Browsing by Author "Birner, Regina"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Assessing the Sustainability of Different Small-Scale Livestock Production Systems in the Afar Region, Ethiopia
(2013) Atanga, Ngufor L.; Treydte, Anna C.; Birner, Regina
"Livestock production is a key income source in eastern Africa, and 80% of the total agricultural land is used for livestock herding. Hence, ecological and socio-economically sustainable rangeland management is crucial. Our study aimed at selecting operational economic, environmental and social sustainability indicators for three main pastoral (P), agro-pastoral (AP), and landless intensive (LI) small scale livestock production systems for use in sustainability assessment in Ethiopia. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through grey literature and semi-structured interviews, assessing livestock and feed resources, production technology, land tenure, financial and gender issues. Our results suggested that feed shortages (FS) are directly related to grazing pressure (G) and inversely related to grass recovery rates (R). According to our indicators, AP was the most sustainable while P and LI were only conditionally sustainable production systems. 93% of 82 interviewees claimed that private land ownership was the best land tenure incentive for efficient rangeland management. Farmers perceived Prosopis juliflora expansion, sporadic rainfall, and disease infestation as the most significant causes for decreasing livestock productivity. Landless intensive farmers had the highest equality in income distribution (Gini Index: GI = 0.4), followed by P and AP (each with a GI = 0.5). Neither educational background nor income seemed to determine grazing species conservation efforts. We claimed that sustainability indicators are valuable tools to highlight shortcomings and strengths of the three main livestock production systems and help with future livestock management in Ethiopia. Selecting suitable indicators, however, is crucial as data requirements and availability can vary across livestock systems."
Between Conservationism, Eco-Populism and Developmentalism -- Discourses in Biodiversity Policy in Thailand and Indonesia
(2005) Wittmer, Heidi; Birner, Regina
"The present paper analyzes the role of discourse in conflicts concerning nature conservation in tropical countries. We focus on the contested question as to whether and to which extent local communities should be allowed to live and use resources inside protected areas. Applying the concepts of belief-systems, story-lines and discourse coalitions, we analyze two empirical case studies dealing with this conflict: The first case study is concerned with a policy process at the national level that aimed at passing a community forestry law in Thailand to make the establishment of community forests in protected areas possible. The second case study deals with the proposed resettlement of a village from the Lore Lindu National Park in Sulawesi, Indonesia. In both cases, three discourses could be observed: a conservationist discourse, an eco-populist discourse, and a developmentalist discourse. The case studies show that the conservationists and the developmentalists were able to form a discourse coalition, which was challenged by the proponents of the eco-populist discourse. The analysis also demonstrates that establishing story-lines in the discourse can lead to the neglect of facts and problems that do not fit in either discourse. The paper draws attention to the role of science in the different discourses and concludes that scientists should become more aware of the role they play in the different discourses."
Between Market Failure, Policy Failure and 'Community Failure': Property Rights, Crop-Livestock Conflicts and the Adoption of Sustainable Land Use Practices in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka
(2001) Birner, Regina; Gunaweera, Hasantha
"Using the case of the semi-arid zone of Southern Sri Lanka as an example, the paper shows that crop damages caused by grazing livestock can constitute an important obstacle to the adoption of available technologies for more sustainable land use. The paper considers crop damages as an externality problem and shows that the classical solutions to externalities-- the neo-liberal, the interventionist solution and the communitarian solution-- cannot be applied in the Sri Lankan case due to market failure, government failure and 'community failure.' The paper discusses collective action and bargaining between organized interest groups as an alternative solution and analyses the conditions which make such a solution work. The paper concludes that-- in the Sri Lankan case-- a decentralized system of government, a preferential voting system creating incentives for politicians, an institutionalized negotiation platform, and the facilitating role of intermediaries favored this solution."
Between Market Failure, Policy Failure and 'Community Failure': Property Rights, Crop-Livestock Conflicts and the Adoption of Sustainable Land Use Practices in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka
(2002) Birner, Regina; Gunaweera, Hasantha
"Using the case of the semi-arid zone of Southern Sri Lanka as an example, the paper shows that crop damages caused by grazing livestock can constitute an important obstacle to the adoption of available technologies for more sustainable land use. The paper considers crop damages as an externality problem and shows that the classical solutions to externalities-the neo-liberal, the interventionist solution and the communitarian solution-cannot be applied in the Sri Lankan case due to market failure, government failure and 'community failure.' The paper discusses collective action and bargaining between organized interest groups as an alternative solution and analyses the conditions which make such a solution work. The paper concludes that - in the Sri Lankan case - a decentralized system of government, a preferential voting system creating incentives for politicians, an institutionalized negotiation platform, and the facilitating role of intermediaries favored this solution."
