Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: From Resource Degradation to Collective Action: Community Associations and Sustainability on the Ecuadorian Coast

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University of Georgia graduate student Christine M. Beitl, supervised by Dr. Robert E. Rhoades, will undertake research to assess the role of both formal and informal institutions in social-ecological resilience and sustainability. Data will be derived from an intensive investigation into the relationship between collective action and resource sustainability in coastal mangrove wetlands in Ecuador. The conversion of mangrove wetlands for urbanization and shrimp farming has threatened social and ecological resilience in coastal communities worldwide. On the Ecuadorian coast, grassroots movements in defense of livelihoods and the environment have consolidated into new civil society organizations after two decades of mangrove deforestation for the expansion of shrimp farming. To varying degrees of success, they are engaged in mangrove restoration, monitoring, and management. The focus on the fishery for the mangrove cockle will allow the researcher to examine two kinds of collective action problems: subtraction (how much is harvested) and contribution (how people differentially participate in and uphold local management regimes). She will employ a mixed methods data collection strategy, including: 1) observation 2) semi-structured interviews 3) mapping 4) oral case histories 5) surveys and 6) catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) of the mangrove cockle. Through the unique triangulation of ethnographic, survey, and CPUE data, this research will examine the explicit link between social and ecological systems at two different levels, determining how collective action is reflected in broader patterns of landscape change (mangrove reforestation) and differentially reflected in the individual fishing effort. The research is important because by combining social-ecological resilience theory and building on common property and collective action theories, the researcher will be able address theoretical and methodological gaps in the study of collective action and resilience, and potentially inform policies for the management and conservation of coastal resources. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.