Scholars@Duke
Xavier Basurto

Xavier Basurto

Professor of Sustainability Science in the Division of Marine Science and Conservation
Marine Science and Conservation
xavier.basurto@duke.edu
9 Circuit Dr, Durham, NC 27710
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Selected Publications

Community engagement and power dynamics in conservation philanthropy grant making.

Journal Article Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · August 2024 Funding decisions influence where, how, and by whom conservation is pursued globally. In the context of growing calls for more participatory, Indigenous-led, and socially just conservation, we undertook the first empirical investigation of how philanthropi ... Full text Cite

Enacting food system transformation through the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines

Journal Article Maritime Studies · March 1, 2024 Calls to transform food systems along more ethical and sustainable lines are mounting alongside debates about what constitutes transformative change and strategies needed to achieve it. Civil society organizations (CSOs) have argued that transforming food ... Full text Cite

Self-governance mediates small-scale fishing strategies, vulnerability and adaptive response

Journal Article Global Environmental Change · January 1, 2024 As global change accelerates, natural resource-dependent communities must respond and adapt. Small-scale fisheries, essential for coastal livelihoods and food security, are considered among the most vulnerable of these coupled social-ecological systems. Wh ... Full text Cite

Political making of more-than-fishers through their involvement in ecological monitoring of protected areas

Journal Article Biodivers Conserv. · December 2023 One strategy for ecological monitoring of protected areas involves data collection by local resource users instead of external scientists. Growing support for such programs comes from their potential to both reduce costs and influence how resource users pe ... Full text Open Access Cite

Problemáticas: Multi-scalar, affective and performative politics of collective action among fishing cooperatives in Mexico

Journal Article Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space · November 1, 2023 The world’s fisheries face complex and high-stakes governance problems that increasingly require mobilizing diverse collectives of governance actors. How fishers and fishing organizations understand and articulate governance problems has implications for h ... Full text Open Access Cite

Fishing for subsistence constitutes a livelihood safety net for populations dependent on aquatic foods around the world.

Journal Article Nature food · October 2023 Fishing for subsistence constitutes a livelihood safety net for poverty, malnutrition and gender inequality for populations dependent upon aquatic foods around the world. Here we provide global estimates showing that almost the same amount of small-scale f ... Full text Cite

Who’s setting the agenda? Philanthropic donor influence in marine conservation

Journal Article Ecology and Society · July 1, 2023 We are in a period of unprecedented growth in conservation philanthropy. How will this influx of private funding affect conservation agendas? Inspired by a collaborative research co-design process, this paper addresses questions about how foundations influ ... Full text Cite

More than funders: The roles of philanthropic foundations in marine conservation governance

Journal Article Conservation Science and Practice · May 1, 2023 Environmental governance scholars have overlooked philanthropic foundations as influential non-state actors. This omission, along with the continued growth in funding from private foundations for conservation issues, presents important questions about what ... Full text Open Access Cite

Conceptualizing responsible exits in conservation philanthropy

Journal Article Conservation Science and Practice · May 1, 2023 Conservation philanthropy has grown significantly in the past decade. As the number of philanthropic-supported conservation initiatives increases, so too will the frequency of exits—the ending of funding relationships. A trend toward “strategic philanthrop ... Full text Open Access Cite

The Vital Roles of Blue Foods in the Global Food System

Chapter · January 1, 2023 Blue foods play a central role in food and nutrition security for billions of people and are a cornerstone of the livelihoods, economies, and cultures of many coastal and riparian communities. Blue foods are extraordinarily diverse, are often rich in essen ... Full text Cite

The vital roles of blue foods in the global food system

Journal Article Global Food Security · June 1, 2022 Blue foods play a central role in food and nutrition security for billions of people and are a cornerstone of the livelihoods, economies, and cultures of many coastal and riparian communities. Blue foods are extraordinarily diverse, are often rich in essen ... Full text Cite

Institutional effects on ecological outcomes of community-based management of fisheries in the Amazon.

Journal Article Ambio · March 2022 Communities throughout the globe are increasingly being given the responsibility of resource management, making it necessary to understand the factors that lead to success in community-based management (CBM). Here, we assessed whether and how institutional ... Full text Open Access Cite

An organizational framework for effective conservation organizations

Journal Article Biological Conservation · March 1, 2022 There is a scarcity of studies on how to design conservation organizations to improve biodiversity outcomes. We use information from four conservation organizations (African Parks, Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, and Rewildi ... Full text Open Access Cite

Proximity to small-scale inland and coastal fisheries is associated with improved income and food security.

