Coastal Water Bodies (eBook)

Coastal Water Bodies 2
Editors 4
Acknowledgements 5
Contents 6
Contributors 7
List of Figures 9
List of Tables 12
Chapter 1: Mediterranean Coastal Areas at Risk Between Conservation and Development 13
1.1 Issues of the Mediterranean Coastal Zone and the Challenge of Integration 13
1.2 The WADI Project Approach 16
1.3 Nature and Culture Conflicts at Study-Site Level 17
1.3.1 The Egyptian Case-Study 18
1.3.2 The Italian Case-Study 21
1.3.3 The Tunisian Case-Study 22
1.3.4 The Spanish Case-Study 25
1.3.5 The Moroccan Case-Study 25
1.4 Shared Expertise and Policy Making 27
1.5 Lessons Learnt from the WADI Experience 29
References 31
Chapter 2: Wetland Socioeconomy: The Case of Lake Maryut (Egypt) 33
2.1 Conceptual Framework 33
2.1.1 Socioeconomic Contexts 33
2.1.2 Socioeconomic Structure in Wetland Areas 35
2.1.3 Economic Valuation of Wetland Functions 36
2.1.3.1 Economic Value of the Environment 36
2.1.3.2 Economic Valuation Concept 37
2.1.3.3 Techniques of Economic Valuation 38
2.1.4 Towards an Integrated Socioeconomic and Ecosystem Perspective 42
2.2 The WADI Experience on Maryut Study Site 43
2.2.1 Socioeconomic Contexts: A Background 43
2.2.2 Main Issues 44
2.2.3 Economic Valuation of Lake Ecosystem 48
2.2.3.1 Market Value of Fish from the Lake6 49
2.2.3.2 Value of the Lake Function as a Deterrent to Urban Expansion 51
2.3 What Should Be Done? 54
References 55
Chapter 3 56
Integration of the Gender Dimension into Socioeconomics Analysis 56
3.1 Introduction 56
3.1.1 The Water Issue and the WADI Contribution 58
3.1.2 Gender Approach: From an Overall Methodology to the WADI Case-Studies 58
Box 3.1. An example of gender bias in data collection 59
3.1.2.1 Italy: the Ombrone River Low Plain and ‘Agritourism’ (In-Farm Vacations) 60
3.1.2.2 Morocco: the Oued Laou Valley and the Pottery of Fran Ali 60
3.1.2.3 Tunisia: the Majerda River Low Plain and ‘Ramli’ Agriculture 63
3.2 Results: From the Case-Studies to an Overall Perspective 64
3.2.1 Ombrone River Low Plain 64
3.2.2 Oued Laou Valley 65
3.2.3 Oued Majerda Low Plain 66
3.3 Common Issues 67
3.4 Common Driving Forces 68
3.5 Lessons Learnt in a Wider Perspective 69
References 70
Chapter 4 72
Environmental Conflicts and Conflict Management: Some Lessons from the WADI Experience at El Hondo Nature Park (South-Eastern 72
4.1 Introduction 72
4.2 Background on Conflict and Conflict Analysis 74
4.3 The Importance of Defining ‘Conflict’ 74
4.4 The Central Role of Conflicts in the Rationale of WADI 76
4.5 Narratives as Necessary Results of WADI 77
4.6 El Hondo as a Conflictive Site: Science and Integrated Science and the Reframing of Conflicts 78
4.6.1 The Study Site 78
4.6.2 Methodological Issues 79
4.6.3 The ‘Malvasia Case’: The Risks of Objective Scientific Advice 80
4.6.4 When Scientific Advice Can Cause Conflicts and Unsustainability 82
4.6.5 The Case of the ‘Lemonium’, or the Difference Between Competitive and Cooperative Conflicts in Environmental Managemen 84
4.7 WADI in the Boxing Ring of El Hondo: Testing the Role of Integrated Research in Re-Framing of Conflicts 86
References 87
Chapter 5 89
Soil Salinisation in the Grosseto Plain (Maremma, Italy): An Environmental and Socio-Economic Analysis of the Impact on the A 89
5.1 Introduction 89
5.2 The Grosseto Plain: A Recent Landscape with an Age-Old History 90
5.3 The Agricultural Structure of the Grosseto Plain 93
5.4 Salinity Hazard in the Grosseto Plain 95
5.5 Soil Salinisation and Agronomic Management of the Irrigated Land of Maremma 98
References 99
Chapter 6 101
Evolution, Impacts and Management of the Wetlands of the Grosseto Plain, Italy 101
6.1 Introduction 101
6.2 Origins and Evolution of the Grosseto Plain 103
6.2.1 Geomorphologic Characteristics 103
6.2.2 Erosion and Salinisation 104
6.2.3 Land Reclamation and the Rural Property Act 105
6.3 Diaccia Botrona Provincial Nature Reserve 106
6.3.1 Ecosystem Description: General Features and Water Quality 106
6.3.2 Botanical Features 109
6.3.3 Faunal Features 110
6.3.4 Aquaculture 113
6.4 The Maremma Regional Park 114
6.4.1 Ecosystem Description: General Features, Water Quality and Coastal Erosion 114
6.4.2 Botanical Features 116
6.4.3 Faunal Features 119
6.4.4 Management Plan 122
6.5 The Other Coastal Wetlands of the ‘Maremma Wetland Complex’ 123
6.6 General Considerations on Management Strategies and Conclusions 126
References 131
Chapter 7: The Ombrone Delta and the Two Chief Systems of the World Today: Environmentalist and Economicist 133
7.1 The Occasion: How Geographers Have Studied the Ombrone Delta 133
7.2 The Construction: How the ‘Park’ Has Formed 135
7.3 The Alienation: How Society Has Reformed Nature 136
7.4 The Infatuation: How the Sentimental Animalism has Asserted Itself 139
7.5 The Discrimination: How the Antithesis Between Protected and not Protected Areas has been Imposed 142
7.6 The Mystification: How Scientific Data on Climate Have Become a Trendy Bias 143
7.7 The Subornation: How Scientific Data on the Environment Have Become a Political Passkey 147
7.8 The Falsification: How Scientific Data on the Environment Have Become an Economical Deceit 148
7.9 The Suggestion: How to Appreciate the Historical and Literary Antecedents of Environmentalism 151
7.10 The Conversion: How Suggestive the Philosophical Roots of Environmentalism Are 154
7.11 The Confusion: How Environmentalism and Economicism Eventually Merge 159
7.12 The Camouflage: How to Go Back to the Story of the Delta and the Park 161
7.13 The Revelation: How Environmentalism Can Exploit Religion Too 176
7.14 The Resignation: How Not to Deceive Oneself 166
References 166

