Kai Chan

Addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution requires immediate and coordinated action that fundamentally transforms current social, political, andeconomic systems. Drawing on theories of human action in psychology and sociology, this dissertation explores dynamic processes of social change for environmental sustainability andexamines how messaging can motivate individuals to take conservation actions, using the global wildlife trade as a case. Chapter 2 develops an integrative framework that identifies key elements of social change at individual and system levels and explains how these elements might interact topromote pro-environmental social norms and large-scale behavioral shifts. The framework serves as the conceptual and theoretical foundation for the subsequent chapters. Chapter 3 examines how individuals intend to engage in wildlife conservation through different patterns of action and what factors correlate with these intentions. Using an online US sample (n=527), I show that there are three distinct types of individual action that can contribute to the transformation of the exotic pet trade. Based on the same sample, Chapter 4 quantifies and evaluates the impact of conservationmessaging to reduce demand for exotic pets and engage people in civic action for wildlife conservation. The study shows that, while conservation messaging can be effective in changingattitudes and reducing demand for wildlife entertainment, different strategies are needed topromote more effortful actions such as civic engagement and to discourage exotic pet ownership.Chapter 5 develops a novel audience segmentation approach to investigate the heterogeneity ofpeople and their responses to conservation messaging, using an online US sample (n=2953) in bothquantitative and qualitative methods. I show that conservation messages can have different effects depending on audience segments and that each group has distinct reasoning for action and inactionon wildlife conservation. Taken together, this dissertation highlights the need for more integratedapproaches and targeted behavioral interventions to amplify wildlife conservation efforts across diverse populations.

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No abstract available.

Cultural heritage around the world is struggling to stay alive as global markets increasingly reward efficiency and standardization over handmade, traditional processes. Yet it is this very heritage that could bring humanity together, revive cultural identities, and promote sustainable development. The Quechua textile tradition in Peru is one such practice, and its future is tenuous amidst synthetic replicas of traditional weavings that are sold in markets across Cusco. After working to revitalize this tradition for over 15 years, here I delve into theoretical understandings of the realities of safeguarding cultural heritage in an era of rapid economic change. Working collaboratively with five rural Quechua communities, I use mixed methods in this research, including ethnographic immersion, semi-structured interviews, participatory action, and an oral-tactile textile survey. I present my dissertation creatively in two parts: the warp (academic research, expressed through five empirical chapters) and the weft (six practical tools to support textile revitalization at the community level). My research is interdisciplinary, situated within the frameworks of socioecological systems, cultural heritage law, and collective intellectual property rights. I ask how local communities are navigating trade-offs among economic, environmental, and sociocultural considerations as they safeguard their cultural heritage. As part of this, I work with highland alpaca-herders to recuperate their local alpaca-rearing tradition. I also explore the relationship between authenticity and adaptation in the context of the market economy, with reference to how this relationship may affect Quechua weavers’ resilience. I assess opinions of local producers, vendors, and consumers regarding which textile attributes are considered most and least authentic, understanding that many traditional processes are adapting due to stressors like market demand, climate change, and rural-urban emigration. I argue that, when safeguarding cultural heritage, values reflecting sociocultural and environmental wellbeing are often demoted in favour of economic security. Currently, markets are not set up to support small-scale artisans, and especially artisans who are women. I put forth various solutions to these dilemmas, including recommendations about community-based certifications and the pivotal role that vendors can – and arguably ought to – play as educators, to collectively shift the market towards one that recognizes and values cultural heritage.

