Common-pool Resource Institutions Research Articles

The Role of River Vigilance Committees to Address New Socio-Climatic Conditions in Chile: Insights from Ostrom’s Design Principles for Common-Pool Resource Institutions

Chile is currently facing a mega-drought, which is expected to lead to a significant increase in the water stress level. Social conflicts related to water use are linked to the effects of climate change and a governance system marked by the privatization of the natural resources of public interest. This study aims to analyze whether the current Chilean water governance scheme can adapt to the effects of climate change through a critical observation of the role of the River Vigilance Committees (RVCs; private user organizations exercising the public function of water management), from the perspective of Ostrom’s design principles for long-enduring Common-pool Resource (CPR) institutions. We analyze legal approaches, management mechanisms, and decision-making processes under the socio-climatic conditions that the country is currently facing. The results indicate that, with a few exceptions, the Chilean governance system does not allow RVCs to effectively incorporate the design principles—and, therefore, to achieve adaptation—due to dispersed functions, the exclusion of water users, and a lack of planning at different levels. We propose that water governance should consider the creation of River Basin Boards with broader planning powers, as well as the incorporation of different relevant stakeholders.

Assessing Indigenous Forest Management in Mount Merapi National Park Based on Ostrom’s Design Principles

Despite their abundant potential to support the current understanding of environmental changes and improve natural resource management, Indigenous Peoples remain excluded from policymaking. Such marginalization partly stems from the formal government-driven adoption of colonial-style controls over natural resources, which historically had marginalized local populations politically and economically. Using the case of the Pelemsari sub-village, this article attempts to analyze the robustness of Common-Pool Resource institutions in Mount Merapi National Park according to Ostrom’s design principles. The methods used for this purpose are participant observation, document reviews, and semi-structured interviews. The research findings indicate social capital as the main factor that contributes to the local institution’s robustness. Nevertheless, the principles corresponding to authority suggest challenges of engaging communities in reforestation and conservation programs. The shortcomings in these principles contributed to the people’s slow recovery and ongoing degradation of forest diversity in Mount Merapi after the eruption in 2010.

First Nations gatekeepers as a common pool health care institution: Evidence from Canada

AbstractThis study investigates the roles of informal gatekeepers in the context of First Nations health care in Canada. While existing literature focuses on gatekeeping by professionals, such as corporate board members, auditors, general practitioners, and specialists, we present empirical evidence on the role of informal First Nations’ gatekeepers in a health care system. Gatekeepers engage with government and First Nations along a continuum of gatekeeping functions. Drawing on common pool theory, we use a case study to understand the gatekeepers’ roles. We identify First Nations gatekeepers’ roles to include health care program control, resource control, and ecosystem control. We also find that these gatekeepers constitute a viable long‐enduring common pool resource institution that can be useful for the federal government's phased approach in transitioning health care governance to the First Nations.

Can Nationally Prescribed Institutional Arrangements Enable Community-Based Conservation? An Analysis of Conservancies and Community Forests in the Zambezi Region of Namibia

Community-based conservation is advocated as an idea that long-term conservation success requires engaging with, providing benefits for, and establishing institutions representing local communities. However, community-based conservation’s efficacy and impact in sustainable resource management varies depending on national natural resource policies and implications for local institutional arrangements. This paper analyses the significance of natural resource management policies and institutional design on the management of common pool resources (CPRs), by comparing Namibian conservancies and community forests. To meet this aim, we reviewed key national policies pertinent to natural resource governance and conducted 28 semi-structured interviews between 2012 and 2013. Key informants included conservancy and community forest staff and committee members, village headmen, NGO coordinators, regional foresters, wildlife officials (wardens), and senior government officials in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry. We explored the following questions: how do national natural resource management policies affect the operations of local common pool resource institutions? and how do external factors affect local institutions and community participation in CPRs decision-making? Our results show that a diversity of national policies significantly influenced local institutional arrangements. Formation of conservancies and community forests by communities is not only directly linked with state policies designed to increase wildlife numbers and promote forest growth or improve condition, but also formulated primarily for benefits from and control over natural resources. The often-assumed direct relationship between national policies and local institutional arrangements does not always hold in practice, resulting in institutional mismatch. We aim to advance theoretical and applied discourse on common pool resource governance in social-ecological systems, with implications for sustainable land management policies in Namibia and other landscapes across sub-Saharan Africa.

