This study investigates and expands learning associated with the co-management of fisheries resources to inform extension and training in the fisheries sector in two case study sites in Malawi. The study was located in the field of environmental education with a specific focus on community learning, agency and sustainability practices in co-management of fisheries resources. It focuses on how fisheries stakeholder learning can be mediated through expansive social learning processes to inform extension and training in the Malawi fisheries sector and aims at understanding learning as an emergent, agency centred process of change through social learning models that are said to have power to mobilise community agency for change. The empirical research for the study was conducted in two Malawian fishing communities: in Lake Malombe and the south-east arm of Lake Malawi using qualitative case study research design. The two sites were selected because they were the first sites in Malawi to implement fisheries co-management programmes following the failure of centralised management of fisheries resources. Data was generated through interviews, focus group discussions, document analysis, observations and change laboratory workshops in both sites. The two sites fall under one administrative office based in Mangochi where the two important institutions of the sector – the Fisheries Research Unit of the Department of Fisheries and the Fisheries College (a government institution responsible for the training of extension services) are also based. Both sites have implemented new governance structures named Beach Village Committees which are community-based organisational structures that function in parallel with traditional authorities to manage the fishery. Contextual and literature review work showed that extension services and programmes over the past hundred years, as observed in the fisheries sector in Malawi and in extension services elsewhere, have co-evolved with approaches to natural resources management. Early approaches to natural resources management involved traditional management (associated extension services and programmes were community based); later fisheries governance practices changed to centralised management and associated extension approaches were mainly top-down involving command and control or technology transfer. These early approaches have been problematic as resource users were pushed away from their own resources and were viewed as poachers. This resulted in loss of ownership among resources users. Recently in Malawi, after the change of government to democracy in 1994, fisheries management policy focused on co-management and/or adaptive co-management approaches, an approach that has also been adopted in other African water bodies. This has implications for extension service programmes in the fisheries sector that are not yet well defined. The study’s literature review revealed that co-management approaches assume collaborative learning, or co-learning, also termed social learning, or approaches that promote the engagement of different actors who are working on shared practice. They also assume a new form of agency among co-management stakeholders and extension workers. However, the theoretical foundations for establishing co-learning or social learning approaches in support of co-management policies are not well established in the fisheries co-management sector in Malawi, nor are the practices of how to support co-learning amongst diverse stakeholders in the fisheries co-management in the Lake Malawi context. This study sought to address this gap in knowledge and practice.

This thesis focus on the unidimensional adscriptions of value behind industrial soybeans production in Paraguay. The thesis aims to present non-economic Nature’s Contributions to traditional farmers’ quality of life, the role of farmers’ traditional knowledge to display these contributions and the efficiency of such knowledge regarding high productive demands. From a theoretical framework based on nature’s contributions to people, ecosystem services, knowledge systems and conservation, the thesis formulates the following research questions: 1) What drives the prioritization of a single economic value on nature’s contributions to people in rural Paraguay? 2) What is the value of non-economic nature’s contributions, and what is the role of traditional farmers on displaying these values? The study mostly relies in primary data obtained through semi-structured interviews conducted during fieldwork period in the study area of San Pedro, Eastern Paraguay. The results present a plural assessment on nature’s contributions and the adaptation of small farmers to modern farming techniques. The thesis concludes that a perspective dominated by unidimensional value can be socially motivated within the rush for development in Paraguay, a concept tied to economic growth and modernization. In addition, nature’s contributions displayed by small farmers suggest that community-based conservation could represent a more sustainable approach for the farmers’ needs and the current environmental challenges of the country.

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The theoretical and empirical framework of this study demonstrates the following: firstly, the success of a CBNRM programme relies heavily on the involvement of the communities; secondly, the targeted government policies enable the facilitation of CBNRM in various parts of Southern Africa; thirdly, the involvement of institutions that includes donors, government institutions, academic practitioners, NGOs and the private sector, is crucial; fourthly, capital, in the form of natural, physical, human and financial capital, is necessary in the planning, implementation and management of the projects; and fifthly, CBNRM projects include varied ecotourism products based on the natural capital availability. In this study, a qualitative research approach was followed, where the sample population included the Manavhela reserve management, the workers, and community representatives. Findings of the study provide insights into the way in which the CBNRM programme was implemented in the Manavhela community, detailing the challenges and/or successes that have been faced in the management of the programme. Some insights are also penned on the attitudes of the community towards resource conservation. The conclusion is that the Manavhela community remains aloof regarding the implementation and management of the nature reserve. This is contrary to the CBNRM model, which postulates that the community must be at the centre of the implementation and management of conversation programmes. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Nature Conservation)