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Many nations globally are seeking reconciliation with Indigenous peoples who continue to suffer at the hands of colonialism and resource extraction. In Canada, development proponents must engage with First Nations in impact assessment processes, seemingly foregrounding Indigenous values in environmental decision making. Consultation entails traditional use and occupancy (TUO) studies: mapped inventories of subsistence activities and traditional ecological knowledge. However, First Nation communities express dissatisfaction with the way their worlds are represented in assessments: for example, criticizing TUO maps for overlooking the deeper significance of harvesting activities in favour of ‘thin’ descriptions of Indigenous interests in the land. This dissertation asks, how does such consultation capture Indigenous interests, values, and world views, and how might it do so more effectively? I draw on two years of ethnographic fieldwork with Nak’azdli Whut’en, a First Nation community in British Columbia, to trial new possibilities for characterizing landscape meanings and significance in Indigenous land-use decision-making contexts. In chapter 2, I illustrate how subsistence activities comprise richer place associations than are represented in TUO studies. I suggest that conventional TUO studies do more to support colonial acquisition of land and resources than to protect Indigenous lifeways and territories. Nevertheless, TUO data remains a useful record of communities’ spatialized knowledge of territory: chapter 3 explores two ways TUO data may be reinterpreted by Indigenous land managers to represent landscape meanings more accurately to outside audiences and to better inform Indigenous-led land use planning. Acknowledging the limitations of approaches based on ‘old maps’, in chapter 4 I employ a mapping methodology sensitive to both material and extra-material expressions of value – including local understandings of social-ecological relations – to elicit a broader range of landscape values. In this characterization the Nak’azdli landscape is alive with both human and more-than-human ancestral kin. Chapter 5 explores this reality within the context of emerging attention to ‘relational values’ within a dominant approach to land-use decision-making, the ecosystem services framework. Ultimately, I conclude that improving social-ecological justice in such decision-making contexts requires assessment approaches that are rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing and supported by Indigenous jurisdiction in traditional territories.

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Urbanization, habitat change, climate change, biodiversity loss, etc., are eroding human relationships with nature but also generating new ones. Identifying and reorienting these novel human–nature relationships is key to enabling the broad, rapid, and transformative change that today’s environmental challenges require. This dissertation tests how a relational perspective could mobilize diverse human–nature relationships to assist in this crucial venture. Chapter 2 uses bird point counts (n=100) and in situ functional trait observations to explore whether indirect relationships between people and food can be harnessed to support birds in the American Midwest. Exploiting a Bayesian multispecies abundance model, functional traits (n=34), and metacommunity theory, I show that perennial polyculture farms conserve birds. Chapter 3 evaluates the relationships manifested between ecotourists and African wildlife using data on visits to African parks (n=164) and presence of mammalian megafauna (n=9), bird diversity, and geographic variables. Drawing on Bayesian models of tourist visits, I show that tourists prefer to visit parks with high bird and megafauna diversity. In Chapter 4, I investigate direct, conscious human–nature relationships. I conduct a choice experiment of British Columbians (n=646) to test whether cultivating relational values of responsibility about rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) motivates habitat restoration. I use an econometric multinomial logit model to show that emphasizing trout’s genetic distinctiveness and interdependent relationship with people substantially increases motivation to conserve. This method may be applicable to motivate conservation of widespread species generally. In Chapter 5, I combine my trout survey results with other examples from the literature to explain the empirical utility of conducting sustainability science research with a relational ontology and epistemology. Leveraging the huge variety of human–nature relationships for sustainability requires theories of human action. However, each field has its own set of theories, each replete with esoteric vocabulary and implicit assumptions. In Chapter 6, I synthesize human action theories (n=86), and provide a map of the underlying metatheories that scientists can use to understand, organize, advance, and apply human action theories. Finally, I conclude by discussing strengths and limitations, and how a focus on human–nature relationships might help navigate sustainable pathways.

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There is a fundamental challenge to the dual objectives of improving ocean health and ending hunger and malnutrition. Seafood derived from fisheries plays a critical role in providing a variety of nutrients to people who are at high risk of malnutrition. However, catches of overfished stocks must be reduced, at least in the near term, to allow stock biomass to rebuild. Reducing catches, in turn, may result in reduced availability of nutrients for people. This suggests that fisheries decisions may have unintended consequences for human nutrition. Currently, nutrition information does not inform fisheries decision-making processes. One challenge to the integration of nutrition and fisheries policy is that fisheries yields are quantified, analyzed, and broadly conceived in terms of the weight of the catch, without regard for the nutrient content of the catch. In this dissertation, I explore this issue from multiple perspectives. In Chapter 2, I analyze the yields of a suite of nutrients obtained from fisheries landings in the Northwest Atlantic Fishery Organization (NAFO) region over the period 1950-2014. Results demonstrate that trends and patterns in nutrient yields can differ, sometimes substantially, from those associated with catch weights. Some species may appear to be minor from a catch weight perspective but play outsized roles in supplying specific nutrients. Notably, recent yields of multiple nutrients have been disproportionately reliant on one species (Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus). In Chapter 3, I evaluate the nutrient yield consequences of the use of Atlantic herring as bait in the Maine fishery for American lobster (Homarus americanus). Results indicate that the lobster fishery likely consumes more nutrients through its use of herring than it produces through lobster landings. In Chapter 4, I present a theoretical approach to optimizing fisheries’ nutrient yields relative to landings weights. This approach maximizes the difference between total nutrient yields and total fishery landings. In Chapter 5, I apply this optimization approach to NAFO fisheries. The results of Chapter 5 indicate that recent NAFO nutrient yields could be maintained at relatively high levels even if total landings were to be reduced.

