Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Save Maine Lobstermen Website, June 2023, Maine Lobstermen's Association, Sutherland Weston

History of Maine Fisheries

Screen capture of the #SaveMaineLobstermen website created on June 2, 2023. The screen capture includes the web pages: "The Issue," "The Solution," "Join the Fight," "In Court," "Shop to Support," and "Contact." The website was created in reaction to the 2021 call by the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) "ten-year whale plan that requires the Maine lobster fishery to reduce its already minimal risk to right whales by 98 percent."

This document includes all material available through the website on June 2, 2023, regarding the September 2021 lawsuit filed by the Maine Lobstermen's Association (MLA) challenging the 10-year whale plan. …

Covid-19_School Of Economics_Malacarne And Colleagues Address The Impacts Of Covid- 19 On Maine's Food System, University Of Maine School Of Economics

Teaching, Learning & Research Documents

Screenshot of a University of Maine School of Economics news release webpage regarding Jonathan Malacarne (SOE Assistant Professor), Jason Lilley (University of Maine Cooperative Extension Professional), and Tora Jackson (Maine Farmer Resource Network) presenting a summary of the impacts of COVID-19 on Maine's food system at the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's (DACF) 2021 virtual Maine Ag Trades Show.

An Analysis Of V-Notching In The Maine Lobster Fishery, Kathleen A. Murphy

Honors College

In the face of declining stock and catch, fisheries stakeholders worldwide are evaluating conservation practices necessary for sustainability. Contrariwise, the Maine lobster fishery’s success in resource management, particularly with the v-notch law, stands as an exemplar for success. The v-notch law protects the reproductive stock via fishermen voluntarily marking egg-bearing females with a “notch” in the tail fin, indicating they may not be caught and sold. In 1948, lobstermen supported v-notch legislation having recognized the necessity of preserving their resource. This research provides an updated examination of the v-notch law’s role today in conservation efforts. Through an analysis of legislation …

Listening To Rafiki: The Past, Present And Future Of Conservation In Tanzania, Leila Wojtkowski Barbeau

Honors College

Utilizing a "fortress conservation model" that emphasizes Western worldviews and divides nature and culture into separate realms, conservation efforts in Tanzania have disenfranchised many indigenous groups like the Maasai and placed their livelihoods at risk. In order for conservation to be a successful endeavor, efforts must take local and indigenous people into account and work to improve the understanding of the relationships between people, land, culture, and historical context. This thesis will explore the historical context and implications of the fortress conservation model, my personal experience with conservation issues while in Tanzania, alternative conservation models and their draw backs, autonomy …

Katahdin Woods And Waters: Environmental Values And The Parks Problem, Kyle Lonabaugh

Honors College

This thesis studied the different values people hold towards nature and their relationships with national parks, with the goal of understanding why some people support national parks and why some are against them. It explored a variety of cultures and models as a background for the thesis. It looked at how the different values held by people affected their outlook on national parks, and how influential their culture was on their view of nature. Parks across the world have struggled to resolve the issues that people have with them. These include loss of access to land, economic disadvantages, and cultural …

The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Preserving New Media Art For Posterity, Jennifer Bonnet

Library Staff Publications

Preserving works of creative expression in the digital age is notoriously difficult due to issues of technological obsolescence, the intangibility of dynamic media, and the interactive nature of digital art. This is of marked interest to libraries, museums, and cultural heritage institutions given the limitations of traditional forms of preservation that rely heavily on the storage of physical forms. The Re-Gift, a work of new media art by Buffalo-based artist Liz Rywelski, exemplifies many of the complexities of these emerging formats. This essay examines one of the potential approaches to preserving this type of work, with an eye toward …

Linking Attitudes, Policy, And Forest Cover Change In Buffer Zone Communities Of Chitwan National Park, Nepal, Jared R. Stapp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Deforestation in Nepal threatens the functioning of complex social-ecological systems, including rural populations that depend on forests for subsistence, as well as Nepal’s biodiversity and other ecosystem services. Reliance on forest resources, coupled with high population densities and rates of growth, highlights the importance of studying the relationship between human communities, forest cover and trends through time, and forest management institutions. A Master Plan for Nepal’s Forestry Sector (MPFS), enacted in 1989, laid the foundation for modern community-based forest management in Nepal. In 2014, the MPFS reached the end of its 25-year lifespan, after successfully ushering in significant institutional changes …

Cnh: Fine-Scale Dynamics Of Human Adaptation In Coupled Natural And Social Systems: An Integrated Computational Approach Applied To Three Fisheries, James A. Wilson, James Acheson, Robert Steneck, Yong Chen, Teresa R. Johnson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The purpose of this project is to gain a better understanding of the way competition between individual fishermen lead to the emergence of private incentives and informal social arrangements that are (or are not) consistent with conservation of the resource. These informal arrangements and incentives are important because they help us understand the extent to which private interests might strengthen or weaken on-going resource management and, consequently, the sustainability of coupled human and natural systems. The broad hypothesis driving the study is that the informal social structure that emerges from competitive interactions among fishermen reflects the particular circumstances of the …

Introduction: Moving Beyond The 'Rational Actor' In Environmental Governance And Conservation, Nicole D. Peterson, Cindy Isenhour

