Analyzing indicators for combining natural resources management and production-oriented activities

It is recognized today that production systems can be used for natural resources management, whereas it is difficult to implement management that integrates production and natural resources conservation. This difficulty can be explained by the complexity of interactions between production systems and biodiversity dynamics and by the lack of predictability of the impacts of techniques on ecosystems. Designing tools to effectively guide such integration in this uncertain context is therefore a top priority. In this perspective, the aim of this paper is to analyze the indicators used by managers when trying to integrate ecological systems and production-oriented activities and, consequently, to assess their relevance when faced with these new challenges. Our analysis distinguishes indicators-in-theory and indicators-in-use. We studied the first ones with an original analytic grid to decipher their cognitive and management orientation through documents and interviews with indicator designers. We studied indicators-in-use through interviews and ethnographic observations of indicator users in four situations (forestry, pastoral, wildlife and breed management) in southwestern France. Our findings reveal the distance between managed objects and measured objects, thus explaining their effectiveness in terms of management. We also show how the indicators strongly shape practices and how they are adapted by users to their situation, emphasizing the role of experiential knowledge to create situated indicators. Finally, we discuss our results regarding tool design for environmental management. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015