「社基保育」（Community-Based Conservation）是強調「由下到上」（bottom-up）的自然資源管理模式。透過在地民眾的參與（participation），不僅減少政府在自然資源管理的支出，形成為社區居民認可的資源管理模式；更重要的，透過居民參與，社基保育連結地方自治（self-governance）與民主（democracy），實踐公共財合產（coproduction）與增效（synergy）的效果。因此社基保育不僅有生態保育的優勢，更有政治與經濟面的討論意義。 以往對社基保育的研究，多以鄉村或原住民地區的資源管理為研究範例，這些地區藉由居民的共議或傳統文化，獲得居民認同，刺激居民主動參與。然而若將研究焦點轉向都市地區，社基保育能否發揮相同功效？透過本研究的兩個案例—台北市富陽自然生態公園與台南市巴克禮紀念公園，社基保育在都市社區中仍有實行的可能。但相較鄉村與原民社區，都市社基保育的參與者更多，彼此溝通協調需要更多成本，形成集體行動也更不容易。本研究兩個案例中的里長，皆發揮動員居民的功能，並代表居民和其他參與者如政府、非營利組織溝通，降低居民參與的成本，營造居民集體行動的雛形。而政府、非營利組織與居民在社基保育過程中的關係，將影響社基保育能否達成在地落實的目標。 / Community-Based Conservation is the model emphasizing “bottom-up” power of managing natural resources. It reduces the government’s cost of resource management, and becomes a widely accepted model by the locals through their participation. Furthermore, it combines Coproduction, Synergy, local Self-Governance, and Democracy Governance through the locals’ direct participation. Therefore, Community-Based Conservation not only has advantage in ecological conservation, but also shows importance in politics and economics. Previously, the researches on Community-Based Conservation often take resource management models in rural and indigenous areas as their cases. These models obtain the residents’ identity and stimulate their active participation by their discussion or the influence of traditional culture. But if we transfer the researches’ focus to urban areas, can Community-Based Conservation play the same role? Through the two cases in this thesis: Fuyang Eco Park in Taipei and Barclay Memorial Park in Tainan, it is possible to implement Community-Based Conservation in urban areas. However, compared with rural and indigenous areas, there are more participators in urban areas. It costs more to make them coordinate and communicate with each other well. Consequently, it is very important to inspire the locals to participate in Community-Based Conservation. In these two cases, both Neighborhood magistrates construct the model by mobilizing the residents, communicating with different participators such as the government, non-profit organizations, and reducing the cost of their participation. The relationship between the government, non-profit organizations and the residents in the process of Community-Based Conservation will affect the fulfillment in urban areas.

過去政府的保育政策多施行於國有地上，盡量避免限制私有土地上的經濟活動，卻也造成保護區周邊私有土地利用上，與保育目的不相容的情形，致使共享性資源（common pool resources, CPRs）走向悲劇一途。本文以宜蘭雙連埤濕地作為個案，從深度訪談瞭解該地私有地保育的困境，並從「協力治理」（collaborative governance）的角度分析，發現政府單方面的保育政策，難以達到良好的私地保育效果。本研究透過深度訪談追蹤雙連埤的保育努力過程，發現最後能夠維持雙連埤的風貌，荒野協會等民間保育團體功不可沒。保育團體不具備管理的職責，比較容易與在地居民的建立情感聯繫，能作為政府與居民之間的溝通橋樑；他們擁有豐富的生態知識，能化自然資源為物質性誘因（material incentives），結合居民生計與生態保育的行動，減輕私有地上活動對環境的壓力。透過「由下而上」的共享性資源管理模式，雙連埤的案例展現如何透過協力合產與「社基保育」（Community-Based Conservation）模式，破除「生態」與「生計」無法共存的迷思，進而達到永續發展的目的。 / Conservational policies have been known more applicable to public lands. Yet endangered species can not tell and thus have suffered from the economic activities on private land, leading to an inevitable tragedy. This thesis adopts Shuang-Lien Lake as a case to demonstrate the possibility of an alternative, community-based approach. Through in-depth interviews with policy makers and major stakeholders, this research indicates how collaboration between local government and voluntary citizen groups could overcome the oppositions by local residents against conserving valuable ecologic system on private land.

Anthropogenic impact on the environment, mainly resource depletion and pollution, is limiting the potential for future generations to have the same resources that previous generations have enjoyed. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges of our time will be curtailing our own personal impacts on the environment. To do this, we must adopt more sustainable lifestyles at home. This research sought to understand how neighborhood identity affects sustainability at the household level. In the summer of 2012, residents of two neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon completed 314 self-report, web-based surveys. The neighborhoods selected for this research were demographically similar, but one projected a sustainable neighborhood identity and the other did not. Survey questions were designed to determine respondents: level of engagement in their neighborhood, attitudes towards the environment, and adherence to sustainable behaviors. Findings suggest that neighborhood engagement can influence household sustainability levels in Portland. This research also suggests that the city or region may have more effect on perceived household sustainability than the neighborhood does.

