Practical guide to coproduction in conservation science.

We considered a series of conservation-related research projects on the island of Pemba, Tanzania, to reflect on the broad significance of Beier et al.'s recommendations for linking conservation science with practical conservation outcomes. The implementation of just some of their suggestions can advance a successful coproduction of actionable science by small research teams. Key elements include, first, scientists and managers working together in the field to ensure feedback in real time; second, questions jointly identified by managers and researchers to facilitate engaged collaboration; third, conducting research at multiple sites, thereby broadening managers' abilities to reach multiple stakeholders; and fourth, establishing a multidisciplinary team because most of the concerns of local managers require input from multiple disciplines.

Consideramos una serie de proyectos de investigación relacionados con la conservación en la isla de Pemba, Tanzania, para reflexionar sobre la importancia de las recomendaciones de Beier et al. para vincular las ciencias de la conservación con sus resultados prácticos. La implementación de sólo algunas de sus sugerencias puede impulsar una coproducción exitosa de ciencia práctica hecha por pequeños equipos de investigación. Los elementos clave incluyen, primero, a los científicos y administrados trabajando juntos en el campo para asegurar respuestas en tiempo real; segundo, preguntas identificadas en conjunto por los administradores y los investigadores para facilitar la colaboración participativa; tercero, realizar investigaciones en sitios diferentes y ampliar con esto las habilidades de los administradores para llegar a múltiples actores; y cuarto, establecer un equipo multidisciplinario ya que la mayoría de los intereses de los administradores locales requieren información de múltiples disciplinas.

A qualitative systematic review of governance principles for mangrove conservation.

Management of mangrove ecosystems is complex, given that mangroves are both terrestrial and marine, often cross regional or national boundaries, and are valued by local stakeholders in different ways than they are valued on national and international scales. Thus, mangrove governance has had varying levels of success, analyzed through concepts such as principles of good governance and procedural justice in decision-making. Although there is substantial research on case studies of mangrove management, global comparisons of mangrove governance are lacking. This research aims to fill this gap by comparing relationships among qualities of governance across mangrove social-ecological systems worldwide. Through a systematic literature search and screening process, we identified 65 articles that discussed mangrove governance and conservation. Case studies in these articles, drawn from 39 countries, were categorized as top-down, bottom-up, or comanaged and thematically coded to assess the influence of eight principles of good governance in mangrove conservation success. Across all three governance systems, the principles of legitimacy, fairness, and integration were most important in determining conservation success or failure. These principles are closely related to the concept of procedural justice, highlighting the importance of stakeholder inclusion throughout all stages of mangrove management. Thus, we recommend clearly defined roles for all governance actors, transparent communication of policy development to stakeholders, fairness in both process and outcome, and careful consideration of sustainable access to conservation resources.

Una Revisión Cualitativa de los Principios de Gestión para la Conservación de los Manglares Resumen El manejo de los manglares es complejo dado que son terrestres y marinos, con frecuencia cruzan las fronteras regionales o nacionales y están valorados por los actores de diferentes maneras de cómo son valorados en las escalas nacionales e internacionales. Por lo tanto, la gestión de los manglares ha tenido diferentes niveles de éxito al ser analizados con medidas como los principios de buena gestión de Lockwood et al. (2010) y con conceptos como la justicia procesal (O'Beirne et al. 2020) en la toma de decisiones. Aunque existe una cantidad sustancial de información de estudios de caso del manejo de manglares, existen pocas comparaciones mundiales de la gestión de los manglares. Este trabajo busca cerrar esta brecha mediante la comparación de relaciones entre la calidad de las gestiones en los sistemas socio-ecológicos de manglares a nivel mundial. Identificamos 65 artículos que abordaban la conservación y gestión de los manglares mediante una búsqueda sistemática de la literatura y un proceso de análisis. Los estudios de caso en estos artículos, realizados en 39 países, fueron categorizados como gestión ascendiente, descendiente o de co-manejo y codificados por tema para analizar la influencia de los ocho principios de buena gestión de Lockwood et al. (2010) en el éxito de conservación de los manglares. En los tres sistemas de gestión, los principios de legitimidad, equidad e integración fueron los más importantes para determinar el éxito o fracaso de la conservación. Estos principios están fuertemente relacionados con el concepto de justicia procesal, resaltando la importancia de la inclusión de los actores durante todas las etapas del manejo de los manglares. Por lo tanto, recomendamos que todos los actores gestores tengan papeles claramente definidos, que exista una comunicación transparente del desarrollo de las políticas a los actores, equidad tanto en el proceso como en los resultados y la consideración meticulosa del acceso sustentable a los recursos de conservación.

