Common Property Resource Management Research Articles

Cooperation in common property resource management: A group engagement approach

This study explored motivational cooperative behaviour types as a communal resource in a rural Zimbabwean setting. Using the group engagement model, the study examined motivational cooperative behaviour types in managing in managing water resources. Thirty community residents of Mhondoro-Ngezi District in Zimbabwe participated in the study (female = 13, community leaders = 10). Data were collected through one-on-one interviews. Thematic analysis revealed internal motivations of social altruism in discretionary cooperative behaviours of water conservation and external motivations of sanctions for compliance with customary regulations stipulating use of water sources. Discretionary cooperative behaviours of water conservation were characterised by individual willingness to comply with myths regarding water usage. External motivations of sanctions for compliance with customary regulations were about collective community activities. Motivations for managing a scarce community resource prioritised fair use, access, and sustenance for collective benefit. These findings suggest that voluntariness in cooperation in common property resource management is important for the sustainable use of scarce resources for consideration in community implementation of regulations.

Towards a livelihood-interdependence approach to framing adaptation in research and practice: evidence from farmers’ and herders’ relations in Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT Changing farmer–herder relations (FHR) are central to the social dynamics of climate change adaptation in African drylands, involving conflict and cooperation. While substantial literature has built a case for increased conflict of various kinds in West African drylands due to climate change stressors, this literature does not yet fully reflect the growing importance of more cooperative and interdependent elements of FHR. This study addresses this research gap through a case study of Gushiegu and Karaga Districts in Northern Ghana. Our analysis found growing cooperation between farmers and herders driven by livelihood diversification, sociocultural conditions such as increasing intermarriage, religious affiliation and the emergence of hybrid conflict resolution mechanisms that reflect a process of institutional bricolage. This deepening interdependence manifests in multiple ways, including knowledge exchange, management of common property resources and the strengthening of “bridging” forms of social capital. Our findings suggest a need to reframe adaptation in research, policy and practice to emphasize these beneficial forms of interdependence in FHR.

Firefly synchronicity and platform mound building by indigenous peoples of the Florida Peninsula, USA

ABSTRACT Although archaeologists often highlight the capacity of our field to identify broad-scale patterning in human societies, critiques of social evolution led many to focus on shorter-term, local histories. Drawing from a recent review of alternative models, we employ firefly synchronicity – the rhythmic coordination of flashing observed in some species of bioluminescent fireflies – as a model for understanding patterning in the timing of platform mound construction by Indigenous peoples of Tampa Bay, on the western coast of the Florida peninsula, USA. Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates and isotopic studies of oyster shells from three neighbouring sites reveals rhythmic coordination in the construction of platform mounds across the first millennium CE. We relate this patterning to interaction in seasonal and longer-term ritual cycles which may have facilitated collective management of zero-sum common property resources. Firefly synchronicity provides a useful model for identifying patterning in archaeological phenomena without much of the baggage of social evolution.

Socio-Economic Heterogeneity and Income Distribution: Evidence from Common Property Resource Management

The author assesses the relationship between socio-economic heterogeneity and equity of resource distribution by reviewing the theoretical literature. He finds mixed results as regards whether resource management and utilization undercommunity based management is equitable and has the potential for positive impact on the livelihood of very poor and marginalized section of the community. He concludes that inequality among resource users has negative impact on thelocal level collective action. Finally, the author relates the theoretical review findings with observations in community forestry in Nepal, and concludes that equity impact is not positive as a result of inequality among resources users.

Monitoring and management of common property resources: empirical evidence from forest user groups in Ethiopia

AbstractThe presence of monitoring institutions affects quality and effort of leaders. We investigate the effect of intensified monitoring on the ability and effort of leaders for a sample of forest user groups in Ethiopia, and find experimental and non-experimental evidence of an important trade-off: monitoring increases leaders' effort but lowers their quality in terms of education and experience. This effort–ability trade-off only occurs in the presence of alternative income opportunities (affecting the opportunity cost of time) and only among a subsample of leaders with low prosocial motivation. For our context, we document that the net effect of monitoring on economic outcomes is positive.

