The intergenerational continuity of knowledge has become a concern as small-scale societies worldwide balance the challenges of adapting to environmental change associated with globalization while retaining continuity in their ways of life. This dissertation examines the intergenerational continuity of environmental knowledge through the conceptual lens of an Ethnoecology of Practice framework (EofP) developed to guide this research. Integrating insights from political ecology, social wellbeing and adaptive learning, the EofP provides theoretical and methodological tools based on practice theory to examine the knowledge of small-scale societies. Based on fieldwork in the community of Ponta Negra (Atlantic Forest Coast, Brazil), this dissertation uses a qualitative case study strategy of inquiry guided by a phenomenological worldview. Methods included participant observation, semi-structured interviews covering livelihoods, life histories and marine and terrestrial knowledge themes, document review and a census. Chapters 4 and 5 examine the perception of marine and terrestrial natural resources by tracing their social life from harvesting grounds to exchange and consumption sites. Chapters 6 and 9 analyse historical and contemporary adaptation to environmental change. While Chapter 6 describes the adoption of the pound net fishery, Chapter 9 illustrates contemporary modes of learning associated with natural resource harvesting and presents the processes associated with production of new knowledge through the example of local participation in the tourism economy. Chapter 7 examines local perspectives on livelihood transition from a social wellbeing perspective and highlights factors underlying the continuity of natural resource harvesting practice in Ponta Negra. Chapter 8 discusses how the term Caiçara, as used in biodiversity conservation and tourism development discourses, circumscribes the relation between coastal people and their local environments to a subsistence economy, denying their current economic engagements as well as their desires and aspirations. This dissertation contributes to ethnobiological understandings of the intergenerational continuity of knowledge by providing a framework and grounding evidence that demonstrates how knowledge is generated through context-specific practice attuned to dynamic environments that leads to individual innovation. It provides a theoretical contribution to our understanding of framing and creating processes inherent to human-in environment relations that lead to fluidity in ways of life over time.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Poverty dynamics and livelihood challenges among small-scale fishing communities on Lake Kariba (Zimbabwe) The aim of this study was to assess poverty among small-scale fishing communities on Lake Kariba (Zimbabwe) as well to as identify livelihood challenges that confront them. Two fishing communities were used as case studies and were uniquely selected from among the many fishing camps/villages dotted along the Zimbabwean shoreline of Lake Kariba. Depending on gear type, fishing activities on Lake Kariba target both the smaller-sized Kapenta species and larger species such as the bream and the tiger. Fishing activities are a major livelihood source for fishers in the two case studies upon which they obtain food and derive income to address other family needs. Mutual linkages and exchanges also exist between fishing camps/villages and communal areas where land-based activities such as cropping and livestock rearing are carried out. Before fieldwork, there was a pre-conceived notion that members of fishing communities on Lake Kariba were very poor. Although the fishers expressed desires for a better life than they were experiencing, they did not consider themselves poor. Instead, they rated their economic position as well off compared to some of their urban counterparts. However, on further interrogation, the study revealed that the fishers were facing a set of vulnerabilities that is commonly associated with the fishing profession. These vulnerabilities had substantial impacts on the livelihood system of these fishers. Using vulnerability ladders, a picture was painted depicting the severity of these vulnerabilities. It emerged that fishers were more vulnerable to existing state institutions that are designed to manage access to and the use of natural resources in the country. There are several reasons to suggest why this is the case which include, (i) the high cost of accessing the fishery, (ii) the stern measures in place that restrict access to and use of the fishery, and (iii) the punitive measures imposed for contravening rules of access and use of the fishery. Although restricting access is in line with the principle of long run sustainability of the fishery, it may threaten the development of the fishing industry and impact negatively on livelihoods of communities involved. Unlike fisheries elsewhere in the world, Lake Kariba is not viewed as a vehicle for reducing poverty and achieving food security. On the contrary, government places emphasis on preserving and enhancing the natural environment both aquatic and non-aquatic with a view to sustaining tourism. Under such a paradigm, fishing is viewed as a threat to the natural environment and requires strict management. Heavy fines are therefore imposed on users that violate the rules of access. Many of the fishers have had their properties attached after failing to raise the necessary amounts to cover the fines. By shifting away from the promotion of fisheries, government has accelerated the decline of the small-scale fishing industry on Lake Kariba, through narrowing the fishers action space and creating an environment conducive for corruption. The decline has subsequently shrunk the livelihoods base of local communities as well as many others who are associated with the fishing industry. While the sustainability of the fishery is paramount, government needs to reconsider its strategy on governing and managing fisheries on Lake Kariba. Given enough support, small-scale fisheries on Lake Kariba have the potential to contribute significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Small-scale fisheries have also proved their resilience in the wake of the severe economic crisis that Zimbabwe experienced between 2007 and 2009. During this period, there were widespread shortages of basic food items in the country and the demand for fish and fish products rose drastically. The fishers reported that there was an increase in the demand for fish during the crisis period to the extent that they could not supply enough to satisfy the market. This supports the observation by the United Nations (2010) that fisheries, in particular small-scale, can play an important role in the economy in terms of livelihoods, poverty reduction and food security. Fishing activities are also the perfect complement to other land-based livelihood activities for communities that live in close proximity to large water bodies.

