Pamela McElwee
My interests are in global environmental problems, broadly defined, with my particular expertise in biodiversity conservation and climate change. I am most interested in how individuals and households respond to changes in the physical environment, and how their responses are shaped by external policies and other constraints. I combine an environmental scientist’s interest in ecology and the natural world with an anthropologist’s understanding that empirical fieldwork helps us explain on-the-ground reality. Most of my research combines household-level analysis of environmental decision-making and resource use with an examination of global institutional practices and norms that influence environmental policy. Both driving and constraining forces come from the intersections of local and global levels and will have powerful and far reaching implications for people and habitats at local scales. I have regional expertise in Asia, chiefly Vietnam.
Some of my major areas of research interest include: Socio-economics of biodiversity conservation; Protected areas management and participation in natural resources management; Adaptation to climate change scenarios; Policy tools for climate change solutions in developing countries; International poverty, environment and development nexus; Environmental security and environmental impacts of war and conflict.
I was trained as an environmental scientist/geographer and anthropologist at Yale University (Ph.D in Forestry & Environmental Studies and Anthropology), Oxford University (M.Sc in Forestry) and the University of Kansas (B.A in Political Science).
Before becoming an academic, I worked at the US Senate for Al Gore, in the Clinton White House on environmental policy, and at the US EPA. I have been a consultant for the World Bank, UNDP and other UN agencies, as well as for NGOs working on sustainable development in Asia on such issues as mangrove reforestation, watershed management of the Mekong River, and non-wood forest products use.
Supervisors: Michael Dove, James C. Scott, and Eric Worby
Phone: 480-252-0999
Some of my major areas of research interest include: Socio-economics of biodiversity conservation; Protected areas management and participation in natural resources management; Adaptation to climate change scenarios; Policy tools for climate change solutions in developing countries; International poverty, environment and development nexus; Environmental security and environmental impacts of war and conflict.
I was trained as an environmental scientist/geographer and anthropologist at Yale University (Ph.D in Forestry & Environmental Studies and Anthropology), Oxford University (M.Sc in Forestry) and the University of Kansas (B.A in Political Science).
Before becoming an academic, I worked at the US Senate for Al Gore, in the Clinton White House on environmental policy, and at the US EPA. I have been a consultant for the World Bank, UNDP and other UN agencies, as well as for NGOs working on sustainable development in Asia on such issues as mangrove reforestation, watershed management of the Mekong River, and non-wood forest products use.
Supervisors: Michael Dove, James C. Scott, and Eric Worby
Phone: 480-252-0999
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Books by Pamela McElwee
"Bringing together case studies from Asia and Latin America, this valuable collection adds new knowledge to our understanding of the interplay between local and global processes. Organized broadly by three major issues—forests, water, and fisheries—the scholarship ranges widely: the gender dimensions of the illegal trade in wildlife in Vietnam; women and development issues along the Ganges River; the role of gender in sustainable fishing in the Philippines; women's inclusion in community forestry in India; gender-based confrontations and resistance in Mexican fisheries; environmentalism and gender in Ecuador; and women's roles in managing water scarcity in Bolivia and addressing sustainability in shrimp farming in the Mekong Delta.
Together these chapters show why gender issues are important for understanding how communities and populations deal daily with the challenges of globalization and environmental change. Through their rich ethnographic research, the contributors demonstrate that gender analysis offers useful insights into how a more sustainable world can be negotiated—one household and one community at a time."
Journal Articles by Pamela McElwee
deltas, is already vulnerable to flooding events, and climate change forecasts project
increased exposure to flood risk in coming decades due to changes in rainfall, storm
intensity and frequency, and sea level rise. However, there is a relative neglect of this
region in the literature on natural hazards and climate change, particularly on how
floods in the RRD might affect poor people and different livelihood sectors, how flood
risk is understood and acted on, and how flood impacts experienced by households
influence local adaptation choices. This article presents research undertaken in 2009-
2010 to understand the impacts of flooding in a typical rural zone (Thai Binh province)
of the RRD to assess overall vulnerability, particularly the relationship between poverty,
livelihoods, and flood impacts, as well as to assess the range of adaptation and flood
risk reduction options currently used. Our findings indicate that while poor households
do not appear to be more exposed to floods than others, their incomes are more
sensitive to relative impacts from floods. Yet poverty alone did not explain flood
vulnerability, as age of household and livelihood sector involvement showed stronger
relationships to flood impacts. Flood risk perceptions were also uneven, but poor
people did not seem to take less proactive flood risk reduction measures than others. There are few long-term adaptation actions to flooding being taken by households of any income class, and there is a need for better community and government aid after flood events to help households cope with increased flood risks in the RRD, rather than relying on improvements in hard infrastructure, as is currently the dominant approach in the region, particularly given future forecasts of increased rainfall for northern Vietnam under climate change.
approach, and this paper explores how PES schemes have been implemented in practice in developing countries, how well they fit with descriptions of neoliberal environmental governance, and how these policies are being shaped by rural actors to make them more favourable to social, cultural or economic priorities in local areas. The paper shows that seemingly neoliberal policies like PES are actually a mix of
both market economic incentives and regulatory approaches, and thus should not be labelled solely “neoliberal” per se. Further, much of this variegation in PES policy has resulted from active engagement of rural actors in shaping the parameters of what parts of neoliberal policy are acceptable, and what are not, and data from a Vietnam case study emphasize this point. Finally, the paper shows how key goals of neoliberal approaches, namely efficiency and conditionality, are often actually the weakest components of PES schemes, in Vietnam and elsewhere, particularly when they clash with local concerns over equity,
which should pose a rethinking of how to understand PES success. The article concludes that PES plans should not be considered exclusively neoliberal per se, as they may in fact strengthen both state regulation and local participation and involvement in rural environmental management at the same time.
