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<p>  </p> <p>The role of trust and risk tolerance has received renewed attention in the field of environmental conservation and management as scholars are increasingly interested in integrating various social, economic, political, cultural, and psychological understandings, concepts, and theories into environmental conservation and natural resource management. This dissertation has two foci. The first focus is on examining the role of trust in the development and maintenance of collaborative environmental conservation programs and factors influencing trust (Chapters 2 and 3) and the second focus is on examining drivers of risk tolerance in the context of human-wildlife conflict (Chapter 4). Specifically, Chapter 2 focuses on the development and maintenance of NGO-municipal collaborations in an incentive-based environmental conservation program in Bolivia, where an NGO coordinated with four municipal governments in the initiation and implementation of the Watershared program. With a particular focus on the role of trust, I examined how municipal and NGO staff interact to negotiate, fund, and develop Watershared, their motivations to initiate such partnerships, factors that influence the maintenance of such partnerships, and how staff within these organizations envision their future collaborations. I collected and analyzed data from 15 semi-structured interviews with municipal decision makers and conservation practitioners in the implementing NGO and data from participant observation of several Watershared events and NGO meetings, utilizing an integrated Institutional Analysis Design (IAD) framework. My results suggest that trust and interpersonal relationships built upon shared values and goals and the program history in the region were important factors shaping NGO-municipal collaborations. At the same time, my results show that the NGO and municipal partners had different visions of the future of the program, particularly who would be responsible for program funding and implementation, and different organizational capacities that may influence their abilities to maintain their collaborations over time. Together, these results demonstrate the importance of understanding local dynamics in developing and maintaining NGO-municipal collaborations, particularly the role of adaptability and interpersonal relationships and the challenges related to goal misalignments over time. In Chapter 3, I investigated trust of Watershared participants and non-participants towards various organizations and the collaborating partners of Watershared, particularly the forms of trust present and the factors influencing their trust. By collecting and analyzing data from 1,030 household surveys of Watershared participants and non-participants in 72 communities in the Department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, my results suggest that factors influencing trust in NGOs vs municipal governments differed even as the type of trust held in both entities was the same. Specifically, that community embeddedness and program participation significantly influenced trust in NGOs while perceived fairness and equality within communities and experience of political instability influence program participants’ trust in local municipalities. Overall, these results demonstrate the utility of a multi-level trust lens in developing informed understandings of trust across organizations while highlighting opportunities for natural resource professionals to enhance trust across organizations. Finally, Chapter 4 of my dissertation moved away from research in Bolivia to examine risk tolerance and trust in a different context due to my strong interest in human-wildlife conflict. Specifically, this chapter focuses on determining the factors that drive tolerance in livestock producer-black vulture conflicts in the midwestern United States. By collecting and analyzing data from 222 surveys of livestock producer in Indiana and Kentucky, I examined the economic, psychological, and social drivers of tolerance of black vultures. The results show that economic cost (e.g., livestock loss) was not a significant factor influencing risk tolerance; rather, wildlife value orientations such as utilitarian or mutualist beliefs, previous experience with black vultures, and intangible costs (i.e., emotions associated with wildlife) were significant drivers of tolerance. This chapter highlights the importance of incorporating non-economic factors in both understanding tolerance and developing policies and programs that reduce human-wildlife conflict. Overall, my dissertation examined trust, collaboration, and risk tolerance in two distinct contexts. Together, my results demonstrate the importance of integrating understandings of trust and risk tolerance with other economic, social, and psychological theories in developing a holistic approach to promoting collaborative natural resource management to address increasingly complex environmental conservation challenges.</p> <p>  </p>

For centuries the wellbeing of rural communities has depended on the health and resilience of local food systems. Over the last century many factors have contributed to declines in the availability and use of important traditional foods. In this thesis I have used black huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) as a case study through which I explore the varying roles humans play in influencing the health of a wild forest food. Black huckleberry is one of the most sought after wild berries in British Columbia (BC). Over the past few decades huckleberry pickers and forest managers have expressed concerns over the decreasing quality and availability of these berries. To understand the different roles humans play in the ecology of black huckleberry I interviewed 17 long-time huckleberry pickers and participated in berry picking trips – in the East Kootenay region of southeastern BC. I also reviewed the academic literature on huckleberry ecology. I found that huckleberry pickers have a deep knowledge of factors affecting the health of huckleberry patches. They identify both shifting social-economic and ecological conditions in their local forests as intrinsically linked with declining huckleberry availability and health. In contrast, the scientific literature primarily focuses on ecological conditions and forest management practices, ignoring or downplaying the relationship of berry pickers to huckleberry ecology and overall quality. There are significant cultural differences between the berry pickers’ and the scientists’ views of the factors impacting the health of the berry patch. I argue that an effective approach to addressing the problem of declining quality and availability must include the valuable insights berry pickers have on how social-ecological factors affect berry health. / Graduate

<p>The present study is one of the first attempts to analyze the societal importance of seagrasses (marine flowering plants) from a Natural Resource Management perspective, using a social-ecological systems (SES) approach. The interdisciplinary study takes place in East Africa (Western Indian Ocean, WIO) and includes in-depth studies in Chwaka Bay, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Natural and social sciences methods were used. The results are presented in six articles, showing that seagrass ecosystems are rich in seagrass species (13) and form an important part of the SES within the tropical seascape of the WIO. Seagrasses provide livelihoods opportunities and basic animal protein, in from of seagrass associated fish e.g. Siganidae and Scaridae. Research, management and education initiatives are, however, nearly non-existent. In Chwaka Bay, the goods and ecosystem services associated with the meadows and also appreciated by locals were fishing and collection grounds as well as substrate for seaweed cultivation. Seagrasses are used as medicines and fertilizers and associated with different beliefs and values. Dema (basket trap) fishery showed clear links to seagrass beds and provided the highest gross income per capita of all economic activities. All showing that the meadows provide social-ecological resilience. Drag-net fishery seems to damage the meadows. Two ecological studies show that artisanal seaweed farming of red algae, mainly done by women and pictured as sustainable in the WIO, has a thinning effect on seagrass beds, reduces associated macrofauna, affects sediments, changes fish catch composition and reduces diversity. Furthermore, it has a negative effect on i.a. women’s health. The two last papers are institutional analyses of the human-seagrass relationship. A broad approach was used to analyze regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions. Cooperation and conflict take place between different institutions, interacting with their slow or fast moving characteristics, and are thus fundamental in directing the system into sustainable/unsustainable paths. Ecological knowledge was heterogeneous and situated. Due to the abundance of resources and high internal control, the SES seems to be entangled in a rigidity trap with the risk of falling into a poverty trap. Regulations were found insufficient to understand SES dynamics. “Well” designed organizational structures for management were found insufficient for “good” institutional performance. The dynamics between individuals embedded in different social and cultural structures showed to be crucial. Bwana Dikos, monitoring officials, placed in villages or landing sites in Zanzibar experienced four dilemmas – kinship, loyalty, poverty and control – which decrease efficiency and affect resilience. Mismatches between institutions themselves, and between institutions and cognitive capacities were identified. Some important practical implications are the need to include seagrass meadows in management and educational plans, addressing a seascape perspective, livelihood diversification, subsistence value, impacts, social-ecological resilience, and a broad institutional approach.</p>