Beyond Catching Fish: Exploring the role of Relational Values in Mobilizing Community-based Management Efforts in a north Norwegian lake

Abstract

All over the world, local communities are actively engaging in the management and monitoring of natural resources. The underlying driver of most community-driven efforts goes beyond the direct utilization of natural resources to entail a deeper relation to the place or ecosystem they are managing. Relational values have been suggested as a potential driver of such initiatives, but empirical research remains limited. In this study, I explore the role of relational values underlying the volunteer engagement in a previously undocumented Community-Based Natural Resource Management project carried out by locals over ten years in a small subarctic lake. Through narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews, the study reveals that relational values served as both a driving force and the ultimate goal of the project. Especially the participants' personal connection to the lake, fostering relational values such as care, responsibility, and stewardship, seemed to play a major role in initiating and implementing the project, while the goal of improving fish quality indirectly served to promote and maintain relational values such as social cohesion, cultural identity, and knowledge-sharing. Furthermore, the lake has retained its cultural and social significance for the community in terms of relation values despite no longer being essential for subsistence. The lake is currently considered as having a good ecological status, and my study underscores the need to work with local communities to document the role of informal community-based monitoring and management practices for understanding the ecology of the lake. More generally, the study highlights the importance of recognizing the role of relational values in shaping people's behavior and actions towards nature, as this can be a crucial step towards fostering and achieving sustainability.