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Perennial agricultural systems are fundamentally characterized by their longevity, as they consist chiefly of long-lived woody plants with permanent root and shoot systems that can be managed for continuous ground cover. This is known to promote a host of ecosystem services, and indeed agricultural landscapes that include perennials have been shown to support wildlife, enhance pest regulation, sequester carbon, limit erosion and water pollution, and promote pollination. Yet, the agroforestry and agroecology literatures that characterize environmental benefits of perennials (which mostly involve non-food producing trees and grasslands, especially in temperate climates) are largely separate from agronomic literature about the management and yields of perennial crops themselves. Thus little is known about how tree crops actually support a range of ecosystem services and other benefits.This thesis takes a multi-disciplinary approach to study agronomic, nutritional, environmental,and social dimensions of perennial crops for human food. It first characterizes the distribution and yields of perennial staple crops worldwide, finding that perennial crops, many of which arenot yet heavily commodified, can provide staple nutrition at yields comparable to those of annual staples while supplying more varied nutrition than common annual staples. Second, it surveys food production and environmental outcomes on fourteen perennial polyculture farms in the US Midwest, finding that these farms enhance biodiversity and several other ecosystem services, although these new plantings produce less food than neighboring annual cropland. Third, it explores the practices, livelihoods, and values of perennial farmers, finding that they implement sophisticated adaptive management and derive satisfaction from fulfilling largely relational values alongside livelihood needs.Perennial agriculture thus offers the potential to produce significant amounts of nutritionallyimportant food in multifunctional landscapes. If managed in diversified systems, perennials canenhance multiple ecosystem services compared to simplified perennial management andannual cropland. More widespread transition to perennials in existing agricultural land shouldbe informed by the specific ecological opportunities offered by perennial plants (includingcontinuous groundcover), and by the knowledges and values of producers, to realize thepotential of these systems for achieving sustainable food security.

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This dissertation analyzes how the implementation of environmental policy is shaped by struggles over interpretation. Policy implementation is not a linear or mechanistic process, but is influenced by the subjective interpretation of policy concepts and how those relate to implementation practices. At the same time, however, not all interpretations are equal, and some are more influential than others. While there may be an initial ‘institutional void’ in which many interpretations are considered legitimate, political actors will attempt to structure this void by narrowing down the range of acceptable policy interpretations.The following chapters investigate how actors attempt to structure the institutional void of policy implementation. Chapter 2 situates the meaning of freshwater policy within historical debates about freshwater and its connection to colonial, biophysical, economic, and regulatory problems. Chapters 3-5 explore how three sets of actors engage in interpretive channelization by crafting and circulating their preferred interpretations of policy concepts in the implementation process. The state uses a diverse menu of regulatory and non-regulatory mechanisms to require and guide local authorities to implement policy in a certain way. Local governments face unique circumstances and must narrate the policy requirements into alignment with the interests of local organizations. Non-state experts such as intermediaries can augment local government interpretations by providing research and technical advice, but can also engage antagonistically by challenging interpretations in court or by using spatial inter-referencing to weaken the power of specific interpretations.By treating the implementation of policy as amenable to political struggle, a clearer political diagnosis of opportunities and constraints can be conducted. Within each of the channelizing processes described here, both constraint and opportunity exist: even a neoliberal government must respond to public aspirations for water; politicians influence but cannot completely control bureaucrats within the state apparatus; local governments experience progressive as well as conservative contextual forces; and expert intermediaries can be champions of decolonization and not just advocates of cost-minimization. While the contours of opportunity and constraint will be unique for each policy context, it is crucial to attend to both together if we want to realize environmental justice in practice.

