Using historical political ecology to understand the present: water, reeds, and biodiversity in the Camargue Biosphere Reserve, southern France

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Exploring both ecological and political-economic histories sheds light on the long-term effects of social and environmental changes. Wetlands provide an excellent context for examining the re-working of society-nature relations in a landscape over a long duration. Wetland conditions and social-ecological dynamics show changes rapidly and visibly because they are frequently re-engineered to account for changes in both technology and social preferences. Wetlands are subject to multiple, concurrent property and access regimes that have consequences for both management and ecosystem health. We discuss the social-natural history of the Scamandre Marshes in the western part of the Camargue Biosphere Reserve using a historical political ecology approach to analyze the shifting dynamics between power relations under a variety of political-economic arrangements, and the ecology of the marsh environment. The approach highlights how historical political ecology is a means of identifying historical socio-natures and how European or national conservation actors' constructions of a place as "natural" affect its use, conservation, and management. We show that contemporary ecological dynamics are best explained by past conflicts related to property claims, access to natural resources, and their effects on the flows and composition of water in the marsh. A general model of wetland transformation stresses repeated cycles of stability and upheaval, emphasizing that the lack of historical analysis threatens both wetlands and conflict resolution. No landscape is produced locally or ahistorically. We emphasize here that history is not only a hallmark of political ecology, but a way of understanding ecological changes that can help advance biodiversity conservation science and policy.

1 Archaeologies of Political Ecology – Genealogies, Problems, and Orientations

“…They are also testaments to inequalities, conflicts, and contradictions (e.g., Crumley ; Mathevet et al. ; Sluyter ).…”

“…; Offen ; Mathevet et al. ; Pires ). The long view of archaeology opens up new questions for empirical investigation and can contribute directly to conversations with political ecologists whose work is based in the present day.…”

8 Sustainability as a Relative Process: A Long‐Term Perspective on Sustainability in the Northern Basin of Mexico

“…Even within explicitly historical political ecology, a bias seemingly precludes investigation of the precolonial past (Mathevet et al. ; Offen ; Williams ). Bryant and Bailey () exemplify this view by stating that “the role of politics in shaping ecology is much greater [today] than it was in the past as a result of rapid social and technological changes” (, 5–6).…”

“…History matters because “the origins of problems… often lie in deep‐rooted, invisible, systemic conditions and historical conflicts, claims, and changes in uses and controls over the environment or its component resources” (Mathevet et al. , 17; see also Offen ). History also matters because social and environmental changes play out over different timescales (for contrast, see Thompson et al.…”

A Crystal Ball for Forests?: Analyzing the Social-Ecological Impacts of Forest Conservation and Management over the Long Term

“…Recent work to revisit rural places years and even decades after they were originally studied (Rigg and Vandergeest 2012) and to remeasure development project impacts in the postintervention period (Butaine et al 2017) is exemplary in the regard. Other promising avenues for gaining insights into long-term impacts include further development of a historical political ecology (D. Davis 2009;Mathevet et al 2015;Offen 2004), application of the "pathways of influence" framework for policy learning Cashore et al 2016), and empirical validation of PPIs (Miller and Wahlén 2015). Finally, we find encouragement in the broader trend toward greater collaboration across the quantitative-qualitative evaluation divide to explore historical trajectories and identify mechanisms linking forest-related interventions to impacts over the long term, which may have some generalizability across different social-ecological contexts.…”