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Journal Article Pirates or Saviours of the Coast?(2009) Mwangura, Andrew"The issue of sea piracy off the coast of Somalia cannot be viewed in the simplistic terms of a law-and-order problem."Journal Article A Holistic View of Global Croplands and Their Water Use for Ensuring Global Food Security in the 21st Century Through Advanced Remote Sensing and Non-Remote Sensing Approaches(2010) Thenkabail, Prasad"This paper presents an exhaustive review of global croplands and their water use, for the end of last millennium, mapped using remote sensing and non-remote sensing approaches by world’s leading researchers on the subject. A comparison at country scale of global cropland area estimated by these studies had a high R2-value of 0.89–0.94. The global cropland area estimates amongst different studies are quite close and range between 1.47–1.53 billion hectares. However, significant uncertainties exist in determining irrigated areas which, globally, consume nearly 80% of all human water use. The estimates show that the total water use by global croplands varies between 6,685 to 7,500 km3 yr−1 and of this around 4,586 km3 yr−1 is by rainfed croplands (green water use) and the rest by irrigated croplands (blue water use). Irrigated areas use about 2,099 km3 yr−1 (1,180 km3 yr−1 of blue water and the rest from rain that falls over irrigated croplands). However, 1.6 to 2.5 times the blue water required by irrigated croplands is actually withdrawn from reservoirs or pumping of ground water, suggesting an irrigation efficiency of only between 40–62 percent. The weaknesses, trends, and future directions to precisely estimate the global croplands are examined. Finally, the paper links global croplands and their water use to a paradigm for ensuring future food security."Journal Article Learning to Voice? The Evolving Roles of Family Farmers in the Coordination of Large-Scale Irrigation Schemes in Morocco(2010) Faysse, Nicolas; Errahj, Mostafa; Kuper, Marcel; Mahdi, Mohamed"In Morocco, large-scale irrigation schemes have evolved over the past twenty years from the centralised management of irrigation and agricultural production into more complex multi-actor systems. This study analysed whether, and how, in the context of state withdrawal, increased farmer autonomy and political liberalisation, family farmers currently participate in the coordination and negotiation of issues that affect them and involve scheme-level organisations. Issues related to water management, the sugar industry and the dairy sector were analysed in five large-scale irrigation schemes. Farmer organisations that were set up to intervene in water management and sugar production were seen to be either inactive or to have weak links with their constituency; hence, the irrigation administration and the sugar industry continue to interact directly with farmers in a centralised way. Given their inability to voice their interests, when farmers have the opportunity, many choose exit strategies, for instance by resorting to the use of groundwater. In contrast, many community-based milk collection cooperatives were seen to function as accountable intermediaries between smallholders and dairy firms. While, as in the past, family farmers are still generally not involved in decision making at scheme level, in the milk collection cooperatives studied, farmers learn to coordinate and negotiate for the development of their communities."Journal Article Community-Driven Multiple Use Water Services: Lessons Learned by the Rural Village Water Resources Management Project in Nepal(2014) Rautanen, Sanna-Leena; van Koppen, Barbara; Wagle, Narayan"This article examines community-driven multiple use water services (MUS) as pioneered by the Rural Village Water Resources Management Project (RVWRMP) in the Far and Mid-Western development regions of Nepal. These regions are characterised by poverty, remoteness, rugged terrain, food insecurity, water scarcity, and post-conflict legacy. Water provision for domestic and productive uses provides opportunities to address poverty and livelihoods in environments with highly decentralised governance. This study explores the first-hand lessons learned in the RVWRMP in Nepal since 2006. This project is embedded within the local government. Key project entry points are decentralisation, participation and empowerment. This article reflects how the community-managed systems are used for multiple uses whether they were designed for it or not. It focuses on household- and community-level changes and related institution building and participatory planning through Water Use Master Plans and a Step-by-Step approach. Recommendations are made for scaling up multiple use services."Journal Article Participation, Politics, and Panaceas: Exploring the Possibilities and Limits of Participatory Urban Water Governance in Accra, Ghana(2014) Morinville, Cynthia; Harris, Leila M."Water governance debates have increasingly recognized the importance of adaptive governance for short- and long-term sustainability, especially with respect to increasing climate unpredictability and growing urbanization. A parallel focus on enhancing community participation pervades international development recommendations and policy literature. Indeed, there are often implicit and explicit connections made between the participatory character of water governance institutions and their adaptive capacity. The social-ecological systems literature, however, has also urged caution with respect to embracing panaceas, with increasing calls to be attentive to the limitations of proposed “solutions.” We discuss the parallels between the adaptive governance, comanagement, and participatory resource governance literatures and analyze efforts to encourage such participation in urban water governance through Local Water Boards in Accra, Ghana. Drawing on interview data, participant observations, and a survey of 243 individuals, we explored what participatory spaces have been opened or foreclosed as well as the possibilities for adaptive urban water governance in Accra. Applying insights from recent debates about panaceas, we argue that discerning the potential and limits for sustainable resource governance and associated development goals requires that participatory mechanisms be subjected to systematic and contextual analysis."Journal Article