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Hi All,

Here is a recording of our latest webinar for the PECS webinar series.

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Title: Driving equitable systems change in a world of urgent transitions  – the changing role of climate knowledge brokers

Abstract:

Treating the need for urgent climate action as a technical problem that can be solved through more accurate information alone is a fallacy. We know enough to act on climate change, and yet action is slow or lacking entirely. In this session we will explore the changing role of knowledge brokers in closing this knowledge to action gap. Knowledge brokering is not only about brokering science to decision makers. Many sources of knowledge (local, experience-based, indigenous, scientific) are needed. The work of the knowledge broker is to create inclusive, safe spaces for these different types of knowledge to be recognised and learned from. Knowledge is also just one component of any decision-making context – supporting climate action, and therefore the role of the knowledge broker, is also about navigating societal rules, fragmentation, politics, power asymmetries, as well as people’s values, aspirations, and world views. Knowledge brokers have a crucial responsibility to contribute to shifting the discourse away from the linear production of (broad, untailored) scientific knowledge (e.g. on the climate problem) to understanding, navigating and acting in complex decision-making and implementation realities. In this sense, they will be increasingly required to broker relationships alongside information, be comfortable engaging with politics, cultural and governance issues, and challenge the very idea of whose knowledge and voice counts in climate action. 

We will share lessons from 10 years of experimentation with knowledge brokering through the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), and share details on a new initiative called Step Change, which aims to grow the number of organisations and individuals with the skills to do this crucial work. 

A recent paper on the changing role knowledge brokers can be found here, and a summary with key ideas can be found here. 

Bio: Lucia Scodanibbio is a Learning Advisor for the Climate and Development Knowledge Network at SouthSouthNorth, leading reflection processes to gather lessons learned around knowledge brokering and locally-led adaptation. Previously, Lucia coordinated the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions project at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She also worked in the United Nations Environment Programme regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean, coordinating a project on integrated coastal management in Central America; with the Africa team at the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands Secretariat in Switzerland; and in Mozambique, creating awareness on the impacts of hydropower dams and promoting integrated water resources management of the Zambezi River. She has an undergraduate degree in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from UCT, and a master’s in environmental planning from the University of British Columbia. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucia-scodanibbio-2001885/

Bio: Georgina Cundill is a Senior Program Specialist in climate resilience at Canada’s International Development Research Centre, and is a research associate at Rhodes University in South Africa. Georgina works to connect evidence to action through climate change programming across Africa, South Asia and Latin America. She leads the Step Change program, a 5 year Canada-Netherlands partnership to accelerate locally-led adaptation in the global South, promoting gender equality and social inclusion, ecosystem-based adaptation, adaptation finance and capacity building. Georgina is the co-chair of the science committee for Adaptation Futures 2023 in Montreal, and sits on the international advisory board for Bangladesh’s action plan on climate-induced displacement.

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This is the latest in a series of webinars. Past recordings can be found here.

Hi All!

I wanted to share the recording of our latest webinar with Marta Berbés-Blázquez available at the following link.

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Title: Reimagining urban futures from the lens of environmental justice. 

Abstract: For the past decade, cities have been looking to nature-based solutions to combat environmental issues that impact the quality of life of city dwellers. This presentation will introduce a university-community partnership to improve greenspace in Phoenix, AZ. Greenspace is an important component of combating climate change in this desert city as native vegetation can provide cooling, among other benefits. In this project, a group of researchers from Arizona State University partnered with a school teacher from Academia del Pueblo, a middle school that serves predominantly Latinx and low-income students, to imagine better and greener futures for their community. Through the use of participatory action research techniques such as photovoice, scenarios, and storyboarding, middle school students named concerns and strengths of the community and envisioned desirable futures. We call our process ‘barrio innovation’, which is an approach to innovation based on design thinking but rooted in and driven by community. In this presentation, we reflect on our journey, which is emergent and continuously co-evolving, and invite others to reflect on the power of anticipatory tools in community settings.

Bio: Dr. Marta Berbés-Blázquez is the Caivan Communities professor at the School of Planning and the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo (Canada), where she is part of the Future Cities Initiative. Formerly, Dr. Berbés-Blázquez was an assistant professor at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University with whom she continues to collaborate on projects related to urban resilience in cities in the United States and Latin America. Broadly speaking, her research considers the human dimensions of environmental change in urban and regional social-ecological-technological systems with an emphasis on perspectives from marginalized populations. She is a co-lead of the Futures and Scenarios team of the Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research that engages with a variety of actors to envision positive urban futures in the Phoenix valley. Her international collaborations include work with the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network, NATURA, and Biosphere Futures. Locally, she has developed a variety of research partnerships with community members and organizers to catalyze change toward environmentally just futures.  

