Doctoral Dissertation Research: Co-management in the Pyrenees: Natura 2000 and Basque Common Property Management

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In the current "extinction crisis" many are beginning to view biodiversity as a global heritage belonging to the people of the world. Though most people agree on the need to protect that biodiversity with some form of conservation, scholars and practitioners argue heatedly about the appropriate scale for conservation efforts. While some promote community-based initiatives because locals know and care about resources on which they depend, others believe that only large-scale regional, national, and transnational approaches that ensure habitat representation and connectivity can be effective. This dissertation research will examine the merger of a small-scale management system with a large-scale ecological network to determine how small- and large-scale schemes might be combined for conservation that is more effective, just, and equitable. This work will examine the intersection of the common property management system currently in place in the Basque province of Soule (District of Aquitaine, France) and the European Union's Habitats Directive as it is being implemented to create the Natura 2000 network. The researcher will use structured interviews and social network analysis to investigate the cooperative management process that is emerging as Basque shepherds are working with French and European Union officials to craft new management plans for communal pasture lands. This research will contribute to advancing theory regarding common property as ever-changing and embedded in large social and political networks and to testing new methods for analyzing cooperative management between governments and local user groups. By contributing to our understanding of how features of cooperative management correlate with the satisfaction of participants in the process, this research will also help conservation practitioners craft projects that are more likely to build constituencies for conservation and thus be more effective. The project will also increase the visibility of French Basques, an under-represented group in policy-making.