Governance and Best Practices of Common Property Resources Management in Tripura

A number of people in India depend on common property resources for their means of subsistence such as forests, wastelands, grazing land, water resources, and so on. However, cultivating these common resources with community support in order to achieve sustainable development is not only an unavoidable task but also a challenging one for the people who live in rural areas. People who reside in rural areas, particularly people who are members of tribal communities in Tripura, rely on common property resources as an essential source of income for their households. The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyse the most effective procedures and governance systems that community members and local village panchayats in Tripura have used for the purpose of the management of common property resources in order to establish sustainable communities.

Can Engagement Improve Groundwater Management?

Groundwater use often has external effects on both the environment and future groundwater benefits, leading to overwithdrawal. Ostrom’s research on common property resources (CPRs) and related literature indicates that CPR management may improve if users have more information about the groundwater system, more opportunities for communication, and empowerment to regulate. In this paper, we conduct a computer laboratory experiment involving 180 students to evaluate the role of these components of engagement in reducing irrigation withdrawals from an aquifer. Our treatments, which consisted of different levels of information, communication, and empowerment, resulted in decreases in groundwater extraction and increases in irrigation profits over nine-year extraction horizons. Enhanced information and communication also increased the fraction of subjects who voted for and complied with collective action in the form of quotas on pumping levels.

Would community conservation initiatives benefit from external financial oversight? A framed field experiment in Namibia’s communal conservancies

It is commonly asserted that the successful management of common property resources (CPR), and by extension, the provision of public goods such as biodiversity and carbon, requires the devolution of control to local communities. However, where trust in community institutions is low, the intrinsic motivation to co-operate may be diminished. In this study, we carried out surveys and framed field experiments on the introduction of payments for ecosystem services (PES) to Namibia’s communal conservancies, established under the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme. We used a threshold public good game where income from conservation efforts would require cooperation in terms of investing in conservation management and thereby also sacrificing opportunities to use designated wildlife areas. Our study found that households had low confidence in the conservancy management institutions and were more willing to co-operate when external financial oversight was provided. In fact, addressing the risk of financial mismanagement was more important than the payment level. Participants with a low level of confidence in the conservancy management contributed significantly less, but the gap narrowed when oversight was introduced. This suggests that initiatives to incentivise conservation of communally-owned land may require the close involvement of trustworthy external organisations to ensure their effectiveness.

Understanding How Local-level Environment Stewardship Initiatives Increase Livelihood Resilience to Climate Change

Common property resources (CPR) are central for the sustenance of biodiversity and rural communities in India. Weak institutional governance and the lack of tenure rights for local communities over CPRs is resulting in degradation and over-exploitation of resources making rural communities vulnerable across India. Climatic variabilities further exacerbate existing socio-ecological imbalances multifold. Within the broader area of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, this paper explores how restoration of CPRs through local environment stewardship initiatives contributes to the resilience of rural livelihoods in the face of climate change. A mixed-methods approach was employed to study this aspect in six villages in two districts in Rajasthan. It was found that secure property rights and collective management of CPRs enhances household resilience and improves ecological health. It concludes that processes supporting local self-governance need to be central to local adaptation to climate change, as they naturally create resilient and sustainable rural livelihoods.

Materiality, inequality, and future‐making as focal points of future engagement of economic anthropology with climate change

Materiality, inequality, and future‐making as focal points of future engagement of economic anthropology with climate change

Formation Factors and Effects on Common Property Resource Conservation of Community Farms

In recent decades, there has been a global debate over who should manage common property resources (CPRs) related to agriculture. Because rational and efficient farmers only work farmland with good conditions or leave for other industries, in areas where production conditions are poor, local resources that were once collectively maintained are no longer managed. The Japanese government has positioned community farms (CFs) as an important player in local agriculture and has been striving to develop them. This study clarifies whether the formation and development of these CFs are functioning effectively for the conservation of local resources. Specifically, we use the propensity score matching method to measure the average treatment effect of CF formation and development on CPR conservation activities and the prevention of cultivation abandonment. In particular, this study tests the hypothesis that farmers are reluctant to develop CFs extensively because their effects on CPR conservation are uncertain. The results show that at the early stage, the formation of CFs has a significantly positive effect on the promotion of CPR conservation, but its wide-area development is counterproductive to CPR management, suggesting that resourceful support is needed according to local conditions.

