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Abstract:
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"A majority of the people in arid and semi-arid areas depend on biomass resources from common lands which are often managed through local institutions. According to some, increasing population pressure and marketisation have resulted in degradation of commons in developing countries (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1991; Myers 1991; Palo and Mery 1990; Palo 1993), whereas some researchers claim state interventions to be equally important (Salih 1990; Shanmugaratnam et al., 1992). According to Bromley and Chapagain (1984), Bromley and Cernea (1989), and Shanmugaratnam (1996) development policies together with demographic and technological changes lead to the continuous shrinking of common pool resources (CPRs) and the breakdown of traditional CPR management institutions. For example, policies related to land reforms in developing countries have tended to be preoccupied with the institutionalisation of private property regimes while neglecting the task of creating an institutional environment for viable CPR management. A few others advance a provisional theory of resource degradation as a vicious circle, whereby population growth, increasing demands and access roads appear as driving forces (Palo and Salmi 1987; Palo and Mery 1990; Verma and Partap 1992; Uphoff 1992; Wade 1986). According to North (1992) history matters, and despite interventions institutions keep evolving and their continuity helps linking the present future with the past.
"In the last two decades several studies have focused on local-level solutions to resource management problems with approaches biased towards their respective disciplines. Different disciplines view interactive processes between communities and resources through their own theoretical lenses, but for all of them, institutions matter. Economists like North (1990), for example emphasize on rule systems and enforcement and sanction mechanisms in the conceptualisation of institutions. These institutional forces affect organisations and provide assurance mechanisms, which in turn influences the resource use and management. The manner in which communities unite to act collectively, device their own rules, define access, appropriation of resources, boundaries and negotiate with external interventions, take up enforcement measures, manage caste and economic differences and address gender issues, are critical to resource use studies. Not many studies in the past have explicitly attempted to analyse the role of local institutional arrangements in resource management through quantification studies or looked at variations and their effects accross communities or villages.
"The present study has analysed data from 37 villages in the semi-arid region of Rajasthan in India, by looking at variations between villages in terms of institutional arrangements and their communities who were basically dependent on biomass resources for their livelihoods. The objective of this study is to analyse the institutional change impacted by historical factors and policies and the extent to which they influence the assurance mechanisms. The study explores the significance of institutions on forest resources on commons through quantitative analysis, despite population pressure and market integration."
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