In this article, natural resource management is conceptualized as a social dilemma, a conflict between the short-term self-interest of users and the long-term collective interest of the user community. A self-interest versus community perspective is offered to explain individuals' decision-making in resource dilemmas. The selfinterest model assumes that users seek to maximize their personal ben...

The Integration of Spatial Analysis Techniques and Decision Support Systems for Natural Resource Management

1. Collaborative adaptive management (CAM) is regularly touted as the best way to handle natural resource management in the face of uncertainty, change and conflict. Successful applications of CAMhave, however, been elusive in practice. 2. This article examines theGlenCanyonDamAdaptiveManagement Program (AMP) in theUnited States, and other CAM efforts, to illustrate why and how procedural short...

GIS technology is considered an exciting tool in the context of governmental planning systems for natural resource management in developing countries. However, despite rhetoric to the contrary, its impact has been of little value to national processes of development. The Indian government seems to be in the process of making long-term commitments to using GIS for natural resource management. Na...

Many governments are adopting policies to devolve responsibility for natural resource management to local bodies. Devolution is fuelled by privatization trends, growing fiscal constraints at the state level, and a search for more sustainable resource management. Programs such as Joint Forest Management, Irrigation Management Transfer, or Fisheries Co-Management are all examples of this trend. S...

The determinants of local organizational density and the impacts of local and external organizations on collective and private natural resource management decisions are investigated based on a survey of 48 villages in central Honduras. Factors positively associated with local organizational development include the presence of external organizations, population level, moderate population growth,...

Understanding community values can improve communication and ownership of decisions about the management of natural resources. However, the extent that values predict environmental behaviour is less certain. Most research has focused on held values, those values towards the environment in general. In contrast, assigned values relate to specific natural places, and we hypothesise that they may b...

In the emergency management phase relevant to the occurrence of a catastrophic natural event, the efficiency of the emergency system can be deeply influenced by a correct assignment of the available resources to the “demand” centers, i.e., those elements of the territory that are directly involved in the event. In this paper, a general formulation of the real time optimal resource allocation pr...

Poverty and altered planning horizons brought on by the HIV/AIDS epidemic can change individual discount rates, altering incentives to conserve natural resources. Using longitudinal household survey data from western Kenya, we estimate the effects of health status on investments in soil quality, as indicated by households' agricultural land fallowing decisions. We first show that this effect is...