Browsing by Author "Dangbegnon, Constant"

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Breaking the Impasse: Platform for Common Property Resource Use (The Aheme Lake Case, Benin)
(1996) Dangbegnon, Constant
"This paper will tackle issues with a different perspective to explore the dynamic of stakeholders (potential resource users) as a starting point for the analysis of processes towards sustainably managed CPRs. Then, CPR use is a social activity, and effective management is best achieved by given a focused value for those who lived with them. This implies a great deal with indigenous knowledge. Reality is socially constructed through different processes of institutionalization and legitimation in a (rural) society. People have the capacity to process social experience with different representations or lifeworlds. An attempt to resolve CPRs degradation in human society requires multiple perspectives, in a context of many uncertainties which will be difficult to predict. Collective agency, which means that stakeholders come together for consensus formation, is required. Knowledge and group dynamics are important ingredients in this strategy.... "The paper will focus on a case study of a lake (Aheme lake) in Benin, the social construction of the lake: indigenous fishing techniques, property rights and resource use strategies; collective agency, conflicts over resources and impasse. Platform for CPR use will help to analyze the context and identify different barriers and opportunities for more sustainable resource use."
Governing Local Commons: What Can be Learned from the Failures of Lake Ahemes Institutions in Benin?
(2000) Dangbegnon, Constant
"At different parts of the world, local commons are moving into more and more complex situations due to changing ecological, socioeconomic and cultural conditions of their exploitation. Therefore, successful institutions for governing them have emerged as a crucial issue of sustainability. Institution is defined as rules, eligibility criteria, decision-making arrangements, punishment structures, and action assignments. Sustainable commons are strongly related to the capacity of the stakeholders to design and share institutions that are enforced and continuously adapted in face of evolving conditions. The paper focuses on the specific case of the evolution of Lake Ahemes institutions: since the pre-colonial times (before 1894), through colonial (1894-1960) and after independence (1960-1990) periods, and to the recent democratization era (after 1990) in Benin. Lake Aheme is located in the southern area of Benin. With a length of 24 km, the lake's surface is 78 square km during low level of water and 100 square km at the periods of inundation of its floodplains. Forty villages are surrounding the lake. The Pedah (fishers) and the Ayizo (fisher-farmers) are the dominant ethnic groups around the lake, among many smaller other ethnic groups. Lake Aheme is a complex local common, which is continuously changing under the influence of several factors (ecological, socioeconomic, technological, cultural, and political) that have influenced its institutions since colonial times. Despite repetitive failures of Lake Aheme's institutions, this case study helps gain a deep understanding into the relevance of institutions for governing local commons such as Lake Aheme. The paper analyzes the evolution of the institutions of Lake Aheme's institutions in relation to factors that influence the failures, from an historical perspective. Can successful institutions be designed to regulate use and access to local commons? In addition, beyond the insights gained into the ongoing struggles, conflicts, negotiation, mediation and adaptations of stakeholders, major learning points are identified to discuss the extent to which institutions can be better designed for governing local commons in the future."
Managing Natural Resources in Face of Evolving Conditions: A Social Learning Perspective
(1998) Maarleveld, Marleen; Dangbegnon, Constant
"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."
Towards Successful Collective Action for Watershed Development for Improved Smallholder Livelihoods in West Africa
(2008) Dangbegnon, Constant; Mando, A.; Sogbedji, J. M.; Zougmoré, R.; Youl, S.
"Livelihoods of many people in Sub-Saharan Africa are tightly depending on sustainable watershed resources. Therefore in several countries, watershed development has become a major issue and many interdependent smallholders with low resource endowments are concerned by the use of associated natural resources. In the particular context of West Africa, watersheds are embedded in complex property right relations among users, making collective or individual investments for their development too risky or too difficult to organize. The diversity of watershed development outcomes, for instance infrastructures like stone bunds and institutions for governing watershed activities are analyzed as public goods and common pool resources (CPRs) using the common theory perspectives. It is well known in the literature that collective action is a necessary condition to resolve problems related to public goods and CPRs in different circumstances. Beyond existing empirical explorations of conditions for collective action, this paper focuses on the design of a pathway to make successful collective action to happen using ideas, concepts and theories of communication, social learning, and management sciences. Insights from watershed projects in Benin, Togo, Mali and Burkina Faso enabled understanding of the (i) nature of watershed development problems, (ii) the learning path for alternative solutions, (iii) external support to implement solutions, and (iv) effects on collective action and smallholders livelihoods. Key lessons are learnt concerning ways of making watershed problems visible, learning to share a common understanding, and strategies for catalyzing behavioral changes for facilitating the emergence of successful collective action. A synthesis is provided to inform new practices that underpin local institutions building for watershed development that would benefit resource poor smallholders in West Africa."