Journal Article Communications earth & environment · January 2022 Poverty and food insecurity persist in sub-Saharan Africa. We conducted a secondary analysis of nationally representative data from three sub-Saharan Africa countries (Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda) to investigate how both proximity to and engagement with s ... Full text Open Access Cite

Opening the black box of conservation philanthropy: A co-produced research agenda on private foundations in marine conservation

Journal Article Marine Policy · October 1, 2021 In the ‘new Gilded Age’ of mega-wealth and big philanthropy, academics are not paying enough attention to private foundations. Mirroring upward trends in philanthropy broadly, marine conservation philanthropy has more than doubled in recent years, reaching ... Full text Open Access Cite

WTO must ban harmful fisheries subsidies.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · October 2021 Full text Cite

Harnessing the diversity of small-scale actors is key to the future of aquatic food systems.

Journal Article Nature food · September 2021 Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture (SSFA) provide livelihoods for over 100 million people and sustenance for ~1 billion people, particularly in the Global South. Aquatic foods are distributed through diverse supply chains, with the potential to be highl ... Full text Cite

Community engagement and power dynamics in conservation philanthropy grant making.

Journal Article Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · August 2024 Funding decisions influence where, how, and by whom conservation is pursued globally. In the context of growing calls for more participatory, Indigenous-led, and socially just conservation, we undertook the first empirical investigation of how philanthropi ... Full text Cite

Enacting food system transformation through the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines

Journal Article Maritime Studies · March 1, 2024 Calls to transform food systems along more ethical and sustainable lines are mounting alongside debates about what constitutes transformative change and strategies needed to achieve it. Civil society organizations (CSOs) have argued that transforming food ... Full text Cite

Self-governance mediates small-scale fishing strategies, vulnerability and adaptive response

Journal Article Global Environmental Change · January 1, 2024 As global change accelerates, natural resource-dependent communities must respond and adapt. Small-scale fisheries, essential for coastal livelihoods and food security, are considered among the most vulnerable of these coupled social-ecological systems. Wh ... Full text Cite

Political making of more-than-fishers through their involvement in ecological monitoring of protected areas

Journal Article Biodivers Conserv. · December 2023 One strategy for ecological monitoring of protected areas involves data collection by local resource users instead of external scientists. Growing support for such programs comes from their potential to both reduce costs and influence how resource users pe ... Full text Open Access Cite

Problemáticas: Multi-scalar, affective and performative politics of collective action among fishing cooperatives in Mexico

Journal Article Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space · November 1, 2023 The world’s fisheries face complex and high-stakes governance problems that increasingly require mobilizing diverse collectives of governance actors. How fishers and fishing organizations understand and articulate governance problems has implications for h ... Full text Open Access Cite

Fishing for subsistence constitutes a livelihood safety net for populations dependent on aquatic foods around the world.

Journal Article Nature food · October 2023 Fishing for subsistence constitutes a livelihood safety net for poverty, malnutrition and gender inequality for populations dependent upon aquatic foods around the world. Here we provide global estimates showing that almost the same amount of small-scale f ... Full text Cite

Who’s setting the agenda? Philanthropic donor influence in marine conservation

Journal Article Ecology and Society · July 1, 2023 We are in a period of unprecedented growth in conservation philanthropy. How will this influx of private funding affect conservation agendas? Inspired by a collaborative research co-design process, this paper addresses questions about how foundations influ ... Full text Cite

More than funders: The roles of philanthropic foundations in marine conservation governance

Journal Article Conservation Science and Practice · May 1, 2023 Environmental governance scholars have overlooked philanthropic foundations as influential non-state actors. This omission, along with the continued growth in funding from private foundations for conservation issues, presents important questions about what ... Full text Open Access Cite

Conceptualizing responsible exits in conservation philanthropy

Journal Article Conservation Science and Practice · May 1, 2023 Conservation philanthropy has grown significantly in the past decade. As the number of philanthropic-supported conservation initiatives increases, so too will the frequency of exits—the ending of funding relationships. A trend toward “strategic philanthrop ... Full text Open Access Cite

The Vital Roles of Blue Foods in the Global Food System

Chapter · January 1, 2023 Blue foods play a central role in food and nutrition security for billions of people and are a cornerstone of the livelihoods, economies, and cultures of many coastal and riparian communities. Blue foods are extraordinarily diverse, are often rich in essen ... Full text Cite

The vital roles of blue foods in the global food system

Journal Article Global Food Security · June 1, 2022 Blue foods play a central role in food and nutrition security for billions of people and are a cornerstone of the livelihoods, economies, and cultures of many coastal and riparian communities. Blue foods are extraordinarily diverse, are often rich in essen ... Full text Cite

Institutional effects on ecological outcomes of community-based management of fisheries in the Amazon.

