Resource Management Institutions Research Articles

Belling the cat: Designing collective action institutions for natural resource management in the peri-urban interface

Peri-urban spaces are experiencing tremendous growth in the Global South, which in turn has fuelled a suite of environmental and natural resource management challenges, including inequitable access to and conflicts over natural resources, and the existence of institutional lacunae. Against this backdrop, we examine how scholars study collective action institutions around natural resource management in peri-urban spaces, with a regional focus on South Asia, and present its implications for institutional design and development in peri-urban contexts. In order to do so, we use ‘organic institutions’ and ‘pragmatic institutions’– a type of institutional classification grounded in the origin of institutions, as a conceptual entry point. We find that less is known about the role of organic institutions in enabling collective action around natural resource management in peri-urban spaces, even though their understanding is key for efforts at building effective pragmatic institutions. The paper concludes that practitioners working in peri-urban spaces should invest resources into understanding underlying social differences and developing strategies to mobilise social groups, by developing an understanding of organic institutions in peri-urban spaces.

Diffusion of environmental technology innovation through the lens of banking sector performance and human resource management: an influential step towards environmental sustainability.

Environmental technology innovations are widely recognized as the most suitable option to achieve sustainable and green development. Since banks and other financial institutions offer essential funding for investments in environmental technology projects, the banking sector and human resources are essential to developing and promoting environmental technology innovation. This study aims to investigate the impact of banking sector performance and human resources on environmental technology innovation in China, utilizing the ARDL method. The research focuses on the period spanning from 1996 to 2021. The outcomes of the ARDL model approve that short- and long-term banking sector performances positively impact environmental technology innovation in China. Among the four proxies for the banking sector's performance, market capitalization, bank deposits, and bank Z-score are substantially and favorably associated with long-term environmental technology innovation in China. However, only the banking sector's performance fosters environmental technology innovation in the short term; all other measures of banking sector performance are insignificant. Human resource positively impacts green innovation in China in the long run. Furthermore, China's long-term GDP growth and environmental pressures support environmental technology innovation. Therefore, policymakers should provide specific incentives to encourage human resource management and financial institutions that lead to the advancement of environmental technology innovation.

Avoiding the Political Resource Curse: Evidence from a Most-Likely Case

Why do some countries escape the political resource curse while others do not? Most scholars argue that avoiding the claimed anti-democratic effects of natural resources, especially oil, largely depends on the quality of pre-existing political institutions and/or the effectiveness of contemporary resource management institutions. Drawing on the most-likely case of Timor-Leste, one of the world’s most oil-dependent countries that nevertheless successfully consolidated democracy, we challenge these dominant theories and highlight new important factors to consider. We show that Timor-Leste did not avoid the curse because of good pre-existing political institutions, good natural resource governance institutions, or an otherwise favorable environment for democracy. Instead, we find that the ideological beliefs of major political actors, their strong popular legitimacy, the absence of a hegemonic actor among them, as well as the approaches of external actors, have produced a consolidated democracy despite strong incentives for the development of authoritarianism. These findings highlight the importance of ideology and agency, of the composition of independence movements, and of constructive international engagement, in particular at critical historical junctures. In short, even countries facing serious political and economic challenges can avoid the political resource curse, and both scholars and policymakers should consider a broader approach to the phenomenon.

Rebuilding rural community cooperative institutions and their role in herder adaptation to climate change

