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150 Years of Fish Stocking in the Archipelago of Stockholm: Gambling with Ecological and Social Resilience?
(2000) Holmlund, Cecilia
"The focus of this paper is the evolution between the use of fish stocking, common-pool fish resources, and resource user structures in the Archipelago of Stockholm between 1850-2000. Major drivers for fish stocking include development of hatchery techniques, governmental policy, overexploitation, environmental degradation and urbanization. The dominating management incentive of fish stocking is to counteract uncertainty by creating constant fish catches, thereby supporting sports fishing, tourism and providing local employment. Three major categories of fish stocking are used to attain these goals: new introduction, enhancement or complementation, and supplementation. A new culture-based, mixed-stock, put-grow-and-take fishery has been built-up in the archipelago, focusing on a narrow range of piscivorous food and game species. Consequences of fish stocking include loss of social resilience due to masking effects of ecosystem disturbances, support of user shift from commercial to sport fishery, loss of traditional ecological knowledge, and increasing open-access fishing. Ecological and genetic effects, resulting in loss of functional diversity, risk rendering the archipelago ecosystem less resilient to withstand sudden perturbations. In all, the rapid development and use of fish stocking in combination with the mis-match of temporal and spatial scales between the social systems and nature, has resulted in a spiral effect: fish stocking > new drivers emerging > increasing pressure on managers to release fish > new fish stockings, etc. The short-term and single-species focus among managers and resource users is not consistent with developing an adaptive co-management to secure the future generation of ecosystem services."
A Computational Text Analysis Approach to Investigating Public Discourse and Participation in the Case of the 2022 Arizona Legislative Study Committee on Housing
(2024) Castille, Eve L.; Janssen, Marco A.
There is increasing interest in participatory processes as a means to deal with complexity in governance challenges. It is thought to improve decision-making and outcomes by incorporating diverse values and knowledge and generating creative solutions through dialogue and deliberation. Who communicates, who has decision-making authority, and in what context the communication occurs shape the participants, the institutions they create, and the interactions they have within social-ecological systems? We build on the growing public discourse scholarship field to demonstrate how who communicates and who has decision-making authority shapes the institutions that are created. We demonstrate how computational text analysis methods may be used to investigate public discourse. Our study is the first application of these methods to public discourse of which we are aware.
A configurational approach on the strategic relevance of cooperative models of agri-food value chain organization for sustainable transformation
(2024) De Herde, Véronique; Dufays, Frédéric
Cooperative models in agri-food value chains are characterized by modes of horizontal and vertical organization among different collective actors, cooperative and investor-owned businesses. The cooperative models can adopt different organizational features at horizontal level (between actors at the same value chain stage) and at vertical level (between value chain stage). These organizational features range from coordination among autonomous collective actors to integration in a centralized operating and decision-making structure. Depending on contractualization and internal governance, these models can present polycentric governance features marked to varying extent. We raise the question whether we may identify archetypes of cooperative models that are more, or less strategically relevant for sustainable transformation, depending on their underlying social-ecological context. This paper informs theoretically a configurational evaluative framework in this regard, with an eye on a future qualitative comparative analysis of use in this epistemological process. Against a backdrop of institutional and social-ecological literature, the paper successively discusses analytical dimensions of differentiation of cooperative models, conditions that can be constitutive of contextualized configurations, and outcomes of strategic relevance. The paper then discusses the underlying premises and limits of this theoretically informed configurational framework. For instance, the paper explores the limits of a value chain meso-level approach anchored in the perceptions of the stakeholders’ representatives, reducing complex variables to a set of conditions of value chain configuration.
A Framework for Multi-LLM Agent-Based Modeling in Social-Ecological Systems for Environmental Decision-Making through Conversational Experiments
(2024) Kim, Sola; Chang, Dongjune
"This paper presents a novel Multi-LLM Agent Modeling framework that integrates agent-based modeling with large language models (LLMs) to advance the realism and effectiveness of environmental decision-making experiments within social-ecological systems. By focusing on individual and collective agent behaviors, our framework offers a detailed examination of how diverse sociodemographic factors and environmental beliefs influence sustainable practices. The agents, defined by unique profiles and embedded with predefined values, beliefs, and norms, operate within a controlled virtual environment to simulate real-world dynamics and interactions. Our approach not only enhances the comprehension of environmental decision-making processes but also facilitates the development of targeted interventions aimed at promoting sustainable practices across various community segments. This research contributes to the broader application of agent-based models in environmental policy-making, emphasizing the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion in modeling efforts and highlighting the potential of LLMs to capture complex dynamics within social-ecological systems."
A Nonpartisan Metric for Public Policy Solutions: An Excerpt from Politics 4.0: A Unifying Theory
(2024) Denn, Jonathan
In the 18th century, a simple measurement tool, an accurate and waterproof timepiece, solved the problem of longitudinal navigation. Today, navigating choppy political waters may likewise be solved by a simple measurement tool—a universal nonpartisan scoring system for public policy solutions. This paper introduces the theory of Politics 4.0, a role-based political model, ground truth for model-based forecasting AI, the methodology, and an innovative hyper-personalized exponential polling tool to leverage the Wisdom of the Crowd, Law of Large Numbers, Mean Reversion, and Narration. The OECD has said this tool has major potential for success and replication, meaning the tool can be adapted to any country, state, county, or major city.
