Abstract: Globally, management of common-pool natural resources (CPRs) has shifted from centralised government approaches to hybrid multi-scale models of governance involving state and civil society actors (e.g. local communities and non-government organisations). These collaborative approaches to management, which include co-management and community-based management, are suggested to help ensure management initiatives are reflective of local conditions, legitimate to local users, and better able to deal with social-ecological processes that operate beyond the local scale. However, the success of collaborative management of CPRs is highly variable, and critical questions remain in understanding the links between characteristics of these forms of management, contextual conditions, and socioeconomic and environmental outcomes. In this seminar, I will present my research based in Indonesia that examines the factors that influence opportunities for collaborative management of marine CPRs, and the multiple socioeconomic outcomes of such initiatives. First, using an integrated conservation and development project as a case study, I evaluate the impacts of community-based management of marine protected areas (MPAs) on multiple dimensions of poverty, including whether those impacts are equitable according to social subgroups. Second, I examine how multi-scale socioeconomic and institutional factors are related to participation in community-based management of MPAs. Finally, I describe how I envision my current and future research can contribute to addressing key outstanding questions in the theory and practice of common-pool resource management.

Biography: Georgina’s research interests lie broadly in understanding the socioeconomic factors that influence opportunities for collaborative management of marine common-pool natural resources, and the multiple outcomes of such initiatives. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to her research, drawing on theories and methods from a range of disciplines including common-pool resource theory, social psychology, conservation planning, and behavioural economics. Georgina has undertaken most of her research in the context of coral reef management in the Asia-Pacific region, including in Indonesia, Fiji and the Philippines, where she has worked closely with resource managers. Georgina earned her BSc in Marine Science from the University of Tasmania and recently finished her PhD at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, where she is currently a postdoctoral research fellow.