Dissertations / Theses: 'Natural resource management policy'

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Missios, Paul C. "Three essays on environmental and natural resource management and policy." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape3/PQDD_0017/NQ56248.pdf.

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Cummings, Jonathan. "Decision Support for Natural Resource Management." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2014. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/290.

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This research spans a variety of research topics with a common theme, providing decision support through the development and analysis of methods that assist decision making for natural resource and wildlife management. I used components of structured decision making and decision analysis to address natural resources management problems, specifically monitoring and estimating the status of harvested populations, as well as data collection decisions for landscape conservation. My results have implications for the way populations are monitored and their status is estimated. I find that the inclusion of error in data collection can have a substantial impact of the performance of abundance and growth rate estimates of harvested species and that the selection of estimation methods depends on what management objectives are most important. For example, the Sex-Age-Kill population estimation method best estimates the size of populations, while the Downing population reconstruction method better estimates trends in population growth rates. I provide a framework to support selection of the best estimation method while considering a monitoring program as a whole. Based on this framework the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department will obtain the most benefits from a monitoring program including necropsy analysis that uses the Downing method to track population status. Finally, I demonstrated the use of value of information analysis as a tool to determine the relative expected benefits of addition spatial data collection for use in landscape mapping and conservation. This type of analysis can provide conservation agencies with a planning tool to direct budgets and mapping efforts.

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Moore, Elizabeth Ann. "Watershed Groups in Ohio: An Assessment of Diversity, Trends, and Policy Implications." The Ohio State University, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1393074328.

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Mason, Pamela Anne. "The Standing Stock of Organic Matter in a Man-Made Brackish Marsh and its Resource Management Implications." W&M ScholarWorks, 1989. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539617607.

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Craig, Martha. "Land use and Wetland Function: A Sensitivity Analysis of the VIMS Nontidal Wetland Functional Assessment Method." W&M ScholarWorks, 1992. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539617640.

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Rihoy, Elizabeth. "Devolution and democratisation: policy processes and community-based natural resource management in Southern Africa." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/2507.

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Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
By presenting case studies from the village of Mahenye in Zimbabwe and the five villages of the Okavango Community Trust in Botswana, the study looks beyond the objectives, discourse and contests of policy and undertakes an investigation of what actions rural people are undertaking inside the institutions established by policy makers, and of governance outcomes at the local level. These case studies reveal that unfettered devolution can lead to elite capture and the perpetuation of poverty; that rural communities themselves have agency and the ability to exercise it; and that there is limited and shrinking political space in both countries which is reducing opportunities for rural communities to engage with political processes. The Botswana case studies demonstrates that an imported and imposed devolutionary initiative which lacks links to higher levels of governance can reduce political space at local levels. The Zimbabwe case study demonstrates that political space may be more effectively created through decentralisation. The lesson drawn from these case studies is that institutional arrangements and roles should be determined by context specific issues and circumstances and move beyond the structural determinism that has characterized much of the CBNRM debate to date. The study concludes with policy recommendations. These include the need for recognition of the synergy between CBNRM and democratisation as mutually reinforcing processes and the need to be context-specific.
South Africa

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Poland, Kenneth Brice. "Learning in the Ecology of Games." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1588263535297868.

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Gootee, Roje Stanis. "Merging public and private domains implications for the design and implementation of natural resource policy /." Pullman, Wash. : Washington State University, 2009. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Dissertations/Spring2009/r_gootee_031109.pdf.

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Fuller, S. C. "Implementation of natural resources management policy in Zimbabwe 1980-1999." Thesis, University of Kent, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.344108.

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Howorth, Christopher Nigel. "Local management of natural resources in southern Burkina Faso." Thesis, Northumbria University, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.245282.

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Sargent-Michaud, Jessica. "Arsenic in Drinking Water and Public Opinion on Wildlife Management as Case Studies Illustrating Natural Resource Policy." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2002. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/Sargent-MichaudJ2002.pdf.

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Geczi, Emilian. "Placing natural resource decisions in social and historical contexts: Sociological inquiries into agency communications, management rationalities, and community change." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2016. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/551.

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A sociological understanding of natural resource management decisions traces the links between historical change (How does this historical period differ from other periods?), society (What social relations exist at this time and how do they persist or change?), and individuals (What types of conduct and discourse prevail in this society and in this period?). The papers submitted for this dissertation examine the connections between identity, social milieu, and historical change relative to three resource management issues: (1) The promotion of nature play areas as a novel landscape form. Analysis of agency materials suggests that these spaces are advertised as bucolic settings for children's healthy development. Online and on-site communications about nature play guide both children's and adults' conduct according to specific ideas about nature, parenting, and education. (2) The sway of the instrumental rationality inherent in the ecosystem services approach to planning and management. Traditional sociological theory suggests that, for all of its promise to internalize environmental externalities in decision-making, the ecosystem services approach reduces society's capacity for engaging critically with the forces that shape our world. The recent "nonhuman turn" in social theory offers alternatives to the utilitarian ethic and quiescent character of ecosystem services. (3) The impact of changing demographics in amenity-rich towns on community wellbeing. This resident survey of four Vermont towns experiencing different rates of growth examines the utility of categories such as permanent and seasonal residents, and newcomers and longterm residents, in understanding attitudes toward community development and preservation of natural and cultural resources.

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Derrien, Monika Marie. "Discourse as Social Process in Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resource Management: Arguing, Constructing, and Performing." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2015. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/398.

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This dissertation examines the language-based, discursive processes through which meanings and experiences are socially constituted in outdoor recreation and natural resource environments. Language use and discourse are seen as interactive, constructive processes, approached through the theoretical perspectives of argumentation, social constructionism, and performance. Three qualitative studies, based in data collected at Acadia National Park and forest-related sites throughout Vermont, comprise this dissertation. The first study uses rhetorical analysis to examine the ways National Park Service managers and community leaders argue for the meanings and management of dark night skies in and around Acadia. The second study examines how national park visitors socially construct meanings of night sky experiences, focusing on the structure, functions and styles of language. The third study evaluates forest-oriented environmental interpretation materials produced by Vermont-based agencies through an analysis of performance. Each study analyzes a different type of discourse: semi-formal "expert" language solicited in interviews with managers and leaders (study 1), semi-formal "naive" language solicited in interviews with park visitors (study 2), and formal, written texts produced by agencies (study 3). Results show how language is used to forge agreement across competing ideals; construct meanings despite undeveloped vocabularies and intangible values; and direct visitors to perform forests in ways that develop the meanings of place. These studies contribute to the understanding of how individuals and organizations use language within discourse practices to create the reality in which socially- and culturally-important natural resource environments are managed and experienced, forming a body of work that informs theory and practice.

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Huber-Stearns, Heidi Rebecca. "Investments in watershed services| Understanding a new arena of environmental governance in the western United States." Thesis, Colorado State University, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3720572.