A's and B's: Dynamics of Resource Use Among Property Regimes and States
(1995) Princen, Thomas
"This paper develops a model for analyzing interactions among different property regimes and among property regimes and states. The model rests on four premises of human behavior at the individual, group, and state levels: individuals are disposed to form restricted access property regimes - private or common; individuals tend not to 'foul their own nests;' individuals deplete others' resources with little regard for long-term resource impacts and little attempt to moderate use of those resources; and state interests align with the interests of those who use others' resources. "The paper argues that although individuals tend to resist outsiders' appropriation of their resource, several factors mitigate against such resistance. These include: insufficient threat, monitoring benefits, favorable prices, state promotion, and jurisdictional distance. An especially important factor is the state and its imperative to generate revenues from convertible currencies. Introducing an outsider results in an increased aggregate discount measure, a strain on resource management, and a common currency that devalues self-organized restraint mechanisms. These results can occur when the exchange between regimes entails no gains from trade. They can be interpreted as the externalization of costs and the conversion of property regimes to open access. The paper concludes that the contemporary political economy is reaching a critical juncture ecologically whereby cost externalization and open access are no longer minor impediments to increasing wealth and prosperity."
Aboriginal Gillnet Fishers, Scientists and the State: Interactions over Salmon Fisheries Management on the Nass and Skeena Rivers, British Columbia, Canada, 1955-1965
(2008) Wright, Miriam
"This paper examines the interactions between Aboriginal gillnet fishers and the Canadian state over the regulations for the industrial salmon fishery on the Nass and Skeena Rivers of northern British Columbia in the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, it focuses on the discussions and conflicts between Aboriginal people, who comprised the majority of industrial fishers in the region, and state officials and scientists who were members of the Skeena Salmon Management Committee. The Canadian Department of Fisheries had created this committee in 1954 in response to declining salmon populations and a 1951 rock slide on the Skeena system which damaged the sockeye spawning runs. The Committee relied heavily on science to gain legitimacy for their increased restrictions on access to the resource, and made it a central feature of their public meetings. They also relied on it to encourage the native fishers to understand and accept the regulations. This approach did not work as expected. Native fishers continued to challenge the regulations, arguing state officials were unfairly penalizing small-boat fishers, and were overlooking greater threats to the resource such as larger and more efficient vessels and gear types. As well, the Aboriginal fishers also used information fisheries scientists had provided to point out inconsistencies in the regulations, particularly relating to the growing international offshore salmon fishery. Moreover, several Aboriginal communities also complained about some of the Committee's research projects such as counting fences and hatchery programs, arguing that they violated traditional Aboriginal treatment of salmon. While not all of these challenges led the Committee to alter its regulations and activities, some did, revealing the ways that science and management practices can be affected by interactions with groups involved in the process."
Aboriginal People and Resource Co-Management: The Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic and Resource Co-Management under a Land Claims Settlement
(1991) Binder, Lloyd N.; Hanbidge, Bruce
"The Inuvialuit Final Agreement (IFA) as enacted under the Western Arctic (Inuvialuit) Claims Settlement Act (1984) set in place five management bodies for co-management of resources in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) of Northwest Territories and Yukon. ISR is a mix of private Inuvialuit land held in common, and crown land. Fish and wildlife resources are co-managed by Inuvialuit and governments of Canada, Northwest Territories and Yukon together with agencies of United States and other nations. "Co-management initiatives are reviewed to illustrate roles and activities of co-management bodies created pursuant to the IFA. Potential problem areas are discussed with respect to development-conservation dichotomy as enshrined in IFA. Complications arising from impending settlement of native land claims contiguous to and overlapping with ISR are also discussed with respect to the need for integration of co-management mechanisms. "Preservation of cultural identity through meaningful participation in management and conservation of arctic wildlife and its habitat is explored with concerns raised and recommendations given for future of successful and culturally appropriate co-management of resources."
About Efficiency of Collective Provision of NRM Investments in Burkina Faso
(2004) Dutilly-Diane, Celine; McCarthy, Nancy
"This paper presents an analysis of the importance of collective action for the realization of Natural Resource Management (NRM) investments and its effect on community-level efficiency in the provision of NRM investments. This study is based on survey data collected in 2002 in 78 villages of northeastern Burkina Faso. The general cooperative capacity of each community is first recovered for any type of collective activity and is then used to explain the probability of a community undertaking reforestation activities and/or stone bunds construction, as well as to explain the efficiency level in the realization of those investments. Empirical results show that greater cooperative capacity indeed increases the likelihood of NRM investments to be undertaken at the community level; however, greater cooperative capacity also appears to lead to inefficient provision of these public goods."
About the Role of Historical Research in the Current Discussion of Environmental Issues
(1999) Modert, Gerd
"This paper seeks to harvest the intellectual orchard and collect its valuable fruit from different scientific communities at one location. So sociologists, environmental historians, cultural anthropologists, geographers, material accounting experts, and others are invited to bring together their special expertise, and to commonly look at the long-term dynamics of societies' metabolism."
Abstract Consumption of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in Kakamega Forest, Western Kenya: Accessibility, Role, Value and to Resident Rural Households
(2008) Kiplagat, Andrew Kipkosgey; Mburu, John; Mugendi, D. N.
