Water and sanitation (WatSan) development projects impact both natural systems and societal structures where they are placed. A complex process of development, including inter-governmental policies, aid agencies, personal relationships, and community politics enhance and constrain the efficacy of these projects. This study presents the many ways in which the WatSan development process has unintended and unexpected returns for certain community groups. Using a political ecology framework, I look at power structures, perceived and projected environmental impacts, multiple stakeholders, and individual discourses to critique how the right to water and sanitation is implemented in a specific community context. This project advances anthropological thought by showing a praxis-based study that links theory, on-the-ground, ethnographic experience, policy recommendations, and theoretical injections which relate to a variety of audiences, both within and outside of the academy. The project is conducted in two main field locations--La Paz and Sapecho, Bolivia. I employ a mixed-method approach, including interviews with development professionals and community members, a survey of water and sanitation users, focus groups with particularly impacted groups (e.g. water committees, students, and women), and various mapping techniques (GPS mapping, community-led) to address the space and place within which this project was realized. I give specific focus to sewage collection and wastewater treatment, two elements of the WatSan system that are distinctive in this rural developing-country context. WatSan development is not just infrastructure placement. It is a full process, a relationship. It comprises individual conversations, days of work, salaries, payment schedules, labor, expertise, and ongoing management practices. Individual perceptions of infrastructure efficacy, personal benefit, and best practices (both culturally and technologically) impact the long-term effectiveness of a project. Major tensions arise post-implementation: between community and aid agency, conservation and use, labor and upkeep, and sanitation and potable water. There are multiple influences and positions subsumed in this process. The study's political ecology approach, combined with foci on human rights, critical development, and water and culture, provides critical insights into the relationship between social and resource-based (water infrastructure) change. It looks at the ways in which the benefits and risks of a WatSan system are stratified, gendered, and power-laden. It further looks at the potential positive and negative outcomes of the system--all with an enviro-social focus. I look at how social and ecological relationships are tethered together (mutually constituted), how they are influenced by several levels of governance and policy. The experience of Sapecho shows how changes to WatSan environments can provide new water and sanitation access but in some cases, further engrain and exacerbate social inequalities. Provision of fresh water, sewage collection, and wastewater treatment infrastructure is not value-free--but it is necessary. This work tries to answer one small part of the question of how the right to water and sanitation can be best implemented in real-world situations.

Loss of native biological diversity is a world-wide problem of growing international concern. One of the main causes of native biodiversity loss is destruction and degradation of native habitat through land development for agriculture. The Waikato region is an example of the destruction and degradation of native habitat in association with the development and intensification of farming, including dairy farming. This thesis explores cultural reasons for the loss of native forest in the Waikato region, and reasons why fragments of native forest remain. The research involves a participant observation study of 'typical' dairy farm families for 9 months of the dairy year, in-depth interviews of dairy farmers who have protected a significant proportion of their land for conservation of native habitat, a questionnaire of dairy farmers, and an examination of dairy farm magazines and other literature to identify the values and attitudes that motivate dairy farmers in relation to land management and protection of native habitat. The title of the thesis suggests two elements that are important for understanding the loss and persistence of native forest in Waikato's farmed landscapes. Symbolic reason refers to the values, attitudes and perceptions of farmers that derive from socio-political and economic forces which encourage productivist practises that leave little opportunity for native forest to survive. Material agency refers to the local circumstances of particular farms and individual people which enable native forest to persist. The thesis argues that persistence of native forest depends on the idiosyncrasies of material circumstance in the face of relentless pressure to transform the production landscape for economic purposes. The thesis concludes with a suggestion that policies to assist survival of native habitat in farmed landscapes need to include ones that encourage the odds in favour of fortuitous circumstance. In the face of globalised economic pressures, policies for conservation of native biodiversity need to involve a 'portfolio' of measures that apply to individual landowners and the wider rural community by recognising, assisting and rewarding management for non-production values.

