibliométrique effectuée afin de mieux comprendre l'impact des projets de recherche financés par le Réseau de gestion durable des forêts (RGDF) au sein des communautés scientifiques préoccupées par les aspects sociaux et les enjeux autochtones en foresterie. Nous avons utilisés deux types d'indicateurs pour mesurer l'impact de la recherche : (i) la production scientifique et (ii) les citations. Nos résultats montrent que la production scientifique du RGDF est la plus prolifique dans les domaines de l'économique, de la sociologie, de la science politique et du droit. Le nombre d'articles scientifiques qui reconnaissent la contribution du RGDF 30 % de la production totale des chercheurs principaux financés par le RGDF. Ces articles constituent 3 % des articles en sciences sociales publiés dans le Forestry Chronicle (la publication la plus fréquemment utilisée par les chercheurs principaux financés par le RGDF). La production scientifique reliée à la foresterie autochtone montre que le RGDF a eu une influence marquante sur le développement du domaine. Notre analyse des citations indique que le nombre moyen de citations par publication en sciences sociales attribuée au RGDF est approximativement le même que la norme internationale dans ce domaine. Ces résultats indiquent que la contribution scientifique du RGDF dans le domaine des sciences sociales se compare très bien aux normes internationales dans le domaine de la recherche en sciences sociales en lien avec la foresterie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 mitigation measures including border lockdowns, social distancing, de-urbanization and restricted movements have been enforced to reduce the risks of COVID-19 arriving and spreading across PICs. To reduce the negative impacts of COVID-19 mitigation measures, governments have put in place a number of interventions to sustain food and income security. Both mitigation measures and interventions have had a number of impacts on agricultural production, food systems and dietary diversity at the national and household levels. Our paper conducted an exploratory analysis of immediate impacts of both COVID-19 mitigation measures and interventions on households and communities in PICs. Our aim is to better understand the implications of COVID-19 for PICs and identify knowledge gaps requiring further research and policy attention. To understand the impacts of COVID-19 mitigation measures and interventions on food systems and diets in PICs, 13 communities were studied in Fiji and Solomon Islands in July-August 2020. In these communities, 46 focus group discussions were carried out and 425 households were interviewed. Insights were also derived from a series of online discussion sessions with local experts of Pacific Island food and agricultural systems in August and September 2020. To complement these discussions, an online search was conducted for available literature. Identified impacts include: 1) Reduced agricultural production, food availability and incomes due to a decline in local markets and loss of access to international markets; 2) Increased social conflict such as land disputes, theft of high-value crops and livestock, and environmental degradation resulting from urban-rural migration; 3) Reduced availability of seedlings, planting materials, equipment and labour in urban areas; 4) Reinvigoration of traditional food systems and local food production; and 5) Re -emergence of cultural safety networks and values, such as barter systems. Households in rural and urban communities appear to have responded positively to COVID-19 by increasing food production from home gardens, particularly root crops, vegetables and fruits. However, the limited diversity of agricultural production and decreased household incomes are reducing the already low dietary diversity score that existed pre-COVID-19 for households. These findings have a number of implications for future policy and practice. Future interventions would benefit from being more inclusive of diverse partners, focusing on strengthening cultural and communal values, and taking a systemic and long-term perspective. COVID-19 has provided an opportunity to strengthen traditional food systems and re-evaluate, re-imagine and re-localize agricultural production strategies and approaches in PICs. [Display omitted] • Covid-19 mitigation measures have reduced agricultural production, food and incomes. • Covid-19 interventions increased household's production of root crops, vegetables and fruits. • Household dietary diversity has declined. • Cultural safety networks and traditional food systems have been reinvigorated. • Covid-19 mitigation measures have exacerbated pre-existing hardships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global social and economic changes, alongside climate change, are affecting the operating environment for agriculture, leading to efforts to increase production and yields, typically through the use of agrochemicals like pesticides and fertilizers, expanded irrigation, and changes in seed varieties. Intensification, alongside the expansion of agriculture into new areas, has increased harvest, but has also had numerous well-known impacts on the environment, ultimately resulting in a loss of resilience and lack of sustainability in agro-ecosystems. Combined with features of agricultural systems such as the differential movement of ecosystem services, and interactions among ecosystem services driven in part by management choices, such intensification has disrupted key feedbacks in agricultural systems. These changes have tended to perpetuate the management choices that have led to efficient, productive agriculture, often at the expense of nature and the provision of important nonfood ecosystem services. Here, we explore how agriculture functions as a complex adaptive system. We assess how recent changes have interacted with agro-ecosystem features to result in a loss of resilience, and suggest key research directions to help harmonize production and ecosystem function, drawing primarily on Canadian examples. Enhancing the resilience of agricultural landscapes is critical to the long-term sustainability of agriculture in a rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable and equitable natural resource governance remains both a major societal goal and significant policy challenge, in part because it involves cross-scalar interactions between nested social and ecological systems. Focusing on the importance of institutions, Crona et al. ([16], 45) defined natural resource governance as a "broader system of formal or informal institutions in which the management actions are embedded and which provide the essential direction, resources, and structure needed to meet the overarching resource governance goals". Formal institutions in natural resource governance systems therefore need to carefully understand and account for the degree to which existing resource governance structures and relationships between formal and informal institutions are inclusive, equitable, and adaptive. Concerted management efforts towards realizing more horizontal and networked forms of resource governance, particularly in common-pool resource settings, may help to reduce the gap between government and community perceptions. [Extracted from the article]