"Dependency on natural resources in the commons still ranks very high among rural communities in many developing countries. Kakamega forest in Kenya is one example of a local common that supports a huge rural population. The forest is a high biodiversity area and for generations has been an important source of local peoples livelihoods. The forest is managed by three distinct organizations. The objective of this paper is to investigate the importance of Kakamega forest as a common resource to surrounding households for non-timber products (NTFPs) such as firewood, herbal medicines, pastures and thatch grass for construction and maintenance of shelters by estimating economic value accruing to each household using direct pricing (DPM) and cost of collection (CoC) methods. Results are derived from a survey of 201 randomly selected households that was conducted in October-December 2006. Findings showed existence of a variety of NTFPs that are of great importance to local households livelihoods. Extraction challenges emanating from the different management approaches of the forest were also evident. The study makes a number of conclusions that can inform policy geared to fostering of collaborative management arrangements that can optimize conservation and sustainable use of Kakamega forest."
Academia as a Commons
(2010) Bollier, David
"How open technologies can help higher education expand collaboration, innovation and public access to knowledge."
Acceptability of Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries: Towards Fisherfolk Participation in Fisheries Management
(1991) Siar, Susana U.
"Municipal or small-scale fishing in the Philippines is defined as fishing that utilizes boats of three gross tons or less, or fishing without boats. In 1990, it contributed 45% to the country's total fish production and accounted for 68% of direct employment in Philippine fisheries. The granting of territorial use rights in fisheries (TURFs) to fisherfolk associations, similar to that practiced in Japan, is recommended as a management tool for small-scale fisheries in the Philippines. This study was conducted to determine the acceptability of the practice under Philippine conditions. A survey was conducted among 211 coastal dwellers of five municipalities in Panay Island, Central Philippines. Respondents of the survey generally perceived the practice of TURFs as acceptable since it would lead to an improvement of their catch. Results suggest that the respondents' present predicament of inadequacy of catch to support their livelihood is the starting point to introduce fisherfolk participation in fisheries management."
Access and Benefits in Payments for Environmental Services, Forest Conservation and Climate Change: Lessons from A Global Review
(2011) Mahanty, Sanghamitra; Suich, Helen; Tacconi, Luca
"This paper presents findings from a recent global study that assessed the impacts of Payments for Environmental Service (PES) schemes on livelihoods, and implications for the design of incentive mechanisms for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). It focuses particularly on two key areas that are important to the local impacts of PES and REDD schemes: (i) whether tenure and wealth filter access to schemes by local resource users and managers and (ii) how the design of contracts and the configuration of payments and other benefits impact local livelihoods and the sustainability of schemes. In terms of access, the PES schemes reviewed occurred on land falling under diverse tenure arrangements, and full ownership rights were not a prerequisite for PES agreements, but the criteria for selecting the location and participants for schemes were important access determinants. The schemes did provide some benefitsto participants, for instance a small amount of additional income to participating households, and investments in community infrastructure and services where payments were made to community bodies. Payments were often well below the opportunity costs faced by participants over the life of the scheme, however, which could diminish positive impacts on local livelihoods and ultimately undermine the sustainability of such schemes. Passing on transaction and monitoring costs to participants also reduced the flow of benefits to local actors, and payment schedules often did not cover the full duration of the PES contract, which diminished the likely sustainability and conditionality of the schemes. Such factors will have to be clearly addressed in the design of REDD schemes."
Access Mapping and Chains: The Woodcraft Curio Market around Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
(2006) Matose, Frank
"The paper uses commodity chain analysis to examine the transformation of access and control in woodcraft markets around Victoria Falls in the context of changing policies in the last two decades. The mushrooming of a transnational market for curios has begun to transform the use and management of forests. The paper discusses the distribution of benefits along the chain. It also elaborates on the relationship between property rights operating at a variety of scales beginning with trees on individual farmland or private property, trees on communal woodlands or common property and trees on state land (protected forests and national parks) or state property with other strategies that actors use to gain and control access at different stages of the commodity chain including harvesting, processing, and marketing. In conclusion, the implications for policy are discussed."
Access to Digital Collections of Public Domain Works: Enclosure of the Commons Managed by Libraries and Museums
(2011) de Rosnay, M. Dulong
"Digital copies of physical books and art objects curated by libraries and museums are being made available to the public online. Their access and reuse conditions are submitted to terms of use and policies defined by the institutions in charge of the development of databases and the digitisation of works, of which many are in the public domain. As no copyright applies to these works, their digital instantiation should in principle be freely accessible and reusable. However, in practice, some memory institutions databases contractual terms of use impose restrictions (for instance, reserving the commercial use of the version they digitalized or reserving the right to reuse photographies they funded), thus re-introducing physical barriers for resources which are supposed to be in the commons. The article analyzes a sample of online databases policies of libraries and museums public domain collections in various countries, and provides examples of best practices of institutions and collective actions to avoid adding unnecessary restrictions to public domain works. A good governance of the digital commons including adequate partnerships will enhance access to knowledge."
Access to Forest Resources in the Context of Fast Track Land Reforms: Impacts on Local Level Dynamics: Lessons Drawn from the Zimbabwean Land Reform Programme
(2006) Muyengwa, Shylock
"The research focused on access to and control of forest resources in former commercial farming areas by communal people in Seke. Primary data were collected from Mhindurwa and Mangwende villages using structured interviews, key informant interviews and observations. Secondary data were collected through documentary review and participation during the 'fire wood week' that was jointly run by the Forestry Commission and the Department of Natural Resources. The results indicate that rules to accessing forest resources have changed following the 'fast track land reform' in Zimbabwe and this has prompted the communal communities to seek alternative fuel sources. The results obtained indicated an interaction of policy options and how these alter local level dynamics, which in turn influence the nature of and management of forest resources."
