Prateep Nayak | University of Waterloo (original) (raw)
Papers by Prateep Nayak
Sustainability
Commons (or common-pool resources) are inherently dynamic. Factors that appear to contribute to t... more Commons (or common-pool resources) are inherently dynamic. Factors that appear to contribute to the evolution of a stable commons regime at one time and place may undergo change that results in the collapse of the commons at another. The factors involved can be very diverse. Economic, social, environmental and political conditions and various drivers may lead to commonisation, a process through which a resource is converted into a joint-use regime under commons institutions and collective action. Conversely, they may lead to decommonisation, a process through which a commons loses these essential characteristics. Evolution through commonisation may be manifested as adaptation or fine-tuning over time. They may instead result in the replacement of one kind of property rights regime by another, as in the enclosure movement in English history that resulted in the conversion of sheep grazing commons into privatized agricultural land. These processes of change can be viewed from an evolu...
Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Making Commons Dynamic, 2021
Governing the Coastal Commons, 2017
This chapter begins by confirming that issues around tenure within lagoon-based small-scale fishe... more This chapter begins by confirming that issues around tenure within lagoon-based small-scale fisheries context have largely been neglected. Despite a growing body of literature on lagoon commons and property rights systems, existing literature on marine and terrestrial tenure tend to subsume tenure issues of coastal lagoons. Lack of specific attention to lagoon tenure can potentially affect their long-term sustainability and further marginalize small-scale fishers that have depended on them for generations. This chapter identifies important challenges associated with lagoon tenure in relation to the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines), particularly focusing on its provisions for responsible governance of tenure. The tenure provisions in the SSF Guidelines highlight that small-scale fishing communities need to have secure tenure rights to resources that form t...
Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 2021
PurposeThe plethora of contributions to social learning has resulted in a wide range of interpret... more PurposeThe plethora of contributions to social learning has resulted in a wide range of interpretations, meanings and applications of social learning, both within and across disciplines. However, advancing the concept and using social learning methods and tools in areas like disaster-shocks requires interdisciplinary consolidation of understandings. In this context, the primary focus of this paper is on the contributions of social learning to disaster risk reduction (DRR).Design/methodology/approachBy applying a three-round policy Delphi process involving 18 purposefully selected scholars and expert-practitioners, the authors collected data on the meanings of social learning for two groups of professionals, DRR and social-ecological resilience. The survey instruments included questions relating to the identification of the core elements of social learning and the prospects for enhancing social-ecological resilience.FindingsThe results revealed strong agreement that (1) the core elem...
Making Commons Dynamic, 2021
Ocean & Coastal Management, 2019
Integrated approaches to engage coastal communities in management are urgently needed to address ... more Integrated approaches to engage coastal communities in management are urgently needed to address coastal change and associated uncertainty. Towards this aim, understanding the complex relationships between coastal well-being and ecosystem services provides a foundation for a range of management and governance interventions. While these relationships are considered in a growing number of case-based studies, the complexity of these linkages has not been comprehensively assessed. We use a systematic review protocol of 50 articles published between 2008 and 2018 to assess the evidence about the interplay among coastal well-being and ecosystem services. We find that empirical research has fallen behind theoretical development in five key areas: 1) geographic diversity; 2) disaggregated data; 3) temporal dynamics; 4) co-production, and; 5) uncertainty of outcomes. We highlight these gaps as frontiers for interdisciplinary coastal well-being and ecosystem service research. Together, the five frontiers chart a potential new research agenda for coastal well-being and ecosystem services research, namely one that involves more cases and authors from the Global South, that explicitly explores social differentiation and changes overtime, that is collaborative from the start, and that engages empirically with the complexity and uncertainty of well-being-ecosystem service interactions and their implications for enhancing management. Our proposed agenda is vital to inform management that effectively supports the health and sustainability of coastal social-ecological systems.
Maritime Studies, 2018
Coastal tourism has been supported by the growth of middle-class tourist markets, promoted by gov... more Coastal tourism has been supported by the growth of middle-class tourist markets, promoted by governments who view it as an important avenue for economic growth and backed by environmental organisations who regard it as an alternative, more environmentally sustainable livelihood than capture fisheries. How policymakers and households in coastal areas negotiate the challenges and opportunities associated with growing tourism and declining capture fisheries is increasingly important. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork from the Philippines between 2006 and 2018, this paper examines the transition from fishing to tourism and the consequences for one coastal community. I focus on land tenure as a key variable that shapes the effects and opportunities associated with livelihood transitions from fishing to tourism. While tourism has not been inherently positive or negative, the ability of local households to negotiate the boom and obtain the full benefits out of it is questionable. Many fishers have switched their primary livelihood activity to tourism, including the construction of tourist boats, working as tour guides or providing accommodation. However, the growth of tourism has prompted several attempts to evict the community, including from local elites who aimed to develop resorts on the coast and a recent push by the national administration to 'clean up' tourist sites around the country. I argue that land tenure in coastal communities should be more of a focus for researchers working in small-scale fisheries, as well as for researchers working on land rights.
