Browsing by Author "Knox, Anna"

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CAPRi Technical Workshop on Watershed Management Institutions: A Summary Paper
(2000) Knox, Anna; Gupta, Subodh
"The System-wide Program for Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi)sponsored a workshop on Watershed Management Institutions, March 13-16, 1999 in Managua, Nicaragua. The workshop focused on methodologies for undertaking research on watersheds, particularly those issues and tools that enable a more thorough understanding of the complex interactions between the biophysical factors and socioeconomic institutions of watersheds. Both social and biophysical scientists from CGIAR and other research institutions were brought together to present research and participate in focused discussions on methodologies for addressing collective action and property rights, scale, participation, and impact assessment. The forum also provided an opportunity for participants to visit and learn from a watershed project being implemented by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and to discuss one another?s ongoing watershed research project experience and explore opportunities for collaboration."
Collective Action, Property Rights, and Devolution of Natural Resource Management
(2001) Katon, Brenda M.; Knox, Anna; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth
"The past decade has seen a growing recognition of the benefits that can be derived from transferring control over natural resources from central governments to local bodies. There are three reasons for this devolution: 1) recognition of the limited effectiveness of the state in managing natural resources, especially at the local level. 2) few developing countries have the resources to monitor large areas of forests, fisheries, rangelands or irigation schemes, resulting in the poor management of these resources 3) devolution of resource management opens the door for more democratic processes to emerge by shifting greater authority and decision-making to rural people. "For devolution to work effectively, users must engage in collective action. This paper explores this linkage."
Collective Action, Property Rights, and Devolution of Natural Resource Management: Exchange of Knowledge and Implications for Policy: A Workshop Summary Paper
(2001) Knox, Anna; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth
"Policies to devolve responsibility for natural resource management to local bodies have become widespread in the past 20 years. Although the theoretical advantages of user management have been convincing and the impetus for devolution policies strong, the actual outcomes of devolution programs in various sectors and countries have been mixed. This paper summarizes key research findings on factors that contribute to effective devolution programs in the forestry, fisheries, irrigation, and rangelands sectors, which were presented and discussed at an international Policy Workshop on Property Rights, Collective Action and Devolution of Natural Resource Management, June 21?25,1999, in Puerto Azul, the Philippines. We begin by addressing the language of devolution in an effort to clarify concepts and terminology that enable a more productive discussion of the issues. This is followed by some of the key arguments made by the workshop participants for devolving rights to resources to local users. Policies and factors that have the potential to strengthen or constrain devolution are addressed at a broad level before looking specifically at how property rights and collective action institutions can shape devolution outcomes. Whereas some factors cut across resource sectors and regions, others are more specific to their contexts. In all cases, proponents of devolution of rights to resource users struggle to understand better what elements facilitate collective action and what factors hinder its creation and sustainability. Finally, a set of recommended frameworks formulated by the workshop participants highlight the potential for fostering a devolution process that leads to the simultaneous improvement of natural resource management and the livelihoods of the poor."
Conceptual and Methodological Lessons for Improving Watershed Management and Research
(2001) Knox, Anna; Swallow, Brent M.; Johnson, Nancy
"Watersheds connect land units through flows of water, nutrients, and sedimentlinking farmers, fishers, and urban dwellers inintricate relationshis. How these flows affect peoples livelihoods depends on the biophysical attributes of the watershed as well as on the policies and institutions that shape human interactions within the watershed. Watersheds are managed at various social and spatial scales--from community management of small catchments to the transnational management of extensive river systems and lake basins. "The System-wide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) convened a workshop in March 2000 to consider some of the key is sues in watershed management research. The workshop was organized around the themes of: 1) collective action and property rights; 2) social-spatial scale; 3) stakeholder participation in watershed management research; and 4) assessment of the impacts of watershed management. This brief summarizes some of the insights that came out of the workshop." .