"Chapter 3 Integration of the Gender Dimension into Socioeconomics Analysis Lucia Fanini (p. 45-46)

Abstract Men and women carry out different and complementary activities, specially if we consider rural environments. The environmental resources are therefore differently used and perceived with respect to gender, and different needs may emerge. To achieve equality conditions, these features should be considered in a constructive way and in an integrated perspective, avoiding gender segregation also in the theoretical perspective. Women activities and duties are often related to the domestic sphere and, even if essential to the household, generally do not generate money flow, so they may escape the socioenomic approach. A tuning is needed, to give voice to all social components, also considering their different (in space, time, status, power, etc.) scales. This chapter synthetically illustrates how the challenge of gender integration in the socioeconomic analysis was faced throughout the WADI project.

Keywords Gender And Development (GAD) • Rural environments • Traditional activities • Empowerment

3.1 Introduction

In socioeconomic analysis, there is an emerging need of an integrated analysis and management of resources. The integration of gender aspects is a further step required to deal with the correct representation of complex environmental systems in their broad sense, that is including natural and human socio-cultural diversity. With the idea that diversity is richness, knowledge about gender issues should beused to identify intrinsic values of the contexts and should represent a background for potential development. This is true at multiple scales, but at the local scale (i.e. the community level) it is particularly important that different social components, such as men and women, are linked in different ways to environmental resources.

Therefore, the different social components can be differently affected by management choices, current policies or trends of change. In agreement with the Gender And Development (GAD) approach, integration of the gender perspective is not intended merely as the collection of gender disaggregated data or the collection of ‘data regarding women’; it involves a strategy for data collection and data analysis tuned to each study site, to achieve an overview of the situation of men, women, environment and their relationships.

Within the WADI project, aimed at building scenarios of sustainability, the final goal of the gender analysis was the identification of challenges towards empowerment (following Millennium Development Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women), keeping in mind that the empowerment of people is the consequence of a social, economic, political and legal balance between the different social components regardless of their ability to generate money flow.

In particular, rural environments are strictly linked to the ecological framework, as people not only depend directly on agriculture and/or fishing but also on activities, such as rural tourism, based on the attractiveness of the landscape, which is shaped by the local inhabitants. In such a fragile equilibrium, the path to sustainable development can receive many inputs from the integration of gender issues by means of an identification of the key roles and the potential of empowerment."