Rural Community Responses to Environmental Stewardship Plans and Government Action

Hamilton College, Clinton NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project investigates how and why local people come to either oppose or support changes happening through the implementation of environmental stewardship plans in multiple regions. Around the world, environmental and stewardship plans are increasingly initiating substantial changes to rural landscapes and to rural ways of life. These plans include construction of wind power, solar power and other forms of renewable energy, planting trees, and attempts to reduce the amount of livestock being raised because of their environmental impact. While many regions support these changes as they seek to address climate impacts, some responses in rural communities have been mixed. This research can advance understanding about how to make environmental and stewardship plans work better both for people living in rural communities and ultimately for everyone. Relying on longitudinal interviews of local residents (including farmers and other agricultural producers, community and municipal leaders, activists and organizers, and Indigenous residents) and participant observation in community events, this study has three primary goals. First, it explores how rural residents in different regions support or resist environmental reforms, and if and how their responses are influenced by perceived threats to their sociodemographic and sociopolitical identities. Second, it investigates people’s understandings of environmental change, their responses, and their sense of what is possible for future environmental action over time. Third, it assesses if and how rural stakeholders connect and share responsibility of stewardship of the environment and environmental changes or not at the community level, and where barriers impede collective action. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.