Ocean & Coastal Management, 2018
Regime shifts from one ecological state to another are often portrayed as sudden, dramatic, and d... more Regime shifts from one ecological state to another are often portrayed as sudden, dramatic, and difficult to reverse given the extent of substantial reorganizations in system structure, functions and feedbacks. However, most assessments of regime shifts in terrestrial and aquatic systems have emphasized their physical and/or biological dimensions. Our objective is to illustrate how equivalent concern with ecological and social processes can enhance our ability to understand and navigate 'social-ecological' regime shifts. We draw on two coastal lagoon systems experiencing rapid change to provide an empirical foundation for an initial analytical framework. Key issues we address include: 1) distinguishing underlying versus proximate drivers of rapid change (ecological and social); 2) considering appropriate scales of intervention; 3) considering the appropriate unit(s) for understanding regime shifts; 4) reflecting on social equity and the distribution of impacts (and benefits) of regime shifts; 5) assessing the influence of social power in the framing of and response to regime shifts; and 6) clarifying the role of management and governance in the context of rapid social-ecological change. Effective responses to social-ecological regime shifts will require a transition towards interdisciplinary research, inclusion of integrative and scale-specific suite of attributes for assessment, and interventions in management and governance approaches that are more multi-level, collaborative and adaptive.
Maritime Studies, 2017
Coastal grab" refers to the contested appropriation of coastal (shore and inshore) space and reso... more Coastal grab" refers to the contested appropriation of coastal (shore and inshore) space and resources by outside interests. This paper explores the phenomenon of coastal grabbing and the effects of such appropriation on community-based conservation of local resources and environment. The approach combines socialecological systems analysis with socio-legal property rights studies. Evidence of coastal grab is provided from four country settings (Canada, Brazil, India and South Africa), distinguishing the identity of the 'grabbers' (industry, government) and 'victims', the scale and intensity of the process, and the resultant 'booty'. The paper also considers the responses of the communities. While emphasizing the scale of coastal grab and its deleterious consequences for local communities and their conservation efforts, the paper also recognizes the strength of community responses, and the alliances/partnerships with academia and civil society, which assist in countering some of the negative effects.
Sustainability
Commons (or common-pool resources) are inherently dynamic. Factors that appear to contribute to t... more Commons (or common-pool resources) are inherently dynamic. Factors that appear to contribute to the evolution of a stable commons regime at one time and place may undergo change that results in the collapse of the commons at another. The factors involved can be very diverse. Economic, social, environmental and political conditions and various drivers may lead to commonisation, a process through which a resource is converted into a joint-use regime under commons institutions and collective action. Conversely, they may lead to decommonisation, a process through which a commons loses these essential characteristics. Evolution through commonisation may be manifested as adaptation or fine-tuning over time. They may instead result in the replacement of one kind of property rights regime by another, as in the enclosure movement in English history that resulted in the conversion of sheep grazing commons into privatized agricultural land. These processes of change can be viewed from an evolu...
Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Making Commons Dynamic, 2021
Governing the Coastal Commons, 2017
This chapter begins by confirming that issues around tenure within lagoon-based small-scale fishe... more This chapter begins by confirming that issues around tenure within lagoon-based small-scale fisheries context have largely been neglected. Despite a growing body of literature on lagoon commons and property rights systems, existing literature on marine and terrestrial tenure tend to subsume tenure issues of coastal lagoons. Lack of specific attention to lagoon tenure can potentially affect their long-term sustainability and further marginalize small-scale fishers that have depended on them for generations. This chapter identifies important challenges associated with lagoon tenure in relation to the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines), particularly focusing on its provisions for responsible governance of tenure. The tenure provisions in the SSF Guidelines highlight that small-scale fishing communities need to have secure tenure rights to resources that form t...
Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 2021
PurposeThe plethora of contributions to social learning has resulted in a wide range of interpret... more PurposeThe plethora of contributions to social learning has resulted in a wide range of interpretations, meanings and applications of social learning, both within and across disciplines. However, advancing the concept and using social learning methods and tools in areas like disaster-shocks requires interdisciplinary consolidation of understandings. In this context, the primary focus of this paper is on the contributions of social learning to disaster risk reduction (DRR).Design/methodology/approachBy applying a three-round policy Delphi process involving 18 purposefully selected scholars and expert-practitioners, the authors collected data on the meanings of social learning for two groups of professionals, DRR and social-ecological resilience. The survey instruments included questions relating to the identification of the core elements of social learning and the prospects for enhancing social-ecological resilience.FindingsThe results revealed strong agreement that (1) the core elem...
