Understanding Water Resources, Governance, and Meanings in Rural Belize, 2017-2018

This data was generated as part of the ‘Envisioning Emergent Environments’ project undertaken in 2017-18 in Belize. The project used ethnographic approaches to examine what contemporary watershed management interventions mean and entail for rural residents whose lives and livelihoods depend on the environments in question. The research involved household-level structured interviews (survey) (n=275) alongside in-depth interviews, group meetings, and four months of participant observation. It documented resource management concerns, activities and expectations of rural residents in 7 localities in Stann Creek, Toledo, and Cayo districts. Envisioning Emergent Environments was a two-year research project funded by the ESRC Future Research Leaders’ Scheme (Envisioning Emergent Environments: Negotiating Science and Resource Management in Rural Communities ES/N016084/1). Research was carried out in Belize, a small country on the Caribbean coast of Central America currently addressing the challenge of developing effective policies to manage its vulnerability to environmental hazards. As part of efforts towards sustainable development goals, governmental and non-governmental bodies have been undertaking data-led 'watershed management' projects to assess and manage not only water but also land, ecosystem, and human aspects of resource stewardship. Belize's history of rural development and conservation interventions has been complicated by legacies of colonialism, indigenous land rights struggles, territorial disputes, and past failed projects. In this context, and using ethnographic and collaborative approaches, the research sought to understand what contemporary watershed management interventions mean and entail for rural residents whose lives and livelihoods depend on the environments in question. The PI resided in or near the participating communities in Stann Creek and Toledo for four months while the structured interviews (surveys) were conducted alongside participant observation, in-depth interviews and group meetings with rural residents. Fieldnotes from these other data collection activities are not archived, owing to the difficulty of adequately removing details that may compromise anonymity while presenting a useful dataset in this context: the small scale and close-knit nature of rural Belizean communities — and indeed the population of the country as a whole — presents challenges to effective anonymisation of these data, especially given the potentially sensitive nature of research about the politics and management of natural resources. The purpose of the survey was to obtain community-level overviews of key issues pertaining to resource use, environmental decision-making, and water supply. The survey was designed to complement the participant observation and interviews, rather than as a standalone method; this should be taken into account when considering the use of the data outside this context.