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Issues around sustainably managing freshwater resources are one of the most challenging and timely issues affecting the globe. In response to rising social and ecological complexities, decision makers are faced with designing new policies and programs to effectively govern water resources. This shift towards new freshwater resource management approaches is in line with recent movement toward incentive-based mechanisms such as “Investments in Watershed Services” (IWS). The western United States contains one of the most concentrated IWS populations, in a time when population growth, intensifying land uses, and climate-induced environmental changes are stressing ecological systems in the region. My dissertation focuses on understanding this new arena of environmental governance aimed at freshwater conservation in the US West. Through three sets of data and analytical lenses I explore: the characterization of this new arena of governance, what led to its recent and significant growth, and what changes have occurred with respect to how such water resources were traditionally governed. I employ a mixed methods approach, using quantitative approaches to characterize the study population and temporal changes, and qualitative approaches to dive deeper into understanding specific phenomena. First, I improve understanding of IWS as an institution, and demonstrate the importance of dynamics between institutional factors for external context, program structure, and other related analytical domains in shaping how PWS is applied to water resources challenges globally. Through an institutional analysis of IWS and the use of cluster analysis to group programs around buyer types and management actions, I highlight the role of government, influence of geographic context, and role of both regional and local conditions in shaping IWS design and structure. Second, I demonstrate that government actors are essential to IWS in the region, expanding beyond existing regulations and traditional roles. This exploration of the role of government within adaptive governance shows the evolving and expanding role of government over time, from federal regulations driving early water quality management, then state legislation driving water quantity programs, and more recently, federal agencies partnering on local water source protection efforts. Third, I show how key individuals and organizations create voluntary IWS in response to risk, aligning policies, politics and problems into solution framing, which suggests policy process theories more explicitly consider social-ecological complexities. These programs constitute the most recent expansion of IWS in the US West, and applying a policy process theory sheds light into the formation of the IWS, and the political, economic, ecological and social components that aligned to make the programs possible. My research shows this new arena of environmental governance as adaptive, place and problem-based, learning and collaboration-focused, accepting of uncertainty, and containing nimble and adaptive government across scale. My work also creates a baseline of IWS in the region, and identifies areas for future research as IWS matures over time.

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Beland, Lindahl Karin. "Frame analysis, place perceptions and the politics of natural resource management : exploring a forest policy controversy in Sweden /." Uppsala : Dept. of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2008. http://epsilon.slu.se/200860.pdf.

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Tochterman, Thomas L. "Environmental Leadership: Exploring Environmental Dissonance Involving Natural Resource Consumption and Ecosystem Degradation." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2624.

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As the corporate world, communities, and individuals become more globalized and demands on natural resources increase, a new emphasis on environmental leadership including a new pragmatic environmental ethos is needed to meet certain basic human needs of future generations. The research problem addressed in this study was the lack of knowledge concerning how environmental cognitive dissonance influences consumption practices related to inefficient resource utilization and ecosystem degradation. The purpose of this study was to provide an understanding of the breadth and depth of environmental cognitive dissonance among visitors to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. The research questions addressed the development, manifestation, and mitigation of environmental cognitive dissonance. This qualitative case study was designed for a purposeful sample of 12 participants visiting the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Data were collected via structured interviews, field observations, and questionnaires, and then were analyzed using a data spiral and cross case analysis. The dominant findings indicated that (a) awareness of personal values, culture, and perceptions of the environment were responsible for basic attitudes regarding the environment and consumption; (b) wasteful habits, excessive consumption, and market influences were juxtaposed with nostalgic/episodic memories and deep thoughts about personal consumptive habits; and (c) an interactive multisensory experience in a pristine and wild environment changed perceptions and values regarding ecosystems and ecosystem preservation. The results of this study could help stewards of natural resources develop a new understanding of consumptive behavior and a new consumer ethos of stewardship and environmental leadership, one that inspires healthy and sustainable ecosystems.

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Mathis, Mitchell Lee. "Policy design in an imperfect world : essays on the management and use of open access renewable natural resources /." Digital version accessible at:, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.

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O'Donnell, Jeffrey Michael. "Collaboration And Conflict In The Adirondack Park: An Analysis Of Conservation Discourses Over Time." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2015. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/391.

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The role of collaboration within conservation is of increasing interest to scholars, managers and forest communities. Collaboration can take many forms, but one under-studied topic is the form and content of public discourses across conservation project timelines. To understand the discursive processes that influence conservation decision-making, this research evaluates the use of collaborative rhetoric and claims about place within discourses of conservation in the Adirondacks. Local newspaper articles and editorials published from January 1996 to December 2013 and concerning six major conservation projects were studied using content analysis. Results show that collaborative rhetoric increased during the study period, and conflict discourses declined, in concert with the rise of collaborative planning efforts. Data also show an increasing convergence between conservation sponsors and local communities regarding the economic benefits of conservation and the importance of public participation. The study has value in examining representations of place and media claims-making strategies within conservation discourses, an important topic as natural resource managers increasingly embrace community-based natural resource management.

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Freed, Sarah J. "Social-Ecological Dynamics of Coral Reef Resource Use and Management." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1106.

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This dissertation investigates social and ecological factors that facilitate effective management of coral reefs as social-ecological systems. Meta-analytical and field-based methods were employed to examine current management challenges and identify strategies that improve management effectiveness and coral reef health. A meta-analysis was used to evaluate biological indicators of reef health in relation to the types of fishing regulations in place (no-take areas, gear restriction areas, and periodic closures) and the actor groups (community-based, co-management, state, private) involved in management efforts for coral reef fisheries throughout the world. Other than enhancement of fish biomass within no-take areas that was significantly greater than in gear restriction areas, most biological indicators benefitted similarly from management techniques of no-take areas and gear restriction areas. Community-based and co-management were the best performing management arrangements for some biological outcomes but require further case studies to verify findings. Investigation of management effects by region indicated that previously degraded reefs received fewer benefits from management implementation than did relatively healthier reefs. For field investigations, the Comoros islands in the Western Indian Ocean served as a model for tropical coral reefs with challenging socioeconomic contexts, high biodiversity, and high vulnerability to coral reef degradation. Empirical study at 21 sites was used to identify the relative effects of natural and anthropogenic threats to coral reefs of the Comoros. Most previous studies of reef health focus on primarily natural factors or a single anthropogenic threat. This study examined suites of natural factors and human activities to identify the relative importance of each on reef health. Human activities including fishing, sand extraction, and beachfront housing and development were the best predictors of reef health status. Most notably, human population and fishing predicted fish richness, abundance, and biomass with seasonal variation in the effects, while site orientation strongly predicted benthic cover. Field studies in the Comoros were also used to investigate the roles of community and state actors in co-management and compare effectiveness of comanagement across sites with varying levels of actor participation. Effective management was found to occur with community or `meta-community' (in this case, a Marine Protected Area in which the efforts of several communities were organized) participation in governance and support of state or external agents, while resilient management that overcame considerable challenges was found to occur only with strong community participation and leadership in governance. External agents were found to contribute to development of meta-community governance structure and initiation of community participation through education and capacity building. The findings from these studies reveal that coral reef management can be improved through context appropriate regulations that address detrimental human activities and through wide acceptance and participation in governance with cooperation among states, communities, and external agents.