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Although the interconnectedness of humans and the environment has long been recognized, the ecological and social dimensions of biodiversity have been largely treated separately. In this dissertation, I explore human-bird relationships in Costa Rican agro-ecological landscapes via an interdisciplinary perspective. I do so by exploring four research questions through four complementary studies and three original datasets. I seek to better understand how human-induced changes to the environment shape avian biodiversity patterns, and how birds affect people via the non-material benefits and harms derived from and constructed with birds (i.e., cultural ecosystem services and disservices). Using avian point counts in North-western Costa Rica (n=150 point count locations) that expand through a rainfall gradient, I first explore how avian taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity vary across precipitation and tree cover gradients at local scales (i.e., alpha diversity). Drawing on methods from community ecology and global change ecology, I explain how the three dimensions of avian biodiversity show contrasting responses across environmental gradients. Second, I explain how different stakeholders in North-western Costa Rica perceive the avifauna of the region (n=199 species). I develop a new survey tool to capture bird-related cultural ecosystem services and disservices. I show how certain species (e.g., Long-tailed Manakin) are cherished while others are despised (e.g., Great-tailed Grackles). Third, I compiled an extensive dataset of functional traits (n=20 functional traits) that include morphological, acoustic, aesthetic, ecological, and life-history traits for all species. I analyze these data using an information-theoretic approach to identify which traits best predict cultural ecosystem service and disservice scores. I show that diet, forest-affiliation, and plumage characteristics are significant predictors of how people perceive avian species. Fourth, I combine the ecological and social data to explore how culturally important birds vary across tree cover and precipitation gradients. I also evaluate the spatial distribution patterns of highly charismatic species and show that local forest cover, particularly in wetter regions is essential for safeguarding culturally important birds. Finally, I discuss how human-bird relationships represent a testing ground for evaluating relationships between humans and the non-human world from a variety of academic perspectives and provide recommendations for conservation planning.

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Producer participation in markets, including modernized food value chains (MFVCs) and conservation programs like payments for environmental services (PES), is promoted for both human development and environmental sustainability. Participation can benefit farmers but there are concerns that limiting producer choice and concentrating power with intermediaries could have negative consequences for wellbeing and sustainability. PES and MFVCs have similarities for participating producers, suggesting scope for cross-pollination and insight. However, the literatures remain largely separate, tend to consider a narrow set of indicators, and produce mixed results.This dissertation explores the following questions in the case of dairy farmers in Costa Rica: (1) How and when can producer participation in intermediary-driven food and environmental value chains lead to positive outcomes for wellbeing and sustainability? (2) How and when is it useful to consider PES and food value chains together? Using statistical and qualitative methods with 217 household surveys and 23 key informant interviews, this dissertation assesses how indicators of human wellbeing, broadly conceived, and agricultural practices differ between farms supplying MFVCs versus traditional dairy value chains, and between those who are and are not participating in PES. Chapter 2 uses an adaptive capacity framing to show that Costa Rican producers selling in MFVCs were likely better equipped to manage change than those selling in traditional markets. Chapter 3 provides evidence that wellbeing in MFVCs also varied between value chains: those selling via a multinational cooperative appear substantially better off than those selling to a private processor. Chapter 4 presents evidence that PES participants experienced limited material wellbeing benefits from participation; rather, values appeared to be an important motivator for many. Chapter 5 examines correlations between the use of more sustainable agricultural practices and participation in MFVCs and PES. MFVCs appear to be a stronger force than environmental values in shaping farm management choices. This dissertation highlights the value of a broad approach to wellbeing that considers non-material benefits and motivations alongside material ones. Considering Costa Rican PES and dairy market participation together highlights intermediaries and producer-intermediary relationships as important in influencing human and environmental outcomes when farmers participate in MFVCs and PES.

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Agricultural land management has major implications for biodiversity and ecosystem services, including the many cultural and social values that agricultural landscapes provide. A key challenge is balancing trade-offs between these diverse and sometimes conflicting goals. One popular but controversial tool to address this challenge is Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs, which offer agricultural producers monetary compensation for stewardship actions. In this dissertation, I consider the role of environmental values in policy-making and program development, both for PES or alternative policy options to address the ecological impacts of agriculture.The first study examines the consequences of applying a metric (as a simple scientific tool) towards the challenge of food system sustainability in Vancouver, Canada. Via a case study examining four different policy options (including a PES program), I conclude that the Ecological Footprint, when applied as a sustainability metric, led the city towards a ‘metric trap’ that excluded policy options and prioritized particular values. The second study examines an incentive program in Costa Rica that pays farmers to protect forested land. I show that while program management focused on the instrumental values of nature and used an economic framing for the program, most participants focused on values about their relationships to the land (relational values) and saw the program as a type of help or support. The final two studies examine an incentive program for riparian buffers on agricultural land in the Puget Sound region of Washington State (USA). In the third study, I use interviews with land managers to show how key program rules conflict with farmer and rural land manager values. The fourth study draws on expert interviews and document analysis to show the ways that supposedly value-free scientific guidelines, in reality, express a suite of values regarding culture, landscape and place. This dissertation as a whole shows the ways that environmental policies and programs articulate values about what matters, and why, via supposedly value-free rules, regulations, metrics, and guidelines. I conclude by offering suggestions for how agri-environmental incentive programs could be made more effective and popular by incorporating values-thinking.

