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- Convenors:
-
Paula Schiefer
(Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science)
Robert Wishart (University of Aberdeen)
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- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Sessions:
- Thursday 25 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
The use of and management of marine and freshwater resources, including water as such, is a topic of concern of current political discussions. Anthropological research is needed to include the social and cultural dimensions of it and diversify our understanding of resource management challenges.
Long Abstract:
The use of marine and freshwater resources such as fishes, oil and gas, renewable energy, coral reefs, and submerged mineral exploitation including sand can be highly disputed and appears as a central object on various levels of government. States, corporations, communities, or non-governmental organizations, to name just a few, have different understandings on how these resources should be managed. Social implications of resource use are not always considered, ignoring the complexities of the relations between people(s) and environment(s), even if co-management or community-based natural-resource management approaches promise solutions.
This session focuses on the—oftentimes conflicting—practices of marine and freshwater resources usage. What types of resources are assigned which kinds of properties and priorities; and for whom? We invite contributions that add anthropological perspectives to the management of maritime and freshwater resources, as well as the struggles for recognition of those uses. Papers can include examples on using, sharing, conserving, or cultivating them. We are interested in the management of water, fisheries, aquaculture, deep sea mining, or tourism and (non) renewable energies. The session does also invite papers interested in the geographies of maritime and freshwater spaces, such as access through boating or living on the water, as well as conflicts that arise through borders and the distribution of access. Contributions are welcome that discuss promises and problems of co-management and community-based natural-resources management.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 25 July, 2024, -Sarah C. Moritz (Thompson Rivers University)
Paper short abstract:
This collaborative paper shares key insights on Indigenous (Salish) lake fisheries-based submerged (hi)stories, fresh-saltwater bridges and subsurface sensibilities that denote relational environmental knowledge and co-management practices based on long-term ethnographic, community action research.
Paper long abstract:
We will dive and leap deeply into the water in this paper. Here, we reflect candidly on a particular methodology and insight from our collaborative, long-term ethnographic and community-based action research as part of our Papt ku Gwenis: Gwenis Forever Salish (Tsal’alh) grassroots project. Our project engages an innovative and multispecies(ist) effort to explore, understand and educate on the often-overlooked subsurface fisheries-based relationalities in Seton and Anderson lakes in the Interior of British Columbia. Both lakes have been severely impacted by colonial, industrial and natural resource development including mining, hydroelectric, rail, forestry, commercial and sports fishery. Both are home to rich, deep and remarkable underwater activities, stories, monsters, spirits and connections to the coast which bridge (jurisdictional) fresh and saltwater divides typically maintained by colonial, resource and governmental agents. “Our stories are written on the land,” is a key Salishan principle upholding an ability to a relational environmental literacy (Armstrong 2020; Smith 2009), however, here we will probe and expand this notion by suggesting that included in the complex and skilled ability to read and speak to/from the land are water spaces, submerged (hi)stories and subsurface sensibilities that denote holistic and relational environmental knowledge and (co-)management practices. We focus particularly on the notions of the (re)creation of ‘spawning’ as ‘home’, and ‘dwelling’ as ‘hiding’ places that protect, shelter and rejuvenate these vital entanglements and allow the ongoing active stewardship against or despite of ongoing resource conflicts.
Sergiu Novac (Linköping University)
Paper short abstract:
Based on fieldwork with the biologists of the Forsmark Biotest Basin in Sweden, located next to the country’s largest nuclear power plant, this paper asks what are the reflexive moments of doubt and concern of the researchers in the process of producing scientific facts on warming oceans?
Paper long abstract:
The Forsmark biotest basin is an enclosed, artificial lake on Sweden’s eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is directly fed by the discharged water that cools the reactors of the Forsmark nuclear power plant. This creates a unique environment where the water temperature is always higher than in the surroundings. The biotest basin was completed in 1980 simultaneously with the nuclear power plant, Sweden’s largest of this kind, and was initially meant to study the potential effects of radioactivity on aquatic life through regular monitoring of wildlife, especially fish populations. During the 2000’s the main research purpose was changed, focusing on research related to the response of aquatic life to ocean warming in the context of climate change. This results in over four decades of research output from the site, based on the effects of warmer, and potentially contaminated water from the nearby nuclear power plant.
The paper is a rich ethnography of research practices on site, following the tradition of ‘laboratory studies’. However, the laboratory here is industrialized nature, and, more specifically, water. The specific question I am looking at is what are the reflexive moments of doubt and concern of the researchers in the process of producing scientific facts on warming oceans? The paper is based on participant observation of several months of controlled fishing, where the fish in the basin are numbered, sampled, and fished for research, coupled with on-site interviews with the biologists doing this work and the published research outputs.
Ismaël Maazaz (University of Tampere)
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on ethnographic field research in Northern Cameroon and Chad, this paper explores local waterscapes in the Lake Chad basin, looking at life experiences, reconfigured subjectivities and policies tackling both excess water (flooding) and water scarcity in a context of global climate change.