Commons Management in Migrant Communities

This article examines whether (and why) migrant communities are less likely to support institutions for managing common pool resources. Focusing on Buvuma Island, which is situated in Uganda’s portion of Lake Victoria, I study the efforts at locally supporting forestry regulations among randomly selected communities. These communities have varying proportions of both immigrants and prospective out-migrants, and they are confronting the degradation of adjacent forest reserves. The evidence from survey data on 293 randomly selected heads of households suggests that migrant communities are less likely to support common pool resource institutions. The same evidence suggests that the lower likelihood of support among migrant communities has more to do with their weaker relationships (of reputation, trust, and reciprocity) than their expectations about the institutional net-benefits.

Common pool resource institutions: The rise of internet platforms in the social solidarity economy

AbstractThe research problemTheories of organising are dominated by a neoliberal agenda. This authority has been disrupted by social and sustainable entrepreneurship research that highlights alternatives to this hegemony. The motivation for this paper is to argue that the emergence of internet platforms contributes to new ways of working in the social solidarity economy (SSE). We focus our exploration on organisational practices and characteristics, evaluating platforms as contributions to commoning.MethodOur approach offers a way out of the public–private dichotomy. We build theory by positioning the SSE as a series of approaches that hybridise redistribution, reciprocity and market: three distinct strategies of social organisations for achieving their primary purposes. Utilising Elinor Oström's theory of common pool resource institutions (CPRIs) and her design principles, we appraise three internet platforms (Kiva, Loomio and Kickstarter). We triangulate organisational, academic and media narratives to assess the embeddedness of their commoning practices and potential as social innovations for a postcapitalist economy.Contribution to knowledgeSocial enterprises (SEs) can develop internet platforms that use CBPP to build and support the SSE. This is the first paper to deploy Oström's work to study how SEs use CBPP, thereby developing the theoretical connections between these two fields. Our findings are part of a discourse that challenges neoliberalism and identifies how the SSE contributes to sustainable development.

Commons Management in Migrant Communities

This article examines whether (and why) migrant communities are less likely to support institutions for managing common-pool resources. Focusing on Buvuma Island, which is situated in Uganda’s portion of Lake Victoria, a mixed-method research design is used to study efforts at locally supporting forestry regulations among randomly selected communities. These communities have varying proportions of immigrants and prospective out-migrants, and they are confronting the degradation of adjacent forest reserves. Evidence from survey data on 293 randomly selected heads of households suggests that migrant communities are less likely to support common pool resource institutions. The same evidence suggests that the lower likelihood of support among migrant communities has more to do with their weaker relationships (of reputation, reciprocity, and trust) than their expectations about the institutional net-benefits.

An Analysis of the Global Applicability of Ostrom’s Design Principles to Diagnose the Functionality of Common-Pool Resource Institutions

There are a number of gaps in reviews relating Ostrom’s design principles (DPs) to common-pool resource (CPR) institutions. These include the geographical distribution of CPRs, the performance of young CPRs relative to the DPs, and the relationship between robustness and success in adherence to the DPs. to This research aims to: (i) explicitly analyze the geographical distribution of the case studies that have used the DPs, (ii) explore the relationship between the DPs and young CPR institutions, (iii) examine the relationship between robustness and success of CPR institutions based on the DPs, and (iv) identify additional factors contributing to the performance of CPR institutions. In relation to Ostrom’s DPs, the CPRs under review involve management only by the community, co-management between the community and the state, and co-management between the community and non-governmental organizations. The results show that: DPs have been applied in all the inhabited continents; the expression of the DPs is affected by the geographical settings; the DPs do not conclusively diagnose the functionality of young and viable CPR institutions, whereas they may do so for either the short-lived (failed) or the long-lasting institutions; the relationship between robustness and success appears weak; and there are additional factors that contribute to the outcomes of CPR management.

