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

佐治亚大学研究生克里斯汀·M·贝特尔将在罗伯特·E·罗迪斯博士的指导下进行研究，以评估正式和非正式机构在社会生态弹性和可持续性方面的作用。数据将来自对厄瓜多尔沿海红树林湿地集体行动与资源可持续性之间关系的深入调查。将红树林湿地用于城市化和养虾已威胁到世界各地沿海社区的社会和生态复原力。在厄瓜多尔海岸，为扩大对虾养殖而砍伐红树林20年后，捍卫生计和环境的草根运动已经整合为新的民间社会组织。他们在红树林恢复、监测和管理方面取得了不同程度的成功。将重点放在红树林的渔业上，将使研究人员能够检查两种集体行动问题：减法(收获了多少)和贡献(人们如何不同地参与和维护当地的管理制度)。她将采用混合方法收集数据，包括：1)观察2)半结构化访谈3)绘制地图4)口头病历5)调查和6)红树林扇贝的单位努力捕获量(CPUE)。通过独特的人种学、调查和CPUE数据的三角测量，这项研究将在两个不同的水平上检查社会和生态系统之间的明确联系，确定集体行动如何反映在更广泛的景观变化模式(红树林重新造林)中，以及如何以不同的方式反映在个人捕鱼努力中。这项研究很重要，因为通过结合社会-生态复原力理论，并建立在共同财产和集体行动理论的基础上，研究人员将能够解决集体行动和复原力研究中的理论和方法差距，并有可能为沿海资源的管理和养护提供政策参考。这项研究还将有助于社会科学家的教育。

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.