ABSTRACT Many studies have emphasized the importance of community-based natural resource management institutions in adapting to climate change and responding to the global shift towards individualized land tenure regimes. However, few have reported on the innovative institutions developed by some rural communities to rebuild community cooperation and rural adaptive capacity. This paper draws on four comparative cases from the Tibetan Plateau to assess how locally developed community cooperative institutions mediate herders’ access to markets and resources to foster adaptive capacity and adaptation in response to snow-related catastrophes. Results demonstrate that community cooperative institutions are more effective in improving adaptive capacity than the market-based adaptation strategies that are the predetermined outcome of individualized tenure regimes. When such cooperative institutions exist, community members are able to apply both household and community collective adaptation strategies, resulting in better livelihood outcomes. Community cooperative institutions effectively address individual needs and priorities by clarifying entitlements and market-based networks. They rebuild community collective action and cooperative business entities that improve herders’ ability to access resources and markets more equally by distributing benefits to all community members. This study concludes that following the establishment of individualized land tenure regimes, rebuilding community cooperation necessitates hybridization of property rights arrangements, reformed institutions, and social networks operating across levels of governance to facilitate interdependent interactions between collective and individual adaptation strategies. Such community cooperation offers new opportunities for improving adaptive capacity in pastoral regions and elsewhere.

Keterpaduan Lintas Sektoral Dalam Pengembangan Kebijakan Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) pada Wilayah Sungai Aceh Meureudu Provinsi Aceh

Water resources management is a hot topic in the world. Integrated Water Resources Management is a process that integrates water management, land, and other related resources in a coordinated way to maximize economic and social welfare equally without sacrificing the sustainability of vital ecosystems. The principle is formulated in the form of integration of natural systems and human systems, the last concerning the cross-sectoral integrity in policy development; the integration of stakeholders in the process of planning and decision-making and cross-regional integrity. Various water resources management institutions exist in Indonesia, but follow-up in water management is still weak. Some inefficiencies occur in water management in Indonesia. Implementation of existing water policies has not been in accordance with existing laws. The bureaucratic structure is ineffective, thus not contributing to the development of water governance in Indonesia. This study tries to compile and analysis of some best practices and constraints of interdependent relationships of stakeholders on the process of planning and decision making of integrated water management. The study took place at the Aceh-Meureudu River Basin in Aceh Province, which is one of the national-strategic river basins. The method used in this study was descriptive analytic which illustrate the inter-institution coordination at the river basin in water conservation activities, water resource utilization, and controlling the destructive power of water. The results of these compilations of water resources management in the river basin indicate the differences in implementation caused by differences in regulations between sectors at several district and provincial institutions, even though there is the scheme of water resources management made by and with the approval of Water Resources Management Coordination Team. Some of the planned management schemes were not implemented because of the conflict of regulations. The results of this evaluation should be input for improving the development of water resources management policies in the Aceh-Meureudu River Basin.

Exploring the role of nested institutions in community-based tourism development: Two case studies from China’s Tibetan pastoral region

Community-based tourism is key to rural sustainable development. However, information remains inadequate on how natural resource management institutions restructure community social capital and property rights regimes while developing community cooperation and tourism participation within evolving rural socio-economic systems. This study investigates two rural villages, one under a household-based rangeland transfer system and the other under a community cooperative institution, to quantitatively assess how each mediates rights-based, structure-based, and network-based access mechanisms influencing community cooperation and tourism outcomes. The community cooperative institution facilitated higher rights-based and network-based access to tourism resources and markets for all community members, improving tourism participation and the equitable distribution of tourism benefits. This is because it uses hybrid and nested property rights provisions and social capital operating at different scales to protect individual rights and the balance of power. These practices restore social reciprocity, community redistribution, and market networks in building community cooperation, which better responds to the changing features of the rural socio-economic system. Therefore, social capital and property rights regimes are components of a nested community institution used to restructure social networks, rights, and entitlements. By these means, rural communities can devise different cooperative scales to govern their access to tourism resources and markets.