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Payne, Raymond W. "Natural resource development and the role of the state : the case of hydroelectric power planning in British Columbia." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27508.

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This thesis explores the role played by the state at the provincial level in the planning of hydro-electric power development in British Columbia. The electric power industry has been a primary focus for government intervention in the economic affairs of most western industrialized countries. Not only has the structure and scope of the state's regulatory activity in the industry been more extensive than most others, but governments have often gone beyond such regulatory supervision to assume a more direct role in the production of the commodity itself. In British Columbia, however, the direct entrepreneurial role played by successive provincial governments led to major planning failures. Serious social and environmental costs were ignored in development decisions, economically dubious projects were constructed, and the electric power system as a whole was seriously overbuilt. This thesis argues that the problems associated with state-directed hydro-electric power development were institutional rather than technical in nature. Two types of institutional factors are shown to have played a key role. First, the scope of power planning has been limited by the role played by the provincial state in the broader political economy of British Columbia. This role has been basically non-interventionist in nature, with the exceptional interventions in economic affairs being associated with the removal of barriers to the private exploitation of the natural resource base. This broad economic role has conflicted with the state's central position as arbiter among opposing societal interests and has biased subsequent government planning activities toward facilitating the supply of electric power rather than evaluating the demand for it. Second, rigidities within the institutions employed by the state to undertake power planning activities inhibited the adaptation of these activities to a changing economic environment. Organized structures were created to implement particular power policy initiatives, and these organizations developed their own set of interests and priorities. Hence, a bias against the re-evaluation of previous policy and planning approaches was created, even in the face of clear evidence of their failings. In Chapter 2, the conceptual and theoretical groundwork for the study is laid with an examination of four alternative approaches to the economic role of the state in western capitalist societies. The key questions explored are the rationale for state intervention, the choice of policy instruments employed, and the effectiveness of these instruments in undertaking goal oriented planning. In Chapter 3, the stage for the analysis of power policy is set with an overview of the economic context of electric power production in British Columbia. This chapter establishes the staple-based nature of the B.C. economy and analyses the changing role played by electric power in this economy. Chapters 4 through 8 detail the historical evolution of power planning and policy in British Columbia. Chapter 4 documents the predominantly laissez-faire approach to power policy during the pre-World War II period and the gradual emergence of demands for a more active regulatory role by government. Chapter 5 documents both the implementation of electric power regulation during the 1950s and the emerging policy preoccupation with underwriting the development of British Columbia's large-scale hydro resources. The chapter focuses on the links between this overall role, the creation of a dominant Crown corporation in the power industry, the decision to undertake an economically dubious sequence of hydro development, and the lack of attention given to environmental issues. In Chapter 6, the focus is on the use of the Crown hydro corporation as an economic policy instrument during the 1960s. The preoccupation with initiating large-scale hydro developments shifted to a concern with producing power at the lowest possible direct cost to the consumer. Chapters 7 and 8 focus on the shift from power policy to power planning. From the late 1960s through the 1970s, policy making at the provincial level was largely replaced by an institutionalized, formally rational decision making process dominated by technical experts. This shift, by creating a powerful set of established interests within the provincial power utility, gave added momentum to the expansionary power policies of the 1950s and '60s during a period when their underlying justification was being increasingly questioned. Finally, Chapter 8 concludes by examining the re-assertion of regulatory control by the provincial state over the now publicly-owned power industry. The conclusion summarizes and interprets the evidence presented in Chapters 4 through 8 in light of the theoretical concepts introduced in Chapter 2. The central problem of state involvement in the electric power industry is shown to be the representativeness and adaptability of policy and planning institutions. A number of recommendations are made to overcome the deficiencies identified in the study.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of
Graduate

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Shapiro, Michael. "Ensuring Our Future or Sowing the Seeds of Our Own Destruction? Crop Insurance and Water Use in Texas." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/131.

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Agriculture is the largest consumer of water in the United States. Policies that affect agriculture therefore have the potential to have a large effect on the overall use of water. Crop insurance is one such policy, which was found to significantly increase water use in the state of Texas. Much, but not all of this effect can be explained by an increase in planting density, and results vary widely by crop and by region.

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Bartlett, Joseph Hollis. "Impacts of Transportation Infrastructure on Stormwater and Surface Waters in Chittenden County, Vermont, USA." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2016. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/426.

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Transportation infrastructure is a major source of stormwater runoff that can alter hydrology and contribute significant loading of nutrients, sediment, and other pollutants to surface waters. These increased loads can contribute to impairment of streams in developed areas and ultimately to Lake Champlain. In this study we selected six watersheds that represent a range of road types (gravel and paved) and road densities (rural, suburban, and urban) present in Chittenden County, one of the most developed areas in Vermont. The location and density of road networks were characterized and quantified for each watershed using GIS analysis. Monitoring stations in each watershed were constructed and instrumented to measure discharge and water quality parameters continuously from spring through early winter. Storm event composite samples and monthly water chemistry grab samples were collected and analyzed for total nitrogen, total phosphorus, chloride, and total suspended sediments. Results from this study show that road type and road density are closely linked with the level of impairment in each watershed. Total phosphorus and total nitrogen from storm event composite samples and monthly grab samples significantly increased along a gradient of increasing road network density. Chloride concentrations increased several orders of magnitude along this same gradient. With the exception of Alder Brook where total suspended sediment (TSS) concentrations tended to be high, there were no significant differences in TSS concentrations between rural and developed watersheds. The elevated storm event TSS concentrations in the rural streams suggest that the unpaved roads in the rural watersheds contribute to stormwater runoff loads and that sediment control, at least in the developed watersheds, might be fairly effective. The overall results from this study show that local roads are a significant source of impairment for streams in the Chittenden County area. Most of these roads are municipal roads that are not under management of the Vermont Agency of Transportation. Thus, local actions will be necessary to reduce runoff and pollutant loading from these roads.

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anderson, Britt-Anne. "Bioremediation of Tributyltin Contaminated Sediment using Spartina alterniflora in a Created Tidal Wetland." W&M ScholarWorks, 2000. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539617751.

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Posner, Stephen Mark. "The impact of ecosystem services knowledge on decisions." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2015. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/413.

