Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Assessing international non-governmental organization influences on coastal resource management by communities and users

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Where people who depend on the sea have input into how marine resources are used, fish stocks and habitats are often healthier. Healthier fish stocks and habitat are in turn good news for people who depend on the sea, especially in lower-income coastal regions where people increasingly rely on fish for food. One way to structure local involvement in decision-making is community-based management (CBM), in which resource-dependent communities take active part in making and enforcing rules (for example, how, where, and when community members are allowed to fish). CBM has been offered as a way to improve developing-world fish stocks and food security for vulnerable global populations, and has been embraced globally by funders, non-governmental organizations, governments and communities. In particular, international non-governmental conservation organizations (INGOs) actively work to encourage communities around the world to adopt CBM. Understanding how INGOs affect communities' decisions to undertake CBM is thus relevant to national governments seeking to improve food security, INGOs seeking to balance human needs with ecosystem needs, network organizations seeking to empower sustainable local communities, and local communities seeking to maintain local livelihoods and culture. However, how INGOs ultimately influence the "why" and "how" of communities' decisions to engage in CBM remains poorly understood. This project proposes to investigate causal links between the activities of INGOs and community-level adoption and implementation of CBM through a process tracing approach. Data will be collected through fieldwork in Fiji, a nation where INGO involvement in CBM is common. Interviews will be conducted with local leaders in purposively selected Native Fijian case study communities that are matched on community size and reliance on marine resources, but that vary on INGO involvement, adoption of CBM, and implementation of CBM. In order to triangulate findings, data collection will also include formal CBM adoption and implementation documentation, as well as interviews with representatives of INGOs active in the case study communities. Process tracing analysis will be used to identify INGO activities and influence on a) material and normative incentives for local adoption and implementation of CBM, and b) local decision-making structures. Process tracing analysis will also test whether local decision-maker attitudes mediate INGO influence on CBM uptake. Counterfactual cases will allow for exploration of alternate pathways to local adoption and/or implementation of CBM. Generalizability of initial case findings will be examined through a broader survey of INGOs active in CBM in other regions of the world..This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.