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Despite broad agreement that large scale funding is needed to address the severe risks associated with habitat loss and ecosystem service degradation, financial and market-based interventions have brought substantial division in the conservation sector. This dissertation examines the values and attitudes associated with financial mechanisms and incentives, considering diverse groups with different relationships to natural landscapes: Costa Rican farmers, North American tourists in Costa Rica, and potential conservation donors. Despite diverse barriers and motives for participation, this dissertation investigates the opportunity for financial mechanisms to bolster and support values associated with environmental responsibility. The first study pilots methods for assessing ‘relational values’, a concept that transcends traditional instrumental/intrinsic value divisions in linking people to ecosystems. Results suggest that relational values are distinct from standard methods of measuring ecological worldview and are predictive of farmer attitudes at the landscape level. The second study assesses environmental values and attitudes of Costa Rican farmers regarding a national payment for ecosystem services program. The study investigates a set of claims regarding the negative effects of monetary incentives associated with the idea of “motivational crowding out”. Results indicate strong environmental concern across both participants and non-participants, and finds strong correlations between relational values and a series of farming attitudes associated with lifestyle and conservation. The third study quantifies tourist preferences for specific attributes of conservation programs in Costa Rica, and explores the relationship between ecotourism and environmental values with knowledge of a prominent environmental challenge in the region. Stated interest in supporting conservation and strong environmental values presents an opportunity to leverage conservation values and increase financial support for conservation. The fourth study introduces the concept of conservation impact investing, describes the unique challenges that differentiate it from other social issues, and outlines a research agenda for paths forward. I address the potential for conservation impact investing to expand the reach and constituency of support for conservation, and the risks associated with diverting funds from traditional conservation programs. The dissertation lends support for the notion that appropriately designed incentive programs could significantly unite and expand interest and participation in conservation efforts rather than divide them.

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Resource management is increasingly about the equitable distribution of benefits amongst a diversity of beneficiaries while ensuring the persistence of desirable social and ecological systems. Largely because of the complexity of social-ecological systems, models intended to support integrated resource management continue to suffer from poor treatment of uncertainty, and the challenges of defining appropriate model scope and benefit representation. I explored these challenges through the process of combining field data with population, habitat, and service models to build an integrated model of coastal ecosystem services on the West coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. I examined the tradeoffs between sea otter and invertebrate dominated systems under 3 spatial sea otter management plans. The model predicts that an otter-dominated system will produce, in aggregate, between 30 and 90 M$ / year more than one dominated by invertebrates. Disaggregation by benefits and by location provides insight into trade-offs and equity. For example, the value of increased finfish production from enhanced primary productivity is predicted to be almost double the losses incurred by the invertebrate fishery; while increased detail on the distribution of benefits supports the definition of novel, more equitable and legitimate indicators, allowing management alternatives to be more salient. Development of the model led to advances in the applied and theoretical aspects of integrated model development. Chapter 2 confirms that uncertainties and design assumptions are mostly ignored in the popular modelling literature, and includes a conceptual model to support more consistent model design decisions. In Chapter 3 I characterised key aspects of kelp ecology in Pacific Canadian waters, and showed how the trade-off between precision and accuracy depends on whether one is pursuing knowledge or application. Chapters 4 and 5 tell the story of the integrated model, respectively focusing on ecosystem service production, and the distribution of benefits. My results show how spatial resolution is key to identifying indicators of social and ecological value. All told, my dissertation offers applied, theoretical, and methodological advances in the use of ecosystem models for integrated management. Extending the model to include stakeholder objectives would complete the data-to-decision model, allowing formal decision analysis.