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The need to protect diverse biological resources from ongoing development pressures is one of today's most pressing environmental challenges. In response, "ecosystem services" has emerged as a conservation framework that links human economies and natural systems through the benefits that people receive from nature. In this dissertation, I investigate the science-policy interface of ecosystem services in order to understand the use of ecosystem service decision support tools and evaluate the pathways through which ecosystem services knowledge impacts decisions. In the first paper, I track an ecosystem service valuation project in California to evaluate how the project changes the social capacity to make conservation-oriented decisions and how decision-makers intend to use ecosystem services knowledge. In a second project, I analyze a global sample of cases and identify factors that can explain the impact of ecosystem services knowledge on decisions. I find that the perceived legitimacy of knowledge (whether it is unbiased and representative of many diverse viewpoints) is an important determinant of whether the knowledge impacts policy processes and decisions. For the third project, I focus on the global use of spatial ecosystem service models. I analyze country-level factors that are associated with use and the effect of practitioner trainings on the uptake of these decision support tools. Taken together, this research critically evaluates how ecosystem service interventions perform. The results can inform the design of boundary organizations that effectively link conservation science with policy action, and guide strategic efforts to protect, restore, and enhance ecosystem services.

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Feuerbacher, Arndt. "Economy-wide Modelling of Seasonal Labour and Natural Resource Policies." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/19825.

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Die vorliegende Dissertation widmet sich methodischen und empirischen Forschungsfragen mit Bezug auf saisonale Arbeitsmärkte und Politiken zur nachhaltigen Nutzung natürlicher Ressourcen. Hierfür wird ein gesamtwirtschaftlicher Modellierungsansatz angewendet, für den das im südöstlichen Himalaya gelegene Königreich Bhutan als empirische Fallstudie dient. Das methodische Forschungsziel der Arbeit ist, die Relevanz der Darstellung von saisonalen Arbeitsmärkten innerhalb von allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodellen (sog. CGE Modelle) zu ergründen. Dies stellt eine Neuheit in der Literatur dar. Die Arbeit zeigt auf, dass Modelle ohne saisonale Arbeitsmärkte systematisch Ergebnisse, wie Angebotsreaktionen und Wohlstandseffekte, verzerren. Die Saisonalität von Arbeit hat eine hohe Relevanz für gesamtwirtschaftliche Analysen im Kontext landwirtschaftlich geprägter Volkswirtschaften, insbesondere für Untersuchungen des Strukturwandels und agrarpolitischer Interventionen. Empirisch wird die wechselseitige Abhängigkeit von Politiken zum nachhaltigen Management natürlicher Ressourcen mit Zielen des Umweltschutzes und der ländlichen Entwicklung untersucht. Basierend auf unterschiedlichen Modellierungsansätzen, konzentrieren sich drei Studien auf agrar- und forstpolitische Szenarien in Bhutan. Es wird gezeigt, dass Bhutans Ziel, seinen landwirtschaftlichen Sektor auf 100% ökologische Landwirtschaft umzustellen, zu substantiellen Wohlfahrtsverlusten und negativen Folgen für die Ernährungssicherung führen würde. Die Analyse verschiedener forstpolitischer Szenarien demonstriert, dass eine höhere Forstnutzung in Bhutan im Sinne der gesamtwirtschaftlichen und ländlichen Entwicklung nachhaltig möglich ist. Die Arbeit weist auf verschiedene zukünftige Forschungsfelder hin, wie zum Beispiel die Integration von Ökosystemdienstleistungen, was als eine der wesentlichen Einschränkungen bei der modellgestützten Analyse von Politiken zur Nutzung natürlicher Ressourcen identifiziert wurde.
Using an economy-wide modelling approach, this dissertation investigates methodological and empirical research questions related to seasonal labour markets and natural resource policies. The Kingdom of Bhutan, located in the south-eastern Himalayas, serves as a case study. The methodological research objective of this thesis is to gain an understanding of the relevance of seasonal labour markets in the context of economy-wide modelling. The depiction of seasonal labour markets at national scale using a seasonal social accounting matrix (SAM) and computable general equilibrium (CGE) model presents a novel development within the literature. It is demonstrated, that the absence of seasonal labour markets leads to systematic bias of model results. The consequences are distorted supply responses and biased welfare effects, underlining the pivotal implications of seasonality for economy-wide analysis in the context of agrarian economies, particularly for scenario analysis involving structural changes and agricultural policy interventions. The empirical research objective addresses the interdependence of natural resource policies with objectives of environmental conservation and rural development. Employing modelling techniques, three studies focus on specific agricultural and forest policy scenarios in Bhutan. Simulating Bhutan’s ambitious policy objective to convert to 100% organic agriculture demonstrates substantial welfare losses and adverse impacts on food security, causing trade-offs with objectives of rural development and food self-sufficiency. Analysing forest policy reforms shows that increased forest utilization contributes to economic development, particularly in rural areas, without jeopardizing the country’s forest conservation agenda. The dissertation points at numerous areas of future research, as for example the incorporation of ecosystem services, which is identified as one key limitation of economy-wide analysis of natural resource policies.

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Cardwell, Emma Jayne. "It's not fish you're buying, it's our rights : a case study of the UK's market-based fisheries management system." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:adffcd93-ad2b-4f74-9d3d-a1b3d49fc264.

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This thesis, submitted for the Doctor of Philosophy in Geography and Environment, presents a case study of the development of the UK's market-based management system for oceanic fisheries. Implemented gradually in the years since 1984, the informal nature of the UK's fisheries management system, which has developed through a number of incremental changes and government-industry "gentlemen’s agreements" rather than clear legislative moves, means that few official policy documents (and perhaps consequently, little academic literature) on the subject currently exist. This thesis traces the material and political processes of market formation, looking at the origin of market-based policies in the theories of bioeconomics and wider economic history. It asks what the implicit assumptions of the economic discipline can – and can't – tell us about the impacts and outcomes of market creation, and using a Foucauldian inspired approach to economic performativity, discusses the role of ostensibly descriptive theories in shaping the world around them. Finally, it calls for a greater geographical engagement with marine issues, and proposes an action-research role for geographers in the politics of the sea.

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Martin, Jeffrey M. "Late Pleistocene and Holocene Bison of Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau: Implications from the use of Paleobiology for Natural Resource Management Policy." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2014. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2360.

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Bison spp. (bison) fossils are scarce on the Colorado Plateau, especially within the greater Grand Canyon region. Because of the poor fossil record for bison on the plateau and in Grand Canyon National Park, various resource managers have surreptitiously designated bison a nonnative and human-introduced species. The lack of evidence for bison seems to be the result of collection bias rather than a true lack of bison remains. Today, Grand Canyon National Park has a neighboring herd of 350 bison that have meandered unwantedly onto National Park lands from neighboring Forest Service and State of Arizona lands. This study spatiotemporally illustrates bison are recently native to the greater Grand Canyon area based on previously misidentified specimens in archaeological collections. Data here may require resource managers to reconsider whether or not bison should be reconsidered a native species to the Grand Canyon National Park and elsewhere on the Colorado Plateau.

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Halpern, Gator. "Aquculture and Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/40.

