Doctoral Dissertation Research: Human Territoriality in Conservation Conflicts: Territorial Tactics of Marine Reserves in the Bahamas

博士论文研究：保护冲突中的人类领土：巴哈马海洋保护区的领土策略

• 批准号: 0927821
• 负责人: Becky Mansfield
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University Research Foundation -DO NOT USE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0927821&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Human; Territoriality

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an increasingly popular strategy for conserving marine resources. MPAs set aside a portion of the ocean as a nature reserve from which limited or no fishery resources may be taken. This study will look at the proposed creation of three "no-take" MPAs in the central Bahamas to question the ways that MPAs create state controlled territory in a space that is assumed to be non-territorial. The typical assumption in conservation policy that oceans are non-territorial, and hence open access, potentially overlooks existing claims to territory by local fishers. Existence of these previous claims may contribute to local resistance to conservation projects. This study breaks new ground by investigating how de facto territories of fishers are overwritten by MPAs. The study will examine multiple viewpoints by looking at ways that policy makers, marine scientists, fishers, and other stakeholders conceive of the spaces of the ocean in terms of resource use. The research seeks to answer three questions: 1) Do local fishers make claims to de facto territories that are then subsumed by conservation areas, and if such territories exist, where are they, and how are they conceptualized? 2) What are the understandings of ocean space held by other actors in the MPA creation process, do they contribute to conflict over conservation, and if so, in what ways? 3) Do MPAs change both local spatial practices and territorial claims, and if so how do they change? Data will be collected to answer these questions using semi-structured interviews and participatory mapping of the ocean. The inclusion of policy makers in this data collection will allow for the documentation of additional competing claims. By collecting spatial data about the ways that people claim part of the ocean as territory, this study will be able to look at how competing claims to ocean resources overlap with conservation policy and thus lead to conflicts. While previous studies in the area have documented that people in general support the idea of conservation, there are unanswered questions as to why those same people may strongly opposed MPAs as a conservation strategy. This study will likely show how resistance to conservation projects may not necessarily be an opposition to conservation per se, but about the right to control traditionally used spaces. By investigating both the spatial practices and the local perceptions of the spaces in question, this study will contribute to a more robust understanding of marine environmental conflict, and of human-environment relations more broadly. Further, the lessons from this study may also provide avenues for further research on conflict over other forms of conservation. This study aims towards an understanding of conservation conflicts as a spatial, territorialized power relation operating at several scales. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to provide a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

海洋保护区（MPAs）是一种日益流行的保护海洋资源的策略。海洋保护区划出海洋的一部分作为自然保护区，在那里只能取得有限的渔业资源或不能取得渔业资源。这项研究将着眼于在巴哈马中部建立三个“禁止捕捞”的海洋保护区的提议，以质疑海洋保护区在一个被认为是非领土的空间中建立国家控制领土的方式。保护政策的典型假设是，海洋是非领土的，因此是开放的，这可能忽视了当地渔民对现有领土的要求。这些先前主张的存在可能会导致当地对保护项目的抵制。这项研究开辟了新的领域，调查了渔民的实际领土是如何被海洋保护区覆盖的。这项研究将从多个角度审视政策制定者、海洋科学家、渔民和其他利益相关者从资源利用的角度看待海洋空间的方式。该研究试图回答三个问题：1)当地渔民是否对事实上的领土提出要求，然后被纳入保护区，如果这样的领土存在，它们在哪里，它们是如何概念化的？2)在海洋保护区创建过程中，其他参与者对海洋空间的理解是什么？他们是否助长了保护冲突？如果有，以何种方式？3)海洋保护区是否改变了当地的空间实践和领土主张？如果是这样，它们是如何变化的？数据将通过半结构化访谈和参与式海洋制图收集来回答这些问题。将决策者纳入这一数据收集将允许记录更多的竞争性索赔要求。通过收集有关人们声称部分海洋为领土的方式的空间数据，这项研究将能够看到对海洋资源的竞争性主张如何与保护政策重叠，从而导致冲突。虽然先前在该地区的研究表明，人们普遍支持保护的想法，但为什么这些人会强烈反对将海洋保护区作为一种保护策略，这是一个悬而未决的问题。这项研究可能会表明，对保护项目的抵制不一定是对保护本身的反对，而是对控制传统使用空间的权利的反对。通过调查空间实践和当地对相关空间的看法，本研究将有助于对海洋环境冲突和更广泛的人与环境关系有更深入的了解。此外，本研究的经验教训也可能为进一步研究其他形式的保护冲突提供途径。本研究旨在将保护冲突理解为一种在不同尺度上运作的空间、领土化的权力关系。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生提供支持，以建立强大的独立研究生涯。