This project aims to create new research tools within the human dimensions (HD) of the natural resources field to improve environmental policy decision making. It addresses problems that arise from the recent trend towards decentralized natural resource management (NRM) and planning (e.g., community-based planning, watershed-based and collaborative management, others). By examining one decentralized riparian management planning effort along the Yellowstone River (Montana), this study finds that decentralization forces new needs such as localized information requirements and a better understanding of the rationales behind local interests. To meet these new scale demands and to ensure that policy best fits the social and biophysical settings, this project argues that local cultural knowledge can serve as an organizing framework for delivering the kinds of understanding needed for decentralized planning. This was tested by interviewing 313 riverfront landowners, recreationalists, and civic managers to understand how residents conceptualize the river’s natural processes, its management, and their desires for the future of the river. Analysis of the transcribed in-depth interview texts—the Yellowstone River Cultural Inventory (YRCI)—found that: (1) altering decision venues places more significance upon interpersonal working relationships between managers and citizens; (2) while local expertise can provide higher quality information to managers, local decision making cultures still retain power dynamics that can inhibit or advance conservation policies; (3) how natural resource places are symbolically communicated has a material impact upon resource uses; (4) how residents conceptualize the ownership of land is complicated along a dynamic river; and (5) this dynamism impacts planning efforts. In sum, this project argues that for social research to provide the data and analysis appropriate, a modification in scale and a commensurate shift in the lenses used for social inquiry is necessary. An in-depth understanding of local cultures—like the YRCI—enables agencies to best manage in decentralized scales of planning by calling attention to site-specific nuances such as power dynamics and place representation which are often missed in traditional large-scale HD methods and lenses. This research also functions as a preemptive way to engage the public in environmental planning helping decision makers’ best fit policy to particular socio-cultural and ecological settings.

With ever-increasing demands on scarce natural resources, understanding public attitudes toward natural resources is crucial to accomplishing various management goals for resource conservation and the provision of resource services. Despite numerous studies of public attitudes toward resource conservation since Dunlap and Heffernan 1975), there is a limited understanding of the driving forces underlying recreationists?? activities that contribute to their conservation attitudes and behaviors. Thus, this dissertation investigated the connected causal effects of how recreational anglers develop their conservation attitudes and preferences toward natural resources in light of within- and between-group diversity. Three independent studies, focusing on both recreation specialization and recreationists?? conservation attitudes, were conducted with different research themes. Two different methods, namely, a stated preference discrete choice method and structural equation modeling, were used. The first study examined anglers?? holistic preferences for trade-offs of various management rules and regulations using specialization segmentation. Study results supported that high specialization anglers reported a greater appreciation of and support for resource management practices such as harvest regulations that seek to reduce adverse user impacts than their less specialized counterparts. The second study explored the fostering process of conservation attitudes and behaviors with recreation specialization and other motivational and attitudinal variables. Given that empirical analyses supported the theoretical propositions in the constructed model, recreation specialization and other accrued motivational and attitudinal concepts provided insight to understanding the formation pattern of conservation attitudes and behaviors. The third study examined how the fostering process of attitudes toward resource conservation differed by race and ethnicity. Results indicated that anglers, regardless of their racial and ethnic origins, showed similar patterns of fostering attitudes toward and preferences for resource conservation. As they participated in fishing activity on a regular basis, heterogeneous development in conservation attitudes and preferences were likely to be minimal and be better explained by the framework of recreation specialization. Finally, a summary and synthesis of the findings, agenda for future research, and the management implications were discussed.

<p>The Volta Basin covers most of the major food producingdistricts of Ghana. Thus said, it is considered as the foodbasket of Ghana. This perception underscores the need toprotect the basins bio-physical environment and resource base.This concern has been mirrored by several initiatives both interms of policy and planning that aim at improving themanagement of the basin’s resource base to enable itspeople depend on it in meeting their livelihoods. Like mostcommunities that lie in the lower reaches of the Volta, thepeople of the South Tongu District have been brought under theimpact of the dam. Even though no extensive study has yet beenconducted to establish the extent of the dam’s impact inthe district, it is widely believed by the locals thatlivelihoods have been impacted by environmental changes. Keycomplaints include, amongst others, tree cover depletion,decline in soil fertility, poor agricultural productivity, lowrainfall and bush fires. At the district level some steps havebeen taken in the form of projects and programmes to addresspoverty and resource management issues, while others areunderway. This study seeks to contribute to the on-goinggeneral discussion concerning poverty and environmentalmanagement in the basin by presenting some perspectives fromfour villages, namely, Torsukpo, Agbogbla, Akato and Alesikpein the South Tongu District. From two perspectives, thesecommunities are considered as homogenous: (i) they are allpredominantly<i>ewes</i>with respect to ethnic composition, and (ii)subsistence farming features as a key occupation in all thecommunities. Among the range of issues identified in thedistrict, the study discusses mainly conservation (with respectto tree planting), bush fires and co-operative management. Ittreats these issues with focuses on key socio-cultural factors.In the examination of these issues institutional matters suchas tenure are seen as central players in resource managementand are thus given attention. While information gathered hereincontributes generally to deepening knowledge on the prevailingproblems, some recommendations are also offered as possiblesteps to improving resource management and livelihoods in theDistrict.</p><p><b>Key words:</b>environment; natural resources; lower volta;local people; livelihood</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on August 5, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-124). Also available online in Scholars' Bank.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Issued also as thesis, University of Michigan. / Bibliography: p. 203-210.

Thesis (M.S.) in Natural Resources Forestry, University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 22).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2003. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 266-284). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.