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This study examines whether aquaculture has the potential to reduce deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. The natural resources of the Peruvian Amazon are subject to extreme pressures due to increases in subsistence farming, cattle ranching, and logging in the region. The resulting loss of biodiversity has affected the delicate soil balance that is characteristic of the Amazon, and has contributed to water pollution as well as erosion (Guerra et al. 2001). One of the highest rates of deforestation in the Amazon basin can be found at the foothills of the eastern Andes (Lepers et al. 2005), which includes the area in this study, located in the Peruvian state of Amazonas. In this part of the Amazon, deforestation is mainly caused by small-scale subsistence agriculture (Achard et al. 1998) such as that found in the communities of Condorcanqui. Fishing is an essential part of the socio-economic system that functions in the Peruvian Amazon. Fish meat is the most important source of animal protein in the Amazon, and the main generator of cash for indigenous people (McDaniel, 1997). However, freshwater Amazonian fisheries have been subject to extreme overexploitation in the past few decades (Rainforest Conservation Fund, 1999). Boats with technological equipment and large-scale capacities have threatened stocks in local rivers and oxbow lakes, which has affected the ability of small-scale, native fisherman to support themselves (Rainforest Conservation Fund, 1999). The Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana (IIAP) has assisted the development of fish farming in the Condorcanqui region as a way to augment diets and decrease the ecological impact of subsistence farming. Fish farming can also be seen as a way to substitute for the loss of traditional river fishing. IIAP has become the leading governmental organization in fisheries research and aquaculture in the Peruvian Amazon, and works to provide native-species fingerlings, and educational courses to native aquaculturists. This study surveys the subsistence villages along road and river communities to determine the impact of fish farming on deforestation in the Condorcanqui region. This region is populated by small communities of indigenous Awajún and Wampí tribesmen, who practice subsistence agriculture. Data was collected from a sample of 184 families in ten different communities. Five of the villages were situated along the banks of the Nieva or Santiago river systems, while the other five were accessible by road, travelling southwest from the town of Santa Maria de Nieva. Data was collected with the assistance of the Research Institute of the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP), which provided a guide who had relations with all of the communities. All of the families in the sample practice subsistence agriculture, while 104 of the respondents supplement their agricultural crops with fish from aquaculture ponds integrated into their farmland. The participants answered a range of questions about the size of their farms, and the productivity of their land. We use a variety of regression-based approaches to determine how incorporating aquaculture into subsistence farmlands affects deforestation rates after controlling for socioeconomic and farm characteristics. Our study suggests that an extra square meter of aquaculture reduces the area deforested for crops on approximately a one for one basis. However, aquaculture should maintain its productivity for much longer than cropping, as it does not depend on soils whose fertility can be exhausted in a few years. Our simulations, based on our survey results, indicate that over time aquaculture should reduce deforestation significantly, especially in areas where soils provide only a few years of subsistence crops. These should be regarded as interesting but preliminary results. Because we used a convenience-based sampling approach, our results could be affected by selection bias. In addition, we do not have enough information to test whether selection bias in the implementation of fish farming affect our results. Therefore, these results suggest that aquaculture could be useful in limiting deforestation, but additional work should use experimental methods or more in-depth surveys to measure the effect of aquaculture on deforestation.

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Niebuhr, David Harold. "The Metompkin Islands: A Case Study in Ownership and Management of a Dynamic Barrier System." W&M ScholarWorks, 1993. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539617654.

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Olmsted, Daniel T. "Effective Environmental Management of the National Park Service: A Case Study of Channel Islands National Park." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2010. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/51.

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The topic of protected area management serves as the focal point of my thesis. The fundamental question I seek to answer is; what constitutes effective environmental management and how is it exemplified in the National Park Service (NPS)? How exactly does the NPS continually earn the trust and confidence of the American people when so many other government agencies are viewed in a negative light? How does the Channel Islands National Park, in particular, shape the economic and political framework in which it operates to achieve its goals? How does this agency effectively manage such a complex ecosystem spanning across five unique islands and the surrounding waters? More specifically, I examine how the NPS designs and implements strategies to simultaneously monitor a variety of endemic species, some of which are on the endangered species list, into feasible tasks and fundable projects. A wealth of information exists providing salient recommendations for improving endangered species recovery efforts, but this paper provides a detailed comparison of two contemporary recovery programs dealing with independent declines of the same species: the island fox. Finally, there is an overlapping mix of jurisdiction responsible for protecting the Channel Islands and I will also be examining the collaborative processes that take place among the multiple stakeholders such as the U.S. Navy, Catalina Island Conservancy, and The Nature Conservancy. The primary purpose of this thesis is to assess the relationships the NPS develops with other agencies in order to fulfill its mission within the context of the Channel Islands.

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Phillips, Olivia M. "Recruitment Characteristics Of Juvenile Striped Bass (Morone Saxatilis) Across Recovery Periods, Year Classes, And Subestuaries Of The Chesapeake Bay." W&M ScholarWorks, 2020. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1593091767.

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The Atlantic coast striped bass fisheries collapsed in the late 1970's due to recruitment overfishing and poor habitat quality. Recovery of the fisheries in 1995 resulted from protection of mature females, favorable environmental conditions, and several years of strong recruitment. Today, the striped bass stock is overfished. The purpose of this study was to examine recruitment characteristics of juvenile striped bass during the pre- and post-recovery periods through (1) a comparison of mortality and hatch-date distribution between periods, and (2) to examine growth metrics of individuals from the post-recovery year classes. Lengths and otolith-derived daily ages from juvenile striped bass representing three year classes (2011, 2016, and 2017) from the James and Rappahannock subestuaries of the Chesapeake Bay were used to develop subestuary-specific age-length keys. Daily ages of juvenile striped bass from 32 year classes (1986 to 2017) spanning the pre- and post-recovery periods were projected from the age-length keys. Together with count data, the projected daily ages were used to estimate instantaneous daily mortality rates (Z, day-1) for each year class. Although daily Z estimates were relatively constant among the 32 year classes, mean hatch dates shifted earlier today (1996 to 2017) than prior to 1995. Within the post-recovery year classes, daily growth in length and weight was examined along with body condition (Fulton's K). All growth metrics varied by year class and subestuary, but daily growth rates and body condition were inversely related. The results of this study indicate that recruitment dynamics of juvenile striped bass in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay have changed over time, and within the post-recovery year classes, those changes varied among fish from the James and Rappahannock subestuaries.

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DelBene, James. "Investigating Economic Costs Of Derelict Blue Crab Callinectes Sapidus Pots And Preferred Mitigation Solutions In The Chesapeake Bay." W&M ScholarWorks, 2020. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1593091644.