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In recent decades, attempts have been made to integrate social and ecological dimensions of change into understandings of resource sustainability, yet challenges persist. Complex dynamics in social-ecological systems fuel these challenges, rendering it difficult to anticipate and address problems arising from development or environmental change. This dissertation examines the ability of common-pool resource (CPR) theories to address and realize sustainable management. Traditionally, CPR systems have been understood as a set of design principles for managing resources, especially single-resource regimes wherein local drivers of change are known. However, most CPR settings are embedded in complex systems and affected by drivers at global to local scales. This recognition has led many scholars to champion adaptation as the way forward, but significant confusion remains over key concepts, including adaptive capacity. Focusing on Chile’s small-scale fishers and divers, I explore how user adaptations and sociocultural shifts in response to globalization can threaten the resilience of Chile’s celebrated territorial user rights regime. I develop a typology of user motivations, and explain how these intersect with user adaptations and expand our ability to create more robust management. By studying the concrete adaptation behaviours of marine users, I also demonstrate how adaptive capacity is a proactive process and behaviour-specific, contrary to assessment methods that emphasize generalizability. Similarly, by measuring social learning as the propensity of individuals to attend to social information, I show how social learning may not be uniformly positive (and may even be negative) for social-ecological outcomes, counter to expectations in contemporary resource literatures. Finally, it is generally assumed that common understanding of resource dynamics will improve the kinds of collective action that ensures the success of CPRs. Results suggest that other variables may be more important (e.g., migrant population), and the positive role of common understanding requires further testing using clear measures. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest a need to attend to, and account for, a broader set of potentially significant social and psychological variables. Adopting a more precise and critical eye regarding human factors, as endeavoured in this study, may help the science of social-ecological sustainability progress more capably and effectively.

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Anthropogenic impacts to the environment are often co-occurring and cumulative. While research on cumulative environmental impacts has historically focused on biophysical attributes, anthropogenic activities also pose risks to ecosystem services. This dissertation evaluates the state of environmental impact assessment, particularly the characterization of cumulative impacts, and pilots new methods in two sites with varying data availability: coastal British Columbia (relatively high data availability) and Tasman and Golden Bays, New Zealand (relatively low data availability). First, I assessed the state of cumulative impact assessment in its most common legally mandated form, Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), from seven nations. EIAs generally identified a large number of impacts, though a consistently minute subset was deemed “significant” for decision-making. Many EIAs considered spatiotemporal scopes smaller than justifiable, presumed mitigations effective without justification, and determined significance by consultants (paid by developers) with minimal stakeholder input. Next, I piloted two novel cumulative impact assessment procedures for contexts with available data. These procedures combined spatial analysis with expert elicitation for the first, and used Bayesian networks for the second. First, I found that some ecosystem services in British Columbia face higher risk from global stressors, while others face higher risk from local stressors. Changes to ecosystem service access and perceived quality may be as important as changes to biophysical attributes. Second, I show that management plans for the herring fishery are likely ineffective because important impacts were unaddressed. Finally, I piloted a novel expert elicitation approach to characterize and quantify impacts on ecosystem services in data-poor contexts. Local New Zealand experts were tasked with estimating impact before and after group deliberations, and describe causes of impact. This methodology simultaneously reduces the variability among experts’ best estimates, while also increasing individual uncertainty. Despite high uncertainty of individual stressor impact, cumulative impacts were consistently high across ecosystem services. The key stressor was sedimentation, caused by interacting climate change and activities based on land and in the water. As a whole, this dissertation advances the nascent state of cumulative impact assessment for ecosystem services, and pioneers diverse methods to synthesize understanding of these crucial considerations for management and policymaking.

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Increasing reliance on renewable energy promises to reduce carbon emissions. Although national-scale polls demonstrate high levels of public support for developing renewable energy, local opposition has led to cancelations of renewable energy projects globally. This dissertation empirically investigates barriers to the siting of offshore wind farms in reference to their perceived risks and benefits; people’s willingness to pay to mitigate environmental risks; values that influence these choices and attitudes; and public engagement processes used to engage local citizens in decisions about siting and energy options. The first study investigates perceptions of offshore wind farm impacts and why risks to some ecosystem services (benefits from nature to people) may induce greater concern than others. These differences are attributed to the affective ways in which people perceive risk. Affectively-loaded impacts (e.g., harm to charismatic wildlife, visual intrusion) were assigned greater weight than more easily quantifiable impacts (e.g., displacement of fishing, impact to tourism). This study suggests that government authorities and developers can anticipate and more explicitly address affective dimensions of renewable energy proposals. The second study quantifies stated preferences for specific attributes of wind farms: effect on marine life, type of ownership, distance from shore, and cost. The strongest preference was for farms that greatly increased biodiversity via artificial reefs at an additional cost of $34-42/month. This demonstrates statistically significant willingness to pay for ecologically regenerative renewable energy development. The third study pilots methods on ‘relational values,’ which link people to ecosystems and include associated principles, notions of a good life and virtues. Results suggest relational values are distinct from standard measures of ecological worldview (New Ecological Paradigm) and predictive of attitudes towards offshore wind farms. The fourth study assesses attributes of effective public engagement processes to site renewable energy projects near three island communities. Amongst the array of criteria for robust analytic deliberative processes, good public engagement may be condensable to two themes: enabling bidirectional deliberative learning and providing community benefits. Attending to these themes may improve relationships among communities, government authorities and developers when deciding if and where to site renewable energy infrastructure.