Paper long abstract:
Lake Chad is the largest endorheic basin in Africa and one of the largest wetlands in the world (Magrin, Lemoalle and Pourtier 2015). Spanning four countries, this borderland has been experiencing both intense droughts associated with drinking water scarcity and flooding in the past decades. These predicaments have occurred against the backdrop of global climate change and increased pressure on natural resources locally (Raimond et al.2020; Rangé 2015). In this context, populations of the basin have developed endogenous practices to adapt to this challenging waterscape, as exemplified by informal pound management and water-sharing schemes (Sambo 2021). Such practices have highlighted the agency and resilience of local communities in varying economic sectors (fishers, herders, farmers, among others). In addition, policies initiated by local governmental organizations and transnational funding bodies have addressed both water scarcities and excess in an attempt to stabilize local waterscapes. These policies borrow simultaneously from modernist discourses which strive to tame waterscapes on a large-scale and from smaller, pragmatic endeavours that focus on adaptability and incremental change.
Drawing on ethnographic field research in Northern Cameroon and Chad, this paper explores local waterscapes as a continuum (Swyngedouw 1999; Lavie, Crombé, et Marshall 2020; Baviskar 2003) in the Lake Chad basin. It analyses reconfigured subjectivities and resilience mechanisms envisioned by local communities and illustrated by endogeneous pratices. Additionally, it examines how local experiences of the waterscape are affected by natural disaster response mechanisms and infrastructural development projects.
Callum Pearce (Anglia Ruskin University)
Paper short abstract:
Beaver population expansion into the Arctic Circle represents a major concern for fisheries co-management in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) in northwest Canada. As a highly visible sign of change, beavers are emblematic of the hidden conflicts underlying co-management in the ISR.
Paper long abstract:
Beaver population expansion into the Arctic Circle represents a major concern for fisheries co-management in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) in northwest Canada, especially around the Imaryuk lake system (‘Husky Lakes’). This is the focus for the multidisciplinary BARIN project (Beavers and Socio-Ecological Resilience in Inuit Nunangat), working with the ISR Fisheries Joint Management Committee (FJMC) and following Inuvialuit research priorities. In interviews and participatory mapping, Inuvialuit knowledge holders have described a rapid increase in beaver numbers followed by the apparent disruption of established cycles of salmon migration, as well as beaver dam construction blocking the movement of small fish through creeks. Dams also lower the water level in key fishing creeks and block heritage trails used for harvesting in summer, limiting access to fishing areas. Many Inuvialuit research participants connect the increase in beavers to action by the Canadian government in the 1950s, when the Canadian Wildlife Service carried out a beaver transplantation to the Mackenzie Delta following consultation with non-Inuvialuit fur trappers. Consequently, beavers have come to embody many of the issues faced by Inuvialuit governance of land and water: the continued influence of government decisions, the exposure of Inuvialuit lands to bordering areas, and the effects of a rapidly changing climate on a familiar environment. As a highly visible sign of change, beavers are emblematic of the challenges and hidden conflicts underlying co-management in the ISR.
Gabrielle Fenton (UCLouvain)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the wetness of the dairy grasslands of the Scheldt’s estuary (Flanders) through the lens of political ecology. In particular, it looks at the contentious role of the locally elected waterboards.
Paper long abstract:
“How wet ought the grasslands be?” is a polarizing question in the dairy farming region of the Scheldt’s estuary. Located at the interplay between continuously shifting lands and tidal flows of water, this region has been forged through centuries of encounters between humans and waters with practices such as drainage or tidal intermittent irrigation. After WWII, the advent of industrial agriculture and the imperatives laid down by the CAP encouraged the most intense drainage phase to date resulting in the disappearance of 75% of wetlands (Decleer et al., 2016).
Lately, the multiplication of droughts and flood events, alongside the rise of an environmental discourse, have led to a shift in water management policies towards giving more space to water. The grasslands are re-imagined by the authorities as potential sites for water storage or for controlled flooding. They are also increasingly narrated as semi-wet habitats that will enhance biodiversity and attract tourists. Many farmers have been expropriated from their land to implement this shift.
This paper builds on long-term fieldwork following dairy farmers as they tend to the grasslands and encounter their waters. In particular, it will focus on the contentious role of the locally elected waterboards. Existing since the Middle Ages, these boards are strongly entangled with the farming communities, ensuring that people’s feet remain dry and that grasslands remain accessible to tractors. With the newly agreed-upon Blue Deal, the Flemish government plans to dismantle these boards on the grounds that they are outdated.
Arno Pascht (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Paper short abstract:
Aiming to interpret the success of a community-based marine conservation area in Vanuatu, research on ontological differences of relations between humans and other-than-humans found that relations and conservation area are conceptualised in terms of reciprocity rather than resource control.