Inclusive hunting: examining Faroese whaling using the theory of socio-cultural viability

Whaling is a globally controversial topic, and Faroese drive-style whaling, grindadráp, is no exception. A complex common-pool resource (CPR) institution, viewable from multiple moral, social, economic and political viewpoints, grindadráp is a challenge to assess. Responding to calls to utilise more relationship-centred and multi-perspectival approaches to studying CPRs, this article examines grindadráp utilising the theory of socio-cultural viability, which asserts diverse understandings of the world can be classified within a fourfold typology and that ‘successful’ institutions draw on all four social solidarities in dealing with challenges that arise. The analysis reveals how throughout grindadráp’s history its place in Faroese society has been maintained through the enforcement of a largely egalitarian conceptualisation. However, in meeting various challenges around the distribution of meat, sustainability and killing methods, the institution has accepted solutions utilising alternative conceptualisations. It is this adaptability which has allowed grindadráp to remain a popular part of Faroese society, even as dependence on pilot whale meat has declined. The issue of toxins in pilot whale meat is found to be arguably the greatest threat to grindadráp, undermining the egalitarian foundations of the practice, the response to which is something that Faroese society is currently in the process of negotiation.

Efficiency of common-pool resource institutions: focusing on water users associations in South Africa

Despite of the promulgation of new water laws post-apartheid by the South African government, some parts of the country are still faced with inequitable, inefficient and inadequate water supply. Water institutions in South Africa and other developing countries are faced with various and multi-faceted challenges that consequently lead to their failure to provide water resources effectively. The evident responsibility of governing water resources in developing countries is commonly played by local and national institutions, using the water sector’s fundamental regulations, policies as well as statutory enactments. This paper draws lessons from the international examples to analyse the motivation for WUAs and the challenges they are faced with. The method for data generation used in this article is document analysis. A narrative approach using the literature and document analysis provided an insight into the economic and institutional history of WUAs. The analytical framework to study path dependency and power relations in connection with WUAs in South Africa was drawn from a literature review of transition studies and NIE. This study established that the current and future decisions made by the WUAs in South Africa are not entirely independent of those made in the past under irrigation boards. The study argues that establishing WUAs cannot automatically substitute for the domains of relations which existed within irrigation boards.

The Daudkandi model of community floodplain aquaculture in Bangladesh: a case for Ostrom’s design principles

Floodplain water-bodies are major common-pool resources (CPRs) of Bangladesh and constitute more than fifty percent of inland open water bodies. Throughout the British colonial period, Pakistani rule and the first one and half decades of independent Bangladesh, a majority of inland water-bodies remained under direct government management, though the floodplains by getting heavily inundated during the monsoon turn into open access resource. In the mid-1980s co-management was introduced on a small scale with the help of NGOs as providers of management styles and credit to communities of fishers or villagers. NGOs also got involved in floodplain water-bodies and came up with different models of user-managed fishery bodies. This paper examines a specific management system of community-governed floodplain aquaculture (FPA) known as the Daudkandi model, developed by a local NGO in the Daudkandi sub-district of the Comilla district. Applying the design principles developed by Ostrom (1990) characterizing long surviving successful user-managed common-pool resource institutions, this paper explores the rules devised by partners in the management of a FPA under the Daudkandi model. Though the FPA management model is relatively new as it has been adopted in 1996, it has been found to follow the design principles in devising its management rules. However, because of its unique features in terms of seasonality, NGO-community partnership, exclusion of past users, and numerous replications, etc. the future of the model as a CPR governance system holds many challenges and deserves continuous research focus.

Conflict-resolution mechanisms maintaining an agricultural system. Early modern local courts as an arena for solving collective-action problems within Scandinavian Civil Law

Rapid access to low-cost local arenas to resolve conflicts among appropriators is one of the principles that characterise robust common-pool resource (CPR) institutions. In spite of this insight, we have little knowledge about how such institutions solved collective-action problems in early modern Scandinavia, when CPRs were an important part of production. Arenas to resolve conflicts among appropriators range from informal meetings among users to formal court cases. This paper focuses on local courts, rather than laws and by-laws, within the Scandinavian legal origin and how these courts developed as arenas for CPR conflict resolution. Court rulings from Leksand Parish in central Sweden were the backbone for this study. The results indicate that access to a low-cost arena was more important to the peasants than rapid access to the courts. Successful conflict resolution could take years to accomplish and it was more important for the court to embed their decisions in people’s minds than to come to a quick resolution. Further, I demonstrate that the court laid the foundation for disputing parties to solve conflicts among themselves. Lay judges – peasants from the region – came to play an important role in conflict resolution. Thus, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the court played a central role in maintaining agricultural CPRs.