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This is the latest in a series of webinars. Past recordings can be found here.

Hi All!

I wanted to share the recording of our latest webinar with Jean Lee available at the following link.

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Title of Paper: Promises and Limits of Community-based Organizations in Bridging Mismatches of Scale: A Case Study on Collaborative Governance in the Oil and Gas Development on Federal Lands in Colorado

Abstract of Paper:

Federal land managers in the United States are tasked with managing a vast array of resources for current and future generations. However, coordinating action among multiple stakeholders across diverse landscapes is challenging given that the organizations and institutions set up to govern federal lands are often unable to overcome scale-related challenges. Unconventional oil and gas development is often a contentious issue on federal lands. Identifying how to bridge scale mismatches in this sector is critical for achieving management objectives. To gain a deeper understanding of the institutional landscape governing oil and gas, we took an in-depth case study approach and examined a case in the western United States where communities worked with federal land managers to cancel 25 existing oil and gas leases. We identified the most relevant scale mismatches pertaining to unconventional oil and gas development and assessed the role of community-based organizations in bridging scale mismatches to increase institutional fit. Our results demonstrate the importance of community-based organizations that can function as bridging organizations to engage a broad set of actors across scales. Our results also highlight the importance of creating shared visions across diverse stakeholder groups to foster collaboration. We conclude that overcoming scale mismatches requires a focus on shared values and the creation and maintenance of flexible governance networks.

Bio:

Jean Lee is an associate professor at Colorado College, where she teaches Community Forestry, Ecological Economics, and Environment and Society. Her research focuses on carbon markets and to what extent communities can participate in them. Since starting at Colorado College, she has focused her research on natural resource-based communities and how they engage with each other, as well as with the government, to achieve their objectives.

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This is the latest in a series of webinars. Past recordings can be found here.

Hi All!

I wanted to share the recording of our latest webinar with Anahí available at the following link.

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Title: Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary challenges exploring water management in Chile from a socio-eco-hydrological approach

Abstract: 

Researching water issues like scarcity, use and management is increasingly “wicked”, not only because of climate uncertainties, but for the society ‘s contradictory expectations. In this scenario, science is increasingly being contested and politicized, an arena for which we are not prepared…and we should. Researching water in Chile has the added complication of being the most neoliberal and market-based water management system facing 12 consecutive years of less than average rainfall, and having recently gone through a failed process of drafting a new Constitution. What does that mean for researchers and for water research projects? The presentation will invite you to navigate along 3 different projects while placing them in their political and environmental context in order to reflect how research has been shaped by context, and how research is slowly shaping policy by being more inter and transdisciplinary. In this trip, I want you to help me think about the future of collaborative governance researchers and the role that we may be taking inadvertently.  

Bio:

Dr. Ocampo-Melgar is an assistant professor at the University of Chile in the Department of Forestry Management and its Environment. Anahí has a Ph.D. in Arid Lands Resource Sciences  from the University of Arizona, an MSc in Integrated Planning for rural development and environmental management from Spain, and an Environmental Engineering degree from Bolivia. Her research interests include:  Integrated analysis of social-ecological systems, climate change adaptation, knowledge co-production for environmental management and sustainable development. Over the last couple of years, Dr. Ocampo-Melgar has been  researching water security, climate change and participation in the Chilean context. 

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This is the latest in a series of webinars. Past recordings can be found here.

Hi All!

I wanted to share the recording of our latest webinar with Larissa available at the following link.

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Title: Capturing the social dynamics of co-management through a relational narrative approach 

Abstract: 

Co-managing protected areas entails to deal with multiple perspectives and values about land use and to manage conservation conflicts. Key challenges for these collective approaches are (1) to navigate through tensions over meaning and competing narratives, (2) to deal with blurred roles of authority and responsibilities due to decentralization, and (3) to manage socio-historical pasts in which cooperation and conflict are entangled in actor relationships. In this talk, I will describe a relational narrative research approach that I developed in my PhD thesis, which integrates narrative and social network theory to study the mechanisms that shape social dynamics in collaborative arrangements. Furthermore, I will present some empirical work on my case study (located in Germany) where we tested relational drivers for common narratives. Finally, I’ll zoom into the conflict between the actors in my case study and describe how polarization became manifested in narratives and social identities of the actors involved. 