Choice of intraoperative ultrasound adjuncts for brain tumor surgery

BackgroundGliomas are among the most typical brain tumors tackled by neurosurgeons. During navigation for surgery of glioma brain tumors, preoperatively acquired static images may not be accurate due to shifts. Surgeons use intraoperative imaging technologies (2-Dimensional and navigated 3-Dimensional ultrasound) to assess and guide resections. This paper aims to precisely capture the importance of preoperative parameters to decide which type of ultrasound to be used for a particular surgery.MethodsThis paper proposes two bagging algorithms considering base classifier logistic regression and random forest. These algorithms are trained on different subsets of the original data set. The goodness of fit of Logistic regression-based bagging algorithms is established using hypothesis testing. Furthermore, the performance measures for random-forest-based bagging algorithms used are AUC under ROC and AUC under the precision-recall curve. We also present a composite model without compromising the explainability of the models.ResultsThese models were trained on the data of 350 patients who have undergone brain surgery from 2015 to 2020. The hypothesis test shows that a single parameter is sufficient instead of all three dimensions related to the tumor (p < 0.05). We observed that the choice of intraoperative ultrasound depends on the surgeon making a choice, and years of experience of the surgeon could be a surrogate for this dependence.ConclusionThis study suggests that neurosurgeons may not need to focus on a large set of preoperative parameters in order to decide on ultrasound. Moreover, it personalizes the use of a particular ultrasound option in surgery. This approach could potentially lead to better resource management and help healthcare institutions improve their decisions to make the surgery more effective.

Student trainee and paid internship programs have positive results but do little to influence long-term employee diversity in the USDA forest service.

Women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) employees are underrepresented in science and natural resource management institutions. Student and recent graduate trainee and internship programs have been used to try to address this in United States federal agencies over the last few decades. Our study evaluates how effective such programs are at improving U.S. federal workforce diversity. We used a comprehensive employee dataset from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service-which has the largest natural resource management workforce in the country-to analyze the demographic characteristics and career paths of paid interns from 1996-2017. We found that a majority of employees who started as interns later converted to permanent employment with the USDA Forest Service. In addition, Black and Hispanic interns were, respectively, 5 and 3 times more likely than White interns to work for the agency in permanent positions after their internships. However, people who started as interns had significantly shorter USDA Forest Service careers than those who started in permanent positions. White women entering directly into permanent positions typically advanced to higher pay grades through promotion faster than White women who entered as interns. Finally, male BIPOC interns involuntarily separated (i.e., were fired) at significantly higher rates than all other employees. Our study suggests that while internship employment programs can be an effective tool for hiring a diverse workforce, they are not sufficient to close the overall workforce diversity gap. In addition, only a small percentage of new hires every year are interns. To achieve a level of representation that mirrors the civilian labor force, our study suggests that internship programs need to focus on long-term employee retention and be of significantly larger scale.

A Water Resource Equilibrium Regulation Model Under Water Resource Utilization Conflict: A Case Study in the Yellow River Basin

AbstractThe mismatch between the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of water resources and recent regional socioeconomic development threatens social stability and sustainable development, particularly in river basins affected by water scarcity. Therefore, it is necessary to adapt a water resource regulation model to address these new challenges. Based on the theory of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the Gini coefficient, in this study, a water resource equilibrium regulation model is constructed from the demand side and applied to the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Different from fairness, equilibrium is a stable state under the influence of diversity of interests and other factors. The results show that the model realizes the spatial and temporal equilibrium regulation of water resources. The water supply assurance rates of ecological and agricultural water users increase significantly to 94.1% and 74.3%, respectively. In particular, in dry years, the rigid demands of water users can be well met, and irreversible losses can be avoided. Compared with Scheme 1987, the proportion of water supply for upstream provinces increases to 42.34%, which will contribute to the balanced development of the basin. This model has the potential to be used in a wide range of applications, providing not only theoretical and technical support for the adjustment of Scheme 1987 in the YRB but also a reference for other governments and water resource management institutions around the world.