Absent neighbours and passive shareholders – The issue of residency and involvement in the management of a forest common

The Swedish forest commons can be regarded as self-organized community groups which jointly manage a forest resource. However, previous studies point out the diminishing role and engagement of shareholders in terms of governance, thereby challenging some vital design principles of robust common-pool resource institutions. We assume that major reasons for this is associated with socio-demographic changes meaning a large proportion of shareholders do not live in the area. Therefore this study compares resident and non-resident shareholder participation in and perceptions about their common, as well as assesses their engagement in the management of one major forest common in Northern Sweden. To this end a questionnaire survey was conducted together with regular consultations with the common's board and staff to discuss shareholder participation and other major issues concerning the common.The study shows that the common has a low shareholder engagement and a high proportion of non-resident shareholders. Even though a large proportion of resident shareholders acknowledged benefits from the common, they were also less satisfied with the cooperation among shareholders and less optimistic about the possibilities to influence management decisions. In contrast, the majority of non-resident shareholders saw ‘no disadvantages’ of the common. Although most of the shareholders regularly visit the common, hardly any participate in the general meetings. While residency outside the municipality certainly seems to have an impact on the engagement of non-resident shareholders, our study suggests that simple strategies from the board including accessible information and better timing and/or location of meetings might even increase the participation among all shareholders.

Designing local institutions for cooperative pest management to underpin market access: the case of industry-driven fruit fly area-wide management

Area-wide management of mobile pests offers advantages over<br />uncoordinated farm-by-farm efforts through increased effectiveness of pest<br />control and by reducing the need for pesticides. The literature about area-wide pest<br />management focuses predominantly on the technical aspects of these programs,<br />but tends to neglect the importance of social and institutional aspects. In this<br />article the eight design principles for robust common-pool resource institutions<br />are applied to industry-driven area-wide pest management. Three case studies<br />are compared to gain insight about the social and institutional aspects that affect<br />the success of these undertakings. These cases are focused on Queensland Fruit<br />Fly control to underpin market access. Growers face a particular challenge to<br />gain support from town residents, as backyard fruit trees can be pest breeding<br />spots. The paper illustrates that social aspects – such as heterogeneous incentives,<br />social capital and the ratio between town residents and main beneficiary growers<br />– influence the ease of which the design principles can be applied. Market access<br />opportunities impact the ratio of cost and benefits to different participants. The<br />paper concludes that disconnecting the technical aspects of successful programs<br />from the social and institutional aspects in which they are embedded can create<br />unrealistic expectations in socially different regions that intend to replicate these<br />programs.

A Bayesian belief network model for community-based coastal resource management in the Kei Islands, Indonesia

Hoshino, E., I. van Putten, W. Girsang, B. P. Resosudarmo, and S. Yamazaki. 2016. A Bayesian belief network model for community-based coastal resource management in the Kei Islands, Indonesia. Ecology and Society 21(2):16.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08285-210216

Alpine Common Property Institutions under Change: Conditions for Successful and Unsuccessful Collective Action by Alpine Farmers in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland

The protection and sustainable management of alpine summer pastures has been stated as a goal in Swiss national law since 1996, and direct payments from the state for summer pasturing have been tied to sustainability criteria since 2000. This reflects the increasing value of the alpine cultural landscape as a public good. However, provision of this public good remains in the hands of local farmers and their local common pool resource (CPR) institutions for managing alpine pastures. These institutions are increasingly struggling to maintain their institutional arrangements, particularly regarding the work needed to maintain the pastures. This paper examines two cases of local CPR institutions for managing alpine pastures in the Swiss Canton of Grisons that manifest different institutional developments in light of changing conditions. The differences in how these institutions reacted to change and the impacts this has had on the provision of the CPR are explained by focusing on relative prices, bargaining p...