La Acción Colectiva, los Derechos de Propiedad y la Delegación del Manejo de los Recursos Naturales
(2001) Katon, Brenda M.; Knox, Anna; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth
From page 1: ?¿Qué tienen en común los pescadores de las Filipinas con los agricultores de las zonas irrigadas del sur de la India, los grupos de usuarios de los bosques en Nepal y los pastores en Marruecos? Todos ellos son parte de los esfuerzos por mejorar el manejo de los recursos naturales apoyando la participación de los usuarios locales de los recursos (véase el recuadro). ?En el decenio pasado ha crecido el reconocimiento de los beneficios que se pueden obtener con la transferencia del control sobre los recursos naturales desde los gobiernos centrales a organismos locales. En el plano internacional, se observa esta tendencia en acuerdos como la Convención para Combatir la desertificación y la Convención sobre la Diversidad Biológica, en las cuales los signatarios se comprometen a aplicar los principios de descentralización, subsidiariedad y participación local. A nivel nacional, muchos países de África, las Américas, Asia y Europa Oriental han delegado las responsabilidades del manejo de tierras de pastoreo, bosques, pesquerías y el riego a autoridades gubernamentales locales, usuarios de los recursos o ambos grupos.?
Lecciones Conceptuales y Metodológicas para Mejorar el Manejo e Investigación en Cuencas Hidrográficas
(2001) Knox, Anna; Swallow, Brent M.; Johnson, Nancy
"Las cuencas hidrográficas tienden a unificar unidades de terreno a través del flujo de agua, nutrientes y sedimentos; hacen enlaces entre agricultores, pescadores y habitantes urbanos en relaciones complicadas. La manera en que estos flujos afectan la subsistencia de las personas depende tanto de los atributos biofísicos de la cuenca hidrográfica como de las políticas e instituciones que moldean las interacciones humanas dentro de ella. Las cuencas se manejan a múltiples escalas espacialesdesde el manejo de pequeños embalses por comunidades locales hasta el manejo internacional de extensos sistemas fluviales y cuencas lacustres. "El programa del Sistema CGiAR sobre Acción Colectiva y Derechos de Propiedad (CAPRi) realizó un taller en marzo del 2000 para considerar algunos de los asuntos fundamentales de la investigación sobre el manejo de las cuencas hidrográficas. El taller fue organizado alrededor de los siguientes temas: 1) la acción colectiva y los derechos de propiedad; 2) la escala social-espacial; 3) la participación de los interesados en la investigación sobre el manejo de cuencas; y 4) la evaluación de los impactos del manejo de cuencas hidrográficas. En este resumen se tratan algunas de las ideas que resultaron del taller."
Los Derechos de Propiedad: La Acción Colectiva y las Tecnologías para el Manejo de los Recursos Naturales
(1999) Knox, Anna; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth
"La degradación de los recursos naturales se ha convertido en un problema mundial que amenaza la subsistencia de millones de personas pobres. Se cuenta con muchas tecnologías promisorias para el manejo de los recursos naturales que permiten abordar esos problemas, pero los agricultores y otras personas a menudo no las adoptan. ¿Por qué sucede esto? Si bien es posible identificar muchos factores, la inseguridad de los derechos de propiedad y la ausencia de la acción colectiva merecen mayor atención por parte de los encargados de formular las políticas y los creadores de tecnologías."
Property Rights, Collective Action and Technologies for Natural Resource Management
(2002) Knox, Anna; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Hazell, Peter
"This paper explores how institutions of property rights and collective action affect the application of technologies for agriculture and natural resource management. Those technologies with long time frames tend to require high levels of tenure security to provide sufficient incentives to adopt, while those that have effect across large land areas will require effective collective action to coordinate, either across individual private property or in common property regimes. In contrast to many crop technologies like high-yielding variety seeds or fertilizers, natural resource management technologies like agroforestry, watershed management, irrigation, or fisheries tend to embody greater and more varying temporal and spatial dimensions. Whereas the literature addressing constraints and enabling factors for rural technology adoption have largely focused on their direct effects on crop technologies, the conceptual framework presented here shows how property rights and collective action interact with many other constraints to technology development (such as wealth, information, risk, or labor availability). The paper further explores how the structure of property rights and collective action shape the efficiency, equity and environmental sustainability of technological outcomes, thereby enriching our understanding of different technologies contributions to poverty alleviation."
Property Rights, Collective Action, and Technologies for Natural Resource Management
(1999) Knox, Anna; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth
From page 1: "Degradation of natural resources has become a global problem that threat ens the livelihood of millions of poor people. Many promising technologies for natural resource management are available to address these problems, but farmers and others often fail to adopt them. Why is this? Although many factors can be identified, lack of secure property rights and collective action deserve greater attention from policy makers and technology developers."