Dr Simon Foale

Principal Research Fellow

Principal Research Fellow, James Cook University/RAP (2006- ) Research Interests Select Publications Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

I originally studied zoology and marine ecology for my B. Sc at the University of Queensland, and did my honours project on nudibranch taxonomy (Foale and Willan 1987). However after reading Bob Johannes’ fascinating book, Words of the Lagoon (1981), I decided that the intersection of indigenous (or ‘traditional’ or ‘local’) knowledge, science, and fishery management was far more interesting than nudibranchs (though I still love nudibranchs!), and eventually conducted my Ph.D. on this topic in the Solomon Islands. This research incorporated an anthropological approach, with a long period of residence in a rural village in the Nggela group of islands, learning the local language and becoming immersed in the daily routines of a subsistence economy. At the same time I conducted a rigorous stock assessment, and modeled yield and recruitment for one of the local artisanal fisheries (trochus: Foale and Day 1997), then used this in combination with the anthropological data to gain an understanding of the ways in which local knowledge and traditional rules of access determined the extent to which the fishery was managed or not. This led me to a very different set of conclusions from those that Bob drew from his Palau work (Foale 1998).

I subsequently worked for two years (1999 – 2001) on a Conservation-and-Development project in the Western Solomon Islands for the World Wide Fund for Nature, which led me to join with a number of anthropologists at the time in critiquing the integrated conservation and development formula as it was being used by big international Non-Government Organisations (Foale 2001). I decided to go back to academia (ANU) to think about the issues some more. Part of my ANU experience involved work on a project titled Small Islands in Peril (SMIP), which looked at economic and social responses to shortfalls in subsistence agriculture on small, overpopulated islands in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea (Foale 2005). The other part of my ANU work involved an engagement with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (McMichael et al. 2005, Pereira et al. 2005). In amongst these projects I have worked with anthropologist Martha Macintyre on the Social and Economic Impact Assessment of a large gold-mining project on Lihir, in New Ireland Province, PNG (Macintyre and Foale 2004a,b, 2007) – an experience that has taught me a great deal about the bewildering world of ‘development’ and has also given me more useful insights into the respective roles of local knowledge and science in environmental management (Foale 2006a,b,c, Foale and Macintyre 2005).

My research interests at present therefore follow two broad directions:

• A critical exploration of the nexus between local and scientific understandings of coral reef-based fisheries, particularly understandings of the ways in which fish/invertebrate populations replace themselves, at what scale this takes place, and how (or if) people’s understandings of the population dynamics and ecology of economically important species influence the ways they approach management of those species in the region;


• The hotspot model of Norman Myers and Russ Mittermeier has serious shortcomings as a means of prioritizing conservation effort in the region. An approach that incorporates both an appraisal of resilience and an assessment of the ecosystem goods and services that are locally important would be far better - for example, deflecting fishing effort away from herbivorous reef fish to fast-growing pelagic species such as tuna and dolphinfish that can be harvested around Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). I will be developing a project that uses social and ecological data to locate conservation and development projects that would effect such a relocation of fishing effort, and assess the respective economic and ecological impacts.

Educational Booklets designed for PNG

Link to Booklet on Acid Rain

Link to Booklet on Smoke, steam and humidity

Link to Booklet on Acid and Acid Rock Drainage

Link to Booklet on Gardening and The Fallow Cycle

Link to Teachers Guide Booklet

 

Select Publications

• Foale, S. J. (2008). Appraising the resilience of trochus and other nearshore artisanal fisheries in the Western Pacific. SPC Trochus Information Bulletin 14: 12-15 http://www.spc.int/coastfish/news/Trochus/Trochus14/Trochus14_12_Foale.pdf


• Foale, S. J. (2008). Conserving Melanesia’s Coral Reef Heritage in the Face of Climate Change. Historic Environment 21 (1): 30-36