Accounting for the Impacts of Fishers' Knowledge and Norms on Economic Efficiency
(2001) Rudd, Murray A.
"Developing the theoretical links between the knowledge of fishers and societal economic outcomes is important if fishers? knowledge it to be taken seriously by policy makers. Having a theoretical basis that accounts for fishers? knowledge allows for rigorous approaches to marine ecosystem-based policy development that incorporates both social and ecological variables in management experiments. Social interactions that facilitate the development and communication of fishers? knowledge can improve aggregate economic performance by increasing productivity, reducing the risk of ?free-riders? engaging in opportunistic behavior, and encouraging the development of norms that support mutually beneficial collective action. The combination of (1) the social structures and protocols that facilitate predictable cooperative behavior and (2) the values that individuals hold which predispose them to cooperate with each other, are known as social capital. Social capital theory is useful for addressing pragmatic questions about how to target and strengthen social structural variables that most increase the likelihood of successful collective action. When considered as a variable affecting fishery sustainability, focusing on social capital can also be used for comparative policy assessments and help address questions of how to devolve governance to achieve efficiency-maximizing comanagement systems."
Acequias de Común: The Tension between Collective Action and Private Property Rights
(2000) Brown, John R.; Rivera, José A.
"The acequias (communal irrigation regimes) of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado have for centuries accomplished many objectives for the communities they serve, including enabling agricultural production, sustaining popular participation, promoting income distribution and equity, and protecting the environment. This paper asks whether these institutions can be sustained under novel conditions--global markets, immense development pressures and demands for 'efficient' use of water. "Historically, communal irrigation systems worldwide have performed essential functions of reducing the uncertainty of supply, mobilizing labor needed to construct and maintain the works, and preventing and resolving conflicts over water use. Adequately performing these functions has in turn created economic value for individuals and families participating in collective action and legitimized the institutions over time. Since the late 1960s, a growing literature on the governance of irrigation systems has demonstrated that carrying out these functions requires a high degree of local self-organization and control. "Political 'modernization' theory during this period asserted that successful development of nation-states in emerging countries would destroy or drastically alter traditional political institutions. Studies of the governance of common pool resources suggest that this may not always be so. In the acequia case, local control, not only of the 'works' but also of the water resource, stands as one feature vital to their survival. "Moreover, the collective effort that made possible the existence of water rights (and created their value) involves a mutual understanding of an implicit 'collective right' held by the acequia itself to preserve and protect the value thus created. This understanding is evident in the behavior of appropriator-members (parciantes ) of functioning acequias, although unrecognized in current water law. This is a second key feature of these institutions. "The paper's first section sketches the development of the Rio Grande acequias from their Moorish-Spanish roots, showing how they evolved by adapting to local contextual requirements during the Spanish, Mexican and American periods. It explores differences between Spanish and Anglo-American understandings about property rights in water and their impacts on various actors perceptions of the acequia institution. "The second section examines the acequia's contemporary status in their institutional environment, including population and development pressures, interstate compact and treaty requirements, various conflicting federal mandates, as-yet unquantified tribal rights, and the over-appropriation of New Mexico's surface waters. New institutional arrangements, including state and regional water planning and management regimes, water markets and water 'banking' may provide incentives to transfer historical acequia-based water rights to new uses, far from the 'areas of origin communities' where the rights were established. "Finally, the paper poses questions for further research regarding consequences of alternative decisions about institutional arrangements for the continued vitality or decay of acequia communities. These questions derive from our understanding of the features that have contributed to the viability of acequia institutions up to now local control and the underlying understanding of a collective acequia right. They also stem from the possibility that sufficient political will may be present (at least at the 'regional water planning' level in New Mexico) to protect 'areas of origin communities.'"
Achieving a Brighter Future for Communal Rangelands in the Maluti District: Strategies and Process
(2000) Ntshona, Zolile
"The democratic government era has been characterised by poor management of rangeland resources in most parts of the rural South Africa. With little fencing and the unavailability of herding labour, common property resource management is becoming more difficult to implement in communal areas. This paper looks at whether common property resource management approaches offer any sort of non-freehold future for livestock production and range management in communal areas of South Africa. People in communal areas depended on government provisions and assistance for more than 30 years during the period of the Betterment programme. After the collapse of the programme, grants and policing by the government were discontinued, whilst people continuously expect grants and to be policed by the government. This paper argues that the future will provide positive benefits if a re-visitation of a different kind of betterment can be implemented."
Achieving Conservation and Livelihood: A Case Study from Orissa, India
(2011) Sinha, Bhaskar; Singh, K.D.