"Bringing together case studies from Asia and Latin America, this valuable collection adds new knowledge to our understanding of the interplay between local and global processes. Organized broadly by three major issues—forests, water, and fisheries—the scholarship ranges widely: the gender dimensions of the illegal trade in wildlife in Vietnam; women and development issues along the Ganges River; the role of gender in sustainable fishing in the Philippines; women's inclusion in community forestry in India; gender-based confrontations and resistance in Mexican fisheries; environmentalism and gender in Ecuador; and women's roles in managing water scarcity in Bolivia and addressing sustainability in shrimp farming in the Mekong Delta.
Together these chapters show why gender issues are important for understanding how communities and populations deal daily with the challenges of globalization and environmental change. Through their rich ethnographic research, the contributors demonstrate that gender analysis offers useful insights into how a more sustainable world can be negotiated—one household and one community at a time."
deltas, is already vulnerable to flooding events, and climate change forecasts project
increased exposure to flood risk in coming decades due to changes in rainfall, storm
intensity and frequency, and sea level rise. However, there is a relative neglect of this
region in the literature on natural hazards and climate change, particularly on how
floods in the RRD might affect poor people and different livelihood sectors, how flood
risk is understood and acted on, and how flood impacts experienced by households
influence local adaptation choices. This article presents research undertaken in 2009-
2010 to understand the impacts of flooding in a typical rural zone (Thai Binh province)
of the RRD to assess overall vulnerability, particularly the relationship between poverty,
livelihoods, and flood impacts, as well as to assess the range of adaptation and flood
risk reduction options currently used. Our findings indicate that while poor households
do not appear to be more exposed to floods than others, their incomes are more
sensitive to relative impacts from floods. Yet poverty alone did not explain flood
vulnerability, as age of household and livelihood sector involvement showed stronger
relationships to flood impacts. Flood risk perceptions were also uneven, but poor
people did not seem to take less proactive flood risk reduction measures than others. There are few long-term adaptation actions to flooding being taken by households of any income class, and there is a need for better community and government aid after flood events to help households cope with increased flood risks in the RRD, rather than relying on improvements in hard infrastructure, as is currently the dominant approach in the region, particularly given future forecasts of increased rainfall for northern Vietnam under climate change.
approach, and this paper explores how PES schemes have been implemented in practice in developing countries, how well they fit with descriptions of neoliberal environmental governance, and how these policies are being shaped by rural actors to make them more favourable to social, cultural or economic priorities in local areas. The paper shows that seemingly neoliberal policies like PES are actually a mix of
both market economic incentives and regulatory approaches, and thus should not be labelled solely “neoliberal” per se. Further, much of this variegation in PES policy has resulted from active engagement of rural actors in shaping the parameters of what parts of neoliberal policy are acceptable, and what are not, and data from a Vietnam case study emphasize this point. Finally, the paper shows how key goals of neoliberal approaches, namely efficiency and conditionality, are often actually the weakest components of PES schemes, in Vietnam and elsewhere, particularly when they clash with local concerns over equity,
which should pose a rethinking of how to understand PES success. The article concludes that PES plans should not be considered exclusively neoliberal per se, as they may in fact strengthen both state regulation and local participation and involvement in rural environmental management at the same time.
My second argument is related to the first: while resettlement is a ‘solution’
to a perceived localised threat to a protected area, I argue that there is evidence, particularly from Southeast Asia, that blame on internal populations to parks rather than external economic and political threats is misguided. Countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia have long histories of rogue timber companies and cash crop plantations (coffee, oil palm and the like) that often have much greater impact on protected areas than internal local populations."
citizens to exercise their rights to be informed of government activities that affect them, to discuss and contribute to the formulation of certain policies, to participate in local development activities and to supervise government
performance. In addition to the Grassroots Democracy Decree, a number of related legal instruments have also been promulgated over the past ten years, including an ambitious Public Administration Reform (PAR) master
plan, a decentralised State Budget Law, a new Law on Complaints and Petitions of Citizens and the first official ordinance on anti-corruption measures. There have also been moves to reform elected bodies and electoral systems, to reform elements of the ruling Communist Party, and to strengthen the role of mass organizations.
This discussion paper assesses these and other new trends through a discussion of the role of citizens in local government and the relationship between citizens and the state in twenty-first century Viet Nam. The main
objective of the paper is to assess both the level of participation of citizens in local government and the responsiveness of government to efforts to increase participation. The paper links an analysis of participation in
Viet Nam to international trends towards the ‘deepening of democracy’, defined as the inclusion of larger numbers of people in more deliberative and democratic local government processes.
reviewed, utilizing Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City as “test beds” – capitals of the two Southeast Asian countries most vulnerable to climate change. Findings indicate that the intensity and type of adaptive responses at urban scales strongly reflect previous national governance frames, e.g., degree of decentralization and role of civil society. Accepting such constraints, there is need for significant changes in approach that would (i) integrate
knowledge and value capture from “mainstream” urban disciplines such as economics and urban planning; (ii) achieve synergistic benefits by appropriately combining “hard” and “soft” adaptation measures; (iii) systematize and disseminate knowledge, as no organized menu of potential adaptation mechanisms and related “best practice” is available, leading to limited awareness of climate change adaptation instruments and constraining action at the urban level.