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

In this brief introduction, we examine the themes and issues that link the three papers in this special section. In each case, neoliberal conservation practices appear to be predicated on a certain kind of individual subject with certain kinds of motives and behaviours-the rational actor. Taken together, these three papers challenge three assumptions of rational actor models, including that individuals are self-interested and attempt to maximise their own benefits, that they only respond to economic incentives, and that economic markets are free, mutual, and rational. Together these articles promote greater attention to how individuals are conceptualised in conservation efforts, and …

Trading Fat For Forests: On Palm Oil, Tropical Forest Conservation, And Rational Consumption, Cindy Isenhour

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

The longstanding butter vs margarine debate has recently become more complex as the links between margarine, industrial palm oil plantations, and tropical deforestation are made increasingly clear. Yet despite calls for consumers to get informed and take responsibility for tropical deforestation by boycotting margarine or purchasing buttery spreads made with sustainably-sourced palm oil, research in multiple contexts demonstrates that even the most aware, engaged, and rational consumers run into significant barriers when trying to reduce their environmental impacts. This paper supplements important critiques of neoliberal conservation at the site of extraction or intended conservation (Carrier and West 2009; Igoe and …

A Call To Action For Conserving Biological Diversity In The Face Of Climate Change, Malcolm L. Hunter Jr., Eric Dinerstein, John Hoekstra, David Lindenmayer

Publications

No abstract provided.

Community Attitudes Toward Wildlife And Protected Areas In Ethiopia, Mekbeb E. Tessema, Robert J. Lilieholm, Zelealem T. Ashenafi, Nigel Leader-Williams

Publications

Across Africa, national policies that established protected areas (PAs) typically limited local use of wildlife and other resources. Over time, these policies have raised tensions with rural communities and today threaten to undermine conservation goals. This article examines community–PA relationships at four important sites in Ethiopia—a country of rich tradition with an unusual colonial past. Using focus groups and household surveys, we found that despite local tensions, most respondents held positive views toward wildlife and nearby PAs. Factors influencing positive views included receiving PA benefits, good relations with PA staff, higher education levels, being older, having a large family, diversified …

The Maine Woods: A Legacy Of Controversy, Richard W. Judd

Maine Policy Review

In the Margaret Chase Smith Essay, Richard Judd reflects on the history of Maine’s North Woods. He discusses the divergent interests with a stake on the North Woods over the centuries, but notes that there has been a long-standing interest in conservation and in the heritage represented by this vast region.

Alternative Large-Scale Conservation Visions For Northern Maine: Interviews With Decision Leaders In Maine, Elizabeth Dennis Baldwin, Laura S. Kenefic, Will F. Lapage

Maine Policy Review

Based on confidential interviews with 21 decision leaders in Maine, Elizabeth Baldwin, Laura Kenefic, and Will LaPage examine the complexity of the conflicts over alternate visions for large-scale conservation in Maine. Exploring models that may be useful for policymakers grappling with competing values for Maine’s forests, they present four alternatives: national forests, new U.S. forest service models, forest heritage areas, and the British national park model. The authors found that the leaders interviewed agreed about the need for some level of conservation, but did not completely agree on how this might happen and where the decision-making power should lie.

Lurc’S Challenge: Managing Growth In Maine’S Unorganized Territories, Jerry Bley

Maine Policy Review

Maine’s Land Use Regulation commission (LURC) oversees an area covering roughly half the state. Plum Creek’s Moosehead Lake Concept Plan has brought LURC into the spotlight. Jerry Bley presents the history of this unique agency, the lands under its jurisdiction, how it has managed development, and what may lie ahead. In developing its Comprehensive Land Use Plan update, LURC needs to seek common ground for solutions that preserve the unique qualities of the area in its jurisdiction, while providing landowners opportunities to realize the financial values of their lands.

Gasoline Consumption Attributable To Atvs In Maine, Jonathan Rubin, Charles Morrris

Economic Development

This study was conducted by the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy (MCSC) of the University of Maine at the request of the Maine Legislature’s Commission to Study Equity in the Distribution of Gas Tax Revenues Attributable to Snowmobiles, All-Terrain Vehicles and Watercraft. The Commission was created by the Legislature with a charge to collect and analyze information to determine an equitable distribution of gas tax revenues used in the enforcement and enhancement of programs supporting off-road vehicle use in Maine. The Commission concluded that snowmobiling, boating and ATV use has increased significantly over recent years and now constitutes …

Easements And Conservation Policy In The North Maine Woods, David J. Lewis

Maine Policy Review

Recently Maine has embarked on a new policy direction in its use of conservation easements to protect large tracts of commercial timberland. David Lewis argues that the effectiveness of using easements as a long-term conservation policy depends on many factors that may not be fully considered in the decision-making process currently used in choosing easements for landscape-scale conservation. Lewis indicates that the root of the problem lies in the fact that the state lacks a comprehensive policy describing the conservation goals desired in the North Woods. Before progressing further, Lewis suggests that the ultimate goals of conservation need to be …

Why Conservation Matters And What We Can Do About It, John C. Sawhill

Maine Policy Review

While environmental and economic needs have long been considered to be in direct opposition to one another, a new approach to environmental conservation is emerging. Called the "ecosystem" approach, it focuses not only on protecting the environment and its species, but also seeks new ways of balancing these interests with human needs. The article is drawn from a speech delivered by John C. Sawhill at the Summer Lecture Series of the College of the Atlantic,Bar Harbor,Maine, on August 2, 1994. Sawhill outlines the conservation principles that guide The Nature Conservancy and provides examples of how the ecosystem approach has led …