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Derelict fishing gear, particularly pots or traps, occupy waters worldwide and cause negative ecological and economic impacts. Derelict pots persist throughout Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S., that supports a valuable commercial fishery for the blue crab Callinectes sapidus. Chesapeake Bay is responsible for 30-40% of U.S. commercial blue crab harvests. Yet, few studies have quantified the impacts of derelict pots on harvest or the perceptions of commercial fishers on derelict pot mitigation activities in this predominantly pot fishery. This thesis examined the impacts of derelict pots on harvest in a field experiment and worked with commercial fishers to develop and disseminate a mail survey that was used to quantify the preferences and decision-making of commercial fishers for addressing derelict pots. The field experiment simulated the presence of derelict pots near actively fished pots and found that derelict pots can reduce harvests by up to 30% during the summer, but not during the fall. Female capture rates were consistently lower when derelict pots were present, but male capture rates were not negatively affected. To better understand the perceptions of commercial fishers and their preferences for derelict pot mitigation actions (e.g., location and removal program, installation of identification tags on pots), a stated preference survey with a discrete choice experiment was distributed to all commercial fishers licensed to deploy hard pots in Virginia. There was a 42% response rate (430 of 1,032 fishers returned the survey packet), and most mitigation activities included in the survey were too costly for commercial fishers to willingly participate in. Management incentives (e.g., bushel limit increase, pot limit increase, season extension) alone were not enough to offset costs and encourage participation in activities that were disliked by commercial fishers. However, there was strong heterogeneity observed across the population, thus some segments of the population would be far more willing to participate in mitigation efforts than others. For instance, participants that perceived derelict pots to cause only negative impacts were 37% more willing to participate in any mitigation activity on average. Results from this study can be used to better inform resource managers and policymakers responsible for addressing the issue of derelict pots and other types of derelict fishing gear plaguing fisheries around the world.

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Beckensteiner, Jennifer. "Efficacy And Unintended Outcomes Of Spatial Property Rights For Fisheries And Aquaculture Management In Chile And In Virginia, U.S.A." W&M ScholarWorks, 2020. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1593091696.

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Marine spatial property rights reduce many common pool externalities that plague wild capture fisheries and incentivize productive use for aquaculture. Specifically, Territorial Use Rights for Fisheries (TURFs) are a management tool whereby individuals or groups are granted exclusive access to harvest resources within an area, and are the prevailing management of coastal fisheries in Chile. Additionally, secured spatial property rights appear inherently obligatory for aquaculture development; i.e., private leases in Virginia, where submerged grounds granted to an individual or a company for oyster production are considered a form of TURF. Although the number and extent of spatially managed areas are the highest they have ever been in both systems, the impacts of spatial property rights on fisheries and aquaculture sustainability are still not fully understood. The objective of this dissertation was to evaluate current challenges to the effective use of TURFs, deepening our understanding of their efficacy for fishery and aquaculture management. The long-term impacts of the Chilean TURFs network on harvests of benthic resources was investigated both inside and outside TURFs (Chapter 2). Although catch rates were significantly higher inside TURFs than surrounding open access areas, they appeared to be decreasing over time, and, though limited, the impact of TURFs on catches in open access areas was negative. Spatio-temporal trends in private lease use and productivity in Virginia were examined to identify challenges faced by the oyster aquaculture industry. Constraints to aquaculture expansion were investigated by evaluating whether a lack of space limits aquaculture development as well as the extent and drivers of lease non-use (Chapter 3). Limited evidence of spatial constraints was found, although results suggest additional social and regulatory limiting factors. While rates of lease use and productivity increased from 2006 to 2016, only 33% of leases were ever used for oyster production. The non-used leases were potentially held for exclusionary or speculative uses. Additionally, Virginia had the second lowest levels of total production of cultured oysters per leased acre among the states along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts, confirming significant limitations associated with the current leasing system. Production frontier models were used to quantify lease use efficiency (i.e., utilization of space given the underlying environment) for oyster production (Chapter 4). Significant amounts of inefficiency in intensive aquaculture practices suggest that production could increase by at least 64% per lease, on average (though high heterogeneity is observed between leases). Low levels of use efficiency (i.e., underutilization) imply that leaseholders tend to lease more area than needed, likely due to the low annual lease costs and the absence of enforced production requirements. The number of leases held per leaseholder increased use efficiency, whereas leases in more populated areas were less efficiently used. This research contributes to a better understanding of TURF's efficacy and challenges in Chile and in Virginia. Overall, socioeconomic and management factors appear to be limiting productivity and sustainability of TURFs in both systems, recognizing the importance of incentives, enforcement, zoning, and the potential presence of trade-offs between economic, social and biological sustainability.

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Chen, Momo. "The Wind Effects on the Evaluation of Proposed Craney Island Expansions in the Lower James and Elizabeth Rivers." W&M ScholarWorks, 2003. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539617812.

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Goldsmith, William Morris. "Characterizing the Biological Impacts and Human Dimensions of the U.S. East Coast Recreational Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Fishery." W&M ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1530192320.

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Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) are targeted by recreational anglers along the east coast of the United States, and the fishery is thought to be of considerable economic value. However, limited knowledge of the preferences and values of fishery participants impedes the ability of managers to maximize fishery benefits and predict harvest patterns, while an incomplete understanding of post-release mortality hinders efforts to estimate total mortality resulting from the fishery. This dissertation used a multidisciplinary approach that relied heavily on cooperative research with the recreational fishing community to examine these questions. A stated choice survey of private anglers permitted to target bluefin tuna (Chapter II) estimated a fishery consumer surplus of over $14 million in 2015 while revealing striking heterogeneity in angler preferences. Respondents placed a high value on harvesting bluefin tuna, but about half of anglers also valued non-consumptive aspects of bluefin tuna fishing such as catch-and-release. Preference segmentation was largely driven by income and recent bluefin tuna targeting behavior, with high-income anglers who had recently targeted bluefin tuna more likely to belong to the non-consumptive group. These results indicate that liberalization of harvest regulations could result in significant, non-linear increases in effort and harvest should consumptive-oriented anglers decide to re-enter the fishery. A second survey, of Atlantic bluefin tuna fishermen who possess a permit enabling them to fish either commercially or recreationally on a trip-by-trip basis, applied an online contingent sequential stated choice approach to better understand the decision-making of this unique group (Chapter III). Responses indicated that, while some permit holders consistently fish either recreationally or commercially, a substantial proportion of participants change trip type depending on fishery conditions such as prevailing fish size or regulations. The changing behavior of this latter group could potentially result in large shifts in targeting and lead to overages for the commercial handgear sector or recreational sector, and potentially the U.S. bluefin tuna quota as a whole. Lastly, post-release mortality was estimated for juvenile bluefin tuna caught in the increasingly popular light-tackle recreational fishery while also beta testing a newly developed, solar-powered pop-up satellite archival tag designed to enable large-scale, high-precision mortality studies (Chapter IV). Data were only obtained for 15 of 22 deployed tags, with 14 fish demonstrating behavior consistent with survival. One fish was predated upon, likely by a shortfin mako shark, after 17 days, and this was considered a natural rather than a fishing mortality. The low level of estimated post-release mortality, consistent with results from previous studies on different size classes of bluefin tuna caught with various angling gear types, suggests that catch-and-release angling, which Chapter II showed to be highly valued by some anglers, is a viable conservation strategy. Overall, this dissertation provides information regarding both angler preferences and fishery impacts that are of direct relevance to management. Future efforts should be directed to further engaging the recreational bluefin tuna fishing community in order to improve buy-in to management strategies and improve the ability of the United States to maintain fishing mortality within internationally prescribed limits.

