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PDF
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Type:
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Conference Paper |
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Author:
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Maarleveld, Marleen; Dangbegnon, Constant |
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Conference:
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Crossing Boundaries, the Seventh Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property |
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Location:
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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
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Conf. Date:
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June 10-14 |
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Date:
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1998 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/2272
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Sector:
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Fisheries
Water Resource & Irrigation |
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Region:
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Africa
Europe |
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Subject(s):
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IASC
common pool resources--comparative analysis
resource management--case studies
fisheries
water resources
adaptation
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Abstract:
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"In many natural resource systems, people find themselves to be increasingly interdependent as the number of resource users and types of users multiply. Analyses which make use of the prisoner's dilemma, tragedy of the commons and logic of collective action effectively illustrate how certain types of interdependence can trap us in resource use patterns which inevitably lead to destruction of a resource system. However, these analyses are challenged by numerous others which indicate that people are capable of coordinating decisions and actions to overcome such destructive patterns of resource use (Ostrom 1990 among others). Resource management practice indicates a great diversity in ways in which individual choices and action are coordinated to balance needs and interests of users with the capacity of the resource system. Coordinated decision making arrangements and actions vary from quite simple rules of thumb, for example, restricting fishing in spawning seasons, to complex social- economic arrangements such as the Balinese water management (Lansing 1991).
"Nonetheless, the conclusion that sustainable resource management is simply a question of reaching everlasting optimal equilibria by getting the right institutional arrangement should not be drawn too hastily. This would neglect the dynamic nature of managing natural resources. After all, human use changes resource systems; resource systems themselves entail change processes; and, human needs and interests regarding resource systems change. From the interplay of these changes, new, often unforseen interdepencies of actors and (collective) consequences of decisions and actions can emerge. Consequently, continuous adaptations of existing management practices are required to ensure sustainably managed resource systems. The question is whether this ongoing adaptation in managed resource systems can be facilitated, and how.
"This paper will focus on whether using a social learning perspective to analyze and adapt coordinated decision making and action in managed resource systems provides some answers to this question. First, theoretical notions of social learning will be discussed in light of the above question. The transpiring framework structures the analysis of social learning in two managed resource systems in Benin and the Netherlands: Fishery management in the Lake Aheme and water resource management in Gelderland. Emerging issues will be discussed and used to critically assess the role and possibilities of arrangements to coordinate decision making and actions such as platforms (Roling 1994, Roling & Wagemakers 1998, Steins & Edwards 1998) to cope with evolving conditions in resource management."
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