A Pause to Consider: The Value and Feasability of Wetland Management Incentives(2005) Murray, Patricia A."Land and water degradation costs the Australian economy approximately $6.5 billion annually so major and rapid changes are needed in the way our natural resources are managed to stop further decline and repair what has damage already happened. Over the past ten years, incentives have increasingly been seen as an important tool to encourage more sustainable use of natural resources. However, the progress toward widespread change has not occurred or is occurring more slowly than is required to stop or reverse degradation. This paper is not a review of incentives, but an exploration of why incentives may not have yet resulted in a widespread and rapid improvement in land management. Wetlands are used as a case study."Journal Article Saving the Rainforests of the Sea: An Analysis of International Efforts to Conserve Coral Reefs(2009) Mulhall, Marjorie"This note outlines the principal threats faced by coral reefs, analyzes several main approaches the international community is employing to conserve reef ecosystems, and ultimately calls for a new international treaty wholly devoted to protecting these unique living structures. Part II describes the significance and benefits of reef ecosystems, as well as the basic biology of coral reefs. Part III focuses on the numerous threats imperiling coral reefs, including challenges associated with climate change and ocean acidification. Part IV discusses three current international approaches to reef conservation. Part V calls for the creation of a new international treaty devoted exclusively to coral reef protection, and recommends provisions this treaty must include to help fill the gaps in existing international approaches."Journal Article A Systems Approach for Sustainable Development in Coastal Zones(2012) Newton, Alice"This Special Feature of Ecology and Society brings together important outcomes of the EU-funded project: Science-Policy Integration for Coastal System Assessment, SPICOSA. The title of the project revealed its innovative nature from the start. The premise was to bind scientific information to policy decisions and to consider the coastal zone as an integrated ecological-social-economic system. As a result, the SPICOSA project was very broad, ambitious, and required multidisciplinary teams of researchers to work together: natural scientists such as oceanographers and ecologists, social scientists, economists, and modelers. In itself, this was a tour de force. In addition, the project required a participatory role from stakeholders or actors, e.g., institutions, NGOs, economic sectors, etc., as well as from coastal managers and decision makers."Journal Article Is the Water Sector Lagging behind Education and Health on Aid Effectiveness? Lessons from Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Uganda(2009) Welle, Katharina; Tucker, Josephine; Nicol, Alan; Evans, Barbara"A study in three countries (Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Uganda) assessed progress against the Paris Principles for Aid Effectiveness (AE) in three sectors – water, health and education – to test the assumption that the water sector is lagging behind. The findings show that it is too simplistic to say that the water sector is lagging, although this may well be the case in some countries. The study found that wider governance issues are more important for AE than having in place sector‐specific mechanics such as Sector‐Wide Approaches alone. National political leadership and governance are central drivers of sector AE, while national financial and procurement systems and the behaviour of actors who have not signed up to the Paris Principles – at both national and global levels – have implications for progress that cut across sectors. Sectors and sub‐sectors do nonetheless have distinct features that must be considered in attempting to improve sector‐level AE. In light of these findings, using political economy approaches to better understand and address governance and strengthening sector‐level monitoring is recommended as part of efforts to improve AE and development results in the water sector."Journal Article New Marine Commons Along the Chilean Coast: The Management Areas (MAs) of Peñuelas and Chigualoco(2011) Fernández, Gloria L. Gallardo; Friman, Eva"To halt degradation of benthic resources in Chile, management areas (MAs) were set up under the Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURFs) framework in the late 1990s. Integrated into the global market, MAs have since expanded along the Chilean coast, involving thousands of small-scale artisanal fishers. This paper analyses how economic criteria relates to social and ecological performance of Chilean MAs, by applying TURFs, commons and co-management theory to two cases: MAs Peñuelas and Chigualoco. To collect and analyse data Participatory Rural Appraisal tools, interviews and official statistics and reports were used. Our results show that MAs economic benefits are connected to fluctuations on the global market. Adapting to changing world market prices then becomes paramount. TURFs main goal is ecological conservation, but achieving this seems to depend on meeting fishers livelihoods; failure to do so likely results in failure to meet conservation objectives. A serious weakness of the Chilean TURFs system is that it does not pay enough attention to fishers livelihoods or to the global market context. Furthermore, there is a strong relationship between good economic benefits and social sustainability. But irrespective of economic performance, fisher organizations have been empowered and gained increased resource control with the TURFs system. At policy level, a differentiated and more flexible system could be more suitable for existing heterogeneous MAs and their particular economic, social and ecological challenges. For improved economic sustainability and resource conservation, a system with multiplespecies managing MAs could be promoted as well. Finally, to enhance theory of commons, co-management and TURFs, we argue for greater acknowledgement of TURFs social benefits in addition to economic assessments. More attention should also be paid to global market conditions of which MAs are dependent and in which they are embedded: macrostructures that are seldom considered in the analyses."