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Hansen, Elizabeth R. "Reforestation, Renewal, and the Cost of Coal: Opposing a Manichean Worldview in Central Appalachia." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/132.

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Surface coal mining is a major form of land change and environmental degradation in Central Appalachia. Traditional mine reclamation iresults in unmanaged, unproductive grasslands that fail to mitigate many of the environmental costs of coal mining and are of minimal use to communities. Forestry reclamation is an alternative reclamation tactic that has the potential to address both environmental and socioeconomic concerns in Central Appalachia. A case study of Laurel Fork Mine in Eastern Kentucky is included.

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Castagno, Nicolás. "The development of a Natural Resource Management Policy : A discourse analysis on soybean farming during Uruguay’s agricultural regime shift (2000-2010)." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-70228.

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This thesis studies symbolic power within Uruguay’s agricultural regime shiftbetween 2000 and 2010. This socio-ecological system (SES) has been changing froman agricultural-livestock farming system to one dominated by intensive cropagriculture. The aim is to understand the role of a natural resource managementprogram (NRMP) within the processes that are leading to a different state. The mainresearch method is a discursive analysis of actors’ position-taking regarding thechange in agriculture.The main results indicate that: 1) an interacting regime shift took place in Uruguaywhere a new type of agricultural producer was the main driver that generated multipledomain and scale effects; 2) soil erosion as technological and neutral problememerges as a consequence of the struggle between actors’ interpretations of theagricultural changes; 3) a reorganization cycle takes place in natural resourcemanagement program (NRMP); 4) NRMP promotes a further reorganization ofresources: development of new scientific research problems and 5) a regime shift isobservable in natural resource management: ecological knowledge is based on powerrelations rather than on historical experience.The study concludes that symbolic relations of power during a regime shift are ofgreat importance to understand how a society institutionalizes a management programand develops ecological knowledge. In turn, NRMP plays a fundamental role duringthat system reorganization phase, as it sustains certain exploitation of the naturalresources through the promotion of new ecological knowledge. The recommendation for RS theory is to situate natural resource management and ecological knowledge asparts of the dynamics of a social-ecological system.

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Scott, Ashley M. "Overcoming the Obstacles to Sustainability in Ghana." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2011. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/206.

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For several decades following its independence from Great Britain, Ghana’s policies continued to promote over-extraction of natural resources to the detriment of its economy and rural communities. Agricultural and forestry policy has gradually evolved to foster more sustainable and equitable practices, as in building partnerships with the private sector to fund infrastructure improvements. Policy has recently recognized the dire need to adopt agricultural practices and means of forest resource extraction that are compatible with ecological stewardship. However, many shortcomings are still apparent. Large logging operations completely disregard forestry regulations with impunity, whereas rural sustenance extractors are severely punished in the rare event that policy is actually enforced. Although the severe disadvantages that agricultural policies had imposed in the 1960s have been partially alleviated, much improvement is still needed. Recent agricultural policy has recognized the lack of funding available to invest in more efficient and higher-yielding agricultural practices, but partnerships with the actual lending institutions do not exist. The scarcity of crucial inputs, such as fertilizer and technical assistance remains a major problem in the agricultural sector, as the soils are becoming rapidly depleted, leading to declining crop yields and further encroachment on the 20 percent of forests remaining. Overly ambitious targets and unrealistic policies require more careful and detailed formulation so that Ghana’s resources can be managed effectively before famine sweeps the food-insecure country once more.

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Flores, Nicole Leiann. "Impact Assessment of Natural Resource Management Policy Research: A case study of the contribution of the Sustainable Wetlands Adaptation and Mitigation Project to the effectiveness of the Indonesian Forest Moratorium." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/71894.

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The complexity of interactions that inform policy-making poses several challenges to evaluating the impact of policy research. Two key obstacles to policy-oriented research impact assessment (PORIA) are determining the degree of influence that can be claimed by a knowledge-generating entity and quantifying the impact of a policy-oriented research program. This thesis builds upon prior PORIA efforts to develop a framework for the evaluation of the impact of the Sustainable Wetlands Adaptation and Mitigation Program (SWAMP), an environmentally-focused, policy-oriented research project led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). We examine a case study of the Indonesian Forest Moratorium policy to determine the policy's impact on emissions from peat deforestation. Results indicate that the policy has been largely ineffective in decreasing deforestation to date and has in fact been associated with increased deforestation above business-as-usual trends. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that if the moratorium were to achieve full protection, Indonesia could avoid the release of 10 - 20 million tons of carbon dioxide over the next 15 years, which corresponds to a mean social value of $402 - 805 million using a $40/ton social cost of carbon. With SWAMP's timely knowledge generation on tropical wetland carbon dynamics we estimate that $4.03 - 40.26 million of these social benefits can be attributed to CIFOR. Furthermore, through its involvement in the IPCC Wetlands Supplement and the Blue Carbon Initiative, SWAMP stands to positively influence outcomes of the 45 billion tons of carbon stored in non-Indonesian tropical peatlands and the global extent of mangroves, further increasing the impact of CIFOR.
Master of Science

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Roa-Henriquez, Alfredo R. "Decision Making in Natural Disasters: An Analysis of Firms’ Strategic Behavior on Economic Resilience and Influence of Hurricane Intensity Forecasts on Evacuation Decisions." The Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1565947147689077.

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Ly, Adama 1953. "Resolving Senegal's crisis of renewable natural resources: A framework for policy development." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278576.

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The renewable natural resources (RNR) of Senegal form the basis of socioeconomic development for the population of this Sahelian country of West Africa. However, because of the current maladapted policies and practices, these resources are in a crisis that has led to a major degradation of the socioeconomic and environmental conditions. To solve these socioeconomic and environmental problems, many solutions have been developed and implemented. However, because of their disregard for both socioeconomic and traditional cultural values, these attempted solutions have often contributed to the problems. To resolve this crisis, Senegal needs to adopt a new integrated management approach along with new integrated natural resources tenure and decentralization policies. Considering the country's limited economic means, the urgent need for policy change, and the necessary progressive implementation of a new policy, this new natural resources policy will need to be developed incrementally. It should take into account the existing policies and examine different alternatives from the current ecological, economic, and sociocultural situation.

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Cross, Robert Richard. "Breeding Ecology, Success, and Population Management of the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Virginia." W&M ScholarWorks, 1996. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626042.

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Nykvist, Björn. "Social learning in the Anthropocene : Governance of natural resources in human dominated systems." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Systemekologiska institutionen, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-74836.