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‘Sustainable development,’ or how to achieve durably desirable states in our planet’s nested social-ecological systems, has been heralded by many as the core civilizational challenge of the 21st century. Adding to this challenge is the fact that the scientific study of how to model and manage such complex systems is confounded by a number of archaic intellectual legacies from predecessor disciplines. Chief among these is a relatively crude, low-resolution ‘rational actor’ theory of human behaviour, which lies in tension with a range of more recent, empirical insights regarding how humans absorb information, make decisions, and act, in situ. I argue that, while authors widely acknowledge the former theory to be insufficient, terminological inconsistencies and conceptual opacity have prevented the latter insights from being fully integrated into much sustainable development research. This dissertation aims to help bridge that gap on the level of both theory and practice. First, I present an accessible, original synthesis of cumulative recent findings on human cognition. This synthesis suggests a key object of analysis should be the particular ways in which people reduce the deep complexity of their social-ecological context into actionable information. I then apply this theoretical lens to the study of two areas designated by the UN as sites for experimentation with the concept of sustainable development: Mt. Carmel UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Israel, and Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in British Columbia, Canada. Both Mt. Carmel and Clayoquot Sound are reeling from major ecological shifts, and discordant multistakeholder relations. In my data chapters, I show that by (a) applying my synthesized theoretical lens to an analysis of how the various stakeholders perceive their local context, and (b) adapting and combining a range of elicitation and analysis methods that heretofore have been applied in isolation, I am able to generate insights that have direct, actionable significance for the management of these sensitive, politically fraught social-ecological systems. I conclude with a discussion of implications, caveats, prospects of scalability, and suggestions for future research.

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Ecosystem-based management (EBM) offers a holistic evaluation of tradeoffs between human activities, but this offer rests upon a foundation of science. In this thesis, I assessed and advanced the knowledge-base for EBM in five ways, focusing on nonnative species in estuarine ecosystems.In Chapter 2, I tested for the comprehensiveness of research that connects the impacts of anthropogenic activities to changes in ecosystem service production, employing a literature review of estuarine ecosystems. Research on these connections virtually never included the relationship of activities to ecosystem services production, presenting an impressive gap in research for evaluating tradeoffs using EBM.I addressed the sufficiency of existing information regarding nonnative species in eelgrass beds in Chapter 3. I tested the relationship of nonnative species in British Columbia’s (BC) eelgrass beds with arrival pathways and environmental selection factors. There were few (12) nonnatives in BC’s eelgrass; all associated most commonly with aquaculture facilities and warm temperatures. Existing reports included the majority of nonnatives: only one species, the bamboo worm Clymenella torquata, represented a new record, as I described in Chapter 4.Impacts of nonnatives are difficult to limit after invasion. In Chapter 5, I developed an approach for characterizing the potential economic impacts of nonnatives. I focused on European green crab, a nonnative species that has not yet arrived in Puget Sound, Washington. At a range of invasion densities and increasing calorie diets, I calculated a value-at-risk to shellfish harvest ranging from $1.6 - $41 million USD. Such calculations can aid in preparation for impending invasion by motivating prevention and mitigation efforts.Nonnative management is often based on the available understanding of the impacts on native species. In Chapter 6, I assessed available research on the impact of nonnative seagrass, Zostera japonica, in northeast Pacific estuaries. My results suggested existing studies that quantitatively test Z. japonica impacts are insufficient to comprehensively assess the effects of this invasion. My dissertation research highlights the need for research to determine the ecosystem role of nonnatives in their invaded range through analysis of quantitative studies across broad scales.

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