Journal Article Ambio · March 2022 Communities throughout the globe are increasingly being given the responsibility of resource management, making it necessary to understand the factors that lead to success in community-based management (CBM). Here, we assessed whether and how institutional ... Full text Open Access Cite

An organizational framework for effective conservation organizations

Journal Article Biological Conservation · March 1, 2022 There is a scarcity of studies on how to design conservation organizations to improve biodiversity outcomes. We use information from four conservation organizations (African Parks, Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, and Rewildi ... Full text Open Access Cite

Proximity to small-scale inland and coastal fisheries is associated with improved income and food security.

Journal Article Communications earth & environment · January 2022 Poverty and food insecurity persist in sub-Saharan Africa. We conducted a secondary analysis of nationally representative data from three sub-Saharan Africa countries (Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda) to investigate how both proximity to and engagement with s ... Full text Open Access Cite

Opening the black box of conservation philanthropy: A co-produced research agenda on private foundations in marine conservation

Journal Article Marine Policy · October 1, 2021 In the ‘new Gilded Age’ of mega-wealth and big philanthropy, academics are not paying enough attention to private foundations. Mirroring upward trends in philanthropy broadly, marine conservation philanthropy has more than doubled in recent years, reaching ... Full text Open Access Cite

WTO must ban harmful fisheries subsidies.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · October 2021 Full text Cite

Harnessing the diversity of small-scale actors is key to the future of aquatic food systems.

Journal Article Nature food · September 2021 Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture (SSFA) provide livelihoods for over 100 million people and sustenance for ~1 billion people, particularly in the Global South. Aquatic foods are distributed through diverse supply chains, with the potential to be highl ... Full text Cite

The interplay between top-down interventions and bottom-up self-organization shapes opportunities for transforming self-governance in small-scale fisheries

Journal Article Marine Policy · June 1, 2021 Small-scale fisheries (SSF) contribute substantially to global food security, sustainable marine ecosystems and poverty alleviation. Yet many SSF face problems of overexploitation and poverty calling for novel governance approaches that enhance human-wellb ... Full text Cite

Positive Social-Ecological Feedbacks in Community-Based Conservation

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · May 26, 2021 Marine area-based conservation measures including no-take zones (areas with no fishing allowed) are often designed through lengthy processes that aim to optimize for ecological and social objectives. Their (semi) permanence generates high stakes in what se ... Full text Cite

How does the World Bank shape global environmental governance agendas for coasts? 50 years of small-scale fisheries aid reveals paradigm shifts over time

Journal Article Global Environmental Change · May 1, 2021 Small-scale fisheries are becoming a global social and environmental concern. The contribution of marine small-scale fisheries to global food security and coastal livelihoods, coupled with the significant challenges they face, has attracted increasing atte ... Full text Cite

Spatial diversification as a mechanism to adapt to environmental changes in small-scale fisheries

Journal Article Environmental Science and Policy · February 1, 2021 Small-scale fisheries’ actors increasingly face new challenges, including climate driven shifts in marine resource distribution and productivity. Diversification of target species and fishing locations is a key mechanism to adapt to such changes and mainta ... Full text Open Access Cite

Ecology and the science of small-scale fisheries: A synthetic review of research effort for the Anthropocene

Journal Article Biological Conservation · February 1, 2021 Human-driven changes to aquatic environments threaten small-scale fisheries (SSFs). Ensuring a livable future for SSFs in the Anthropocene requires incorporating ecological knowledge of these diverse multi-species systems beyond the long-standing reliance ... Full text Open Access Cite

Community-based conservation strategies to end open access: The case of Fish Refuges in Mexico