Urban commons in the techno-economic paradigm shift: An information and communication technology-enabled climate-resilient solutions review

The commons concept has evolved in multiple ways after the publication of Ostrom’s seminal work in 1990, which emphasized the evolution of resource management institutions and the usefulness of self-governance. As we move into the 21st century, one of the institutional transformations is catalyzed by the emergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a techno-economic paradigm shift and the epochal creation of a new online social structure. However, there is a lack of understanding about the impact of ICT on common resource management, particularly in urban settings, that is urban commons. This study presents a systematic literature review of ICT-enabled urban commons with particular attention to its application to climate-related issues such as climate mitigation/adaptation in order to improve our collective ability to leverage ICT for building a more sustainable and resilient city. A total of 66 pieces of literature were included in our qualitative synthesis. We analyzed the geographical, categorical, and climate relevance. Subsequently, we used the coupled infrastructure system framework as a system thinking approach to dissect distinct usefulness of ICT-enabled commons in the building of relationships between resource system, resource user, infrastructure, and infrastructure provider to tackle climate-related issues. Our findings identified three key contributions of ICT to innovate climate-resilient solutions: 1) to redefine role of resource user as co-producer, co-designer, and co-monitor; 2) to enable real-time data-driven urban planning; 3) to improve resource efficiency and effectiveness. In other words, in a time of insufficient and limited public resources, the public sector can leverage the power of technology to harness public support and engage non-traditional stakeholders to make cities more sustainable and resilient while allowing policy-making to be big data-driven to tackle new urban problems that cannot be otherwise uncovered without the aid of ICT. The results provide directions to rethink the city based on collective action to diversity modes to govern common resources.

Dynamics of Land Management and Implications on Pastoral Livelihoods in Northern Tanzania.

Pastoralism as a mode of production has had an important bearing on the livelihoods of many people in arid and semiarid environments. In the recent decades' policies for land management in pastoral communities have changed from customary to statutory policies. This study analysed the dynamics of land management and their influence on the pastoral livelihood system at Kimana and Njoro villages in Kiteto district, northern Tanzania. Data for the study were collected from two focus groups, six key informants at the district level, and 296 households (equivalent to 10.1%) using household questionnaires, Findings show that whereas land is managed under customary and statutory laws, the emphasis is more on statutory laws. Statutory laws foster individualization of land ownership to some activities such as crop production, whereas communal lands are left for animal grazing only. Under statutory laws, individual land ownership is likely to be influenced by crop production, male-headed households, climate change, and resource use conflicts. However, statutory laws cannot guarantee sustainable resource management as the natural resources management institutions cannot dictate activities done in individual lands, as opposed to traditional systems. There is a need to harmonize traditional and modern forms of land management for increasing productivity and enhancing sustainable natural resources management.

Strengthening Gender Responsiveness of the Green Climate Fund Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Programme in Namibia

Scholars of gender and climate change argue that gender-blind climate change actions could exacerbate existing inequalities and undermine sustained climate change adaptation actions. For this reason, since 2017, the Green Climate Fund placed gender among its key programming prerequisites, making it the first multilateral climate fund to do so worldwide. However, to date, no lessons to inform planned gender-responsive ecosystem-based interventions in Namibia have been drawn from community-based natural resource management. Thus, this paper aims to share key lessons regarding the way in which gender assessment is useful in enhancing equity in an ecosystem-based adaptation programme for the Green Climate Fund. To this end, we conducted in-depth interviews and group discussions in the 14 rural regions of Namibia with 151 participants from 107 community-based natural resource management organisations (73.5:26.5; male:female ratio). The results identified gender imbalances in leadership and decision-making due to intersecting historic inequalities, ethnicity and geography, as well as other socio-cultural factors in local community-based natural resource management institutions. We also identified income disparities and unequal opportunities to diversify livelihoods, gendered differentiated impacts of climate change and meaningful participation in public forums. Overall, the assessment indicates that considering gender analysis at the initiation of a community-based climate change adaptation project is crucial for achieving resilience to climate change, closing the gender gap, building capacity to increase equity and empowering women in resource-dependent environments in Namibia and Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly.