This study expands the Inter-Institutional Gaps (IIGs) framework to conceptualize the legitimacy associated with different types of ecological knowledge (e.g., scientific, traditional and local) used in natural resource governance. We draw on primary qualitative data, and document analysis to examine a case of inland fisheries management in the north-eastern floodplain of Bangladesh. We posit that the pragmatic, moral, cognitive, and regulative legitimacy for different types of ecological knowledge are repeatedly reevaluated by rule-makers and resource users in the process of rule-devising. Results show that inter-institutional gaps may be perpetuated when formal rules do not sufficiently consider traditional and local ecological knowledge. While it is widely proposed that systematically incorporating different knowledge types can better address local-national policy problems, this study underscores that the source of legitimacies for different knowledge types often differs across formal and informal institutional actors. Recognizing the differences is critical to fishers' resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, we surveyed cannabis growers about their experiences with California's commercial cultivation legalization system. Our results suggest high rates of noncompliance with the new regulations. Of the respondents, 31% reported income from cannabis and had not applied for cultivation licenses, indicating a violation of state regulations. These findings highlight the need to further explore conditions that might incentivize growers to apply for cultivation licenses. Respondents' answers and comments indicate modifications to cannabis cultivation licensing programs might be needed to reduce compliance costs and regulatory inconsistencies and to overcome threats of legal repercussions from enhanced bureaucratic oversight. Growers characterized legalization as a process that excludes small growers, contributes to an increase in black market sales and undermines the economies in rural communities. More research is necessary, including on the socioeconomic and environmental contributions that unlicensed small cannabis growers make to rural regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NZ's Indigenous recognition process has not achieved distributional, procedural, and recognition-based justice. • Despite treaty rights, Māori lack political authority to mitigate the biophysical effects of agricultural expansion upstream. • Government policies that support intensified forms of agricultural production mitigate crises of overaccumulation. • The recurring nature of these crises indicates a rationale for continued engagement with state bodies to advance justice. • Government claims that Māori grievances are "settled" obscure logics for resistance. How is it that the New Zealand government's process for re-establishing Indigenous fishing rights has failed to deliver thriving Māori fisheries? This paper examines why, at Te Waihora, a coastal lake, and site of one of the nation's longest running and best-funded state-Māori co-governance agreements, Māori fishers have been unable to use their rights to support their fishery. As of 2018, the lake's culturally and ecologically significant eel population was no longer commercially viable, a decline fishers have attributed to rampant dairy industry expansion upstream. Drawing on environmental justice literatures, we deploy a multi-dimensional framework to identify factors shaping possibilities for justice in the wake of rights reconciliation, as experienced by Māori fishers, scientists, and leaders. We engage theories of political economic relations to interpret the implications of these experiences for environmental justice theory and politics. Ethnographic accounts demonstrate that the New Zealand government's process for re-establishing Māori rights falls short of achieving distributional, procedural, and recognition-based dimensions of environmental justice, and that these effects are interlinked. In particular: (i) downstream fishers are placed to bear disproportionate costs of runoff from upstream land use change; (ii) Māori fishers have little influence over governance decisions that affect land use; and (iii) government claims, including that Māori should, "move beyond grievance mode," obscure logics for resistance. We suggest that the government's support for dairy industry expansion represents an attempt to mitigate crises of overaccumulation, characteristic of competitive markets. Unlike those who identify persistent injustice as a logic for turning away from the state, we argue that the recurring nature of these crises, and the role state organizations play in directing responses, indicates a rationale for continued engagement with state governing bodies to advance justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transboundary governance of Pacific salmon fisheries requires interactions between institutions that can enable collective action, collaboration, and continuous learning. However, relatively little is known concerning how civil servants in different institutions and jurisdictions interact with each other within transboundary policy settings. In this paper, we explore the interactions of civil servants from agencies in five jurisdictions: United States (federal), Canada (federal), British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska, to assess the extent to which they interact within the Pacific salmon policy network and also the social capital (i.e., formal and informal communication and trust) present among these working relationships. Our results reveal patchy patterns of interagency communication, and relatively low levels of interagency trust between jurisdictions, suggesting the potential for improved collaboration on Pacific salmon governance. Our analysis also revealed that the binational Pacific Salmon Commission had the highest levels of trust within the network, suggesting it is likely well placed to foster collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study tests the potential utility of Stakeholder Analysis to Protected Area management. Using Corbett National Park (CNP), India, as a case study, Stakeholder Analysis (SA) was used to identify important stakeholder groups and assess their relationships, relative power and importance. This exercise was undertaken to assist the managers of CNP with future strategy formulation and implementation. The results demonstrate SA to be a simple, yet effective, method that can help PA managers understand the social dimensions of their undertaking, without waiting for long-term policy changes. The results reveal possible stakeholder alliances, and those that may need strengthening to guarantee the welfare of CNP. Divergent opinions on the same issue were also discovered. This underlines that addressing low levels of knowledge and misplaced information may be of strategic importance in reducing conflict against a PA. This research also helps theorize previously unexplored relationships among stakeholders in India, using the framework of Stakeholder Theory. Repeating the exercise on a regular basis could help PA managers monitor stakeholder interactions and political positions over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]