Journal Article Conservation Science and Practice · January 1, 2021 Secure property rights are often seen as a precondition of incentives for long-term sustainable use by communities dependent on natural resources. Securing formal property rights can be challenging in coastal small-scale fisheries, which often operate unde ... Full text Open Access Cite

Understanding collective action from mexican fishers’ discourses: How fishers articulate the need for the state support and self-governance capabilities

Journal Article International Journal of the Commons · January 1, 2021 In this study we examine how fishers negotiate the tensions and tradeoffs between self-governance and reliance on the state. We address this question using the case of cooperative fishers in Mexico, where the government has historically acted as benefactor ... Full text Cite

Achieving coordination of decentralized fisheries governance through collaborative arrangements: A case study of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve in Mexico

Journal Article Marine Policy · July 1, 2020 Decentralization of fisheries management in Mexico has created overlapping state agencies without clearly defined responsibilities. This has generated a management dilemma for national fisheries enforcement, due to ambiguity in implementation and legislati ... Full text Open Access Cite

Navigating Complexities: Agent-Based Modeling to Support Research, Governance, and Management in Small-Scale Fisheries

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · January 17, 2020 The sustainable governance and management of small-scale fisheries (SSF) is challenging, largely due to their dynamic and complex nature. Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a computational modeling approach that can account for the dynamism and complexity in SS ... Full text Cite

Governing the commons beyond harvesting: An empirical illustration from fishing.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2020 Harvesting has received most theoretical, empirical, and policy attention towards understanding common-pool resource dilemmas. Yet, pre-harvesting and post-harvesting activities influence harvesting outcomes as well. Broadening the analytical focus beyond ... Full text Open Access Cite

Rethinking scale in the commons by unsettling old assumptions and asking new scale questions

Journal Article International Journal of the Commons · January 1, 2020 Scale is a powerful concept, a lens that shapes how we perceive problems and solutions in common-pool resource governance. Yet, scale is often treated as a relatively stable and settled concept in commons scholarship. This paper reviews the origins and evo ... Full text Open Access Cite

“Lies build trust”: Social capital, masculinity, and community-based resource management in a Mexican fishery

Journal Article World Development · November 1, 2019 This paper relates how fishermen in San Evaristo on Mexico's Baja peninsula employ fabrications to strengthen bonds of trust and navigate the complexities of common pool resource extraction. We argue this trickery complicates notions of social capital in c ... Full text Open Access Cite

Small-scale fish buyers' trade networks reveal diverse actor types and differential adaptive capacities

Journal Article Ecological Economics · October 1, 2019 The importance of understanding how social-ecological interdependencies deriving from global trade influence sustainability has been argued for decades. Even if substantial progress has been made, a research gap remains regarding how the adaptability of sm ... Full text Open Access Cite

Weaving governance narratives: discourses of climate change, cooperatives, and small-scale fisheries in Mexico

Journal Article Maritime Studies · April 1, 2019 In the coming decades, accelerating processes of climate change are expected to impact the world’s fisheries. These changes will likely exacerbate ongoing challenges in the governance of small-scale fisheries, which play a significant role in supporting li ... Full text Open Access Cite

Hunting for common ground between wildlife governance and commons scholarship.

Journal Article Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · February 2019 Wildlife hunting is essential to livelihoods and food security in many parts of the world, yet present rates of extraction may threaten ecosystems and human communities. Thus, governing sustainable wildlife use is a major social dilemma and conservation ch ... Full text Open Access Cite

Defining small-scale fisheries and examining the role of science in shaping perceptions of who and what counts: A systematic review

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · January 1, 2019 Small-scale fisheries (SSF) have long been overshadowed by the concerns and perceived importance of the industrial sector in fisheries science and policy. Yet in recent decades, attention to SSF is on the rise, marked by a proliferation of scientific publi ... Full text Open Access Cite

Contribution of Fisheries to Food and Nutrition Security: Current Knowledge, Policy, and Research

Report · April 14, 2018 In the context of the recently agreed-on United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes the goal to end hunger, achieve food security, and improve nutrition, this report synthesizes the current understanding of capture fisheries’ co ... Link to item Cite

Local Institutional Responses to Global Market Pressures: The Sea Cucumber Trade in Yucatán, Mexico

Journal Article World Development · February 1, 2018 The expansion of global seafood trade creates opportunities as well as risks for small-scale fisheries (SSFs) livelihoods. Markets provide economic opportunity, but without effective governance, high demand can drive resource degradation. In the context of ... Full text Open Access Cite