"The forest policies are primarily reviewed from time to time on the assessment of function of formal/state institutions responsible for conservation and management of forest. However, a variety of informal institutions embedded with social and human capitals, operating at grassroots level, do not get recognized for their conservation potential by the policy makers as these institutions are legally not recognized. Besides, there is lack of scientific methodology to empirically measure the effectiveness of these institutions. Consequently, there exists a knowledge gap between the appreciation of issues between the policy establishment and that of the stakeholders at the local level. Through an interdisciplinary approach, we provide empirical evidences in favour of local institutions regulating community based forest management (CFM) in the state of Orissa, India and present model for sustainable development.The integrated approach of remotes sensing, GIS and field inventory developed in the study is an important scientific contribution to monitoring of the forest cover and livelihood studies at a village level, where majority of CFM operates. By virtue of statistical soundness of the methodology, the study has provided convincing and easily understandable results in favour of community based forest management in Orissa as a viable option towards forest protection and management. The comparative analysis on the livelihood patterns in the three districts of the state revealed that CFM has contributed towards forest protection and regeneration; however, the potential of forest towards livelihood enhancement is not yet fully realized. The study further discusses a model to achieve ecological sustainability on one hand and enhancing incomes of the forest-dependent communities on the other hand."
Action Research Approach to Strengthening Small-Scale Furniture Producers in Indonesia through Policy Development
(2013) Purnormo, H.; Irawati, R. H.; Achdiawan, Ramadhani; Sulthon; Shantiko, B.; Melati
"Imbalanced value added distribution among actors participating in furniture value chains weaken the industry. Regional policies such as the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations)-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) can worsen the situation of small-scale producers, if they are not strengthened. Power imbalance among actors participating in teak furniture value chains jeopardizes the sustainability of the furniture industry. Jepara furniture industry absorbs 0.9 million cubic meters of wood annually. From 2008 to now, we have been carrying out a participatory action research (PAR) on teak and mahogany furniture value chains in Jepara aiming at developing furniture industry policy and strategic plan or roadmap. The roadmap can strengthen small-scale producers' bargaining position, connect them to wider markets, improve trust from government bodies, and sustain the furniture industry for the benefit of small-scale producers. By having a clear roadmap and its supporting institution, small-scale producers strengthen their bargaining position, improve the commons institution and improve trust from government. The use of PAR in the forest product business to improve fairness can be implemented in other parts of the world."
Action Research for Multi-Stakeholder Approaches in Watershed Management
(2006) German, Laura; Tanui, Joseph; Charamila, Sarah; Tolera, Tesema
"Participatory watershed management forces practitioners to move beyond an emphasis on individual land users to group decision-making and multi-stakeholder negotiations to improve common natural resource management problems. This paper is dedicated to a discussion of approaches being developed under the umbrella of the African Highlands Initiative and the African Grassroots Initiative for Livelihoods and Environment to use an action research approach to multi-stakeholder processes in watershed management. It presents research findings from multi-stakeholder engagement processes in agroforestry, highlighting general principles guiding multi- stakeholder engagement in other watershed management themes."
Actions and Rules
(1985) Ostrom, Elinor
From Page 1: "Each of us was supposed to reflect on how we would approach the study of actions and rules. I wish to approach this question by setting up a general framework that could be used to study actions and rules in complex systems at various levels of human action (international, national, face-to-face, etc.). In order to define human action, we must establish what is going to be acted upon. Let us first envision the naturally occurring world which can be represented by a series of state variables. Without human intervention physical transformations among these variables occur. These transformations are represented by the physical laws of Newton and Einstein, by chemical laws, and by biological laws. We presume that water moves to the lowest point, chemical transformations occur, etc., whether or not human actors do anything."
Actores e Interacciones en el Uso de los Recursos Naturales en la Cuenca del Río Pichis, Selva Central del Perú
(2006) Pinedo, Danny
"Este estudio investiga cuáles son los diferentes actores y agentes en el uso de los recursos naturales y cómo ellos interactúan, así como cuál es el impacto de estas interacciones en el uso y manejo de los recursos pesqueros en la Amazonía peruana. Argumentamos que la idea convencional de la polarización entre extractores foráneos y población local no es el único rasgo que caracteriza las relaciones en la cuenca amazónica, sino que hay más bien una diversidad de actores que interactúan en un contexto dinámico. Los actores manifiestan diferentes estrategias que se traducen no sólo en relaciones conflictivas, sino también en diversas alianzas. Investigamos estos temas a través de un sondeo de varias poblaciones asentadas en las riberas del río Pichis y sus afluentes, en la selva central del Perú."
Adapt to Changes: Lessons from Two Irrigation Systems in Ezhou, China
(2012) Qian, Zhou
"In this article I examine how local irrigation institution adapts itself to external intervention projects, like farmlands consolidation project in central China. Through a comparative analysis of two irrigation systems in Ezhou, a city located at Southeast Hubei, in the middle reaches of Yangtze River, I explain why one irrigation system can be better adapted to the intervention project, while the other failed to deal with the same one. Using the framework of robustness in Social-Ecological Systems, entities of two different irrigation systems are identified and their different outcomes are illustrated. Interviews with village heads, community leaders, and farmers make it possible for me to double check the case information and get to understand various incentives of different irrigation entities. Various incentives help me explain their behaviours in the institution adaptation processes. It turns out that the adaptive capacity of the Village Bao irrigation system is much higher, while the irrigation system of Upper Horse Village deteriorating still after the project. A key issue presented here is that interactions between water users and irrigation infrastructure providers, is important for robustness of local irrigation systems. Water users’ engagement in institutional design may make a sustainable, robust and adaptive SES."
Adaptation and Coexistence of Van Gujjars in the Forests: A Success Story
(2011) Nusrat, Rubina; Pattanaik, B. K.; Farooquee, Nehal A.