Small-scale fisheries are learning contexts of importance for generating, transferring, and updating ecological knowledge of natural environments through everyday work practices. The rich knowledge fishers have of local ecosystems is the result of the intimate relationship fishing communities have had with their natural environments across generations (see e.g. Urquhart and Acott 2013). This relationship develops strong emotional bonds to the physical and social place. For fishing communities and fishers – who depend directly on local ecosystems to maintain their livelihoods – fishing environments are natural places for living, working and defining themselves. Previous research on fishers’ ecological knowledge has mainly been descriptive, i.e., has focused on aspects such as reproduction, nutrition and spatial-temporal distribution and population dynamics, from a traditional view of knowledge that only recognises scientific knowledge as the true knowledge. By doing this, fishers’ ecological knowledge has been investigated separately from the learning contexts in which it is generated, ignoring the influence of social, cultural and historical aspects that characterise fishing communities, and the complex relationships between fishers and the natural environments they live and work in. This thesis investigates ecological knowledge among small-scale fishers living and working in the ecosystems of Lake Vättern and the Blekinge Archipelago (Baltic Sea) in Sweden and explores how ecological knowledge is generated with particular regard to the influences of work and nature on fishers’ knowledge of ecosystems. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of informal learning processes of ecosystem complexity among small-scale fishers. This knowledge further contributes to the research field of ecological knowledge and sustainable use and management of natural resources. It addresses the particular research questions of what ecological knowledge fishers generate, and how its generation is influenced by their fishing work practices and relationships to nature. The thesis consists of three articles. Article I focuses on the need to address the significant lack of theoretical and methodological frameworks for the investigation of the cognitive aspects involved in the generation of ecological knowledge. Article II deals with the need to develop theoretical, methodological and empirical frameworks that avoid romanticising and idealising users’ ecological knowledge in local (LEK), indigenous (IEK) and traditional (TEK) ecological knowledge research, by rethinking it as being generated through work practices. Article III addresses the lack of studies that explicitly explore theories linking complex relations and knowledge that humans form within and of ecosystems. It also addressed the lack of attention from environmental education researchers to theory and empirical studies of ‘sense of place’ research, with a particular focus on environmental learning. Research into the question of what ecological knowledge fishers generate shows differences in their ways of knowing ecosystem complexity. These differences are explained in terms of the influences of the species being fished, and the sociocultural contexts distinguishing fishers’ connection to the fishing profession (i.e., familial tradition or entrepreneurship) (Article I), but also by the fishing strategies used (Article II). Results answering the research question of how work practices influence fishers’ knowledge of ecosystem complexity show a way of rethinking their ecological knowledge as generated in a continuous process of work (Article II), thus, far from romantic views of knowledge. Results answering the research question of how fishers’ relationships to nature influence their knowledge of ecosystem complexity demonstrate the complex interconnections between psychological processes such as identity construction, proximity maintenance and attachment to natural environments (Article III). Finally, more similarities than differences between fishers’ knowledge were found, despite the variation in cases chosen, with regards to landscape, target species, regulations systems and management strategies, fishing environments scales, as well as cultural and social contexts. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript.</p><p> </p> / Ecological knowledge and sustainable resource management: The role of knowledge acquisition in enhancing the adaptive capacity of co-management arrangements