Explore the vast range of titles available.

\"Social Movements Contesting Natural Resource Development presents numerous case studies exploring questions concerning rural social movements confronting land grabs, infrastructure corridors, mines, dams, resource processing plants, and pipelines. Natural resource development takes multiple forms such as deforestation and creation of plantations, dams, mines, pipelines, oil and gas drilling, fracking, many of which are driven by economic valuations, whist social and environmental effects are given limited consideration. In this volume authors discuss the emergence, process and outcomes of social movements with respect to these natural resource development projects, including examples of confrontation seeking to either block developments or promote alternative development approaches, such as agritourism. The examples taken from Africa, Asia, North America, Europe and Latin America demonstrate the diversity of struggles stimulated by natural resource development, including both immediate and longer-term effects, repertoires of action, political and cultural work. Taken together the case studies provide a rich overview of current movements engaged in resisting the neoliberal agenda of global resource exploitation. This book will be key reading for those interested in social movements, natural resource development, environmental policy, international development, rural development or global development. It will also be of interest to activists engaged in mobilizations stimulated by natural resource development projects\"-- Provided by publisher.

Many drivers of mangrove forest loss operate over large scales and are most effectively addressed by policy interventions. However, conflicting or unclear policy objectives exist at multiple tiers of government, resulting in contradictory management decisions. To address this, we considered four approaches that are being used increasingly or could be deployed in Southeast Asia to ensure sustainable livelihoods and biodiversity conservation. First, a stronger incorporation of mangroves into marine protected areas (that currently focus largely on reefs and fisheries) could resolve some policy conflicts and ensure that mangroves do not fall through a policy gap. Second, examples of community and government comanagement exist, but achieving comanagement at scale will be important in reconciling stakeholders and addressing conflicting policy objectives. Third, private-sector initiatives could protect mangroves through existing and novel mechanisms in degraded areas and areas under future threat. Finally, payments for ecosystem services (PES) hold great promise for mangrove conservation, with carbon PES schemes (known as blue carbon) attracting attention. Although barriers remain to the implementation of PES, the potential to implement them at multiple scales exists. Closing the gap between mangrove conservation policies and action is crucial to the improved protection and management of this imperiled coastal ecosystem and to the livelihoods that depend on them. Muchos factores causantes de la pérdida de los manglares operan a grandes escalas y son abordados más efectivamente con las intervenciones políticas. Sin embargo, existen objetivos políticos conflictivos o confusos a múltiples niveles del gobierno, lo que resulta en decisiones de manejo contradictorias. Para abordar esto, consideramos 4 estrategias cuyo uso se ha incrementado o que podrían implementarse en el sureste asiático para asegurar medios de vida sustentables y la conservación de la biodiversidad. Primero, una mayor incorporación de los manglares dentro de las áreas marinas protegidas (AMP) (que actualmente se enfocan en su mayoría en los arrecifes y los sectores pesqueros) podría resolver algunos conflictos políticos y asegurar que los manglares no caigan en un vacío de políticas. Segundo, existen ejemplos de co-manejo entre las comunidades y el gobierno, pero lograrlo a escala será importante en la reconciliación de los accionistas y el acercamiento a los objetivos políticos conflictivos. Tercero, las iniciativas del sector privado podrían proteger a los manglares por medio de mecanismos existentes y novedosos en las áreas degradadas y en las áreas bajo amenaza a futuro. Finalmente, los pagos por servicios ambientales (PSA) son muy promisorios para la conservación de los manglares; los esquemas de carbono (conocidos como carbono azul) llaman la atención. Aunque permanecen barreras ante la implementación de los PSA, el potencial de implementarlos a escalas múltiples existe. Cerrar el vacío entre las políticas de conservación de los manglares y la acción es crucial para mejorar la protección y el manejo de estos ecosistemas costeros en riesgo y para los medios de vida que dependen de ellos.

