Browsing by Author "Adams, William M."

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Analytical Framework for Dialogue on Common Pool Resource Management
(2002) Adams, William M.; Brockington, Dan; Dyson, Jane; Vira, Bhaskar
From Page 1: "Academic work on the commons has evolved considerably, especially during the decade and a half that has elapsed since the seminal Panel on Common Property Resource Management in the Developing World organised by the US National Academy of Sciences in 1985. Much of this burgeoning literature has reported from specific places, at specific times, thereby creating a wealth of case-study material for scholars to examine. There has also been some work that has adopted a more analytical perspective, seeking to develop general principles that help to explain and understand common pool resource outcomes (most notably, of course, the work of Ostrom and her associates over this period). "This paper does not seek to review knowledge of the politics, economics or ecology of common pool resource management, but develops a framework that relates current knowledge to the processes of everyday decision making that concern the policy community. The paper follows the tradition of those who have contributed to building analytical frameworks for the study of the commons. While drawing on the insights of these earlier works, this paper adopts a more directly policy-focused perspective. The objective is to provide a basis for dialogue on common pool resource management among stakeholders, in contexts where such resources are subject to contestation among multiple users and conflict between multiple uses."
Institutional Complexity, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
(2008) Bhaskar, Vira; Adams, William M.
"The value of ecosystem services is increasingly being recognised (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). Conservation biologists have suggested that ecosystem service based arguments may be potentially useful in developing support for the preservation of species and diverse ecosystems, but their knowledge of the institutional context for the management of such ecosystems is limited. There is increasing interest in how market-based instruments can be used to capture these values. Thus, within conservation, direct payments approaches have attracted considerable interest, reflecting the economic approach to ecosystem services within this policy sector. But the market is one among many institutions--there is in fact a range of institutional arrangements to realize the value of ecosystem services. Research on the commons that deals with institutional issues that emerge when resources become valuable has much to contribute to understanding of the institutions relevant to the management of ecosystem services. A number of the institutional challenges that emerge with the management of common pool resources(CPRs, e.g. non timber forest products, water, grazing) are relevant to the new resources created by the establishment of markets for ecosystem services (e.g. water supply, carbon sequestration or pollination). This paper analyses the relevance of knowledge about institutions for commons management to the understanding of ecosystem service based approaches to biodiversity conservation."
National Parks as Common Pool Resources: Scale, Equity and Community
(2002) Adams, William M.
"Conflicts between parks and people can be understood in terms of different ideas about the spatial scale at which these resources should be considered to be common. The reservation of land by the state in National Parks represents an assumption of common interests at the national scale, but also reflect international (global) interests in biodiversity. Local resource use is conventionally prevented. This paper will provide a framework for analysing different kinds of use values (direct consumptive and non-consumptive use, indirect use and non-use values) of the species and ecosystems contained within national parks at local, national and international scale. It argues that the establishment of a property regime that excludes local consumptive use, and local resource users, is likely to persist as inequitable. Failure to balance resource uses between actors at different scales is a threat to the sustainability of protected area policy. New institutions are needed that link actors across scales (from global to local), and which link the enlarged community for whom the biodiversity resource is held in common."
Parks and Poverty: The Political Ecology of Conservation
(2008) Adams, William M.; Hutton, Jon
"In 2004, the government of Ethiopia moved 500 people out of the Nech Sar National Park in the south of the country, before handing it over to be managed by the Dutch NGO, African Parks. The following year, African Parks signed another contract to manage the Omo National Park. The issue of evictions in these parks quickly became the subject of intense lobbying by international human rights NGOs. Such problems have been reported from many countries as the area protected has risen, doubling in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. By 2005, over 100,000 protected areas (PAs) covered more than 2 million sq. km., or 12 per cent of the Earths land surface. Systems of protected areas existed in every country, wealthy and poor alike. The place of people in protected areas has been much discussed by academic researchers and human rights activists. For whom are parks set aside? On whose authority? At whose cost?"
People, Parks and Poverty: Political Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation
(2007) Adams, William M.; Hutton, Jon
"Action to conserve biodiversity, particularly through the creation of protected areas (PAs), is inherently political. Political ecology is a field of study that embraces the interactions between the way nature is understood and the politics and impacts of environmental action. This paper explores the political ecology of conservation, particularly the establishment of PAs. It discusses the implications of the idea of pristine nature, the social impacts of and the politics of PA establishment and the way the benefits and costs of PAs are allocated. It considers three key political issues in contemporary international conservation policy: the rights of indigenous people, the relationship between biodiversity conservation and the reduction of poverty, and the arguments of those advocating a return to conventional PAs that exclude people."
The Role of Agri-environment Measures in Promoting Co-ordinated Land Management in Large Conservation Areas
(2013) Hodge, Ian; Adams, William M.
"Agri-environment schemes (AESs) have been implemented across a substantial number of countries since the mid 1980s. More recently, there has been a major shift of emphasis in biodiversity conservation away from the protection of individual sites towards Large Conservation Areas (LCAs). This implies a requirement for the co-ordination and management of land uses at a scale in excess of that normally managed by individual owners. There is some developing experience of the implementation of collaborative agri-environment agreements but closer integration is also required in some contexts. We identify three degrees of integration between informal co-ordination and full conservation ownership, representing differing degrees to which property may be blended in across ownerships. Large scale initiatives will adopt combinations of these degrees of integration. We discuss the ways in which institutions may be developed in support of this integration and the implications for funding and policy."