Ecotourism has often failed to deliver appropriate, tangible benefits to host communities living near protected areas in developing regions of Africa. The Robford Community Conservation Benefit Centre (RCCBC) model was developed as a means to overcome many of the common problems of community-based ecotourism and to enhance the range and flow of benefits to such communities by developing a suite of products and programmes aimed specifically at scientists, volunteer tourists and participatory environmental research tourists. This study tests the aims that the necessary tourism, geographic, social and research conditions are present for the implementation of the RCCBC model in a local community situated close to the Great Fish River Nature Reserve (GFRNR) in South Africa. Situational assessment fieldtrips determined that the GFRNR, its immediate tourism egion and the ten settlements surrounding the nature reserve conformed to RCCBC development guidelines and were suitable for further detailed investigation. One of the settlements, Glenmore Village, conformed most closely to the RCCBC model’s guidelines for selecting a preferred host community. A census survey of all households in Glenmore determined a demographic profile of village residents. A random sample survey of 70 Glenmore households established a social profile of the community’s residents and their attitude to various aspects of the RCCBC model. A spatial analysis of the Glenmore precinct determined that sufficient, suitable land was available for the development of RCCBC products and programmes. The findings of the research indicated that the tourism, geographic, social and research conditions were present at Glenmore, the GFRNR and its surrounding tourism region for the implementation of the RCCBC model and the development of the model’s proposed products and programmes at Glenmore Village. Implementation of the RCCBC model at Glenmore and the GFRNR as a pilot study could introduce a new way of bringing tangible, meaningful benefits to select communities located close to protected areas in existing tourism regions that have failed to benefit either completely or partially from traditional forms of ecotourism development in the past. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) related to protected areas (PAs) originated in the 1980’s in Zimbabwe, Africa, in the buffer zone communities of Africa’s National Parks. CBNRM attempted to address the problems associated with colonial, protectionist style ‘fence and guns’ conservation management approaches, which excluded resource-based communities from conservation areas. CBNRM attempts to meet the biodiversity conservation objectives of conservation areas, and the sustainable development and livelihood objectives of neighbouring communities. While CBNRM initiatives have been well documented internationally over the past decades, little is known about the status of CBNRM within Canada. In order to bridge this knowledge gap and to link trends in conservation and protected areas management internationally to Canada and to British Columbia (BC), this thesis examines the potential for community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) affiliated with BC's Protected Area System. “Potential” is determined by comparing the situation in BC to the international CBNRM experience. The study draws on a sample of Conservancies from the categories of the BC Protected Area (PA) System, focusing particularly on the nine Sea-to-Sky Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) Area Conservancies and neighbouring First Nations communities: Squamish, L’il’wat and In-SHUCK-ch. Information has been obtained through interviews (guided by semi-structured questionnaires) conducted with BC government informants and First Nations representatives, supplemented by key documents. The questionnaire examined the potential for CBNRM according to a.) the community's perspective: potential (costs and) benefits of the protected area, including goods and services, cultural and social benefits and sustainable economic development opportunities provided by the protected area; and benefits of community involvement in natural resource management and protected area governance; and b.) the conservation perspective: benefits through community cooperation in biodiversity conservation within the targeted protected area. Other factors that have been identified through the international experience to affect CBNRM initiatives, such as use regulation; tenure; policies and legislation; awareness of and support for the protected area; and community capacity were thoroughly examined across all sources of information. This study finds that there is potential for CBNRM affiliated with the BC PA system in protected area designations such as ‘Conservancies’. Potential relates to the role of CBNRM in biodiversity conservation, meeting the aspirations of BC’s First Nations communities, and in recognizing First Nations as legitimate stakeholders in protected areas and conservation management. As in the international experience, numerous social, political, economic and other factors present opportunities and challenges to the adoption of CBNRM in BC. This thesis concludes with key recommendations for protected areas and conservation management in BC and Canada and identifies opportunities to further explore key topic areas that arose from the research findings.

This study set out to explore the possibilities that the Critical Realist concept of a stratified ontology might have for environmental learning and materials development processes. This involved processes of ongoing contextual profiling; the use of picture-based resources and storytelling to support the engagement with the marine harvesting contexts of the villages of Hamburg and Ngqinisa, in the former Ciskei. At the heart of the study was the process of uncovering the empirical, the actual and the real in the context of a community of coastal marine harvesters whose lives and livelihoods are affected by poverty and a history of inequality, and more recently by issues such as HIV/AIDS. Their stories of existing practice changed as we engaged with picture-based narratives, gaining depth and focus in relation to sustainability issues. The learning processes associated with and emerging out of the research processes were enhanced through abductive use of metaphors and graphic illustrations, and through intra- and inter community exchanges, again using picture based narratives. As the study unfolded, the development of environmental education materials receded. Focus turned to how conceptual abstraction processes (of abduction (metaphor) and retroduction) and the stratified ontological framework allowed for learning across epistemological divides.