Geo-political genetics: Claiming the commons through species mapping

Abstract

Abstract:Genetic techniques are increasingly employed in the field of conservation biology, and sea turtle conservation is no exception. Our understanding of sea turtle biology, and particularly of sea turtle migrations and population structures, has increased through genetic analyses that 'match' turtles found in various and often widely distributed habitats (e.g. nesting beaches, foraging grounds, migratory corridors). This relatively recent technological development has implications for how sea turtles are conceived, both as resources and as objects of conservation. Traditionally, turtle populations have been attached to particular nesting beaches, and most conservation efforts have focused on these discrete geographic locations (sometimes including off-shore waters), and have been undertaken by the state. The more complete understanding of relationships among turtles found in geographically disparate areas, achieved via genetic analysis, can take conservation beyond the beaches and territorial waters of individual states. Nesting populations can now be linked to foraging populations sometimes hundreds of kilometers distant. In this paper, we explore the implications of genetic analysis for sea turtle conservation, the scale at which it is undertaken, and the variety of actors with competing interests in it. We focus on the case of hawksbill sea turtles in the Caribbean Sea. Conflicts over hawksbill conservation have spurred genetic analysis and genetic analysis has been applied in attempts to resolve those conflicts. We are particularly interested in the way genetic information encourages the scaling up of sea turtle conservation, and how it simultaneously strengthens and weakens claims of individual nation states, obscures claims of local level actors, and strengthens claims of external actors. We draw on political ecology, science studies, and common pool resource theory to explore these transitions and their consequences.

Public Participation in Scientific Research: a Framework for Deliberate Design

“…Resource management strategies can be improved, whether through research findings (e.g., Pattengill-Semmens and Semmens 2003, Rosenberg et al 2003, Hamel et al 2009, Campbell and Godfrey 2010, responsiveness to stakeholder knowledge and values (e.g., Bird et al 2003, Cheng et al 2008, strategically targeted interventions (Danielsen et al 2010), monitoring for adaptive management on both public and private lands (e.g., , FernandezGimenez et al 2008, or rapid detection of and direct response to environmental problems (e.g., Simpson et al 2009). Many community-based monitoring and environmental justice projects may in fact start with social-ecological outcomes in mind before deciding that a PPSR approach would be effective to these ends.…”

Multi-level governance for large marine commons: Politics and polycentricity in Palau's protected area network

“…In this sense, social and biophysical scales are understood as dynamic, historically contingent tools of politics that actors wield as part of strategies to pursue particular agendas, such as gaining control over space, natural resources, and/or a governance process (Brown and Purcell, 2005;Gruby and Campbell, in press;McCarthy, 2005). While this literature advocates recognition of the biophysical and social processes that co-produce scales of social and ecological organization (Sneddon, 2003), there is increasing awareness that biophysical scales (i.e., watershed, ecosystem, eco-region) may also be identified and invoked in support of particular political projects, such as biodiversity conservation (Campbell, 2007;Campbell and Godfrey, 2010;Cohen, 2012;Sievanen et al, 2013). Critical human geographers engage theory on scalar politics to critically assess social and biophysical scales and consider the role of scalar constructions and narratives in efforts to reconfigure and legitimize new forms of multi-level CPR governance (Sievanen et al, 2013).…”

The Molecular Turn in Conservation: Genetics, Pristine Nature, and the Rediscovery of an Extinct Species of Galápagos Giant Tortoise

“…Genes are also central to new geographies of wildlife management, reformulating the spaces of species management (Whatmore and Thorne 2000;Campbell and Godfrey 2010). For example, genetic estimations of ideal population sizes to maximize genetic diversity are conceptions of biodiversity with spatial repercussions-often highlighting the need for conservation corridors to connect small populations in different reserves (Lulka 2004;Goldman 2009).…”

“…These new approaches to conservation science are reshaping not only conceptions of the nature conservation takes as its object of study and intervention but also the appropriate spaces and scales of ecosystem and species management (Roth 2008;Campbell and Godfrey 2010). With these changes, genetic science is now mobilized in political negotiations about the demarcation and management of "conservation territories" (Zimmerer 2000(Zimmerer , 2006.…”