Accounting for unintended consequences of resource policy: Connecting research that addresses displacement of environmental impacts

Abstract

Natural resource policies enacted to protect environmental integrity play an important role in promoting sustainability. However, when resources are shared ecologically, economically, or through a common, global interest, policies implemented to protect resource sustainability in one domain can displace, and in some cases magnify, environmental degradation to other domains. Although such displacement has been recognized as a fundamental challenge to environmental and conservation policy within some resource sectors, there has been little cross‐disciplinary and cross‐sectoral integration to address the problem. This suggests that siloed knowledge may be impeding widespread recognition of the ubiquity of displacement and the need for mitigation. Here, we connect research across multiple disciplines to promote a broader discussion and recognition of the processes and pathways that can lead to displaced impacts that countermand or undermine resource policy and outline a number of approaches that can mitigate displacement.

Towards the Promotion of Fuel Briquettes Using Municipal Solid Waste and Residual Biomass in Burundi

“…Waste may be used as secondary raw material by its recycling like a partial binder material alone or in briquetting of rice and wheat straw (Demirbaş and Sahin, 1998;Zeng et al, 2007;Horne et al, 2009). The impacts associated with the use of fuels made from household and agro-food waste are environmentally friendly, reduce deforestation and its complications, ensure a healthy environment, and are consistent with natural resource conservation policies (Zeng et al, 2007;Emerhi, 2011;Lewison et al, 2019). The thermogravimetric model, which is used for evaluating the pyrolysis and gasification yields of the fermentable fraction of household waste, has shown that…”

Global fishing and seafood trade burdens places with ineffective fisheries management

“…The amount obtained from outside of a country's own jurisdiction is referred to here as 'seafood footprint displacement'. Displacing a country's seafood footprint is unsustainable when it introduces negative social and environmental problems elsewhere 19,20 , including those associated with destructive, illegal, and overfishing 13,21 . Numerous terms and concepts from multiple disciplines have been used to describe such displacement, including 'externality', 'leakage', 'spillover effect', and 'unequal ecological exchange' 20 .…”

“…Displacing a country's seafood footprint is unsustainable when it introduces negative social and environmental problems elsewhere 19,20 , including those associated with destructive, illegal, and overfishing 13,21 . Numerous terms and concepts from multiple disciplines have been used to describe such displacement, including 'externality', 'leakage', 'spillover effect', and 'unequal ecological exchange' 20 . We characterize seafood footprint displacement as 'unequal' when seafood is obtained from a place with poorer, or less-effective, fisheries management than the foreign country that catches (or imports) the seafood.…”

Navigating Complexities: Agent-Based Modeling to Support Research, Governance, and Management in Small-Scale Fisheries

“…Apart from this complexity, the frequent lack of fine resolution cultural, socio-economic, and ecological data complicates the development, implementation, and evaluation of policies and management strategies that are sensitive to the local context (Jentoft, 2017;Johnson et al, 2017;Agapito et al, 2019). The combination of complexity and lack of information limits our understanding of how a policy will be received, and often lie at the heart of unintended policy outcomes (Degnbol and McCay, 2007;Lewison et al, 2019). Important advances have been made by meta-studies highlighting common factors that can be linked to sustainable outcomes, such as leadership, social cohesion, and co-management (Gutierrez et al, 2011;Ovando et al, 2013;Crona et al, 2015;Cinner et al, 2016).…”