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We live in the Anthropocene – an age where humans dominate natural systems – and there is ample evidence that our current practices degrade the capacity of natural systems to provide us with natural resources. How we, as humans, organize and learn, in communities and among state and other societal actors, constitute a decisive factor for both local management of natural resources and the functioning of the planet Earth. In other words, the outcome of learning has become a matter of governance across multiple levels. This thesis studies the role of social learning in governance of natural resources, asking the following three overarching questions: i) What are the institutional barriers limiting better environmental governance at different scales? ii) Is there a causal connection between social learning and better environmental governance? iii) What are the normative challenges with better environmental governance or social-ecological resilience being linked to the adaptive capacity of actors to learn socially? The primary method is semi-structured in-depth interviews. Papers provide results on institutional barriers such as competency traps and show how customs and current practices and collaborations limit better environmental governance. It is found that social learning might, and might not, lead to better environmental governance, and the causal connection between social learning and better environmental governance is found to be rather weak, with both variables depending on other factors. Enabling policy, a mandate to make broad assessments, or an engaged leader facilitating social learning, are examples of factors that explain the existence of both social learning and outcomes in terms of better environmental governance. It is concluded that since conditions for, and facilitation of, social learning are so important, research should focus more on what initiates social learning and how social learning can be mainstreamed across multiple levels of governance
At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Submitted: Paper 4: Submitted; Paper 5: Submitted.

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Da, Costa Dionne J. "An Economic Valuation Analysis of Buccoo Reef Marine Park, Tobago, West Indies." FIU Digital Commons, 2010. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/290.

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate tourism capacity, the effectiveness of the management plan and the visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) for increased conservation effort in the Buccoo Reef Marine Park (BRMP) in Tobago. Non-market contingent valuation was applied to estimate tourists’ WTP, using the data from a survey of 164 tourists. Local residents and government agencies were consulted to evaluate the management plan and the tourism capacity. Eighty-eight percent of local residents stated that the park was not well managed and that they lacked trust in the park agency. The density of tourists was 67-97% more than socially acceptable crowding norm. The tourists were willing to pay an additional entry fee of US$11.72 per person, which would generate additional revenue for the park management. In conclusion, the BRMP management needs modification in order to increase stakeholders’ trust, reduce tourists crowding intensity, and generate additional user-based revenue.

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Handelman, Corinne. "Natural Area Stewardship Volunteers| Motivations, Attitudes, Behaviors." Thesis, Portland State University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1543073.

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To better understand the value of those who engage in environmental stewardship of natural areas, we studied volunteer steward's motivation to participate, their sustainable behaviors and attitudes toward stewardship-related constructs. Specifically, we designed and conducted a survey of volunteers who work as stewards in urban natural areas in Portland, Oregon. We hypothesize that as volunteer frequency increases: participants will be more motivated to participate for environmental reasons, volunteers will be more likely to feel a strong connection to the stewardship site, participants will be more likely to engage in public pro-environmental behaviors, and their level of environmental literacy will increase. Participants were sampled using a face-to-face survey methodology over the course of late winter and spring of 2012 during 18 different Portland Parks and Recreation sponsored stewardship events. We examined the motivations, attitudes and behaviors of the volunteers, and devised appropriate management implications for those organizing volunteer efforts. We equated a three-tiered typology of environmental literacy, based upon the frequency of volunteer participation, and analyzed our survey data using a principal component analysis, generalized linear models, and a qualitative coding analysis. The most frequent participants showed a higher likelihood of participation in public environmental behaviors, whereas participants at all frequency levels were also likely to participate in private environmental behaviors, such as removing invasive plants in one's yard. Volunteers across all frequencies of participation were motivated to engage in stewardship events by a desire to help the environment. By understanding volunteers' motivations and linked behaviors, park managers may gain insights about the recruitment, retention, and messaging of volunteers upon whom they may depend to achieve restoration goals. We recommend considering volunteers' motivations and benefits derived from participation in messaging to recruit and retain volunteers. Additionally, park managers should take advantage of educational opportunities linked to stewardship events, such as training programs and chances for volunteer mentorship.

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Gordon, Christopher Alan. "Reproductive Success of Black Skimmers on an Artificial Island: Effects of Hatching Date and Feeding Rate." W&M ScholarWorks, 1999. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626210.

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Jackson, Allyson Kathleen. "Survival in an Urbanized Landscape: Radio-Tracking Fledgling Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) on Golf Courses." W&M ScholarWorks, 2010. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626898.

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Held, Renae Joyce. "Analysis of Prey Selection in Black Skimmer, Rynchops niger, Adults and Chicks using Continuous Video Monitoring." W&M ScholarWorks, 2003. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626399.

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Mahjoub, Ghazi. "Using a Sonic Net to Deter Pest Bird Species: Excluding European Starlings from Food Sources by Disrupting their Acoustic Environment." W&M ScholarWorks, 2014. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626954.

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DeJong, Benjamin D. "Using The Past As The Key To The Present: Informing Coastal Resource Management With Geologic Records." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2015. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/354.

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Rising sea levels present an ongoing threat to communities and resources around the Chesapeake Bay, east coast, USA, where tide gauges indicate that the relative rise of sea level is approximately twice the rate of average, eustatic sea-level rise. This has significantly compromised the health and viability of salt marsh habitat on the Eastern Shore during the 20th century, and the biologists who are charged with managing coastal resources in the coming decades need to understand the nature and causes of high rates of regional sea-level rise to develop suitable adaptation plans. Dated geologic deposits and geophysical models suggest that sea-level rise is relatively high on mid-Atlantic coastlines because the land surface is subsiding due to a collapsing glacial forebulge following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). To fully understand this process, past sea-level indicators such as dated shoreline deposits are needed to reconstruct regional sea-level behavior in the past, but rigorous age control on geologic deposits is largely restricted to the Holocene and to marine isotope stage (MIS) 5, so the rates and timescales over which these processes operate remain unknown. This research provides long-term paleoenvironmental records from ancient environments under east-central Chesapeake Bay to place the current sea-level threats into the context of a long geologic history of sea-level fluctuations. First, the Pleistocene geologic framework of the region is reconstructed through borehole drilling. Sediments from boreholes provided material for interpreting depositional environments, and for establishing age control for deposits, so that the entire stratigraphy was constrained both in space and time. The geologic framework and ages indicate that Chesapeake Bay alternated between a deeply incised fluvial system and a filled estuary repeatedly in response to major climate fluctuations since at least the early Pleistocene, ~2 Ma. The ages and sedimentology indicate that the field area was submerged intermittently in a shallow estuary until nearly the end of marine isotope stage 3. Because global sea-level proxies suggest that sea level was ~40-80 meters lower than present at that time, these ages suggest that the penultimate glacial forebulge must have remained significantly lowered for nearly 100 ky following the retreat of ice. The implication of this time lag is that mid-Atlantic coastlines are still in a relatively early state of forebulge collapse, and subsidence following retreat of ice from the Last Glacial Maximum will likely continue for the foreseeable future. Ongoing subsidence will continue to exacerbate projected eustatic sea-level rise due to changing global climate, and coastal adaptation plans must remain focused on encouraging the migration of vital habitat toward higher elevations in the landscape.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Natural resource management policy'

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