Paper long abstract:
In the village of Siviri, on the main island of Vanuatu, chiefs together with villagers decided to establish a small community based marine conservation area along the coast, and after more than 20 years, villager support for the it remains high. In order to answer the question of why this project was successful, my research looked at villagers' relationships with their other-than-human environment, how they conceptualise these relationships, and what fishing, shellfish gathering and marine conservation are. During my ethnographic fieldwork I came across accounts that suggested that reciprocity was a key feature of these relationships, and that maintaining and establishing new relationships was central. Thus, with the conservation area villagers do not manage resources, but maintain reciprocal relationships with the sea and sea life. They thus live in a world whose characteristics differ ontologically from the globally widespread assumption of dichotomous spheres of nature and culture associated with the concept of exploitable ‘natural resources’. My results suggest that with the conservation area, Siviri villagers are able to preserve their multi-species world of reciprocal relations by creating the new practice of marine conservation. I suggest that research on ontological differences can prevent conflict and failure in community-based conservation projects. It can show that the motivations of the people involved in agreeing or disagreeing with such projects, as well as in managing the protected area, may be specific to their respective lifeworlds which are characterised by the agency of the people involved as well as the agency of marine life.
Kirsi Sonck-Rautio (University of Turku) Malgorzata Zofia Kowalska (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan)
Paper short abstract:
Algae are increasingly perceived as ‘natural resources’. We explore the changing understanding of the algal world in the Baltic Sea region by investigating cases of algal blooms in brackish and freshwater ecosystems and the growing recognition of stonewort meadows as engineers of healthy ecosystems.
Paper long abstract:
The underwater world remains an unknown and untamed territory for humans, yet they continue to attempt to manage, control and extract from it. Algae, despite limited knowledge of their role as contributors to highly productive and biodiverse ecosystems and as indicators of ecosystem health, are also increasingly perceived as ‘natural resources’. In November 2022, the European Union published a press release ‘proposing measures to fully exploit the potential of algae in Europe for healthier diets, lower C02 emissions and to combat water pollution’. The Action Plan has been developed to support and create opportunities for the growing potential of the algae industry, with demand expected to reach €9 billion by 2030. The largest potential markets are considered to be the food market, but also cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and energy production (European Commission 2022).
As our research shows how intertwined human life is with the underwater world, and more specifically with algae, we want to examine the changing understanding of this world and life in the Baltic Sea region. We explore the complex relations between humans and the group of organisms commonly (and often inaccurately) known as ‘algae’ by looking at two cases: 1) harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the Finnish Archipelago (cyanobacteria) and in the River Oder on the German-Polish border (golden algae), and 2) the recognition of stonewort meadows as ecosystem engineers in Central European glacial lakes. We investigate how these human-algae ‘interfaces’ are interpreted, managed and reconsidered.
Erin Consiglio
Paper short abstract:
A just transition must look beyond the economic impacts of offshore renewable energy on large-scale industries to also consider the sociocultural consequences for subsistence fisheries. This paper will explore how coastal communities are included in, or excluded from, offshore energy planning.
Paper long abstract:
The transition away from fossil fuels offers an opportunity to rethink energy development and resource management, undoing the colonial practices of fossil fuel extraction to produce energy that is not only better for the environment but also more equitable. Most previous studies of offshore renewable energy have focused on the economic impacts of offshore wind farms on large-scale industries from tourism to commercial fisheries; however, a just transition must also consider the sociocultural consequences for small-scale and subsistence fisheries.
This paper will reflect on how offshore renewable energy planning could accommodate local community values and ecosystem conservation, while still working toward global climate goals. For those whose livelihoods depend on the ocean, there is a special relationship to place, forming “communities at sea” (Haggett et al 2020). A just transition requires careful consideration of these relationships between people and the sea. Collaborative, community-based research can aid in finding locally-relevant solutions to global climate goals, but even in collaborative research, power dynamics are not always equal. This paper will reflect on the colonial histories of resource extraction and the ways in which resource colonialism continues today in offshore renewable energy development, introducing a planned research project on marine hydrokinetic (tidal) energy and the participation of fishing communities in Alaska.
Franz Krause (University of Cologne)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation discusses Inuvialuit whaling in the context of marine conservation policies and Indigenous resurgence, arguing for understanding the hunting of whales and other animals in terms of the local idiom of sharing.
Paper long abstract:
The Inuvialuit of the Western Canadian Arctic are skilful hunters, and the annual beluga whale hunt in the Arctic Ocean constitutes a key moment in their annual round of traditional subsistence activities. Based on ethnographic research since 2017, this presentation discusses Inuvialuit whaling in the context of marine conservation policies and Indigenous resurgence. It argues for understanding the hunting of whales and other animals in the local idiom of sharing. As is widespread among hunter-gatherer groups around the world, people are obliged to share with each other, but they also share with the non-human environment that provides for them. The example of a regional marine protected area illustrates the commonalities and differences between ideas and practices geared at respecting animals, based on sharing on the one hand and conservation on the other. The presentation proposes that Inuvialuit whaling is a form of respecting animals, where killing is an integral part of sustaining life rather than its violent end. Life, in this understanding, does not inhere so much in individual bodies as in the larger web of life, which cannot be based on antagonism but is firmly grounded in mutuality.