• Macintyre, M. A. and S. J. Foale (2007). Land and Marine Tenure, Ownership and New Forms of Entitlement on Lihir: Changing notions of property in the context of a goldmining project. Human Organization 66 (1). 49-59.
  http://sfaa.metapress.com/link.asp?id=g81616400585qk75


• Foale, S. J. 2006. The intersection of scientific and indigenous ecological knowledge in coastal Melanesia: implications for contemporary marine resource management. International Social Science Journal 58(187): 129-137


• Foale, S. J. (2006b). The scale and epistemology of coral bleaching in Papua New Guinea. Bridging Scales and Epistemologies, Alexandria, Island Press.
  http://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/bridging/papers/foale.simon.pdf


• Foale, S. J. (2006c). Is coral reef conservation possible without science education in Melanesia? Is science education possible without development? Proceedings of the 10th International Coral Reef Symposium, Okinawa. Session 4: 1274-1278. http://www.coralcoe.org.au/research/publications/Foale_ICRS_2006.pdf


• McMichael, A., R. Scholes, M. Hefny, E. Pereira, C. Palm and S. Foale (2005). Linking Ecosystem Services and Human Well-being. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Multi-scale Assessments, Volume 4. D. Capistrano, C. Samper K., M. J. Lee and C. Raudsepp-Hearne. Washington D.C., Island Press. 4: 43-60. http://www.millenniumassessment.org//en/products.global.multiscale.aspx (Ch. 03).


• Pereira, H., B. Reyers, M. Watanabe, E. Bohensky, S. Foale, C. Palm, M. V. Espaldon, D. Armenteras, M. Tapia, A. Rincon, M. J. Lee, A. Patwardhan and I. Gomes (2005). Condition and Trends of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Multi-scale Assessments, Volume 4. D. Capistrano, C. Samper K., M. J. Lee and C. Raudsepp-Hearne. Washington D.C., Island Press. 4: 171-204.
  http://www.millenniumassessment.org//en/products.global.multiscale.aspx (Ch. 08).


• Foale, S. J. and M. A. Macintyre (2005). Green Fantasies: Photographic representations of biodiversity and ecotourism in the Western Pacific. Journal of Political Ecology 12: 1-22. http://jpe.library.arizona.edu/volume_12/FoaleMacintyre2005.pdf


• Foale, S. J. (2005). Sharks, sea slugs and skirmishes: managing marine and agricultural resources on small, overpopulated islands in Milne Bay, PNG. Canberra, Resource Management in Asia Pacific Program, The Australian National University: 58pp. http://rspas.anu.edu.au/papers/rmap/Wpapers/rmap_wp64.pdf


• Foale, S. J. and B. Manele (2004). Social and political barriers to the use of Marine Protected Areas for conservation and fishery management in Melanesia. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 45 (3): 373-386.


• Macintyre, M. A. and S. J. Foale (2004a). Politicised Ecology: Local Responses to Mining in Papua New Guinea. Oceania 74: 231-251.


• Macintyre, M. A. and S. J. Foale (2004b). ‘Global Imperatives and Local Desires: Competing Economic and Environmental Interests in Melanesian Communities’. In V. Lockwood (ed), Globalization and Culture Change in the Pacific Islands.  New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, pp. 149-165.
• Foale, S. (2001). 'Where's our development?' Landowner aspirations and environmentalist agendas in Western Solomon Islands, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 2(2): 44-67.


• Foale, S. J. (1998). Assessment and management of the trochus fishery at West Nggela, Solomon Islands: an interdisciplinary approach, Ocean and Coastal Management 40: 187-205.


• Foale, S. J. and R. W. Day (1997). Stock assessment of trochus (Trochus niloticus) fisheries at West Nggela, Solomon Islands, with notes on management, Fisheries Research 33: 1-16.


• Foale, S.J. and R.C. Willan (1987). Scanning and Transmission Electron-Microscope Study of Specialized Mantle Structures in Dorid Nudibranchs (Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia, Anthobranchia), Marine Biology 95 (4), 547-557.