Development, Conservation, Empowerment: The Trilemma of Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Namibia.

Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) is a form of resource governance that has been widely popularized across southern Africa. CBNRM consists of three main goals or pillars which include economic development, environmental conservation, and community empowerment. It is intended to devolve control of certain natural resources from national government to local communities. The idea being that local residents will manage resources more sustainably and break neopatrimonial webs that have led to mismanagement and protracted underdevelopment. However, with communities there are important politics that often go understudied and there are instances where the same type of issues that going local was intended to circumvent, are re-engendered at the local level. Beyond this, CBNRM cannot only be understood as a form of domestic resource governance that happens in a vacuum and instead there are important politics and power imbalances between local, national, and global actors, that sees the will of some win out over others. As a result of these power asymmetries, I argue that the three goals of CBNRM form a trilemma in which the realization of one goal undermines success in achieving one or both of the others. As a result, CBNRM programs have failed to achieve the success proponents envision. Thus, it becomes integral to understand and account for the politics involved, rather than to analyze CBNRM as an apolitical policy fix for domestic conservation as much of the literature presents it as.

Towards sustainable community conservation in tropical savanna ecosystems: a management framework for ecotourism ventures in a changing environment.

The sustainability of ecotourism ventures under the Community Based Natural Resources Management in Zimbabwe is under stress due to environmental changes emanating from effects associated with socioeconomic factors, climate change and epidemic diseases. Using an in-depth analysis of the Mahenye ecotourism venture from the year 1982 to 2020 as a case study, this study sought to propose a management framework for ecotourism ventures in a changing environment by examining the sustainability of community conservation initiatives in Zimbabwe. Research methods included expert opinion from two natural resources governance academics, desktop research and authors' experiences about Mahenye ecotourism venture. Results indicated that the Mahenye ecotourism venture has faced significant challenges but has been resilient to withstand the shocks such as population increase, exclusion of youths and women, climate change, hyperinflation, donor fatigue, reduced international ecotourist visitation and international hunting bans emanating from socioeconomic and political environmental changes. These shocks have a negative effect on the main elements of an ecotourism venture such as the wildlife resources, amenities, attraction, accessibility, management system, marketing, beneficiaries and linkages. The management framework highlights the interventions that can be made to enable ecotourism ventures in changing environments to remain sustainable. The interventions are promoting strong community cohesion, developing sustainable self-funding mechanisms, promoting multiple sources of income, carrying targeted environmental education programs, capacity building in managing ecotourism in periods of hyperinflation, improved marketing and offering a unique experience, promoting climate smart ecotourism, promoting domestic ecotourism visits, implementing effective feedback systems among stakeholders to decrease uncertainties and lobbying to have hunting bans removed.

Institutional multiplexity: social networks and community-based natural resource management.

Natural resource management has changed profoundly in recent decades emphasizing new legislation that transfers responsibilities to local user groups. In this article, I follow changing water policies to Namibia and show that the enactment of policy in local institutions deviates from community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) blueprints and design. To understand why, I examine the theoretical premises of CBNRM. CBNRM is informed by rational choice theory which isolates economic transactions (e.g., sharing water) and assumes that people design institutions for a specific good. However, in the communities I study ethnographically, people depend on sharing multiple resources. To better understand how the degree of sharing and institutional overlaps matter, I explore empirically the concept of institutional multiplexity. Institutional multiplexity describes the number of transactions between two households in a social network. The results reveal that almost all social networks are institutionally multiplex. Institutional multiplexity implies that people cannot separate the sharing of water from sharing in other domains. Institutional multiplexity hinders the implementation of design principles such as fixing boundaries, sharing costs proportional to use, and formal sanctioning. However, it also opens other means for governing nature through social control.