Role of Institutions in Natural Resource Management (NRM): The Nexus Between Natural Resources and Conflict

Role of Institutions in Natural Resource Management (NRM): The Nexus Between Natural Resources and Conflict

The Role Of Customary Institutions In Natural Resource Management In Kailolo, Haruku Island

This study examined the role of sasi institutions in Kailolo negeri with the aim of 1. They are knowing the form of sasi application 2. Assessing the role of sasi institutions in natural resource management in Kailolo Haruku Island Subdistrict, Central Maluku Regency. The method used in this research was qualitative, namely a survey. The study results show that sasi has legal value because it has norms and rules related to ways, habits, behaviour, and customs containing ethics and standards. The role of kewang institutions in Kailolo negeri is perfect because in managing sasi, the community and kewang are together in carrying out their respective functions and responsibilities. There are two sasi in the negeri of Kailolo, namely the Tanjung Moleo sasi and the Forest sasi, which are carried out using an auction system.

Informal institutions and grassland protection: Empirical evidence from pastoral regions in China

Grassland has experienced continuous degradation, resulting in serious ecosystem services loss and unsustainable grazing production. Previous studies have identified the impact of formal environmental institutions or policies on grassland protection. But, little evidence of the effectiveness of informal institutions has been found. Using village grassroots governance as a proxy for informal institutions, this study empirically identifies the effects of informal institutions on grassland quality improvement. Results show that the presence of informal governance leads to improvement in grassland quality. Moreover, these positive effects are found to be more significant when informal governance is in a written form and penalties occur as a consequence of violations. Further investigations reveal that the effectiveness of informal governance is mediated by village size, villager income, household-level compensation from government conservation programs, and grassland property right privatisation. The findings offer new insights into the positive role played by informal institutions in natural resource management and would assist existing policy instruments in grassland protection.

The Role of Community Cooperative Institutions in Building Rural–Urban Linkages Under Urbanization of Pastoral Regions in China

In contrast to agricultural settings, the process of urbanization in the pastoral regions of China are largely driven by long-term influences of ecological conservation and the provision of social services. Consequently, many of the herders who have migrated into nearby secondary urban centers depend on resources from pastoral regions to support their livelihoods, forming complex patterns of rural–urban linkages. While current literature has discussed the processes of herder out-migration and their implications on rural and urban livelihood development, few studies have examined the linkages between the herders living in the pastoral regions and those who have out-migrated to urban regions and their importance in rural livelihood transformation. Based on past studies, we argue that, in a changing pastoral social–ecological system, herders living in both rural and urban regions depend on each other to support their livelihoods through three types of mobility: (1) livestock mobility, (2) herder mobility, and (3) resource mobility. However, what innovative institutions in rangeland resource management and herder economic cooperation can do to help maintain these three types of mobility to sustain rural livelihood development, becomes a critical challenge. Innovative community cooperative institutions developed by pastoral communities from the Tibetan Plateau and Inner Mongolia may be able to offer new perspective and insight on how to better maintain rural–urban linkages in the processes of urbanization in pastoral regions. In this current study will present the two cases of innovative institutions and the roles they play in facilitating the three types of mobility to address livelihood challenges. While current studies recommend an increase of government subsidies, provision of vocational training, and social insurance that help herders better adapt to urban livelihood, we argue that rangeland management and community economic cooperation in innovative institutions are needed to facilitate the mobility of livestock, resources, and the herder population, and maybe only then the livelihood challenges that migrated herders are facing will be addressed effectively.

Design Principles of Common Property Institutions: The Case of Farmer Cooperatives in the Upper West Region of Ghana

Common property institutions in natural resource management are often analysed by means of Ostrom’s framework of design principles. Recently, the design principles have been generalised to study human groups in other collective action scenarios, including farm producers who collectively buy inputs or sell outputs. Several case studies have conceptualised farmer cooperatives as common property institutions to study how various collective action scenarios have been approached. We contribute to the scarce literature with a field study in the Upper West Region of Ghana, using Ostrom’s framework to compare the design principles of active and inactive farmer cooperatives. Using the mean group comparison method, we find numerous significant differences as active farmer cooperatives have clearer boundaries, require more capital investments, have more active board directors and managers, receive more governmental support, and have more locations. However, not all design principles are significantly different for active and inactive cooperatives (e.g. sanctions, legal rights). Considering our results, we perceive opportunities to formalise the conceptualisation of farmer cooperatives as common property institutions with both internal and external design principles. Our results also have policy implications in terms of top-down initiatives to spur collective action by Ghanaian farm producers.