Making Commons Dynamic, 2021
Ocean & Coastal Management, 2019
Integrated approaches to engage coastal communities in management are urgently needed to address ... more Integrated approaches to engage coastal communities in management are urgently needed to address coastal change and associated uncertainty. Towards this aim, understanding the complex relationships between coastal well-being and ecosystem services provides a foundation for a range of management and governance interventions. While these relationships are considered in a growing number of case-based studies, the complexity of these linkages has not been comprehensively assessed. We use a systematic review protocol of 50 articles published between 2008 and 2018 to assess the evidence about the interplay among coastal well-being and ecosystem services. We find that empirical research has fallen behind theoretical development in five key areas: 1) geographic diversity; 2) disaggregated data; 3) temporal dynamics; 4) co-production, and; 5) uncertainty of outcomes. We highlight these gaps as frontiers for interdisciplinary coastal well-being and ecosystem service research. Together, the five frontiers chart a potential new research agenda for coastal well-being and ecosystem services research, namely one that involves more cases and authors from the Global South, that explicitly explores social differentiation and changes overtime, that is collaborative from the start, and that engages empirically with the complexity and uncertainty of well-being-ecosystem service interactions and their implications for enhancing management. Our proposed agenda is vital to inform management that effectively supports the health and sustainability of coastal social-ecological systems.
Maritime Studies, 2018
Coastal tourism has been supported by the growth of middle-class tourist markets, promoted by gov... more Coastal tourism has been supported by the growth of middle-class tourist markets, promoted by governments who view it as an important avenue for economic growth and backed by environmental organisations who regard it as an alternative, more environmentally sustainable livelihood than capture fisheries. How policymakers and households in coastal areas negotiate the challenges and opportunities associated with growing tourism and declining capture fisheries is increasingly important. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork from the Philippines between 2006 and 2018, this paper examines the transition from fishing to tourism and the consequences for one coastal community. I focus on land tenure as a key variable that shapes the effects and opportunities associated with livelihood transitions from fishing to tourism. While tourism has not been inherently positive or negative, the ability of local households to negotiate the boom and obtain the full benefits out of it is questionable. Many fishers have switched their primary livelihood activity to tourism, including the construction of tourist boats, working as tour guides or providing accommodation. However, the growth of tourism has prompted several attempts to evict the community, including from local elites who aimed to develop resorts on the coast and a recent push by the national administration to 'clean up' tourist sites around the country. I argue that land tenure in coastal communities should be more of a focus for researchers working in small-scale fisheries, as well as for researchers working on land rights.
Ocean & Coastal Management, 2018
Regime shifts from one ecological state to another are often portrayed as sudden, dramatic, and d... more Regime shifts from one ecological state to another are often portrayed as sudden, dramatic, and difficult to reverse given the extent of substantial reorganizations in system structure, functions and feedbacks. However, most assessments of regime shifts in terrestrial and aquatic systems have emphasized their physical and/or biological dimensions. Our objective is to illustrate how equivalent concern with ecological and social processes can enhance our ability to understand and navigate 'social-ecological' regime shifts. We draw on two coastal lagoon systems experiencing rapid change to provide an empirical foundation for an initial analytical framework. Key issues we address include: 1) distinguishing underlying versus proximate drivers of rapid change (ecological and social); 2) considering appropriate scales of intervention; 3) considering the appropriate unit(s) for understanding regime shifts; 4) reflecting on social equity and the distribution of impacts (and benefits) of regime shifts; 5) assessing the influence of social power in the framing of and response to regime shifts; and 6) clarifying the role of management and governance in the context of rapid social-ecological change. Effective responses to social-ecological regime shifts will require a transition towards interdisciplinary research, inclusion of integrative and scale-specific suite of attributes for assessment, and interventions in management and governance approaches that are more multi-level, collaborative and adaptive.
Maritime Studies, 2017
Coastal grab" refers to the contested appropriation of coastal (shore and inshore) space and reso... more Coastal grab" refers to the contested appropriation of coastal (shore and inshore) space and resources by outside interests. This paper explores the phenomenon of coastal grabbing and the effects of such appropriation on community-based conservation of local resources and environment. The approach combines socialecological systems analysis with socio-legal property rights studies. Evidence of coastal grab is provided from four country settings (Canada, Brazil, India and South Africa), distinguishing the identity of the 'grabbers' (industry, government) and 'victims', the scale and intensity of the process, and the resultant 'booty'. The paper also considers the responses of the communities. While emphasizing the scale of coastal grab and its deleterious consequences for local communities and their conservation efforts, the paper also recognizes the strength of community responses, and the alliances/partnerships with academia and civil society, which assist in countering some of the negative effects.