Envisioning emergent environments: negotiating science & resource management in rural communities

Belize is a small country on the Caribbean coast of Central America, currently addressing the challenge of developing effective policies to manage its vulnerability to environmental hazards. As part of efforts towards sustainable development goals, governmental and non-governmental bodies are undertaking data-led 'watershed management' projects to assess and manage not only water but also land, ecosystem and human aspects of resource stewardship. Belize's history of rural development and conservation interventions has been complicated by legacies of colonialism, indigenous land rights struggles, territorial disputes and past failed projects. Given this context, my research will examine what contemporary watershed management interventions mean and entail for rural residents whose lives and livelihoods depend on the environments in question.

Using theoretical tools from anthropology, science & technology studies, and political ecology, the analysis will shed new light on the conceptual and practical implications of watershed management. By tracing interactions between rural residents and the scientists, government representatives, land developers, NGOs and civil society organisations with whom they negotiate environmental knowledge, the study will examine the processes of translation and participation that may or may not occur during scientific environmental assessments and management interventions. Importantly - and relevant to contexts beyond the Belizean case study - it will ask whether emerging technologies and scientific practices including remote data collection and 'citizen science' raise new challenges and/or opportunities for effective and equitable human-environment engagements in small developing countries. The ultimate aim is to advance original understandings of how tensions between different ways of knowing and valuing environments can generate new social and environmental outcomes.

The research will document rural residents' concerns and expectations; in doing so it will highlight lessons and recommendations for Belizean governmental and non-governmental institutions interested in promoting effective and transparent conservation and development. This also bears relevance for UK-based institutions: Belize has been a recipient of government overseas development assistance (and remains on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development's aid eligibility list), and has links with the UK as a Commonwealth member and former British colony. UK-based NGOs that operate development/conservation programmes in Belize are also potential beneficiaries of the project's findings.

The field research will include ethnographic participant observation, surveys, interviews and action research focus groups across two field sites in rural Belize. I will embed a collaborative approach into the research from the outset, including dedicated knowledge exchange and impact activities for both academic and non-academic audiences.

In addition to academic impacts for the beneficiaries listed above, this project has the potential for societal and economic impacts beneficial to a wide range of audiences in Belize and the UK, and beyond in the long term.

Given the current development of policies in climate change and water management, there should be a significant opportunity for the findings to inform policy development that reflects the expectations and concerns of rural communities regarding data-led environmental monitoring and management programmes. Thus, the research has the potential to increase the effectiveness of environmental policy in Belize; to improve community empowerment; and to increase clarity in negotiations between citizens, NGOs and governments in other countries experiencing similar issues. The project will be relevant to UK-based governmental and non-governmental organisations seeking to improve the effectiveness, equity and transparency of international development assistance.

Primary intended beneficiaries of the research are its participants in rural Belize, and their wider communities. The project will document their perspectives and perceptions of the practices and values underpinning watershed management projects, and I will communicate these findings to influential governmental and non-governmental stakeholders currently developing and implementing environmental management policies. I will recruit and train Belizean field researchers, thereby building local social research capacity and having positive impact on my own research leadership skills.

The research will also benefit Belizean civil society organisations and NGOs who must negotiate diverse and sometimes conflicting discourses and values when planning and carrying out projects with environmental/social sustainability goals and ambitions for community participation. Regional organisations promoting best practice in sustainable development will be able to use the outputs of this research to inform their work and that of their partners across a broader geographical area than I am able to engage directly under the scope of this project.

Belizean government institutions and private sector will benefit from the project's insights into ground level contexts and interactions that bear on the feasibility and success of programmes to improve economic productivity, maintain Belize's reputation for biodiversity, and negotiate resource ownership issues with Maya groups and other rural residents.

Envisaged conceptual impacts include reorienting development policy debates away from an assumed dichotomy of 'scientific' and 'traditional' knowledge. By unpacking dynamics, assumptions and values among different actors, my aim is not to force agreement but to animate debate, by drawing attention to issues of inequality of access and legitimacy that matter to rural people, and recognising the value of their knowledge of managing resources. I will seek instrumental impact through understanding inadequacies of past interventions, documenting hopes and concerns, and offering guidance for more effective and inclusive negotiations of environmental knowledges in developing countries.

I will integrate pathways to impact into the project from the start, to ensure collaborative research and maximise the potential for application of findings to benefit Belizean users (communities, NGOs, government), and UK users (government, NGOs). I will achieve this through a strategy involving consultative meetings, action research focus groups, and multi-stakeholder workshops. These will promote dialogue between researcher and participants; the workshops will also facilitate multi-way conversations among diverse user groups to increase transparency and mutual understanding. These consultative activities will also elicit input from users about appropriate output formats, which may include community meetings/radio for rural residents and briefing papers for NGO and government practitioners.