"The existence of Gujjar pastoral transhumance is one of the best examples of symbiotic relations of these pastoralists with the forests and sedentary population spread over in the migratory routes. The Muslim Van Gujjars are a pastoral group living in the foothills of the Uttarakhand Himalaya, are also known as buffalo grazers, follow transhumance between high altitude alpine meadows and forest foot hills without much diversification of subsistence strategy. The economy of Van Gujjars is completely based on milk production and supply of milk products along with the providing genetically well bred progenies of indigenous buffaloes to the hill people of Uttrakhand. The creation of new state of Uttarakhand, has led to a number of developmental initiatives taken up by the state government which includes creation of more roads, a number of dams for harnessing hydel power and sprouting up of new urban centers. All these have disturbed and disrupted the migration pattern of Van Gujjars. On the other hand, the initiatives taken up by the state forest department in restricting the entry of Van Gujjars into their forests has further added to the problems of survival of these pastoralists. The Van Gujjars are well known for having evolved a resource management practice by utilizing the alpine grazing resources in summer and migrating to foot hill forests in winter. They also provide their buffalo manure to the small land holding farmers for their agricultural fields. Besides breeding their own livestock, Van Gujjars also take care of the animals of other communities, fulfilling the role of village cowherd. Henceforth, Van Gujjars have proved themselves very resilient; they have an intact social structures and mechanisms for mutual sharing of resources with the sedentary population. They also provide ethno veterinary services to the local farmers, and their livestock also represents an encashable asset. These exchanges are immensely welcomed by the sedentary population. With increasing international emphasis on the conservation of biodiversity, policies need to be devised out for the Van Gujjars so that they are able to benefit from recognition of their role in conserving livestock genetic diversity, promoters of valuable indigenous breeds of buffalo and indigenous knowledge and also about coping mechanisms from environmental stresses."
Adaptation and Survival, or Conflict and Division: Different Reactions to a Changing Common Property Resource Institution in a South Indian Fishery
(2006) Coulthard, Sarah
"Community adaptation to environmental and social change has often been a catalyst for evolution in common property resource (CPR) institutions. With increasing fragility of many traditional forms of natural resource management, understanding how communities are further reacting to, and evolving with, change in common property resources and the institutions that govern them, is vital if appropriate management support is to be established. Ultimately, our ability to evolve with change predetermines our ability to cope with change and fosters greater socioecological resilience. Similar arguments are being echoed throughout debates on the human- environment interface. As we face imminent global environmental change, important questions are being asked as to how we can cope and adapt to live with change - and what might restrict that capability. Using a case study of traditional fisheries management in South India, this paper documents a changing CPR management institution and the reactions of the local fishing society to those changes. The Padu system, a traditional common property resource institution, has defined fishing access rights in coastal communities throughout South India and Sri Lanka over many generations. Despite a substantial geographical reach, relatively little is understood about how the Padu system is changing under multiple pressures; even less is understood about how affected fishing societies are surviving the change. Pulicat lake, India's second largest coastal lagoon and an important artisanal fishery, provides a useful setting in which to explore changes in the Padu system, which, still governed by local people, represents the dominant form of fisheries management in the lake."
Adaptation Strategies under Technological Change: A Comparative Study of Saami Reindeer Management Regions in Norway 1960-1990
(1997) Riseth, Jan Åge; Vatn, Arild
"The aim of this article is to try to explain why the transition from subsistence economy to market economy has been clearly more successful so far in the South than in the North. It seems rather obvious that the problems with overgrazing or resource depletion in the North is the result of a badly functioning common property regime. But one may ask whether we are observing a simple disintegration of a previously well functioning system or whether the problem is lack of capacity to transform as the transition from subsistence to a market orientation has taken place. If so, the problem is to explain why the system was not able to adapt in the North, while in the South, transformation and adaptation processes seem to have been rather successful concerning resource conservation and income."
Adaptation, Conflict and Compromise in Indigenous Protected Areas Management
(2006) Caddy, Emma
"Common property theory has increasingly broadened its scope from an initial focus on community-level systems, to recognition and examination of how these continuously interact and evolve in response to external dynamics, constraints and multi-level partnerships. The common property systems of indigenous peoples are clearly not static and brittle institutions, but have survived to the present day precisely because of their propensity towards adaptation. As indigenous peoples confront new challenges in a globalizing world, the comanagement model for protected areas governance - parks which often encompass significant tracts of their traditional lands - has presented itself as an opportunity for safeguarding common property interests. In practice, indigenous peoples have enjoyed varying degrees of success in meeting these goals through protected area partnerships with the conservation sector, as will be illustrated through case studies drawn from southern Belize. "The Government of Belize (GoB) has shown itself unusually willing to assign protected area status to an extremely large percentage of its national territory. However, expectations that the national protected areas system would be instrumental in fuelling development in Belize were tempered by subsequent reality. The GoB has in practice failed to secure sufficient funds to effectively manage its protected areas, let alone generate income and profit from their existence. In light of this situation, various co-management and local management models have been used by the GoB to supplement weak and in some cases non-existent on-the-ground management, involving local organizations and communities alike. "In Belize's southernmost Toledo District, where the greatest concentration of protected areas, intact habitats and indigenous peoples not coincidentally are located, the GoB's willingness to engage in devolved management has created political opportunities for indigenous peoples to regain a measure of control over common property alienated by protected area boundaries. Although conservation partnerships have been entered by necessity, rather than design, indigenous peoples have capitalized on the political space created to promote common property interests. "This paper will examine examples from southern Belize where local indigenous communities and organizations have exploited opportunities provided by the creation of protected areas to promote their own local governance and development aspirations. The case studies will illustrate how local indigenous communities in Belize have advanced collective rights and livelihood interests through the prism of protected areas management, and at the same time, seen their options constrained by multi-scale partnerships with the conservation sector. The analysis will moreover consider the many challenges and constraints indigenous organizations have faced in effectively balancing conservation and indigenous imperatives, and delivering sufficient local benefits to compensate for the sacrifices and adaptations which conservation partnerships have necessarily enforced. Lastly, recommendations on future directions for the study of systemic complexity in common property management systems will be discussed."
