Choosing Your Baseline Carefully: Integrating Historical and Political Ecology in the Evaluation of Environmental Intervention Projects

Vries, Danny de

doi:10.5038/2162-4593.9.1.3

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Hazel had a significant impact on neighborhood risk perception, as it shifted the temporal frame of reference. The event was referred to by one informant as a “new flood dimension.” Hazel culturally constructed a new temporal reference model that now included a more distinct hazard benchmark with baseline referentiality: an event with relative temporal isolation (“rare”) that became starting point or condition against which future changes were measured (De Vries 2005 ). Hazel had suddenly and radically shifted the meaning of the landscape: Lincoln City had become a floodplain.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Vulnerability and the Post-Disaster ‘Window of Opportunity to Woo:’ a Case Study of an African-American Floodplain Neighborhood after Hurricane Floyd in North Carolina

Vries

2017

Hum Ecol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

After major flooding associated with Hurricane Floyd (1999) in North Carolina, mitigation managers seized upon the “window of opportunity” to woo residents to accept residential buyout offers despite sizable community resistance. I present a theoretical explanation of how post-crisis periods turn into “opportunities” based on a temporal referential theory that complements alternative explanations based on temporal coincidence, panarchy, and shock-doctrine theories. Results from fieldwork conducted from 2002 to 2004 illustrate how several temporal influences compromised collective calibration of “normalcy” in local cultural models, leading to an especially heightened vulnerability to collective surprise. Four factors particularly influenced this temporal vulnerability: 1) epistemological uncertainty of floodplain dynamics due to colonization; 2) cultural practices that maintained a casual amnesia; 3) meaning attributed to stochastic timing of floods; and 4) competitive impact of referential flood baseline attractors.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Vulnerability and the Post-Disaster ‘Window of Opportunity to Woo:’ a Case Study of an African-American Floodplain Neighborhood after Hurricane Floyd in North Carolina

Vries

2017

Hum Ecol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This research direction has been particularly strong in North America and Australia, where pre-European settlement conditions were often interpreted as natural. However, many studies pointed out that this view could be misleading for two main reasons (see for example Pickett & Parker 1994;Landres et al 1999;Lentz 2000;de Vries 2005). First, history did not start with European settlement.…”

Section: Ecological Conservation Management and Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Why history matters in ecology: an interdisciplinary perspective

Szabó

2010

Envir. Conserv.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SUMMARYIn recent decades, the interconnectedness of history and ecology has received increasing attention. Although necessarily interdisciplinary, efforts to study this interconnectedness had their roots either in the humanities and social sciences or in the natural sciences: scholars have tried either to understand more about nature with the help of history, or, about human history with the help of natural phenomena. As a result, theoretical studies about the integration of ecology and history try to answer two relatively distinct questions: ‘why ecology matters in history’ and ‘why history matters in ecology’. This paper sets out to systematize current knowledge on the latter question and to highlight those issues that have so far received less attention. The arguments can be grouped into three major themes. First, history matters in ecology because it aids understanding of current patterns and processes in nature. Second, because it fosters better informed management and policy decisions; and third, because it places ecology and conservation in a wider interdisciplinary context. Besides dealing with the perspectives of ecologists and conservationists, this paper also includes material from historians, anthropologists and archaeologists, that is, from scholars whose primary interest does not lie in ecological investigations, but who have, nonetheless, embraced the need for the integration of ecology and history.

show abstract

“…Fairly well developed in comparison to other areas of the Tanganyika territory when the explorers first arrived, a combination of climatic, epidemiologic and politic factors reversed the region's development trend within two decades. Droughts, rinderpest, smallpox outbreaks and early indigenous policy of the German colony all contributed to affect the local subsistence and to depopulate the area (Borgerhoff Mulder et al 2007;de Vries 2005). As summarized by de Vries regarding Tabora, ''From surplus production in 1890, the province was on the verge of poverty in 1910'' (de Vries 2005:43).…”

Section: Historical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The main driver of village relocation in the Western area has been the fight against sleeping sickness, both in Katavi-Rukwa area (Borgerhoff Mulder et al 2007) and in the area of Ugalla (Brockington and Igoe 2006;de Vries 2005). Conservation planners have been particularly effective during the colonial and post colonial era.…”

Section: Historical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The absence of sufficient baseline studies concerning both ecological and socio-economic data in the three projects (Kajembe et al 2004;de Vries 2005) partially explains the difficulties to measure success and failures. Projects have indeed problems to record their results and thus to monitor and measure changes, particularly in resource conditions.…”

Section: Problems With Measuring the Success Or Failuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Bees, farmers, tourists and hunters: conflict dynamics around Western Tanzania protected areas

Hausser

Weber

Meyer³

2009

Biodivers Conserv

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Following important donor funding in Tanzania since the 1990s to support community based natural resource management, several cooperation agencies have implemented projects aiming at developing innovative conservation strategies combining protected and sustainable use areas. Based on data gathered in the Katavi Rukwa Lukwati and Ugalla core areas of Western Tanzania, this paper compares and analyses how projects developed their strategy and objectives to address conflicts between local population and conservation agents, and how this led to changes in conservation practices. The projects managed to achieve their objectives in conservation and poverty reduction at various degrees. Enhanced conflict resolution capacity involving private stakeholders, conservation agents and local communities, as well as improved collaboration between projects, helped to solve part of the conflicts. This was the case with the negotiation of rights of access for beekeepers to Rukwa game reserve. However, enduring sector based approaches continue to hinder opportunities for developing multiple use approaches. Contrasted results of the projects can be explained by factors inherent to projects' planning and management, but also by factors that are beyond projects' influence such as the historical and contemporary context in terms of governance of natural resources and more globally, of power relationships between the state, private organisations and the communities.

show abstract

Choosing Your Baseline Carefully: Integrating Historical and Political Ecology in the Evaluation of Environmental Intervention Projects

Cited by 9 publications

References 24 publications

Temporal Vulnerability and the Post-Disaster ‘Window of Opportunity to Woo:’ a Case Study of an African-American Floodplain Neighborhood after Hurricane Floyd in North Carolina

Temporal Vulnerability and the Post-Disaster ‘Window of Opportunity to Woo:’ a Case Study of an African-American Floodplain Neighborhood after Hurricane Floyd in North Carolina

Why history matters in ecology: an interdisciplinary perspective

Bees, farmers, tourists and hunters: conflict dynamics around Western Tanzania protected areas

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About