Evaluating sustained community engagement in co‐management is critical for designing durable governance with conservation potential, yet such persistence remains rarely assessed. We analyze 750 co‐management initiatives established under Chile's Territorial Use Rights for Fishing policy (1998–2021), examining persistence across conditions theorized to shape collective action in social‐ecological systems. Survival analysis shows that initiatives had a 75% probability of persisting beyond 15 years. Abandonment risk declined nonlinearly with initial exploitable abundance and increased with monitoring distances. Exploring combinations of variables through cluster analysis reveals that, while initiatives starting with high abundance showed the highest persistence, some initiatives with lower initial abundance also endured at comparable rates when combined with shorter monitoring distances, proximity to large markets, higher poverty, and stronger upwelling. These findings suggest diverse pathways to sustained community engagement in co‐management, generate hypotheses for future research, and show how tracking persistence can inform strategies for durable and equitable conservation.

The importance of community-based forest management (hereafter, CBFM) is drawing attention to forest policies in finding solutions for deforestation and importantly to also understand the basis of people’s involvement. Focusing on the latter, the study presented here targets a regional CBFM (Van (forest) Panchayat; hereafter, VP) at the village level in Uttarakhand, India and looks into characteristics and critical aspect of people’s participation. Participatory observations were conducted in four selected villages, followed by structured interviews with 113 of a total of 131 households and semi-structured interviews with additional 28 female villagers. Some specific findings were (a) the VP members were mostly involved in forest-related activities, e.g., plantation, forest patrols, (b) a greater use of firewood by the management committee (hereafter, MC) where most members were from the higher-caste, and (c) most of the VP forest users were women; however, few women members were involved in decision-making, as they were mostly fixed members and they had not voluntarily chosen their positions. In the above context, it implied a limited participation of women in the decision-making process, i.e., no or little involvement in the management plan by the main VP forest users. Results concluded three stages of local peoples’ participation in forest management: “participation in activities”, “participation in decision-making” and “participation in management plan creation”. In summary, what our study shows is that participation by the VP members in CBFM activities was easy. The most difficult aspect related to the participation of female members was the decision-making process in each VPMC investigated.

Delivering both social and ecological outcomes is regarded as essential for conservation actions to be effective, particularly in regions where Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and local communities (LCs) depend heavily on natural resources. In the Indo‐Pacific, sustainable small‐scale fisheries are seen as potential win–win solutions. Here, we evaluate the opportunities and challenges of supporting IPs and LCs to sustainably manage and add value to a high‐value marine commodity using a case study from the Mwanus Endras Asi Resource Development Network (MEARDN) in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. Between 2017 and 2018, MEARDN, with support from The Nature Conservancy, implemented management measures exceeding national requirements and exported beche‐de‐mer that had obtained sustainable certification directly to Hong Kong. While initially successful, this initiative struggled to remain viable amid rapidly shifting governance, market, cultural, and social dynamics. Our findings highlight the challenges of delivering conservation and sustainable livelihoods where natural resource systems are subject to intense economic pressures.