This thesis takes an actor-oriented approach to a micropolitical analysis of the engagements of Kanak villagers in the Voh-Koné area, New Caledonia, with the Koniambo Project, a proposed joint nickel mining venture involving a multinational (Falconbridge) and a local mining company (SMSP). In the introductory chapter, I outline my theoretical framework, which expands political ecology by applying insights from micropolitical theory to a focus on intracommunity disputes surrounding natural resource exploitation projects. I argue that such a close examination is necessary if we are to understand local tensions and factions and their multiple influences on the outcomes of development projects. ¶ The Koniambo Project promises to redress some of the economic imbalances prevalent in the archipelago by benefiting the largely Kanak, and historically underprivileged, Northern Province. Thus, this mining project has great politico-economic significance, both for pro-independence leaders as well as for those who wish to maintain New Caledonia as a part of France. However, while people expected benefits for the Kanak people as a whole, the project sparked intracommunity conflicts at the local level. I argue that villagers’ claims to the right to authorize mining activities as well as their desires to receive recognition from the mining company reflected their eagerness to prove a high social position. Meanwhile, in line with the traditionally competitive political climate within Kanak communities, there were many debates about who exactly the ‘landowners’ were. Indeed, the project’s potential to disrupt or reinforce control over land – which, unlike material goods, was a socially acceptable object of overt rivalry – created unexpected socio-political stakes. These differential micropolitical possibilities shaped people’s discourses about the project’s other impacts. For instance, those who expected to be able to access employment opportunities as well as social recognition from the mining project were more inclined not to worry about the project’s consequences for natural/cultural resources. Similarly, Voh-Koné area villagers’ statements and actions regarding dangers from spirits or forbidden places were strongly influenced by their expectations of the project’s ability to strengthen or weaken their social status, as determined by their genealogies and proven through demonstrations of their relationships to their ancestors. ¶ In the final chapter, I provide a summary of my conclusions about the micropolitics behind local community members’ engagements with the Koniambo Project. Next I explain how, while this case itself is unique due to the project’s unusual politico-economic significance, the theoretical framework and methodology outlined in this thesis can help to create balanced, nuanced analyses of intracommunity diversity and micropolitical conflicts that objectively yet sympathetically portray local people as real human beings. Finally, I suggest new directions for further research on the interactions of mining companies and local communities.

A la faveur d'un parcours professionnel centré sur l'analyse des relations entre la gestion des ressources naturelles et les dynamiques territoriales (Pays Bamiléké, Cévennes, Nord Cameroun, Mali, Burkina Faso), je me suis interrogé sur les conséquences des politiques de conservation et de développement sur les droits d'accès et d'usage des populations et sur leurs conditions d'existence. Avec la prise de conscience des changements environnementaux globaux, les processus de territorialisation au niveau local ont changé. La construction de discours et de mécanismes de régulation par des communautés épistémiques à l'échelle globale peut aboutir, aux échelles nationale ou locale, à la création de territoires de conservation et de développement. La mise en place de ces territoires s'impose le plus souvent aux populations sans grande considération pour les territorialités et les espaces d'activités déjà en place. Ils induisent des modifications dans les pratiques et stratégies de gestion des ressources, qui amènent à s'interroger sur leur pertinence tant environnementale que sociale. Un cadre de recherche, à la croisée de la géographie tropicaliste française et de la Political Ecology anglo-saxonne, est proposé pour analyser les conséquences de la mise en place de ces territoires de conservation et de développement, selon quatre axes : (1) leurs impacts sur les conditions d'existence des populations qui dépendent pour tout ou partie de l'exploitation des ressources de ces territoires ; (2) les spatialités inattendues générées par l'imposition de ces territoires dans des espaces déjà territorialisés, parfois sous plusieurs formes ; (3) les décalages entre ces territoires et les processus écologiques d'une part et les espaces d'activités d'autre part ; (4) la contribution de ces territoires à la marchandisation de la Nature et à son tronçonnage en morceaux mis en marché.

Characterized by scenic beauty and biodiversity, yet impoverished peoples, the Wild Coast of South Africa lies at a development crossroads, whereby various land-use proposals offer different outcomes. This thesis sought to analyze various stakeholder arguments in support of development strategies, especially involving the local people and environment. Based on a document analysis and interviews, the predominant development strategies supported were small community development initiatives (SCDIs) and tourism, supported by NGOs, and mining, supported by the private sector yet opposed by NGOs. A major finding was that while government outlines many development “objectives”, successful results are negligible, suggesting that this sector is an overall ineffective determinant for Wild Coast development. NGO and private sectors provided valid arguments in support of their strategies, leaving the researcher to conclude that means of collaboration should be determined in order to best develop the Wild Coast (via SCDIs, tourism, and mining) and improve local livelihoods.

Characterized by scenic beauty and biodiversity, yet impoverished peoples, the Wild Coast of South Africa lies at a development crossroads, whereby various land-use proposals offer different outcomes. This thesis sought to analyze various stakeholder arguments in support of development strategies, especially involving the local people and environment. Based on a document analysis and interviews, the predominant development strategies supported were small community development initiatives (SCDIs) and tourism, supported by NGOs, and mining, supported by the private sector yet opposed by NGOs. A major finding was that while government outlines many development “objectives”, successful results are negligible, suggesting that this sector is an overall ineffective determinant for Wild Coast development. NGO and private sectors provided valid arguments in support of their strategies, leaving the researcher to conclude that means of collaboration should be determined in order to best develop the Wild Coast (via SCDIs, tourism, and mining) and improve local livelihoods.

