Hibbeler & Mars: A Model for Borderland Conservation Communities of Practice
In Overcoming Episodic Political Uncertainties and Tensions: Borderland Conservation Communities of Practice and the Bridging and Linking of Social Capital, Kari Hibbeler and Matthew M. Mars (both Agricultural Education, Technology & Innovation, University of Arizona) consider how political uncertainty affect the formation and function of wildlife conservation initiatives along the borderland between the US and Mexico. Drawing on feedback from semi-structured interviews with fifteen conservation professionals along the southeastern Arizona (AZ) and northcentral Sonora, Mexico (SO) borderland region, Hibbeler and Mars propose a borderland conservation communities of practice (BCCsP) model that encourages collaboration between relevant agencies and organizations.
The AZ-SO borderland region consists of diverse terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems; the unique environment is harsh, and comprehensive natural resource management is critical to its sustainability. Conservation in the U.S. is regulated by a mix of state and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations, while protected lands in Mexico are communally or privately owned properties. The U.S.-Mexico differences in approaches to conservation create episodic periods of political uncertainty that affect BCCsP specific to the AZ-SO wildlife conservation effort.
Hibbeler and Mars use the theoretical constructs from political ecology, communities of practice, social capital, and human agency to guide their research. Political ecology principles aid in understanding the incentives and disincentives that shape conservation activities in the uncertain borderland region. Communities of practice notions are used to guide the exploration of how conservation actors and organizations overcome uncertainties and tension. Finally, social capital and human agency explore how people and groups work to pursue targeted tasks regardless of structural barriers and challenges.
Figure from article: BCCsP Model: linking, bridging, and bonding.
To overcome the disconnect between the initiatives taking place in and between BCCsP, Hibbeler and Mars propose a BCCsP model that encourages proactivity and collaboration and would allow conservations efforts to move from “getting by” to “getting ahead.” They argue that their model offers three contributions to this effort: first, the model’s use of bridging and linking accounts for the complexities of cross-disciplinary and transborder conservation networking. Second, the model centers proactive conversation between diverse communities, pushing beyond the notion that knowledge exchange and cooperation exist only between similar organizations. Third, the model recognizes the necessity of confronting the biggest challenges most common to borderland political ecologies, including socio-political factors.
The authors call for additional research to analyze how transborder conservation is influenced by social capital and political uncertainty with increased representation of actors on both sides of the border.
