A Framework for Resolving the Transboundary Water Allocation Conflict Conundrum

In the context of an ongoing debate on the type of institutions or tenurial arrangements that are appropriate for the sustainable management of common pool resources (CPRs), this article examines the role played by local institutions in determining the conditions of two forests located in the Middle Hills of Nepal. The institutional robustness of the forests’ governance systems is evaluated using Ostrom's (1990) design principles that characterize the configuration of rules devised and used by long-enduring CPR institutions. The findings show that the two forests are different in level of historical degradation as well as present condition, and these differences are generally explained by the structural characteristics of the local institutions governing the forests. The analysis indicates that Ostrom's design principles are useful for analyzing institutional robustness of local forest governance systems. However, some of the principles need modification or expansion if they are to be prescribed for forestry situations.

Water is a matter of great concern for the PRC, especially for its agricultural sector, besieged by shortage, soil degradation, and raising production costs. Because of this, Water Users' Associations (WUA) are garnering domestic attention as a cost-effective solution for growth-compatible sustainability. These associations are inspired by Elinor Ostrom's design principles for the management of common resources. Through long-term ethnography among various stakeholders of the Yunnanese water sector, this article challenges the notion that the implementation of Ostrom-inspired WUAs in the Chinese countryside is fulfilling the associations' accompanying promises of sustainable growth. Instead, this study finds that Chinese WUAs proliferate thanks to pre-existing promises of collective prosperity. North-eastern Yunnan is rich in social arrangements for sustainable water management that predate the introduction of WUAs and make their ordinary operations possible. WUAs proponents conveniently blame the failure they see in Ostrom-inspired organisations on said arrangements while retaining faith in Ostrom's design principles. An ethnography of Ostrom-inspired associations can salvage Ostrom's intellectual project from the prescriptive readings of development planners and her critics. Yet, it also shows that alternative sustainable arrangements in human projects for the environment may become less plausible once captured by the prescriptive episteme of development planners.

Governing the commons in Mexico's Mixteca Alta: Linking Ostrom's design principles and comunalidad

Collective attention and active consumer participation in community energy systems

Groundwater is a largely unseen common pool resource. Yet, driven by strong economic incentives, whether or not encouraged by existing policies, and the difficulty to exclude others, groundwater users are competing with each other to extract as much as possible, with devastating consequences for its sustainability. The challenges faced for sustainably managing such common pool resources, on which people have established de facto individual rights, are manifold. However, creating a market for trades of some kind in ecosystem services associated with groundwater could actually enhance the protection of this critical resource on the basis that protection can benefit individual groundwater users economically as well as provide a broader public good. This article uses Elinor Ostrom's design principles as an analytical tool to examine how market-based approaches such as payments for ecosystem services (PES) fit with some of the governance models that could be used to protect and enhance groundwater as a common pool resource. It argues that while there are specific design challenges to be overcome, PES as an institutional tool can align with Ostrom's ideas for the governance of groundwater.

Many conventional studies on common‐pool resources (CPRs) have examined the governance of local resources such as fisheries, forests, grazing systems, irrigation systems, agriculture, water resources, and land tenure. However, a limited selection of recent studies has been interested in large‐scale commons such as climate change, air pollution, and transboundary disputes. Despite Ostrom's design principles (DPs) providing a robust framework for solving CPR problems, there have been relatively few empirical challenges examining the effect of DPs on CPRs, especially in the large‐scale commons. This paper examines how Ostrom's DPs are applied to international commons that may cause complicated disputes among states. The case being studied is international rivers as international commons. Based on binary logit analysis, this research found that four of Ostrom's DPs—clear boundary, operational rules, monitoring system, and multi‐level governance—are positively associated with success in managing the international river commons (IRCs) as a CPR. Additionally, the results from fuzzy‐set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) partially indicate that the co‐occurrence of monitoring, conflict mechanisms, and multi‐level governance would lead to more successful IRCs.

The XIV European Congress of Pathology

Forest and landscape restoration is considered worldwide as a powerful approach to recovering ecological functionality and improving human well‐being in degraded and deforested landscapes. A comprehensive study including the social, ecological, management, and regulatory aspects of restoration projects can help to understand the sustainability of these interventions. The purpose of this study was to comprehend the principles of Bangladeshi community‐based forest restoration (CBFR) projects. Empirical data was collected from four CBFR projects, of which two were Bangladesh forest department (BFD)‐led and two were community‐led. We used a comprehensive list of principles covering management and governance issues and human and ecological aspects along with Ostrom's design principles. Data were collected through 223 semi‐structured interviews, four focus group discussions, and personal observation. A 5‐point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree) was used to assess participants' agreement on different statements of principles. In BFD‐led projects, participants had restricted harvesting rights, state control over management, land, planning, and the formation of rules, and they perceived lower scores for some important statements (e.g., project planning, selection of tree species, local knowledge, income generation activities, livelihood benefits, food security, and skill development). Therefore, participants presumed that these CBFR projects are moderately sustainable. On the other hand, participants in community‐led projects scored high (mean score above 4.0) for most of the principles across different aspects, and a bundle of Ostrom's design principles was also observed. Hence, the evidence of sustainability in community‐led CBFR projects is high. Project authorities in developing countries can take lessons from this study and undertake appropriate actions toward the sustainability of forest restoration programs.