Bio:

Larissa Koch is an environmental social scientist who is interested in the social dynamics of collaborative governance and management arrangements and explores actor narratives, social identities and social networks in resource management. She just submitted her PhD thesis on “The social dynamics of collaboration in environmental governance and management” that she completed in resources management with Claudia Pahl-Wostl at Osnabrück University. She studied communication sciences with a focus on environmental sciences at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Since April, she works as a post-doctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Landscape Research near Berlin in Germany and supports to develop real-world labs for sustainable agricultural transformation in Brandenburg.  

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This is the latest in a series of webinars. Past recordings can be found here.

Hi All!

I wanted to share the recording of our latest webinar with Julia and Bridget available at the following link.

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Title: Collaboration in river basin governance

Abstract: We focus on a collaborative approach (perhaps stopping just short of ‘transdisciplinary’) to study and effect change in river basin governance in the Wolastoq | St. John River Basin in New Brunswick, Canada, which is the traditional unceded territory of the Wəlastəkwiyik / Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet). The Wolastoq | St. John offers a compelling context in which to focus on water governance: from its attempts to allocate water quality assessment authority to sub-watershed groups in the 1980s-2000s to the strong influence of non-governmental groups in water governance. Our research in the basin has spanned more than a decade and has focused primarily on using network-based approaches to study the structure of governance and interactions among those with an interest in water quality and flows. This research has occurred collaboratively, and in partnership using a co-design approach with non-governmental organizations WWF-Canada and the Meduxnekeag River Association. We will share the findings of the research on collaboration over this period and comment on how it has contributed to communication around governance change on the ground.  

Presenters: 

Bridget McGlynn

Bio: Bridget McGlynn is a research assistant in the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University. She earned her Masters of Sustainability at Brock University investigating collaborative governance in the Wolastoq | St John River Basin. Bridget’s research uses social network analysis to assess the performance and social-ecological fit of collaborative governance arrangements. 

Julia Baird

Bio: Julia Baird is a Canada Research Chair in Human Dimensions of Water Resources and Water Resilience and an Associate Professor in the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre and the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada – the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe peoples. Julia’s research focuses on water governance and resilience at the collective and individual levels and she aims for transdisciplinarity in her work. She leads the Water Resilience Lab at Brock, which supports graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. Julia earned her PhD in environmental sustainability from the University of Saskatchewan.

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This is the latest in a series of webinars. Past recordings can be found here:

Hi All!

I wanted to share the recording of our latest webinar with Cécile Barnaud available at the following link.

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Title: Is forest regeneration good for biodiversity ? Discourse analysis and role-playing games to explore the social dimensions of an apparently ecological debate 

Abstract:

Whether or not forest regeneration in European mountains is a desirable change for biodiversity is disputed. To explore the social dimensions of this apparently ecological debate, I will first present a comparative discourse analysis across four cases of protected areas in France, Spain, and Scotland. This analysis draws on a conceptual framework highlighting both the ecological and social factors underpinning the construction of environmental discourses, and emphasizing notably the role of interests, ideas and institutions, as well as power dynamics and discourse-coalitions. In this study, we show how diverging discourses emerged, gained ground, coalesced and competed differently in different contexts, explaining the adoption of seemingly opposite discourses by protected area authorities. These findings thus reaffirm the need to conceive environmental governance as an on-going deliberative process in order to achieve environmental justice. This leads me to the second part of my talk, in which I will present a research-action project that aimed at supporting such a deliberative process in the context of a conflict between livestock farmers and national park agents in the Cévennes mountains, in the South of France. Following a companion modelling approach, we designed a Role-Playing Game to foster social learning and negotiations among these actors so as to conciliate agriculture with patrimonial landscape and biodiversity conservation. I will discuss both the added-value and the limits of this tool to foster collaborative management of SES.

Biography:

Cécile is a human geographer working on collaboration and negotiation mechanisms for the governance of natural resources. She is interested in how the interface between agriculture, environment and society is being socially constructed and negotiated through social interactions among stakeholders with different interests and values, embedded in often asymmetric power relationships. I use both qualitative analytical methods (semi-directed interviews, inductive analysis) and participatory action research methods (role-playing games in particular).

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This is the latest in the PECS series of webinars. A full library of recordings can be found at the In Common Podcast website.

Hi All!

I wanted to share the recording of our latest webinar with Miranda Bernard available at the following link.