While previous research on African smallholder agriculture has been criticized of focusing on the sole factor of population pressure as driver of agricultural degradation or intensification, the present study tries to nuance this debate by providing empirically grounded research, exploring the dynamics behind local agro-ecological change. The thesis specifically studies the dynamics behind small-scale farmers’ crop choices in relation to their management of trees in cropland in Gera District, Ethiopia. Drawing on situated landscape interviews and focus group discussions with farmers combined with observations and interviews with agriculture officials, a contextual understanding of local agro-ecological processes emerged. While political ecology was used as an overarching framework, the concept of landesque capital served as an analytical tool to explore how external and local forces interact at the point of the land management decision. It was found that external factors sometimes have a reinforcing effect at the local scale, but when top-down interventions are incoherent with bottom-up priorities, a conflict occurs. In this way, local dynamics and external drivers constitute an interacting dialectic, with a set of unintentional synergies and trade-offs eventually forming agro-ecological landscape change. / Examining mismatches between management and the supply of ecosystem services in Ethiopian agroecosystems across scales in space and time

<p>Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly prevalent and popular conservation tool, yet there is still much debate over whether they should emphasize the role of expert knowledge or local participation. This debate occurs among an international network of scientists and conservation professionals as well as in relation to particular places and MPAs. This dissertation contributes to an understanding of MPAs by addressing three questions: (1) How do differently situated actors within the MPA social network define and mobilize ideas of knowledge and participation? (2) How are knowledge and participation enacted and perceived in particular MPAs? (3) How do perceptions of knowledge and participation relate to actors' views of the success of MPAs? In order to address these questions, this dissertation presents the results of two separate projects: (1) a survey of international experts at the First International Marine Protected Areas Congress; and (2) an ethnographic study of two marine protected areas and their associated communities and social networks in southern Belize. The results of the survey indicate that the international MPA community is divided in their opinions on what constitutes science and what role scientists should play in the MPA policy process. Scientists who had a positivist view of science were reluctant to engage in MPA policy making, whereas government representatives who held positivist beliefs were more likely to support scientists advocating for particular MPA policies. The results of the ethnographic study in Belize illustrate that multiple groups work to produce, interpret, and contest knowledge for MPA policy, while also engaging in scalar strategies to define what MPAs are, how they should function, and who should be involved in their management. MPA success in Belize is not dependent on either conclusive expert knowledge or positive perceptions of participation, but rather on the accommodation of multiple groups' agendas.</p> / Dissertation

<p>This dissertation research explores participatory sea turtle conservation monitoring through a comparison of two case studies, one in North Carolina (NC), USA and the other in Baja California Sur (BCS), Mexico. Participatory approaches in conservation management can supplement state capacity as well as strengthen the involvement of citizens in environmental governance and knowledge production. Despite scholarship challenging the validity of the categories of developing and developed nations, this categorical assumptions derived from this binary world divide continue to inform conservation, and theoretical vocabularies for local roles in conservation management. In developed nations, participatory conservation management is framed through the broader administrative rationalism discourse, and is identified as volunteer conservation or citizen science. In developing nations, participatory conservation management is approached through the discourse of biodiversity and the threats human society poses to it, and is identified through community-based processes of conservation stewardship. The two case studies analyzed in this dissertation serve to interrogate the ways in which these distinct discourses influence outcomes, and consider what may be obscured or overlooked due to discursive constraints. </p><p> Conducting ethnographic research in each case study site, I participated in and observed sea turtle conservation activities and conducted in-depth interviews with relevant sea turtle conservation actors as well as collected documents pertaining to the conservation programs. Sea turtle conservation monitors in NC and BCS perform functionally similar conservation tasks, and I collected data using similar techniques in order to maximize comparability. I compare the case studies, not to generalize to a population, but instead to speak to theoretical propositions and inform existing theory on participatory conservation monitoring. </p><p> Although participatory monitoring in NC and BCS does not result in a democratization of science, there are beneficial outcomes to participants in both places. NC sea turtle monitors are enabled to take ownership of sea turtle stewardship, and BCS sea turtle monitors are enabled to promote conservation and cultural change using the authority of science. These outcomes challenge assumptions about state capacity and local engagements with science in participatory conservation, and the disparate approaches to local roles in conservation in each `world.' The overall findings suggest that a multitude of factors are involved in the production of conservation program frameworks and participant outcomes, and more deeply interrogating the taken for granted assumptions behind conservation designs and implementation can offer stronger understandings of what participatory conservation management can (and cannot) achieve.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet, 2002. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-317).