Community Agreements on Conservation as an Approach to Protected Area Management: Experiences from the Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi
(2002) Mappatoba, Marhawati; Birner, Regina
"Negotiated agreements between local communities and state agencies concerning the management of natural resources have gained increasing importance in recent years. Taking the case of community agreements on conservation in the area of the Lore Lindu National Park, Indonesia, as an example, the paper analyzes such agreements from two perspectives. (1) From the perspective of environmental economics, negotiated agreements are considered as a policy instrument that represents the bargaining solution proposed by Coase to solve externality problems. (2) From the perspective of policy analysis, the paper analyzes to which extent the agreements can be considered as an example of empowered deliberative democracy, a model suggested by Fung and Wright. The empirical analysis showed that the agreements differed considerably, depending on the value orientation and objectives of the NGOs promoting the agreements. Three NGOs were taken into consideration: an international NGO focussing on rural development, an international NGO specialized in nature conservation with a local sister organization focussing on community development, and a local NGO with a strong emphasis on advocacy for indigenous rights. The paper shows that both the Coase model and the deliberative democracy model are useful to better understand the logic behind the different agreements promoted by these organizations. The paper concludes that the community agreements on conservation represent a promising approach to improve the management of protected areas, even though the internal differentiation within the communities represents a challenge for this approach."
Converting Social Capital into Political Capital: How Do Local Communities Gain Political Influence? A Theoretical Approach and Empirical Evidence from Thailand and Colombia
(2000) Birner, Regina; Wittmer, Heidi
"The concept of social capital has attracted increasing attention in the study of common property, collective action, and natural resource management. Compared to related concepts, such as social networks, norms and trust, social capital is compatible with the concepts of physical, human and natural capital, thus allowing to relate the social, the economic and the ecological sphere. This paper proposes a concept of political capital, which permits to integrate the political sphere, as well, and allows to analyze how local communities can use social capital to achieve political objectives. Drawing on the work of political resource theorists, the paper distinguishes between instrumental and structural political capital. Instrumental political capital is defined in the actors' perspective as the resources which actors can use to influence policy formation processes and realize outcomes in their interest. Structural political capital is defined in the public perspective and refers to variables of the political system which condition the actors possibilities to accumulate instrumental political capital and to use it effectively. On this basis, the paper develops an analytical framework which focuses on the transformation of social into political capital. To study this capital transformation, the paper integrates Bourdieu's concept of social capital, which has been somewhat neglected by those using the social capital approach to study common property and natural resource management. Two case studies, one from Thailand and one from Columbia, illustrate the application of the framework. In a macro-political perspective, the Thailand case deals with the devolution of authority in forest management, while the Columbian case adopts a micro-political perspective and deals with the labor policies of multi-national firms. The paper concludes that the proposed framework allows to integrate arguments which have been put forward by different schools of thought, such as pluralist, statist and political conflict theories. The framework also allows to accommodate the role of knowledge, ideology and discourse, which are particularly relevant for environmental policy formation. To further develop the proposed framework, the paper suggests to explore how analytical tools used in investment theory, principal-agent theory and transaction cost economics can be applied to political capital."
Dynamics of Collective Action in Post-conflict Settings: Coffee Growers Associations in Southern Tolima, Colombia
(2019) Navarrete-Cruz, Angela; Birkenberg, Athena; Birner, Regina
"When a civil war finishes, major challenges arise on how to prevent armed confrontations in the future and make the transition as smooth as possible for the actors involved. Since most of the civil wars occur in rural areas, it is also necessary to account and cope with the agrarian roots of the conflicts. Moreover, an understanding of the dynamics in which the armed conflict developed is crucial for designing and implementing peacebuilding strategies."
The Political Economy of Change in Property Regimes: A Case Study from Sri Lanka
(1998) Birner, Regina
"It has been a major thrust of the literature on common property to challenge Hardin's alleged 'tragedy of the commons' (1968) and to modify the policy recommendations derived from it, which focused on privatisation or state intervention. The ongoing research has shown that common property regimes are often superior to private property, both in terms of efficiency, equity, and sustainability. Such type of research typically led to normative policy recommendations in the sense that the state should restore and protect common property institutions. However, the positive analysis of the political process involved in the change of property regimes has, so far, received less attention in theoretical and empirical literature on common property institutions. This type of research, however, would be necessary to find out if and how the normative policy recommendations concerning the change of property regimes can actually be implemented. "Against this background, the present paper deals with the positive analysis of the political process involved in the change of property regimes. The paper suggests a theoretical framework which draws on concepts of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) and on collective action theory. The proposed framework is illustrated by an empirical case study on the change of property regimes in the Hambantota District of Sri Lanka. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces the empirical case study material. In Section 3, four steps of analysing the political process of change in property regimes are suggested and illustrated by the empirical case study. Conclusions are drawn in Section 4."