Creating Local Institutional Arrangements for Sustainable Wetland Socio-ecological Systems: Lessons from the ‘Striking a Balance’ Project in Malawi

Wetland socio-ecological systems provide livelihood benefits for many poor people throughout the developing world, yet their sustainable development requires local utilisation strategies that balance both environmental and development outcomes. Community-based local institutional arrangements that mediate peoples’ relationships with their environment and facilitate adaptive co-management offer one means of achieving this, and increasingly many NGOs and development practitioners have sought to integrate local institutional capacity-building into development projects. In the context of wider academic debates surrounding the long-term sustainability of externally-facilitated local institutions, this paper draws on the experiences of the three-year Striking a Balance (SAB) project in Malawi which sought to embed sustainable wetland management practices within community-based local institutional arrangements. Drawing on field data collected through participatory methods at three project sites some five years after the cessation of project activities, we examine the extent to which SAB’s local institutional capacity-building has been successful, and from this draw some lessons for externally-driven project interventions which seek win-win outcomes for people and the environment. With reference to Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for long-enduring common property resource institutions, we suggest that the observed declining effectiveness of SAB’s local institutions can be attributed to issues of stakeholder inclusiveness and representations; their sustainability was arguably compromised from their inception on account of them being nested within pre-existing, externally-driven village ‘clubs’ whose membership and decision-making was not congruent with all the wetland stakeholders within the community.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Management of Vocal Cord Dysfunction in an Elite Female Swimmer: a Case Study

Acute pulmonary disorders are commonplace within the athletic population, with exercise induced bronchoconstriction (EIB), and vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) common diagnoses. VCD is a condition that causes the adduction of the vocal folds during inhalation, causing obstruction at the larynx and thereby a severely impaired sporting performance. VCD can be brought on by laryngeal irritants, emotional and psychological stress and asthma. The gold standard of treatment for VCD centres on an interdisciplinary approach from specialists that often include a respiratory consultant, speech and language therapist (SLT) and a psychologist. The present case study details the interdisciplinary approach to the treatment of an elite female swimmer with VCD with an intervention programme that lasted nine weeks, instigated by a local general practitioner (G.P.) who chose to engage a Sport Psychology Consultant (SPC) due to the sport-specific nature of the psychological stress experienced by the individual. The steps involved in the design of the sport psychology interventions are outlined and the relationship of those interventions to the work of the other specialists is discussed. The 9 week intervention programme was aimed at reducing perfectionist tendencies and competitive state anxiety using a combination of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), goal-setting and imagery. Overall, the treatment programme was deemed a success as perfectionism and competitive state anxiety levels reduced over time along with the frequency of VCD occurrence. This case study demonstrates the breadth of roles that can be undertaken by a SPC and raises awareness of a complex respiratory disorder that is not yet fully understood.