Session 12. 1. C.

Sustainable and equitable aquatic food systems represent critical drivers of employment, economic growth, social development and environmental recovery. Small-scale fisheries (SSF) play a big role in these systems as they produce 40% of the total global capture fisheries per year, providing employment to 60.2 million people (~90 % of the total employed in fisheries globally) and nutritious food for subsistence to 52.8 million people. Yet these fisheries are complex given the range of targeted species and ecosystems, harvesting methods, labor organization, cultural values, and governance mechanisms, and they vary in their capacity to respond to new and evolving stressors (e.g. climate change, transitions of terrestrial landscapes for freshwater fisheries, etc.). Transformation of aquatic food systems towards more efficiency, inclusivity, and resiliency requires adoption and effective implementation of international instruments, regional coordination mechanisms, national plans of action, and guidelines that can support the integration of fisheries related policies in development agendas considering tradeoffs and addressing ecological, social and economic objectives. International instruments like the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable SSF in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) support this vision, yet implementation at national policy levels represents significant challenges for many countries. Global studies like the “Illuminating Hidden Harvests: The Contributions of Small-scale Fisheries to Sustainable Development” (IHH) have highlighted the prevalence of local-level over national-level SSF-specific policies granting management rights to fishers, and very limited devolution of management, exclusion, and transferability rights in legislations. This paper uses the IHH dataset, the Institutional Grammar tool, and the Coupled Infrastructure Systems Framework to assess systematically how configurations of 976 formal policies and institutional arrangements spanning 52 countries impact the ability of their SSF to facilitate the implementation of the SSF Guidelines, and transition towards providing nutritious and affordable healthy diets for the most vulnerable, while fostering equitable growth.

Tourism activities often lack comprehensive guidelines for identifying optimal strategies that suit local contexts and their complex impacts on sustainability. To fill this gap, we need theories linking institutional efforts with outcomes, considering local nuances. This study adapts the Coupled Infrastructure Systems Framework (CISF) for tourism, aiming to overcome fragmentation and advance a contextualized theory of sustainable tourism. We conducted a meta-analysis of 90 case studies to identify contextual and institutional variables cited as key causes of observed economic, social and environmental tourism outcomes.
Subsequently, we examined the influence of these variables on outcomes across all cases in which they were present. Results reveal 10 contextual (preexisting asymmetries in the community, high tourist influx, external influences, seasonality, political stability, tourism knowledge, cultural believes, infrastructure resources, resident's age, and development stage) and 11 institutional (communities' degree of involvement, congruence between benefits and costs, non-residents interventions, high tier policy development, monitoring rule compliance, educational tourism, clearly defined boundary rules, management transparency, government intervention, institutional innovations, nested enterprises) categories as the most frequently identified drivers of sustainable tourism outcomes.
Additionally, we show how certain institutional strategies mitigate or intensify effects based on contextual attributes. Community involvement plays a vital role in achieving ST outcomes, while their involvement as developers yields positive social and environmental results; economic benefits peak when communities engage in decision-making without direct management roles. These findings provide valuable guidance for sustainable tourism development and research, highlighting the need for inclusive, context-specific management approaches.

This presentation aims to synthesize an existing academic and gray literature on Russian energy megaprojects, their past, present and potential impacts on ecosystems and sustainability of Indigenous communities in Sakha Republic, Northeast Siberia. The presentation will employ the concept of infrastructural violence as an analytical tool and describe energy megaprojects along with their infrastructural facilities often portrayed as beneficial and benign, but which may inflict violence on fragile ecosystems and vulnerable Indigenous communities. Using megaprojects of “East Siberia-Pacific Ocean” as well as the “Power of Siberia” as a case study, the presentation will examine the tenuous yet increasingly detrimental forms of infrastructural violence that take place in southwest regions of Sakha Republic where Indigenous Evenki and Sakha hunters, fishers, herders and gatherers reside.

This study characterizes over 30 cases of small-scale agricultural and livestock systems across four continents (Africa, America, Asia, and Europe) using the Coupled Infrastructure Systems (CIS) framework. The analysis identifies system archetypes and explores the socio-ecological variables, both internal and external, that shape these systems. The findings offer insights on the adaptive capacities and transition pathways of these systems in response to global challenges, such as climate change. Internal variables include the type of system (agricultural or livestock-based), resource used (such as irrigation water, pasture, or forest), and the number of users involved in agriculture and livestock. External variables cover factors such as isolation levels, climate conditions, and biome types. Data were gathered through an approximately four-hour online survey, conducted by local researchers familiar with the studied communities. This research is significant as it provides a foundation for developing more effective governance strategies tailored to local realities, with the potential to enhance the sustainability and efficiency of agricultural and livestock systems worldwide.