Syma A. Ebbin

Community Natural Resource Management: Promise, Rhetoric, and Reality

Community natural resource management (CNRM) has been extensively promoted in recent years as an approach for pursuing biological conservation and socioeconomic objectives. The rationale for CNRM is often compelling and convincing. Relatively little data exists, however, regarding its implementation, particularly the reconciliation of social and environmental goals. This article summarizes empirical evidence regarding the implementation of CNRM, based on five case studies in Nepal, the U.S. states of Alaska and Washington, and Kenya. Six social and environmental indicators are used to evaluate and compare these cases, including equity, empowerment, conflict resolution, knowledge and awareness, biodiversity protection, and sustainable resource utilization. The results of this analysis indicate that, despite sincere attempts and some success, serious deficiencies are widely evident. In especially Nepal and Kenya, CNRM rarely resulted in more equitable distribution of power and economic benefits, reduced conflict, increased consideration of traditional or modern environmental knowledge, protection of biological diversity, or sustainable resource use. By contrast, CNRM in the North American cases was more successful. Institutional, environmental, and organizational factors help explain the observed differences.Community natural resource management (CNRM) has been extensively promoted in recent years as an approach for pursuing biological conservation and socioeconomic objectives. The rationale for CNRM is often compelling and convincing. Relatively little data exists, however, regarding its implementation, particularly the reconciliation of social and environmental goals. This article summarizes empirical evidence regarding the implementation of CNRM, based on five case studies in Nepal, the U.S. states of Alaska and Washington, and Kenya. Six social and environmental indicators are used to evaluate and compare these cases, including equity, empowerment, conflict resolution, knowledge and awareness, biodiversity protection, and sustainable resource utilization. The results of this analysis indicate that, despite sincere attempts and some success, serious deficiencies are widely evident. In especially Nepal and Kenya, CNRM rarely resulted in more equitable distribution of power and economic benefits, reduced con...

A sea change : the exclusive economic zone and governance institutions for living marine resources

Contributing Authors* Preface: A Sea Change in a Changing Sea* SECTION I: Overview 1. Ocean Governance and Institutional Change/Alf Hakon Hoel, Are K. Sydnes and Syma A. Ebbin 2. A Brief Introduction to the Principal Provisions of the International Legal Regime Governing Fisheries in the EEZ/William R. Edeson SECTION II: National Strategies for EEZ Implementation 3. The Performance of Exclusive Economic Zones: The Case of Norway/Alf Hakon Hoel 4. Fisheries Management in the Russian Federation/Geir Honneland 5. Integrated Oceans Management and the Institutional Performance of Exclusive Economic Zones: The Australian Case/Russell E. Reichelt and Geoffrey C. Wescott 6.The Impact of the EEZ on Pacific Salmon Management: An Examination of Institutional Innovation and Interplay in the US Pacific Northwest/Syma A. Ebbin 7. Regulating Access and the Use of Marine Genetic Resources within the Exclusive Economic Zone/Lawrence Kalinoe SECTION III: Regional Strategies for Coordinating the EEZ Regime 8. Regional Fisheries Organisations and International Fisheries Governance/Are K. Sydnes 9. Exclusive Economic Zones and the Management of Fisheries in the South China Sea/Ma. Carmen A. Ablan and Len R. Garces 10. Staking Their Claims: The Management of Marine Resources in the Exclusive Economic Zones of the Pacific Islands/Joeli Veitayaki SECTION IV: A Changing Sea: New and Emerging Institutional Directions for the EEZ 11. FAOs Fisheries Programme and the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development/Serge M. Garcia and David J. Doulman 12. Governing the Bering Sea Region/Oran R. Young 13. Changing Seas, Changing Institutions: Charting New Courses into the Future/Are K. Sydnes, Alf Hakon Hoel and Syma A. Ebbin* Index

The Problem with Problem Definition: Mapping the Discursive Terrain of Conservation in Two Pacific Salmon Management Regimes