Beyond the tragedy of the commons

Chapter · January 1, 2018 In this paper, we intend to demonstrate the feasibility and challenge of moving beyond “The Tragedy of the Commons” that Garrett Hardin presented in 1968. Hardin portrayed a set of pastoralists-who are inexorably led to overuse their common pasture-as an a ... Full text Cite

Evaluating indicators of human well-being for ecosystem-based management

Journal Article Ecosystem Health and Sustainability · December 19, 2017 Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Marine resource management and conservation in the Anthropocene

Journal Article Environmental Conservation · November 2, 2017 Full text Open Access Cite

Basurto's Final Word

Journal Article ICES Journal of Marine Science · August 31, 2017 Full text Open Access Cite

Counterpoint to Obura

Journal Article ICES Journal of Marine Science · August 31, 2017 Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Evaluating the best available social science for natural resource management decision-making

Journal Article Environmental Science and Policy · July 1, 2017 Increasing recognition of the human dimensions of natural resource management issues, and of social and ecological sustainability and resilience as being inter-related, highlights the importance of applying social science to natural resource management dec ... Full text Open Access Cite

A novel framework for analyzing conservation impacts: evaluation, theory, and marine protected areas.

Journal Article Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · July 2017 Environmental conservation initiatives, including marine protected areas (MPAs), have proliferated in recent decades. Designed to conserve marine biodiversity, many MPAs also seek to foster sustainable development. As is the case for many other environment ... Full text Open Access Cite

Capacity shortfalls hinder the performance of marine protected areas globally.

Journal Article Nature · March 2017 Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly being used globally to conserve marine resources. However, whether many MPAs are being effectively and equitably managed, and how MPA management influences substantive outcomes remain unknown. We developed a g ... Full text Open Access Cite

Micro-level explanations for emergent patterns of self-governance arrangements in small-scale fisheries-A modeling approach.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2017 Small-scale fisheries (SSFs) in developing countries are expected to play a significant role in poverty alleviation and enhancing food security in the decades to come. To realize this expectation, a better understanding of their informal self-governance ar ... Full text Open Access Cite

Marine Conservation as Complex Cooperative and Competitive Human Interactions

Chapter · January 1, 2017 Globally, marine protected areas (MPAs) are prominent conservation tools. Yet, the understanding of their social effects remains limited. Our multimethod approach relied on lab-in-the-field economic experiments (n. =. 127) in two MPA and two non-MPA commun ... Full text Cite

A Tsunami is Coming!

Journal Article Samudra Report · 2017 Link to item Cite

Contribution of Subsidies and Participatory Governance to Fishers’ Adaptive Capacity

Journal Article Journal of Environment and Development · December 1, 2016 The need for strengthening fishers' adaptive capacity has been proposed in the literature as an important component of effective fisheries governance arrangements in the presence of rising numbers of external drivers of change. Within the context of small- ... Full text Open Access Cite

Conceptualizing and operationalizing human wellbeing for ecosystem assessment and management

Journal Article Environmental Science and Policy · December 1, 2016 There is growing interest in assessing the effects of changing environmental conditions and management actions on human wellbeing. A challenge is to translate social science expertise regarding these relationships into terms usable by environmental scienti ... Full text Open Access Cite

Global Oceans Governance: New and Emerging Issues

Journal Article Annual Review of Environment and Resources · October 17, 2016 Increased interest in oceans is leading to new and renewed global governance efforts directed toward ocean issues in areas of food production, biodiversity conservation, industrialization, global environmental change, and pollution. Global oceans governanc ... Full text Cite

Describing the diversity of community supported fishery programs in North America

Journal Article Marine Policy · April 1, 2016 This research investigates organizational diversity within Community Supported Fisheries (CSFs) in North America. Generally understood as the direct marketing of seafood through pre-arranged deliveries, CSFs have increased in number and geographic distribu ... Full text Open Access Cite

Towards a typology of interactions between small-scale fisheries and global seafood trade

Journal Article Marine Policy · March 1, 2016 Fish and fish-related products are among the most highly traded commodities globally and the proportion of globally harvested fish that is internationally traded has steadily risen over time. Views on the benefits of international seafood trade diverge, pa ... Full text Open Access Cite

Integrating simultaneous prosocial and antisocial behavior into theories of collective action.

