Menu | Environmental management in dynamic social-ecological systems II: Perc...

Nicholas Kirk¹, Robyn Kannemeyer¹, Alison Greenaway¹, Dean Stronge¹

¹Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research

New Zealanders value nature for diverse reasons and this affects their perception of technologies which eradicate predator species to protect native species. Predator Free New Zealand is an ambitious project which aims to restore and protect New Zealand’s native wildlife by eradicating specific introduced predators through landscape-scale initiatives. To achieve their goals, Predator Free New Zealand was asked to explore new and innovative technological approaches to pest control. This paper explores what New Zealanders with an interest in pest control consider to be the risks and benefits of introducing new pest control technologies. The technologies we examined included gene drives, the Trojan Female Technique, and pest-specific toxins. Our focus groups articulated a number of potential benefits from introducing new technologies – such as replacing toxins with non-toxic alternatives – but it was the risks of new technologies which dominated our discussion. Reflecting on these results, we discuss the difficulties of reconciling multiple divergent public values through establishing social licence for new pest control technologies.

Biography:

Nicholas Kirk is an Environmental Social Researcher at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. His research investigates alternative processes for managing natural resources.

Mr Diego Cidrás¹

¹University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Galicia (NW Spain) is a region experiencing emerging social controversy around the expansion of Eucalyptus globulus (Tasmanian Blue Gum) plantations over coastal and lowland areas (expanding from 27,639 ha in 1973 to 287,983 ha in 2009). The economic value of this species has increased progressively since the installation of two high-capacity pulp mills in the region (1,000,000 tonnes year). This research explores the less-studied social and political behaviours of relevant stakeholders operating at different scales. Case studies are used to analyse how emerging anti-‘eucalyptiation’ sentiment (expressed in actions such as political motions, and forest restoration projects)  is indistinctly articulated within both institutional  and non-institutional  frameworks. We observe that such anti-eucalyptisation actions do not reach beyond the local scale due to a perceived clash of value systems between local groups and institutions, and the regional government. We conclude that the non-interference principle towards these actions adopted by the regional government perpetuates the social discontent relating to the expansion of eucalyptus plantations, but also stimulates the development of innovative governance practices at the local scale.

Biography:

Diego Cidrás (25) is a Galician PhD student in Geography at University of Santiago de Compostela. His research focuses on the social and political conflicts inherent in invasive species management. He is currently a visiting fellow at University of Western Australia (Jul-Oct 2019).

A/Prof. Nicholas Gill¹

¹University Of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

Weed management by  landowners is conventionally seen as a chore, as task driven by legal obligations, social norms, keeping neighbours happy, or meeting  property management goals. At best it may be a means to an end. Previous research has framed weed management as a burden; a factor in selling land, an unexpected obstacle or cost to land use goals, a source of neighbourly friction, and a negative point of distinction between different types of landholders.

An alternative is to consider weed management in terms the processes of learning, struggle, care, and transition that owning and managing land embodies. This framing of weeds will be considered in terms of weed management by lifestyle-oriented rural land owners. Interviews and property walks with lifestylers in southern NSW suggest that weed management offers certain pleasures and benefits. Weeding is a means by which they explore, learn about, and (sometimes literally) uncover their land. More than just a chore, weeding embodies and cements relations of care and potentially the knowledge and experience for managing landscapes that have been formed by almost two centuries of farming, weedy forest regrowth, and lifestyle. ‘resettlement’.

anagement in terms the processes of learning, struggle, care, and transition that owning and managing land embodies. This framing of weeds will be considered in terms of weed management by lifestyle-oriented rural land owners. Interviews and property walks with lifestylers in southern NSW suggest that weed management offers certain pleasures and benefits. Weeding is a means by which they explore, learn about, and (sometimes literally) uncover their land. More than just a chore, weeding embodies and cements relations of care and potentially the knowledge and experience for managing landscapes that have been formed by almost two centuries of farming, weedy forest regrowth, and lifestyle. ‘resettlement’.

Biography:

I am a human geographer with interests in environmental management and rural cultures. My research focuses on rural areas, particularly on cultural and social aspects of land management, land use change, and environmental conflict. In my research I aim to bridge conventional natural resource management research and research on cultures of nature. I am interested in how people occupy landscapes and seek to inhabit, use, protect, and conserve those landscapes, usually simultaneously, and in ways that defy neat compartmentalisation of these activities.

Dr Doug Bardsley¹, Dr Elisa Palazzo², Prof Randy Stringer³

¹Geography, Environment and Population, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia,

²Built Environment, UNSW, Sydney, Australia,

³Centre for Global Food and Resources, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Major challenges are emerging to integrate private lands into whole-of-landscape conservation policy, especially if definitions of biodiversity and conceptions of conservation alienate farming communities. Insufficient attention has been paid to the way that farmers perceive and value biodiversity. By undertaking ‘walk-and-talk’ in-depth interviews with leading farmers in the South Australian viticultural region of the McLaren Vale, seven important narratives were identified on the way that farmers conceive of and exploit biodiversity on-farm. Farmers’ conceptions of biodiversity challenge traditional policy divisions between ‘natural’ and anthropogenic biodiversity and represent a sophisticated understanding of agricultural and regional ecology. While farmers clearly recognise and prioritise important biodiversity values, the dominant policy frameworks are not effectively defining, quantifying or supporting that biodiversity which is constantly being regenerated through farming practices. A range of opportunities for better conservation emerge from a recognition that productive farming activities and associated agricultural biodiversity form a vital part of the region’s biocultural heritage. Of particular importance is the need for farmer definitions of biodiversity to be included in policy both to guide new connections between private landowners and biodiversity conservation, and to normalise goals of sustainable environmental management across rural landscapes.

Biography:

Douglas Bardsley is a Senior Lecturer in Geography, Environment and Population at The University of Adelaide.  Most of Doug’s research involves analysis and planning at the interface of climate change risk and socio-ecosystems, including adaptation planning for both peri-urban and remote Indigenous natural resource management regions in South Australia; resilience analysis within agricultural systems and rural communities; fire, coastal and invasive species risk management; and the analysis of climate change interactions with human migration and education systems. That work has been undertaken within different contexts in Australia, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, Switzerland and the European Union.

Website: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/douglas.bardsley

Miss Lissy Fehnker¹

¹Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Globally we are facing an environmental crisis. Collectively, the 7 billion people on Earth are exploiting natural resources at rates and intensities that are surpassing the capacity of natural systems to absorb the wastes or recover. Therefore, degradation to the natural world and species extinction is widely acknowledged by the scientific community and global population. It has been argued that disconnect between humans and nature is what contributes to this crisis, and is also the reason behind the slow response to these issues.

Given that humans can be attributed to playing a significant role in environmental damage, it is crucial that for environmental management solutions to be effective, we take into consideration what drives these behaviours and how people view themselves in relation to the natural world. Although environmental issues are well understood from a scientific perspective, currently environmental sciences struggle to integrate social processes to address the current degradation to the natural world.  This research therefore aims to contribute to this gap through investigating how people perceive nature, how connected to nature they feel they are, how this may influence how they treat nature and what factors influence these notions – all from an environmental management perspective.

Biography:

lissy.fehnker@hotmail.co.nz

PhD student halfway through PhD in Environmental Management at Massey University. Completed qualifications include Master of Environmental Management (Distinction), Bachelor of Arts (Geography Major), Diploma in Environmental Sustainability. Currently working as an adjunct tutor and marker for Open Polytechnic University in New Zealand for 6 courses that fall under the environmental management degree. Living in Auckland, New Zealand.