This study aimed to quantify the burden of relapse following successful treatment for uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and to identify associated risk factors in rural Niger. We used data from 1490 children aged 6−59 months discharged as recovered from an outpatient nutritional programme for SAM and followed for up to 12 weeks after admission. Postdischarge SAM relapse was defined as weight‐for‐height Z‐score <−3, mid‐upper arm circumference (MUAC) <115 mm or bipedal oedema after having been discharged as recovered. Postdischarge hospitalisation was defined as admission to inpatient SAM treatment or hospitalisation for any cause after having been discharged as recovered. We used multivariate log‐binomial models to identify independent risk factors. After programmatic discharge, 114 (8%) children relapsed to SAM and 89 (6%) were hospitalised. Factors associated with SAM relapse were discharge during the lean season (relative risk [RR] = 1.80 [95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.22−2.67]) and larger household size (RR = 1.56 [95% CI = 1.01−2.41]), whereas older child age (RR = 0.94 [95% CI = 0.88−1.00]), higher child MUAC at discharge (RR = 0.93 [95% CI = 0.87−1.00]) and maternal literacy (RR = 0.54 [95% CI = 0.29−0.98]) were protective factors. Discharge during the lean season (RR = 2.27 [95% CI = 1.46−3.51]) was independently associated with postdischarge hospitalisation. Future nutritional programmes in the context of Niger may consider modification of anthropometric discharge criteria or the provision of additional home support or follow‐up during the lean season as potential interventions to prevent relapse. More research including postdischarge follow‐up is needed to better understand the sustainability of treatment outcomes after discharge and the type of intervention that may best sustain recovery over time. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01613547. This study examined risk factors for postdischarge relapse to severe acute malnutrition and hospitalisation among 1490 children 6−59 months of age discharged as recovered from an outrpatient nutritional programme in rural Niger. Discharge during the lean season was a risk factor for both postdischarge relapse and hospitalisation. Older child age, smaller household size, higher child mid‐upper arm circumference (MUAC) at discharge and maternal literacy were protective factors for relapse. MUAC at discharge performed better than weight‐for‐height Z‐score in identifying cases of relapse. Key messages Following successful discharge from a community‐based nutritional programme for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) treatment in rural Niger, the prevalence of SAM relapse was 8% and the prevalence of postdischarge hospitalisation was 6% within 12 weeks from admission. Factors associated with SAM relapse were child age at programme admission, child mid‐upper arm circumference (MUAC) at discharge, discharge from the nutritional programme during the lean season, and maternal literacy. Anthropometry at discharge was a primary risk factor for relapse. MUAC at discharge performed better than weight‐for‐height Z‐score (WHZ) in classifying SAM relapse cases. ‘Optimal’ cut‐offs, defined using the Liu method which maximises the product of the sensitivity and specificity, were MUAC of 121 mm with 66% sensitivity and 67% specificity and WHZ of −1.38 with 54% sensitivity and 57% specificity. Future programmes may consider additional support or follow‐up of children at high risk of postdischarge relapse or hospitalisation, including those discharged during the lean season. Modification of current anthropometric discharge criteria may also be explored as an actionable target to further reduce the risk of relapse.

The expansion of coastal marine protected areas can suffer from two key drawbacks: (a) the difficulty of incentivizing local communities to manage areas for conservation when their livelihoods also depend on resource use; and (b) that many protected areas get situated residually, or in locations with limited value for either biodiversity conservation or livelihoods. Here, we discuss and analyze key characteristics of Tonga's Special Management Area (SMA) program, including both the mechanisms that have motivated its successful national expansion and its ability to configure no‐take reserves in areas that are considered to have high value to resource users. Granting communities exclusive access zones in exchange for implementing no‐take reserves has encouraged conservation actions while fostering long‐term relationships with resources. Ensuring no‐take reserves occurred within the boundaries of exclusive access zones enabled communities to protect areas of greater extractive values than they would have otherwise. We conclude that the success of this program offers a way forward for achieving targets in the global expansion marine protected areas.

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) among children in Nigeria is tackled through the outpatient therapeutic programme (OTP) of the Community‐based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme. CMAM is evidently effective in resolving SAM, but little evidence exists on the remaining risk of SAM relapse for children discharged as cured from the OTP. We aimed to measure and compare the 6‐month incidence of SAM among OTP‐cured and community control children and identify factors associated with SAM relapse. We conducted a prospective matched cohort study that tracked 553 OTP‐cured and 526 control children in Sokoto State, Northern Nigeria. Outcomes and covariates were measured fortnightly in up to 12 home visits. We used multivariate Cox and accelerated failure time models to identify significant risk correlates, where the covariates to be tested for correlation with relapse were selected using domain knowledge and automatic feature selection methods. SAM incidence rates were 52 times higher in the OTP‐cured cohort (0.204/100 child‐days) than in the community control cohort (0.004/100 child‐days). Children with lower mid‐upper arm circumference at OTP admission, with lower height/length‐for‐age z‐scores, whose household head did not work over the full year, who lived in an area previously affected by environmental shocks, who were female and who had diarrhoea before the visit had a significantly higher relapse risk. Our study shows that OTP‐cured children remain at a significantly excess risk of SAM. To improve long‐term health outcomes of these children, programmes adopting a CMAM approach should strengthen follow‐up care and be integrated with other preventive services.