This article compares Habraken's Open-Building framework to Ostrom's design principles. While both frameworks aim to create adaptable and self-governing environments, Ostrom focuses on long-lasting commons governance, while Habraken focuses on designing for change. Unlike Ostrom, Habraken focuses on excludability, implying that private spaces include private and club goods, and public spaces combine public goods and common-pool resources. For Habraken, space is public to people from lower levels who have the right to enter but is private to people from higher levels who can only enter as guests. Habraken also focuses on separating design tasks, such as putting utilities in public spaces accessible from apartment building corridors, to reduce maintenance and repair costs. Utility access from public areas also reduces the need for temporary management and access rights from neighbouring territories, changing many repair and maintenance decisions from collective to private choices. Separating the infill level from the base building gives agents on the lower levels greater ability to adapt and control their own environments. Habraken views the built environment as a self-organizing polycentric system, and an important part of self-organization is appropriately applying themes, patterns, types, and systems. Unlike Ostrom, Habraken doesn't think there are focal action situations.

The living commons of West Tyrol, Austria: Lessons for land policy and land administration

How do resource mobility and group size affect institutional arrangements for rule enforcement? A qualitative comparative analysis of fishing groups in South Korea

While community forestry (CF) is increasingly promoted as a climate change adaptation strategy, few analyses have examined the contribution of CF to adaptive capacity. We used a sustainable livelihood approach and Ostrom's design principles for managing commons, to assess how CF confers climate change adaptive capacity in two communities in Myanmar. Our findings indicate that CF provides tangible contributions to human and social capital, by increasing landless and female forest users' knowledge of forest management. However, CF has yet to enhance the physical, financial, and natural capital within these communities. The major challenges preventing the enhancement of socioeconomic benefits include limited community participation and weak institutional systems for monitoring and conflict resolution. We argue that CF increases community engagement in natural resource management, but in the absence of effective monitoring and decision-making, socioeconomic benefits to communities from CF programs may be limited. Our results elucidate important factors limiting the uptake and progress of CF as a viable climate change adaptation strategy in Southeast Asia, and indicate that comparative research is needed to better understand the factors that influence CF efficacy in forest- and natural resource-dependent communities globally.

Local success stories of sustainable forest management can inspire scientists and decision-makers. This article analyses the traditional 'Adat' institution that plays a role in the management of Grand Forest Park 'Herman Yohannes', in the Western part of Timor where the Adat forest management regulation has been formally restored. The original set of design principles for sustainable management of common pool resources of Elinor Ostrom (1990) has been used in this study as an analytical framework for understanding the role of the Adat institution in respect to the forest. In the park, the local community applies Adat for protection and management of the forest that has been its home for centuries. It appears that Ostrom's design principles can be identified in the current Adat institution and play a role in the sustainable management of the forest. Although many other variables can lead to success or failure of institutions, the original (internal) design principles are still valuable as a practical tool for building institutions that are - under certain conditions - able to sustain common pool resources. The findings confirm the importance of traditional institutions in successful forest management. The study recommends that decision-makers take into account existing traditional management systems that have shown long term functionality.

Finland’s cooperation in managing transboundary waters and the UNECE Principles for Effective Joint Bodies: Value for water diplomacy?

We propose improvements for addressing the inadequate sustainable use of wildlife resources in the community‐based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme in game management areas (GMAs) using case study data from Mumbwa and Lupande GMAs in Zambia. Firstly, we assess the sustainability of wildlife resources in these GMAs using design principles for enduring common pool institutions. Secondly, we propose the steps required to address the lack of sustainability of wildlife resources in the CBNRM programme in the two GMAs by building on indicators suggested by Ostrom's principles. The resource use patterns in the two GMAs were assessed according to their socio‐economic and institutional factors. Comparisons were made between the two GMAs in relation to Ostrom's design principles. Accordingly, the combination of socio‐economic and institutional factors restrains the sustainable use of wildlife resources in the two GMAs. Unless the Zambian government provides local communities with meaningful decision‐making powers and benefits for the utilisation and management of wildlife, this resource is likely to disappear outside national parks.