Culture, Morality, and Economics in Reef Management by Local Communities

Regular host Dr Mark Fabian is joined by Dr Jacqui Lau, senior lecturer and discovery early career fellow (DECRA) at James Cook University in Australia. Jacqui is an environmental scientist employing interdisciplinary perspectives and mixed methods to understand how coastal communities in the pacific islands and Australia respond to climate change and environmental transformations. She has worked collaboratively in the Pacific, East and West Africa to examine ecosystem services, the impact of shocks like COVID-19 on coastal communities, perceptions of fairness about the customary management of coral reefs, and issues of equity (including gender) in conservation and climate change policy. Her work has been published in Nature Climate Change, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and World Development, among other top outlets. 

Jacqui’s website: https://research.jcu.edu.au/portfolio/jacqueline.lau/ 

Ostrom, E. (2009). A general framework for analysing the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Nature, 325(5939): 419–422. https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1172133 

Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press. 

Sayer, A. (2011). Why things matter to people: Social science, values, and ethical life. Cambridge University Press. 

Graham, J., Haidt, J., Koleva, S., Motyl, M., Iyer, R., Wojcik, S. & Ditto, P. (2013). Moral foundations theory: The pragmatic validity of moral pluralism. Advances in Applied Experimental Philosophy, 47(1): 55–130. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780124072367000024? 

See also Haidt, J. The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided on politics and religion. Penguin.

Shark’s Pacific and Dr Jess Cramp: https://sharkspacific.org/about/