ABSTRACT

Societies around the world face an increasingly uncertain future as social and ecological changes create pressure on resource governance, and this uncertainty calls for new models that illuminate the intersections of civil society, public sector, and private sector resource management. This volume presents a diversity of collaborations between various governance actors in the management of the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus. It analyses the ability of emergent governance structures to cope with the complexity of future challenges across FEW systems.

Divided into two sections, chapters in the first half of the book present a collection of case studies from around the world exemplifying how FEW nexus challenges are addressed in a multitude of ways and by a variety of actors. Chapters in the second half offer broader perspectives on the management of FEW and underline the lessons that emerge from applying a FEW lens to the question of natural resource governance.

The varied examples in this book highlight that the management of FEW is often a question of reinventing, adapting, and building upon existing practices. Such practices are deeply embedded in unique socio-cultural, environmental, and political contexts as well as ‘hard’ infrastructures. Most of all, this edited volume seeks to communicate the wealth of ideas from committed individuals who continue to work to improve natural resource governance and our sustainable futures.

chapter 2|17 pages

Securing Food, Energy, and Water in India

Shifting the governance landscape to tackle socio-economic challenges through integrated policies

chapter 3|15 pages

The evolution of the narrative of corn in Mexico

From impediment to progress, to a commodity and as heritage

chapter 5|21 pages

Water for energy in China

chapter 6|23 pages

The case of Peruvian asparagus

Water governance trade-offs under climate change

chapter 8|19 pages

Institutional bricolage to address sustainability challenges in the South African sugarcane industry

A case study of the SUSFARMS® initiative in the Midlands area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

chapter 9|20 pages

Corporate water risk and return

chapter 10|25 pages

Natural resource management and marine protected areas

The importance of balancing environmental sustainability and community support

chapter 11|25 pages

An ontology of development in the geopolitical North

Resource extraction in the Canadian Northwest Territories and the shift in Indigenous experiences of nature

chapter 13|16 pages

Out of sight, out of mind?

Bringing the governance of mining and water risk into focus