Conservation and natural resource management: where are all the women?

AbstractThere is evidence from the development and humanitarian sectors that purposeful engagement of women can increase the impact of development. We conducted a literature review to examine whether this is also evident in conservation and natural resource management. The following themes emerged from our review: existing societal and cultural norms affect and generally limit how women can engage in conservation and natural resource management; women interact differently with the environment than men, so if they are excluded, their knowledge and perspectives on particular resources may not be considered in conservation actions; and there is often a lack of resources or dedicated effort by conservation or natural resource management programmes to understand and address the barriers that prevent women's engagement. Although there was evidence of a positive relationship between the engagement of women and environmental outcomes, some studies showed that positive conservation outcomes do not necessarily benefit women, and when women are not considered, conservation activities can perpetuate existing inequities. We conclude that although the importance of integrating gender into conservation is acknowledged in the literature, there is a need to examine how women can be meaningfully engaged in conservation. This must go beyond treating women as a homogenous group, to consider intersectionality including race, ethnicity, age, religion, poverty and disability. In addition, conservation and natural resource management institutions need to address the inclusion of women in their own staff and programmes.

Managing change in collective action and collective identity to sustain Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) institutions in Namibia: A case study of Doro !Nawas Conservancy

Conservation and community development are increasingly understood to require sustained collective action. This study postulates collective action and collective identity as necessary but vulnerable in the management of Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) institutions. The study uses purposive and snowball sampling to select key informants interviews and documentary analysis to augment the comprehensiveness. Conservancy members (47) and individuals from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government (9) with experience and knowledge of the conservancy were interviewed. The study adopted a thematic analysis approach with deductive analysis to interrogate the data. The adaptation framework based on the identification and affective commitment was used to organise and present the findings. The findings reveal the casual factors and excerpts that best described how respondents articulated change and stability in the identification and affective commitment. The paper concludes that for CBNRMinstitutions to function effectively management should be sensitive to heterogeneity within the collective. It further concluded that management should be aware of how members of the collective express themselves and be mindful of the nuances of the language they use. Lastly, management should appreciate that government and other agencies by acting as ‘honest brokers’ they can contribute to sustaining the collective action and collective identity in CBNRM and similar institutions.

Challenging the obsession with local level institutions in country ownership of climate change adaptation

Working with local level actors to enable country ownership is applauded within the multilateral climate finance landscape. However, are emerging adaptation interventions equitable by reflecting the priorities of local level vulnerable populations? This research sought to find out whether the engagement of local institutions in projects that seek to achieve country ownership enabled local level vulnerable groups to participate in and influence adaptation decision-making processes and outcomes, thereby enabling them to have a voice in local level adaptation. It used a case study of a Global Environmental Facility-managed coastal adaptation project in Tanzania, which sought to restore and protect mangroves to enable adaptation to sea level rise. Data was generated from 13 Focus Group Discussions and survey questionnaires administered to 629 individuals in three locations on the mainland of Tanzania and in Zanzibar. The findings indicate that community-based organizations were used to facilitate the implementation of project activities at the community level. However, participation spaces created in the project and facilitated by these local institutions were exclusionary and failed to enable vulnerable community groups to have a voice on mangrove restoration and protection. Use of these local institutions altered local level power relations and disempowered other pre-existing and (in)formal local resource management institutions. Community members questioned legitimacy of actions implemented by these local institutions. These findings suggest that working with local level stakeholders to generate country ownership does not automatically guarantee that actions will address the needs of local vulnerable groups. Multilateral climate finance institutions should acknowledge these risks and implement measures to address them.