The concept of human dimensions

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The concept of human dimensions

• The name of this course is Human Dimensions of
  Natural Resources. What does it mean? What
  exactly are the human dimensions?

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• If you look up the word dimension in the
  dictionary, you are likely to find meanings like
  aspect, element, component, factor etc.
• This gives us some idea about the meaning of
  human dimensionthey are probably the human
  aspects (or elements, or components) of natural
  resource management.

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• The text has a great working definition of human
  dimensions on page 3, however the definition is
  specifically for human dimensions of wildlife
• But as it turns out, if we simply replace the
  word wildlife with natural resources, we
  still end up with a good working definition. This
  definition is

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• The term human dimensions refers to how and why
  humans value natural resources, how humans want
  resources managed, and how humans affect or are
  affected by natural resources management
  decisions. Human dimensions inquiries strive to
  understand human traits and how to incorporate
  that understanding into management planning and
  actions. It covers a variety of ideas and
  practices including cultural, social, and
  economic values individual and social behavior
  demographics legal and institutional frameworks
  of management communication and education and,
  decision-making processes of management.

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• So basically, in human dimensions we try to
  understand human behavior, and how to incorporate
  these human behaviors into natural resource
  management.
• Why is that important? Why would we want to
  incorporate human traits and behavior patterns
  into natural resource management?

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• Because, like it or not, humans ARE an integral
  part of natural resource use and management
• If we manage only for the resource without
  incorporating humans into the decisions, we will
  not be able to achieve our management goals, and
  it will not be in the best interest of the
  resource in the long run

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• Let us now move toward building a model for human
  dimensions of natural resources, i.e. lets try
  to understand how it actually works
• From the definition we know that understanding
  human behavior is the key
• But what drives human behavior? Why do humans
  behave the way that they do?

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• Some examples
• Why do some throw trash anywhere in a state part,
  while others will only throw them in designated
  places, or even will pick up trash if they see
  them lying around?
• Why do some find spending time in the woods
  enlightening while others dont?
• Why do some take an interest in visiting all the
  major national parks and other natural monuments,
  while others dont even visit one in their
  lifetime?
• Why do some hunt and others dont?

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• Behind all these questions are a variety of
  forces that influence human behavior
• These are called the driving forces
• These driving forces play a large role in
  people's decision making processes, their
  activities, their impressions of the personal and
  social benefits and impacts of particular human
  activities, and their acceptance of change and
  control with regard to the social and natural
  environment (source HD site)

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• There can be different types of these driving
  forces. Some examples include
• Social
• Spiritual
• Cultural
• Economic
• Political
• Legal

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• The next component in our human dimensions model
  is human behavior
• We know that the driving forces influence human
  behavior. There are a variety of different human
  behaviors that have impacts on natural resources
• We can talk about a few examples of such human
  actions

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• First, there are a variety of economic activities
  that have impacts on natural resources they
  include
• Forestry, agriculture, commercial hunting and
  fishing
• Tourism-focused economic development
• Natural resource based industrial development
  such as forest products industries
• Housing development, development of high valued
  real estate such as waterfront properties

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• There are also human activities that contribute
  to urbanization. They include
• Land subdivision, forest fragmentation, sale of
  land to developers
• Residential development
• Development of roads, bridges, and other
  infrastructure
• Development of factories, offices, and other
  commercial properties

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• A variety of recreation-related behaviors also
  influence natural resources
• Bird watching, wildlife viewing
• Hiking, biking, swimming, paddling
• Boating, diving, four-wheeling
• Hunting

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• There are also types of human behaviors that
  could be classified as stewardship of natural
  resources
• Environmental restoration
• Resource management, education, and research
• Recycling

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• All of these different human behaviors (and you
  could think of a few others) impact our natural
  resources
• Some of these impacts are negative, some are
  positive, and some may have both negative and
  positive aspects the next component in the human
  dimensions model will capture these impacts

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• The third component of the human dimensions model
  is Effect of Change
• As mentioned earlier, this includes the positive
  and negative impacts of human behavior
• Human behavior causes changes in our natural
  environment, now we are looking at the effects of
  these changes

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• Now, what kind of changes are we talking about?
  These changes can be of several different
  categories.
• Lets look at some of them

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• Conversion of forest land to other uses, land
  cover change
• Loss and fragmentation of habitats
• Soil erosion, water quality

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• There can be economic changes as well
• Changes in economic viability of local
  communities
• Economic opportunities for people i.e. jobs

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• There can be social changes
• Changes in community relations
• Changes in access to resources
• Changes in community security

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• Now, what kind of effects could these changes
  have?
• Environmental quality
• Human health and safety
• Quality of life
• Increased planning and management efforts such as
  zoning, new laws, outreach and education

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• An important thing to remember is that whether or
  not these effects of change will be seen as
  positive or negative will vary from people to
  people.
• This connects this component back to the first
  one, that is, driving forces

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• The final component is Management strategies
• So far, we know that driving forces influence
  human behavior which causes changes and in turn
  impacts our natural environment
• Now, this component askswhat can we do to
  address these changes?

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• We can undertake a variety of management
  strategies to achieve one or more of the
  following
• Alter the influence of the driving forces on
  peoples decision making
• Alter human behavior
• Alter effects of change due to human behavior

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• Some management strategies are quite direct.
  Examples include
• Regulationnew laws, zoning etc.
• Enforcement of existing regulations
• This type of management strategies include the
  traditional command and control approach

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• A second type of management strategy is somewhat
  indirect. Examples include
• Incentive programs
• Demonstration projects
• Education and outreach
• This is more of a participatory approach

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• Now, we can look at all four of these components
  of the human dimensions model and their
  interrelationships in a figure (source HD site)