Fifty Years of Research on Pastoralism and Development

This archive IDS Bulletin reflects on 50 years of research on pastoralism at IDS. Much has changed, but there are also important continuities. The ‘end of pastoralism’ was proclaimed widely in the 1970s, yet, as a successful, resilient livelihood adapted to some of the harshest environments on the planet, pastoralism has survived, and remains an important livelihood for many. Over the last 50 years, both pastoralism and development have changed massively. IDS work has attempted to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and to insert new understanding of pastoralism into development planning. This has involved building a coherent analysis of policies and institutions for pastoral development, and then helping to see the results of that analysis put into practice. The issue brings together 13 articles on pastoralism published in the IDS Bulletin between 1986 and 2017. The articles address six overlapping themes: pastoral livelihoods; institutions and common property resource management; climate change and ecological dynamics; food security, early warning, and livelihood vulnerability; pastoral marketing; and conflict and governance. Across these themes, IDS research has challenged mainstream development thinking and practice, highlighting the importance of mobility and living with uncertainty. Research has also challenged the standard models derived from settled systems, and emphasised flexibility, opportunism, and improvisation as responses to uncertainty. Although massively changed over 50 years, and despite repeated proclamations of crisis and collapse, pastoralism remains, we argue, an important, resilient source of livelihood in marginal rangeland areas across the world, from which others can learn.

Pastoralism and Development: Fifty Years of Dynamic Change

This archive IDS Bulletin reflects on 50 years of research on pastoralism at IDS. Thirteen articles are introduced around six themes that have characterised IDS-linked research over this period. These are: pastoral livelihoods; institutions and common property resource management; climate change and ecological dynamics; food security, early warning, and livelihood vulnerability; pastoral marketing; and conflict and governance. Across these themes, IDS research has challenged mainstream development thinking and practice, highlighting the importance of mobility and living with uncertainty. This introductory article concludes with some reflections on research gaps and new challenges, including: the effects of climate change; new forms of pastoral mobility and livelihood; increasing pattern of commoditisation and social differentiation; and changing conflict dynamics. Although massively changed over 50 years, and despite repeated proclamations of crisis and collapse, pastoralism remains, we argue, an important, resilient source of livelihood in marginal rangeland areas across the world, from which others can learn.

Institutional performance and participatory paradigms: Comparing two groups of watersheds in semi-arid region of India

Watershed development programmes carried out in different agroclimatic conditions in India resulted in beneficial impact in terms of productivity enhancement and natural resources conservation, but less attention paid to institutional and participatory aspects. This paper explored the performance of various institutions regarding execution of watershed development programmes in semi-arid region of India. Recorded observations from documents maintained at watershed level and information collected through primary survey as well as focus group discussion with different types of stakeholders were used for analysis. The results indicated lacunae in participatory aspects during programme implementation process like monitoring activities, management of common property resources and equity. Gap in linkages and differential level of performance of various watershed level functionaries indicates the necessity for corrections in the structures and linkages pattern for sustainability of the infrastructure and institutions. The study also showed unequal priorities by the implementing agencies towards institutions, land and water resources development, production enhancement activities and fodder resources development as well as rationalities of technical, economic, financial, political and social aspects among the watersheds.