Natural resource-based conflicts arise not only from divergent ideas regarding appropriate uses of the environment and resources but also from different conceptualizations of the environment and the human–environment relationship. These conflicts, defined as problems, frame understandings of both causation and potential solutions. The problem with problem definition emerges when no consensus exists regarding what constitutes managements problem definition. This article focuses on the “salmon problem,” a problem that has embodied manifold and shifting conceptions of management, conservation, and control. Co-management institutions have provided greater access to previously marginalized groups to the management table. Diverse stakeholders bring with them a multiplicity of perspectives, worldviews, and discourses. This article examines these diverging views, calling attention to deep-rooted disagreements and highlighting the need for both recognition and debate on the core values and objectives of management, as well as cultural mediators, interpreters who can traverse and translate the varied discursive terrain of stakeholders.

Fishing for food: piloting an exploration of the invisible subsistence harvest of coastal resources in Connecticut

BackgroundIn Connecticut, the subsistence harvest of coastal and marine resources, with the explicit goal of consuming what is collected or caught, is counted and regulated as recreational fishing. Little information exists regarding the harvest and use of these resources. It is not known how the catch is distributed, processed, how much is consumed or by whom. This research was conducted as a service learning opportunity for students in an undergraduate course on Marine Fisheries Economics and Policy offered at the University of Connecticut. This research was produced for fisheries managers at the Marine Fisheries Division of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CTDEEP) who desired more information on the nature of subsistence fisheries including a characterization of participating harvesters and the extent of harvesters’ knowledge regarding a new enhanced shore-based fishing program that allows higher catch limits for certain species. Within the framework of the course, students developed and executed a survey of coastal fishermen to assess the extent of subsistence harvesting and consumption of coastal resources, including fish, shellfish, algae and plants, demographic information on harvesters and the extent and source of their knowledge regarding fishing regulations and health advisories.ResultsThe majority of respondents consume their harvests and also share it with others. None sold their harvest. Of those who consumed their harvest, most consumed at least one meal a month. An overwhelming majority of respondents share their harvest with people living in their household. Despite high levels of consumption by Connecticut harvesters, less than half of respondents had heard of the term “subsistence fishing.” The dissemination of information within the fishing community appears to be largely successful, as nearly all respondents were aware of the fishing regulations and health advisories and how to obtain the information if they needed to find it. The main sources of information are signs at fishing sites and the CTDEEP Web site. However, only half of respondents were aware of the new Enhanced Opportunity Shore Fishing Program, perhaps because of its newness. Most surveying was conducted in southeastern Connecticut and captured little demographic diversity.ConclusionsHarvesters of Connecticut’s marine and coastal resources appear to lack familiarity with the concept of subsistence, and few consider their activities to be subsistence-based. However, most consider the provision of food to be an important reason driving their participation, either directly consuming or sharing their harvests with others to consume. The harvest of marine resources for subsistence may not be labeled as such, counted rather as recreational catch. It may not be quantified or visible to regulators, but it certainly exists. It fills a provisioning role within the overarching cash-based economy and also affords individuals the opportunity to engage in a pleasurable and relaxing activity that reinforces familial relationships. Continued and expanded surveying will be conducted to better assess the nature and magnitude of subsistence harvesting of coastal resources in Connecticut.

The stock concept: Constructing tools for pacific salmon management

All along the Pacific coast, federal, tribal, and state agencies; recreational and commercial user groups; environmental organizations; universities; and the public at large are engaged in concerted salmon conservation efforts. The declining status of small population units, termed “stocks,”; are the focus of these efforts. Fisheries scientists have observed the phenomena of geographically, temporally, and morphologically discrete salmon populations, which they have termed the “stock concept”; and utilized in management strategies for over 100 years. The stock concept has been transformed from a scientific concept to a regulatory one, as reconstructed by the various stakeholders involved in salmon management with respect to their institutional agendas. The scale, scope, and objectives of salmon management regimes can be logically derived from the meaning of this construct. Because of the regulatory and allocative implications, stakeholders have contested the meaning and measurement of discrete stocks, neg...