Adapting Common Rules in Geographical Indication systems: Evidence from the European Union
(2017) Quiñones-Ruiz, Xiomara F.; Forster, Hanna; Penker, Marianne; Belletti, Giovanni
"Since there is a knowledge gap in systematically understanding the amendments of collectively defined rules written down in the product specifications of protected GIs, this paper aims at answering the following questions: 1) Which types of EU GIs, namely Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indications (PGI)2, have been changed?, 2) Which countries are pursuing most of the amendments and when? In section 2, we present the analytical framework supporting the analysis of all 244 amendments listed on the EU DOOR website by September 29, 2016. Section 3 illustrates the procedures for GI registration and amendment while section 4 describes the statistical methods used for the analysis. Then, we present the results showing first general empirical evidence of GI amendments and then explaining the likelihood of making amendments in section 5. Sections 6 and 7 present the discussion and conclusion respectively."
Adapting Pasture Land Management System of Chotanagpur Tribes
(2006) Dey, Nabhojit; Dutta, Raka
"The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate alternative institutional arrangements to redeem the health of Bero's pasture land management and use them to augment the resource base of the poor. Historically, poor people were heavily dependent on these (common) resources. Recent experiences in privatizing these resources and entrusting ownership/usufruct rights to individual poor families does not appear to have produced encouraging results either in restoring productivity of this land or in expanding the resource base of poor families. Establishing the instrumentality between individual reward and quality of effort, and explicit efforts in group action to establish clearly each member's stake, rights and responsibilities in the resource is the way towards gaining sustainability. "This research paper takes into account the case of five Chotanagpur villages, namely Asro, Lamakana, Dumardon, Hutri and Dhauntatoli in the Jharkhand state of India and analyzes the following prominent features of pastureland management system in these villages. The villages are Oraon dominated villages. The Oraons are believed to belong to the Dravidian stock. They generally speak Kurukh language. The Oraons mainly depend on agriculture and have believed to have first introduced plough cultivation in the Chotanagpur Plateau. "It has been observed that apart from minor diversification of occupations there has been rapid dispossession of land, forcing increasing number of them to become a laborer. In spite of protective land laws, a number of them have been rendered landless due to regular and irregular processes of land alienation. Money lending law has not been enforced and moneylenders continue to charge exorbitant rates of interest and fully exploit the tribal people. "This research paper primarily focuses on the pastureland management system of basically this primitive tribe and how it is being adjusted with the changing times. "Further it invites the students from different fields and practitioners to share their level of experiences and give us the fruitful and constructive suggestions."
Adapting the IAD Framework to Analyze a Cross-level Decision-making Process of a Mega Project: The Port of Sao Sebastiao, Northern Coast of São Paulo, Brazil
(2014) Feital, Marcela da S.; Brondízio, Eduardo S.; Ferreira, Lúcia da C.
"The approval of infrastructure megaprojects involves negotiation arenas at different levels. From the discussion of long-term goals to the crafting of rules defining the nature and scope of a project, the decision-making process brings together actors with different goals, worldviews, and negotiating powers. This article examines the multiple level arenas associated with the expansion of the seaport in the Northern coast of São Paulo, and its action situations such as its environmental licensing process and public hearings. The environmental licensing process allows us to examine links of different interaction levels among actors from national, state and local contexts. In order to understand local dynamics and explore these article goals, it is important to understand the wider context in which this action situation and its deployment work in. This way, the aim of this article is showing the different action levels related to the decision arena about Sao Sebastiao port's extension, the main components of each level, and the feedback relations among them. This analysis was possible by an adaptation of the Institutional Analysis and Development framework (IAD framework) which enabled the identification of a network of action-situations (national/regional/local), their components and interlinkages."
Adapting to Climate Change: Opportunities under MGNREGA
(2011) Sinha, B.; Basu, A.; Katiyar, A.S.
"The impact of climate change would be the most severe for the poor communities, living in the developing nations with limited options for livelihood and high level of dependence on the natural resources. The impacts would increase the food insecurity, water stress and extreme weather events which would affect the livelihood security of these communities and increase their vulnerability. It is therefore important that development programmes targeting such communities should be underpinned with the measures of adaptation to climate change. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), implemented on a national scale is one such programme that creates employment by undertaking diverse activities aimed towards water harvesting, drought proofing, flood protection and plantations. The study evaluates the ecological and economic impact of MGNREGA in Panna, a drought-prone district of M.P. Threat in relation to climate change, would be more severe as the district is characterized by high level of poverty (72% of population under BPL) and less irrigated land (11.8%). Construction of wells, renovation/construction of ponds, plantations and watershed management are some of the major activities being implemented. These activities are measures towards adaptation to climate change apart from having direct outputs in terms of enhanced agricultural productivity due to increased availability of water and land conservation. Results show an increase in irrigated land by 26% and subsequent increase in their average household income by 15%. In case of Kapil Dhara (construction of well on individual land), there is 100% increase of irrigated land and 45% increase in their income. With respect to people’s perceptions, more than 50% of the respondents ranked prevention of soil erosion and increased soil moisture as the most important benefits accrued due to plantation, but only after they were briefed about different benefits including wage employment, materiel and ecological benefits. This indicates that sensitization of the masses towards role of MGNREGA in climate change adaptation would add to people’s appreciation and participation in the program for championing development with adaptation."
