Maria Claudia Lopez

The Fifth Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality remains distant in rural areas of low‐and middle‐income countries, where restrictive gender norms persist. While empowerment is promoted as a means of transforming these norms, little is known about how such transformations unfold or about the unintended negative consequences they may generate. We propose an analytical approach to understand how the resources provided by development programs translate into women gaining agency and contesting gender norms, which could lead to norm transformation, and how these processes can trigger negative consequences. We implemented the approach in a case study in Colombia, drawing on a large qualitative sample of 65 interviews with rural women and men. By integrating two distinct areas of scholarship, Gender and Development and Feminist Political Ecology, we identify four pathways through which resources from development programs foster agency while simultaneously producing adverse effects, including verbal intimate partner violence. This study presents an analytical approach useful for scholars and practitioners in development. It also offers empirical evidence of the pathways through which gender norms are contested and highlights the need for strategies to address the unintended negative consequences that may arise when promoting women's empowerment.

Tropical river fisheries support food security for millions of people but are increasingly threatened by hydropower development. How dams affect these fisheries remains poorly known in most regions. Here, we used a functional traits approach to evaluate the extent to which compositions of fishery yields in the Madeira River Basin, the largest sub‐basin in the Amazon, respond to dam construction. We also explored how dams affected the monetary value of yields and fishing‐based income of the communities. We collected fishing data in 17 locations distributed over 300 km across upstream, reservoir and downstream zones during pre‐and post‐dam construction periods. We interviewed 711 fishers from 13 communities to assess fishing income during pre‐ and post‐dam periods. Catch‐per‐unit effort (CPUE) declined significantly, that is, by 37%, after dam construction. Multivariate analysis yielded six species clusters according to trait syndromes related to life history, migration, swimming performance/habitat‐use and economic value that were associated with the environmental data characteristic of pre‐ and post‐dam periods. Comparison of CPUE of each cluster indicated that large species with periodic life‐history strategy and regional or long‐distance migratory behaviour were most affected by dam construction, with CPUE declining by, on average, 31%. Declines in yields and shifts in functional composition of the fishery yields resulted in average decline of 21% in the monetary value of functional clusters and 30% in fishing income. Synthesis and applications. Our study indicates that the implementation of the dams affected the functional composition of yields and reduced catches, negatively affecting the fishing‐based income of communities in the Madeira River. These results imply that hydropower expansion will cause detrimental effects for fisheries and the livelihoods they sustain. Our results underscore the urgent need for considering alternative sources of renewable energy (e.g. solar power and in‐stream turbines) to avoid irreversible socio‐environmental damages of large dam projects. In river reaches where dams are already in operation or under construction, minimizing impacts will require improving operational protocols to reduce hydrological alterations and developing research and technology to improve the functionality of fish passages. In these locations, addressing losses in fishery value and fishing‐based income will also require the implementation of fair compensation measures. Maintaining fish production requires conserving flow pulses and free‐flowing rivers and tributaries critical for completing life cycles of fish species with vulnerable traits.

This paper analyzes motivations for coffee roasters to source directly from farmers and how roasters decide whether to use the Direct Trade sustainability label. Direct Trade is an uncertified label connoting an approach wherein roasters negotiate coffee price and quality with farmers without intermediaries, with purported farmer income benefits. We examine semi-structured interviews with 11 US roasters and three coffee stakeholders to identify motivations to source directly, provide customers sourcing information, and use or reject the Direct Trade label. We find that roasters directly source coffee primarily for quality reasons and communicate about sourcing because they believe customers would value coffee more if they understood their sustainable sourcing practices. However, the lack of a clear definition for the Direct Trade label, coffee roaster concerns about the label’s utility, and the threat of “free riders” disincentivizes label use. Without a shared label, customers face high costs for information about directly sourced coffee, which may limit the expansion of a sourcing practice that could benefit farmers.

We investigate the ecological impact caused by fishing grounds and the fishing gear/methods used by fishers in Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (CGSM), an estuarine lagoon located on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. To do so, we build individual and composite ecological sustainable indicators based on the opinions of a group of experienced fishers and a group of scientists. Additionally, we use those indicators to examine the influence of socioeconomic and perceptional factors on fishers’ fishing behaviors and how those behaviors may be affecting CGSM fishery resources. Our results suggest that fishers and scientists differ in their opinions about the impact of fishing on CGSM. Additionally, we found that having a higher level of education, sharing household expenses with other family members and spending more hours fishing lead to ecologically-sustainable fishing behavior, while the perception that the government is responsible for CGSM conservation leads to ecologically unsustainable fishing behavior.

The paper contributes to the social-ecological systems literature by adapting and using Elinor Ostrom's Social-Ecological System (SES) framework in the context of a coastal ecosystem. We modified the SES framework in the case of the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (CGSM), an estuarine lagoon in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The ecological importance of CGSM and its species is undeniable. This paper aims to understand why collective action for a sustainable use of CGSM's fishery resources has not taken place. In order to respond to that question, we created new variables within the social, economic, and political settings of the SES framework. The results show that the fishers' fear of the indiscriminate and strong violence that illegal armed groups have inflicted on them since the 1960s and the economic development in the Colombian Caribbean region help explain the lack of collective action.