Browsing by Author "Chia, Evelyn"

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The Distant Past and Other Pasts as Fodder for Understanding State-Society Relations and Extra-local Influences on Society
(2007) Chia, Evelyn
"The neglect of the distant past i.e. pre-1800 Europe or the equivalent of pre-1800 (pre-industrial revolution and expansion of a market economy) Europe elsewhere in the study of commons is perhaps due to mistaken perceptions of the past as relatively static and insular as compared to the upheavals of the 19th century. Wars, collapse and alternatively amalgamations of kingdoms, disease were all substantial upheavals in themselves. The question is to what extent did such phenomena affect the ability of a community to create sustainable rules of governance over a common pool resource. The answer would be quite obvious, I would suppose - to a significant degree."
Power and Authority within Collective Forests in Southwest China
(2006) Chia, Evelyn
"So far my preliminary study of one collective forest in northwest Yunnan and conversations with the former prefectural head of the forestry bureau indicate that if anything, the jargon connected with community forestry and devolution of management rights, are merely jargon. First and foremost, 'collective forests' in China (or 'jitilin') are not forests owned by the local village and township 'collectives' in the sense that they are owned by some kind of a 'collective' reminiscent of the communes we see under the various collectivisation phases during the Maoist days. Rather, they refer to forests owned by lower levels of the state and other sub-state/or non-state entities - such as township and village governments, and village small groups. In most cases, this means that the townships or the village governments led by the leader makes the decision without consulting the population in the township or village. This is despite the central government's call for self-governance and accountability at the village level. Evidently, the desire and proclamation of the importance for self-governance (despite the requirement for village heads and representatives to the village committee be elected) does not necessarily lead to democratic participation at village levels for various reasons. This is a problem that stems from governance and accountability issues not simply at the village level, but across the village, the township, and the county governments, and across the various bureaus, including the forestry bureau."
State and Policy Interventions Effects on Villager Perception of Responsibility and Obligation: A Case Study from Northwest Yunnan, China
(2008) Chia, Evelyn
"Yunnan Province, Chinas biodiversity hotspot, has one of the highest amount of forests held by villagers. The area under examination is the subject of a logging ban from 1998, and has been inscribed under a World Heritage Site since 2003. For about twenty years before the logging ban, villagers had been managing a successful (and some argue sustainable) logging enterprise with the state forestry bureau. Since the ban, village forest resources have come under increasing pressure from a neighbouring timber market resulting in much pilfering of forest resources across the border. The case study illustrates the interactions between communities incentives to log, government arrangements to control the amount harvested, and its resulting demise when the policy environment prohibits the internalisation of externalities, such as putting a ban on logging while not coordinating market timber demand. However, the paper does not propose another analysis based on new institutional economics nor does it refute the utility of NIE. Rather, it seeks to illustrate the impacts of these arrangements and state policies on villager motives through the notion of environmental responsibility. By doing so, it captures issues of power, perceptions of inequities, relationships of accountability between villager and state, and within the communities. The paper seeks to answer: how do previous institutional arrangements that may appear to be successful, and long-standing state- peasant relations, mould perceptions of responsibility in governance? How in turn does that affect villager participation in forest management? The paper attempts to (1) link institutional arrangements and their impacts on perceptions of capacity and burden-sharing; (2) critically examine the notion of community through the notion of responsibility and interaction with the state. It also highlights how international processes of inscribing a place under a World Heritage Site place unequal burden of responsibilities on local populations and the local state, with potentially disempowering effects."