The COVID‐19 pandemic presented numerous challenges to acute malnutrition screening and treatment. To enable continued case identification and service delivery while minimising transmission risks, many organisations and governments implemented adaptations to community‐based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) programmes for children under 5. These included: Family mid‐upper arm circumference (MUAC); modified admission and discharge criteria; modified dosage of therapeutic foods; and reduced frequency of follow‐up visits. This paper presents qualitative findings from a larger mixed methods study to document practitioners' operational experiences and lessons learned from these adaptations. Findings reflect insights from 37 interviews representing 15 organisations in 17 countries, conducted between July 2020 and January 2021. Overall, interviewees indicated that adaptations were mostly well‐accepted by staff, caregivers and communities. Family MUAC filled screening gaps linked to COVID‐19 disruptions; however, challenges included long‐term accuracy of caregiver measurements; implementing an intervention that could increase demand for inconsistent services; and limited guidance to monitor programme quality and impact. Modified admission and discharge criteria and modified dosage streamlined logistics and implementation with positive impacts on staff workload and caregiver understanding of the programme. Reduced frequency of visits enabled social distancing by minimising crowding at facilities and lessened caregivers' need to travel. Concerns remained about how adaptations impacted children's identification for and progress through treatment and programme outcomes. Most respondents anticipated reverting to standard protocols once transmission risks were mitigated. Further evidence, including multi‐year programmatic data analysis and rigorous research, is needed in diverse contexts to understand adaptations' impacts, including how to ensure equity and mitigate unintended consequences. Key messages COVID‐19 CMAM programme adaptations enabled service continuity despite pandemic‐related challenges. Further evidence is needed on long‐term impacts. Family MUAC was well‐accepted and addressed screening gaps from COVID‐19 disruptions. Challenges included sustaining caregiver measurement accuracy; handling inaccurate self‐referrals to encourage health‐seeking behaviours; and limited programme design and monitoring guidance and tools. Modified admission criteria and therapeutic food dosage reduced contact between staff and children and streamlined logistics and implementation. Concerns remained about effects on programme admissions and outcomes. Reduced frequency of follow‐up visits successfully reduced facility crowding and need for caregiver travel. However, infrequent monitoring of childrenmay miss deterioration.

A primary challenge in advancing sustainability in rangelands and drylands is the lack of governance systems that are linked to information about highly variable ecosystem conditions. Here, we describe the national‐scale implementation of a resilience‐based management system in the rangelands of Mongolia. The system comprises several interacting elements. Land type‐specific information about rangeland conditions was captured in vegetation state‐and‐transition models (STMs) that allow interpretation of monitoring data and locally tailored restoration recommendations. Rangeland monitoring systems based on standardized protocols were developed and have been adopted by national government agencies, which provide annual, high‐quality data on rangeland conditions on which to base and adjust management decisions. Rangeland use agreements between local governments and herders' collective organizations, called Pasture Users' Groups, define their respective rights and responsibilities and introduce economic and policy incentives for management changes. Pasture Users' Groups also provide a platform for information sharing and collective action. Rangeland condition data and other indicators are linked to the Responsible Nomads product traceability system that provides consumers and industry a means to associate products with sustainable rangeland management practices. The collaboration between national agencies, international donors, scientists, and herders has been essential to initial success, but longer term support and monitoring will be needed to assess whether the adoption of resilience‐based management leads to positive social and ecological outcomes. We draw generalizations and lessons learned from this effort, which can lead to the successful implementation of new management systems across global rangelands.