Journal Article Science advances · March 2016 Featured Publication Trust and cooperation constitute cornerstones of common-pool resource theory, showing that "prosocial" strategies among resource users can overcome collective action problems and lead to sustainable resource governance. Yet, antisocial behavior and especia ... Full text Open Access Cite

Zostera marina meadows from the Gulf of California: conservation status

Journal Article Biodivers Conserv. · February 2016 Eelgrass (Zostera marina) population estimates show a decreasing trend worldwide in the second half of the twentieth century. Mexico lacks long-term time series to determine trends for major eelgrass populations and has made no conservation efforts. Theref ... Full text Open Access Cite

Integrating core concepts from the institutional analysis and development framework for the systematic analysis of policy designs: An illustration from the US National Organic Program regulation

Journal Article Journal of Theoretical Politics · January 1, 2016 Public policies are structured by policy designs that communicate the key elements, linkages, and underlying logic through which policy objectives are to be realized. This paper operationalizes and integrates core concepts from the institutional analysis a ... Full text Open Access Cite

Operationalizing the social-ecological systems framework to assess sustainability.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · May 2015 Environmental governance is more effective when the scales of ecological processes are well matched with the human institutions charged with managing human-environment interactions. The social-ecological systems (SESs) framework provides guidance on how to ... Full text Open Access Cite

Using Ostrom's common-pool resource theory to build toward an integrated ecosystem-based sustainable cetacean tourism system in Hawai`i

Journal Article Journal of Sustainable Tourism · April 21, 2015 This paper explores the suitability of community-based conservation measures to complement a proposed command-and-control approach for two multi-user bays with spinner dolphins in Hawai`i, USA, which have considerable dolphin watching tourist activities an ... Full text Open Access Cite

Re-defining co-management to facilitate small-scale fisheries reform: An illustration from northwest Mexico

Journal Article Marine Policy · January 1, 2015 Small-scale fisheries face a suite of multi-level challenges, making the reliance on centralized governance approaches and self-governance alone unlikely to lead to long enduring solutions. Although co-management has been long proposed as a promising insti ... Full text Open Access Cite

The social-ecological system framework as a knowledge classificatory system for benthic small-scale fisheries

Journal Article Global Environmental Change · December 1, 2013 Ostrom proposed the underpinnings of a framework for the systematic study of the governance of complex social-ecological systems. Here we hypothesize that Ostrom's social-ecological system framework can be useful to build a classification system for small- ... Full text Open Access Cite

Resilience, social-ecological rules, and environmental variability in a two-species artisanal fishery

Journal Article Ecology and Society · December 1, 2013 Social-ecological resilience is an increasingly central paradigm for understanding sustainable resource management. In this study, we aimed to better understand the effect of environmental variability on the resilience of fishery systems, and the important ... Full text Open Access Cite

Multi-level governance for large marine commons: Politics and polycentricity in Palau's protected area network

Journal Article Environmental Science and Policy · November 1, 2013 This paper brings together institutional theories of polycentricity and critical human geography theory on scalar politics to advance understanding of the form and function of nested, polycentric regimes for the governance of large-scale common pool resour ... Full text Open Access Cite

Humans and nature: How knowing and experiencing nature affect well-being

Journal Article Annual Review of Environment and Resources · October 1, 2013 Ecosystems provide many of the material building blocks for human well-being. Although quantification and appreciation of such contributions have rapidly grown, our dependence upon cultural connections to nature deserves more attention. We synthesize multi ... Full text Open Access Cite

The challenges of incorporating cultural ecosystem services into environmental assessment.

Journal Article Ambio · October 2013 The ecosystem services concept is used to make explicit the diverse benefits ecosystems provide to people, with the goal of improving assessment and, ultimately, decision-making. Alongside material benefits such as natural resources (e.g., clean water, tim ... Full text Open Access Cite

Emerging frontiers in social-ecological systems research for sustainability of small-scale fisheries

Journal Article Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability · September 1, 2013 Small-scale fisheries (SSF) account for most of the livelihoods associated with fisheries worldwide and support food security for millions globally, yet face critical challenges from local threats and global pressures. Here, we describe how emerging concep ... Full text Open Access Cite

Looking beyond the fisheries crisis: Cumulative learning from small-scale fisheries through diagnostic approaches