Basic education in communist Hungary. A commons approach

In commons research, the study of the ‘knowledge commons’ has emerged as a new field of interest over the last few years. Our paper begins by providing a brief overview of the state of research in the field, and proceeds by discussing some crucial but relatively underconceptualised issues. The difference between information and knowledge, and the ambiguities surrounding the claim that all sorts of knowledge can be considered part of the commons, are the focal point here. We also pay close attention to education, arguing that it is not a common good, but rather a common-pool resource institution that ensures that some forms of knowledge can be governed as a commons. With regard to these issues, the article provides a case study, one in which we analyse basic education in Communist Hungary, and look for evidence of the commons design principles as outlined in Elinor Ostrom’s IAD Framework. Given the complex nature of basic education, we investigate it from three points of view: as a service, as a set of physical structures (e.g. school buildings), and as a complex of organizational structures (e.g. legal and financial arrangements). On the basis of empirical findings we argue that basic education in the Stalinist epoch did not correspond to Ostromian design principles. Basic education, therefore, was not managed in an equitable way, and its geographical accessibility was uneven. During the ‘technocratic’ Communism of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the education system underwent important changes. However, though the circle of those who had some impact on the governance of education expanded, most individuals involved with the education system were still excluded. As a result, the commons approach did not become stronger in general, nor did spatial unevenness with respect to access to basic education decrease. The paper finishes with a brief conclusion of our findings and a discussion of some questions for future research.

Basic education in communist Hungary. A commons approach

In commons research, the study of the ‘knowledge commons’ has emerged as a new field of interest over the last few years. Our paper begins by providing a brief overview of the state of research in the field, and proceeds by discussing some crucial but relatively underconceptualised issues. The difference between information and knowledge, and the ambiguities surrounding the claim that all sorts of knowledge can be considered part of the commons, are the focal point here. We also pay close attention to education, arguing that it is not a common good, but rather a common-pool resource institution that ensures that some forms of knowledge can be governed as a commons. With regard to these issues, the article provides a case study, one in which we analyse basic education in Communist Hungary, and look for evidence of the commons design principles as outlined in Elinor Ostrom’s IAD Framework. Given the complex nature of basic education, we investigate it from three points of view: as a service, as a set of physical structures (e.g. school buildings), and as a complex of organizational structures (e.g. legal and financial arrangements). On the basis of empirical findings we argue that basic education in the Stalinist epoch did not correspond to Ostromian design principles. Basic education, therefore, was not managed in an equitable way, and its geographical accessibility was uneven. During the ‘technocratic’ Communism of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the education system underwent important changes. However, though the circle of those who had some impact on the governance of education expanded, most individuals involved with the education system were still excluded. As a result, the commons approach did not become stronger in general, nor did spatial unevenness with respect to access to basic education decrease. The paper finishes with a brief conclusion of our findings and a discussion of some questions for future research.

Microfinance and common goods: A study of Brazilian community development banks

Inclusive financial sectors are essential in terms of poverty alleviation. While microcredit can be governed as a private good, self-managed civil society organizations propose an alternative way of managing financial services. Brazil's Community Development Banks (CDBs) are a growing and dynamic manifestations of these nonprofit organizations. Based on field research in Brazil, this article uses the Elinor Ostrom's design principles of successful self-governing common-pool resource institutions to analyze CDBs' microcredit system. Our results suggest that the characteristics of private goods could be reconsidered when they are governed by community self-managed enterprises. They become hybrid goods by mixing the characteristics of private and commons goods. Thus, specific institutional arrangements and the creation of public spaces make it possible to strengthen the community properties of nonprofit microcredit

The impact of different distributions of power on access rights to the common wastelands: the Campine, Brecklands and Geest compared

Abstract:Despite the static image of formal common pool resource institutions (CPRIs), interest communities always attempted to adapt their institutional framework to their particular needs and interests. The hypothesis of Ensminger, that formal and informal institutional environments were steered by the interplay of external socioeconomic factors, ideology and bargaining power, will be tested by a comparative analysis of three regions within the North Sea area, namely the Campine, within the Low Countries, the Brecklands in England and the Geest area in Schleswig Holstein. Due to this scope, we will advance that especially the distribution of power was vital for the evolution of one specific aspect of CPRIs, namely accessibility. Only communities with relatively balanced distributions of power could retain an inclusive access regime throughout the early modern period, while polarised societies evolved towards more restrictive access to the common wastelands.