Rooted water collectives: Towards an analytical framework

This paper presents an analytical framework to identify and understand grassroots water governance practices, which we call ‘rooted water collectives’ (RWC). RWCs can be multi-scalar organizations that engage in common property resources management or multi-scalar social movements that advocate for common property resources governance. The framework, which we open for discussion, scrutinizes (1) the extent to which ‘rooted water collectives’ are ‘grounded’ in the sense they address locally perceived water control problems and resort to water-context embedded meaning, values, identities, belonging and vernacular knowledge; (2) their internal decision-making dynamics; and (3) their effectiveness in achieving impact at multiple scales. It also considers five contextual factors that enable and constrain RWC development. RWC can be deployed as a conceptual lens, but also as an empirical manifestation constituting the object and subject of research. It differs from wide-spread top-down-implemented participatory water management approaches and common property resources management research, in the importance it gives to politics, advocacy and multi-scale social movements. The framework is illustrated with a cursory analysis of four cases: irrigators' federations in Peru; the ‘new water culture’ movement in Spain; collective irrigation in oases in North Africa; and loosely structured networks of irrigation water users in Cambodia.

Social Construction of Pastureland: Changing Rules and Resource-Use Rights in China and Kyrgyzstan

A fundamental problem in governing natural resources is how to design institutions, particularly property rights regimes, that support sustainable use and management of common property resources. Privatization of natural resources was a widespread solution to the “tragedy of the commons” during the 1980s and 1990s. But many such efforts failed to achieve sustainable use of resources, and policymakers are now experimenting with new types of policy interventions. We examine recent changes in pastoral institutions and their outcomes regarding resource-use rights and the sustainability of resource use in China and Kyrgyzstan. Interpreting changing property rights as a process of social construction, we examine altered rules and rights relations and the ensuing changes in legal correlates between various actors in selected choice settings. The article contributes to the literature regarding the impacts of such reforms on property rights and their development in pastoral contexts.

English

English

Social engineering as shock absorbing mechanism against bank erosion: a study along Bhagirathi river, West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT The issue of bank erosion is very severe in the lower stretch of Bhagirathi River in West Bengal, India. During 1984–2012 the average annual rate of bank line shifting at the selected cross sections was computed to be oscillating around 10 m year−1. Micro-level socio-economic survey portrayed that greater than 45 per cent farmers lost about 90 per cent landed property in some villages during 1970–2012 transforming large as well as marginal farmers into landless refugees. The immediate shock of land loss is reflected through decrease in per capita income. Head count ratio, poverty gap index, and poverty severity index showed an increase of poverty by 10–15 per cent. Inverse Herfindahl-Hirschman index depicted a gradual rise in occupational diversification during 1970–2012 (e.g. 1970:1.47, 1990:1.85 and 2012:2.66 for Rukunpur). To reduce the disaster risk of bank erosion, various structural measures (e.g. dyking with geotextile) that were undertaken proved futile subsequently. Therefore, the present enquiry attempts to propose some social engineering methods as shock absorbing mechanism against the threats of land-based agrarian economy. These are the three in situ modes of economic adjustment using local available resources (non-land-based household manufacturing, common property resource management, development of indigenous small scale and cottage industry) and one ex situ economic adjustment by developing labour migration.

The impact of community forest concessions on income: an analysis of communities in the Maya Biosphere Reserve

Forests in developing tropical countries are frequently overexploited because they are essentially treated as open access due to the lack of resources dedicated to protect the area. In response, some governments have shifted towards community-based, common property resource management policies. While there is emerging evidence that these policies can reduce deforestation, there has been less research assessing the effect of these concessions on rural livelihoods. This is surprising, since sustainable income generation is an important outcome that can influence the long-term success of concession policies. This study examines the effect of community-managed forest concessions on income in the context of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. In this region, forest concessions have been established in the past 20 years to give local residents access to the forests. Residents granted access to a forest concession are required to reduce overexploitation by abiding by a sustainable forest management plan and obtaining certification from the Forest Stewardship Council. In the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the characteristics of concession communities vary and the sustainable management plan is often tailored to meet the needs of the community. The results show that the effects of participating in a forest concession on income are generally positive, although there is significant heterogeneity among communities with different socioeconomic characteristics.

Community forestry in Nepal: a model of common property resource management

The management of common forest land as community forest in Nepal is in practice since 1978. Studies showing the linkages between community forestry and common property resource are scanty in the country. This article discusses characteristics of common property resources and the principles and practices of community forestry in Nepal which is an example of common property resource management between Government agencies and users (co-managers). Forest User Groups (FUGs ) are the institutions responsible to manage the common property.