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Title: Community engagement in marine protected areas in the Caribbean

Abstract:

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely implemented to conserve ecological and cultural sustainability. Whether the goals of MPAs are to conserve ecological, social, or cultural aspects of a region, community engagement is often posed as a prerequisite for effectiveness. Though there have been papers exploring some human dimensions and governance of MPAs, few studies have focused explicitly on the community engagement aspects in coastal communities. In this study, I interviewed key informants to understand the barriers and opportunities to community engagement in Caribbean MPAs. Informants described difficulty in optimally facilitating engagement when there are funding and staff (expertise and capacity) constraints. I found that it is important to facilitate a diversity of engagement methods to meet various objectives, which should be clear from the onset of the engagement activity. Some under-recognized methods of engagement, such as communication, may have a role in enhancing MPA operations but they should not be the only method to engage community members. Finally, informal methods of engagement offer an opportunity to build trust without the resources that are typically demanded by more structured methods of engagement. As community engagement continues to be promoted by funders and researchers, we must understand how it is currently conducted and the perceptions of its validity.

Biography:

Miranda Bernard is a Smith Conservation Research Fellow at Duke University (USA). She explores the interactions between coastal communities, marine conservation interventions, and environmental stressors. She has previously worked on issues spanning the role of community engage in Caribbean marine protected areas, the protection of ecosystem services through fisheries certifications, and waste management policies and interventions. Currently, Miranda is investigating the differential impacts of marine threats and management actions within coastal communities to better assess equity in decision-making processes.

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This is the latest in the PECS series of webinars. A full library of recordings can be found at the In Common Podcast website.

Hi All!

I wanted to share the recording of our latest webinar with Maria Claudia Lopez available at the following link.

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Title: Institutional Failures around Hydropower

Abstract:

Nowadays dams are being dismantled in the global North, while hundreds of dams are planned or under construction in the global South. Although hydropower may contribute to national economic development of nations like Brazil and China, it is also associated with numerous social and environmental impacts. 

In this presentation, I will cover some of the institutional failures that seem pervasive when dams are built. These failures start from the moment dams are conceived which often takes place without consultation or participation in the decision-making process to construct the dam, it continues with a lack of transparency in the environmental and social impact assessment which rarely if ever stops a dam from being built no matter how many concerns are raised in those assessments. This is followed by campaigns in which promises are made as to the benefits the dams will bring, which is followed by a failure to live up to those promises made. Even something as straightforward as compensation for damages suffered due to loss of property, land, and other assets is rarely compensated in full, and for people downstream from the dam which often suffer considerable damages from the declining fisheries, they are completely overlooked and uncompensated. It is hard to see why governments keep insisting that dam building is good for economic development, when it is so bad for so many people living near dams. Admitting institutional failures would be a good first step forward.

Bio:

Maria Claudia Lopez is an associate professor in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. Her scholarly work investigates how different rules and norms, understood as institutions, might drive resource users to govern their natural resources in sustainable and cooperative ways.  For the past six years, she has been working with an interdisciplinary team investigating the impacts of hydropower in communities living nearby different dams in the Brazilian Amazon, and to think about possible solutions to ensure positive environmental and socio-economic outcomes in hydropower development.

Hi All!

I wanted to share the recording of our latest webinar with Cathy Robinson available at the following link.

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Title: Using a multiple-evidence based approach for Indigenous-led conservation

Abstract:

Most of the planet’s vital ecosystems are managed on lands owned by Indigenous peoples. Indigenous people face many challenges in managing these lands, including rapidly growing threats causing species extinctions and ecosystem losses. In response, many Indigenous groups are looking for ethical ways to use multiple sources of evidence to solve complex environmental management problems. Drawing on action co-research and face-to-face interviews, I reflect on a collaboration that applied Indigenous data governance and knowledge sharing protocols to bring together Indigenous knowledge (IK) and artificial intelligence (AI) to adaptively manage weeds impacting the Nardab Ramsar listed wetlands in Australia’s Kakadu National Park, a World Heritage area listed for its natural and cultural values. why we are conceptualizing private foundations as agents of environmental governance, and then I will share preliminary empirical results on how foundations and practitioners conceptualize donor legitimacy in the marine conservation field. I will discuss how our work – and additional research from the broader enviornmental governance community – can inform the practice of conservation philanthropy at a time when foundations are increasingly reckoning with their role as institutions of power in society. 

Biography:

Cathy Robinson is a geographer based at CSIRO in Australia and is interested in the design of scientifically rigorous and socially robust decision-support frameworks that are capable of translating scientific and local knowledge into environmental policy decision­ making in addition to the barriers and opportunities facing Indigenous people in their efforts to contribute to environmental  planning objectives and receive co-benefits from the delivery of carbon and water management projects.