Journal Article Global Environmental Change · 2013 The common scientific and media narrative in fisheries is one of failure: poor governance, collapsed stocks, and vanishing livelihoods. Yet, there are successful fisheries - instances where governments and/or communities have maintained or rebuilt stocks, ... Full text Open Access Cite

Cooperative and noncooperative strategies for small-scale fisheries' self-governance in the globalization era: Implications for conservation

Journal Article Ecology and Society · 2013 Fishing cooperatives (co-ops) and patron-client relationships are the most common cooperative and noncooperative strategies for self-governance for small-scale fisheries around the world. We studied what drives fishers to choose between these two self-gove ... Full text Open Access Cite

Institutional Arrangements for Adaptive Governance of Biodiversity Conservation: The Experience of the Area de Conservación de Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Journal Article Journal of Latin American Geography · 2013 Se ha dedicado mucha atención a entender cómo evitar la sobre-explotación de los recursos de uso común, mientras que el estudio de cómo producirlos en primera instancia ha recibido menos atención en la literatura. En este trabajo ... Full text Open Access Cite

Bureaucratic barriers limit local participatory governance in protected areas in Costa Rica

Journal Article Conservation and Society · January 1, 2013 The importance of local participation in biodiversity governance was recently recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) through the incorporation of Indigenous Peoples' and Local Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCA ... Full text Open Access Cite

Where are cultural and social in ecosystem services? A framework for constructive engagement

Journal Article BioScience · August 1, 2012 A focus on ecosystem services (ES) is seen as a means for improving decisionmaking. In the research to date, the valuation of the material contributions of ecosystems to human well-being has been emphasized, with less attention to important cultural ES and ... Full text Open Access Cite

The Emergence of Access Controls in Small-Scale Fishing Commons: A Comparative Analysis of Individual Licenses and Common Property-Rights in Two Mexican Communities

Journal Article Human Ecology · August 1, 2012 Addressing global fisheries overexploitation requires better understanding of how small-scale fishing communities in developing countries limit access to fishing grounds. We analyze the performance of a system based on individual licenses and a common prop ... Full text Open Access Cite

Using the institutional grammar tool to understand regulatory compliance: The case of Colorado aquaculture

Journal Article Regulation and Governance · June 1, 2012 What is the relationship between the design of regulations and levels of individual compliance? To answer this question, Crawford and Ostrom's institutional grammar tool is used to deconstruct regulations governing the aquaculture industry in Colorado, USA ... Full text Open Access Cite

A systematic approach to studying fisheries governance

Journal Article Global Policy · May 1, 2012 How can policies for governing marine fisheries become more effective? How can we engage in developing a new science of fisheries governance that promotes knowledge accumulation and collective learning? We look into these issues by reviewing the current so ... Full text Open Access Cite

Structuring the Calibration of Qualitative Data as Sets for Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

Journal Article Field Methods · May 1, 2012 Most studies that apply qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) rely on macro-level data, but an increasing number of studies focus on units of analysis at the micro or meso level (i.e., households, firms, protected areas, communities, or local governments) ... Full text Open Access Cite

Institutional designs of customary fisheries management arrangements in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Mexico

Journal Article Marine Policy · January 1, 2012 There are considerable efforts by governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and academia to integrate marine conservation initiatives and customary practices, such as taboos that limit resource use. However, these efforts are often pursued withou ... Full text Open Access Cite

Reexamining the science of marine protected areas: Linking knowledge to action

Journal Article Conservation Letters · January 1, 2012 Marine protected areas (MPAs) are often implemented to conserve or restore species, fisheries, habitats, ecosystems, and ecological functions and services; buffer against the ecological effects of climate change; and alleviate poverty in coastal communitie ... Full text Open Access Cite

Crafting analytical tools to study institutional change

Journal Article Journal of Institutional Economics · September 1, 2011 Most powerful analytical tools used in the social sciences are well suited for studying static situations. Static and mechanistic analysis, however, is not adequate to understand the changing world in which we live. In order to adequately address the most ... Full text Open Access Cite

Dissecting Policy Designs: An Application of the Institutional Grammar Tool

Journal Article Policy Studies Journal · February 1, 2011 An enduring challenge for the policy and political sciences is valid and reliable depiction of policy designs. One emerging approach for dissecting policy designs is the application of Sue Crawford and Elinor Ostrom's institutional grammar tool. The gramma ... Full text Open Access Cite

