Q-methodology on human-nature relationships and complementary data

Socio-environmental changes are threatening Indigenous peoples and local
communities (IP&LC), hampering conservation efforts, jeopardizing
biocultural diversity, and escalating environmental injustice. This
situation fostered both collaborative research projects showing the
potential of engaging with IP&LC for conserving biocultural
diversity, and ideas in sustainability science as the relevance of
accounting for plural human-nature relationships and nature values in
decision making. The success of these initiatives, however, depends on
unveiling socio-environmental conflicts as a first step to dialogue and
cooperation. We developed a tool to describe viewpoints on human-nature
relationships that underpin socio-environmental conflicts based on a
multicultural conceptual framework and Q-methodology. To investigate its
usefulness to unveil conflicts within community-based projects, we applied
it to community members and researchers working collaboratively in an
artisanal fishing community in Brazil. By purposefully choosing 23
participants who ordered 44 statements producing distributions later
analyzed for correlations, we described three viewpoints on human-nature
relationships and, from them, the main socio-environmental conflicts
within the community. Two viewpoints associated with community members
revealed contrasting standpoints about nature resulting from complex
transformations - from resource-dependent to tourism-dependent - in the
community. While some people whose occupations depend on outsiders wish to
exploit and earn money with nature, others who depend exclusively on
fishing fear that nature is under threat. These viewpoints allowed
characterizing divergences that can limit collective organization within
the community as well as shared desires for the future. One viewpoint was
associated with researchers, highlighting differences between theirs and
community members’ conceptions. Although framed to a specific situation,
given its replicable development and amplitude of its conceptual basis,
the tool can be adapted to different contexts. By underscoring the
diversity within local communities, our tool helps leaving behind
idealized notions about them. It also facilitates reflexivity among
researchers on how their viewpoints can impact their relationship with
communities. As a way of collectively reflecting about local perspectives
on human-nature relationships, the tool facilitates collaboration and
finding ways forward.