Analyzing Protected Area Bureaucratic Institutions to Understand Barriers to Local Participation in Biodiversity Conservation: The Costa Rican Example

Journal Article Conservation and Society · 2011 The importance of local participation in biodiversity governance was recently recognized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) through the incorporation of Indigenous Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs) as a protected area category ... Open Access Cite

Institutional and ecological interplay for successful self-governance of community-based fisheries

Journal Article Ecological Economics · March 15, 2010 The goal of this paper is to improve our understanding of the role of institutional arrangements and ecological factors that facilitate the emergence and sustainability of successful collective action in small-scale fishing social-ecological systems. Using ... Full text Open Access Cite

A systematic approach to institutional analysis: Applying Crawford and Ostrom's grammar

Journal Article Political Research Quarterly · January 1, 2010 In 1995, Crawford and Ostrom proposed a grammatical syntax for examining institutional statements (i.e., rules, norms, and strategies) as part of the institutional analysis and development framework. This article constitutes the first attempt at applying t ... Full text Open Access Cite

Disturbance, response, and persistence in self-organized forested communities: Analysis of robustness and resilience in five communities in Southern Indiana

Journal Article Ecology and Society · January 1, 2010 We develop an analytic framework for the analysis of robustness in social-ecological systems (SESs) over time. We argue that social robustness is affected by the disturbances that communities face and the way they respond to them. Using Ostrom's ontologica ... Full text Open Access Cite

Resilience and collapse of artisanal fisheries: A system dynamics analysis of a shellfish fishery in the Gulf of California, Mexico

Journal Article Sustainability Science · October 29, 2009 Analyzing different pathways by which social - ecological systems can loose resilience and enter trajectories of collapse constitutes an important aspect of our quest towards understanding resource sustainability. This paper's goal was to better understand ... Full text Open Access Cite

Lack of cross-scale linkages reduces robustness of community-based fisheries management.

Journal Article PloS one · July 2009 Community-based management and the establishment of marine reserves have been advocated worldwide as means to overcome overexploitation of fisheries. Yet, researchers and managers are divided regarding the effectiveness of these measures. The "tragedy of t ... Full text Open Access Cite

Beyond the Tragedy of the Commons.

Journal Article Economia delle fonti di energia e dell'ambiente · 2009 To move beyond Hardin’s tragedy of the commons, it is fundamental to avoid falling into either of two analytical and policy traps: (1) deriving and recommending “panaceas” or (2) asserting “my case is unique.” We can move beyond both traps by self-consciou ... Open Access Cite

The Core Challenges of Moving Beyond Garrett Hardin

Journal Article Journal of Natural Resources and Policy Research · 2009 Open Access Cite

Effects of land privatisation on the use of common-pool resources of varying mobility in the Argentine Chaco

Journal Article Conservation and Society · January 1, 2008 During the last few decades there has been a strong tendency towards privatisation of land tenure to increase protection and sustainable use of natural resources. We assess this approach in the context of land privatisation in a dry region of the Argentine ... Full text Cite

Mobility of Common-Pool Resources and Privatization of Land Tenure in the Argentine Semi-Arid Chaco

Journal Article Conservation and Society · 2008 During the last few decades there has been a strong tendency towards privatisation of land tenure to increase protection and sustainable use of natural resources. We assess this approach in the context of land privatisation in a dry region of the Argentine ... Open Access Link to item Cite

Biological and ecological mechanisms supporting marine self-governance: The Seri Callo de Hacha Fishery in Mexico

Journal Article Ecology and Society · January 1, 2008 My goal was to describe how biological and ecological factors give shape to fishing practices that can contribute to the successful self-governance of a small-scale fishing system in the Gulf of California, Mexico. The analysis was based on a comparison of ... Full text Open Access Cite

Commercial diving and the Callo de Hacha fishery in Seri territory

Journal Article Journal of the Southwest · December 1, 2006 Open Access Cite

How locally designed access and use controls can prevent the tragedy of the commons in a Mexican small-scale fishing community

Journal Article Society and Natural Resources · August 1, 2005 The Seri people, a self-governed community of small-scale fishermen in the Gulf of California, Mexico, have ownership rights to fishing grounds where they harvest highly valuable commercial species of bivalves. Outsiders are eager to gain access, and the c ... Full text Open Access Cite