Adaptive Behavior Assessment Based on Climate Change Event: Jakarta’s Flood in 2007
(2011) Susandi, Armi; Pratiwi, Dwi R.; Suwarto, Titania; Tamamadin, Mamad
"Response to reducing climate induced event such as flood is not only responsibility of community itself but also largely responsible of government agency in carrying out its mandate to be in the forefront of disaster risk management and climate risk management. Government must have adequate capacity to carry out its task for climate change adaptation because successful implementations of adaptation strategy will be depend on government’s performance particularly government in local level. Beside that the role and contribution of community organization could be effective partners of the LGU and community in responding to climate change impacts. Hence, this study would be assessing adaptation behavior of local communities as well as decision makers in climate risk areas in Jakarta to determine the set of adaptation possibilities that would be appropriate to be implemented in Jakarta. This study is important to be conducted consider the fast rapidly of climate change that inducing many disaster in this region. Beside that as well as government agency and stakeholder need this study to perceive the preparedness of Jakarta to facing climate change disaster that would be conducted in the future."
Adaptive Community Forest Management: An Alternate Paradigm
(2003) Nayak, Prateep Kumar
"Over the last couple of decades the increasing instances of community action in restoring degraded forests has remained a unique phenomenon. This took shape on the backdrop of large-scale depletion of forests due to centralization of forest administration leading to exclusion of local communities, politics of land distribution, maximization of forest revenue resulting in exploiting of timber and incoherent forest policies. In India, as in other parts of the world, a vast majority of the rural population depends on forests critically for a vast range of forest products and services. This critical dependence shapes and defines the relationship of people with forests. On one hand, these dependencies drive resource dependent poor to exploit forests for subsistence and livelihood and often abets the process of degradation, while on the other, it also prompts local people to take positive steps to conserve these resources. Many forest neighbouring communities have responded to the process of forest degradation by evolving local arrangements to conserve and manage forests. These local arrangements seek to regulate access and control over neighbouring forest patches and in effect bring open access forests under CPR regime of the communities. As they evolve these local arrangements also start adapting to the changing complexities in the micro as well as macro policy environment and, today in India, thousands of such community efforts have laid the foundation of an alternate forest management system. This is commonly known as adaptive community forest management."
Adaptive Governance of Commons: Cases from Indian Forest and Water Management
(2013) Sinha, Himadri
"Biodiversity conservation essentially requires community involvement. But community-based conservation or community based resource management is not just about communities. It is about governance that starts from the ground up and involves multi-level interactions. Complexities of this multi-level governance create problems but also provide opportunities to combine conservation with development. Multi-level governance may facilitate learning and adaptation in complex social-ecological circumstances. Such arrangements should connect community-based management with regional/national government-level management, link scientific management and traditional management systems, encourage the sharing of knowledge and information, and promote collaboration and dialogue around management goals and outcomes. Governance innovations of this type can thus build capacity to adapt to change and manage for resilience. In India, the criticality of commons with respect to social, ecological and economic perspectives is immense. Currently, the challenges for the local institutions are numerous emanating from the rapid globalization and industrialization process with constant flow of information, money, objects, ideologies and exogenous technologies. In subsistence agrarian economy where people largely depend on agriculture and forests for their livelihood requirements and a trend of transition setting in, the problem is all the more critical. Hence, it is critical for the institutions to be resilient to the increased externalities and complexities arising from the forces of globalize economy. The paper examines the institutional challenges and various social factors that influence the process of resilience building within institutional ambience. The cases of forest and water management from eastern India are considered and analyzed from a multi level governance perspective for ensuring socio-political adaptation, distributive justice and livelihood security. Findings shows that distributive justice and livelihood security remain strong in local emerged institution but their adaptation with Political system require external help and assistance."
The Adaptive Governance of the Commons: Understanding Shifts in Modes of Governance in Community Forestry Systems
(2009) van Laerhoven, Frank
"Under what conditions can social-ecological systems be expected to develop sustainably? Social-ecological systems (SESs) - such as for example community forests and their users - have been compared to 'moving targets:' Due to the interactions and interdependence between the systems' components, SESs are characterized by change, change that can often not be anticipated in terms of intensity and direction. Sustainability is therefore not a steady-state equilibrium that can be developed towards to. I argue that the long-enduring success of community forest systems - success defined in terms of forests not degrading and its users staying happy - is intimately related to a user group's ability to adapt its mode of governance, when confronting change. I hold that forest users that engage in experimentation, learn from experience and are able to adapt to change are more likely to avoid forest degradation or social disintegration. In this research, I focus on the conditions that are expected to make this happen. The particular social-ecological systems that I propose to look at, involve a total of fifty community forestry systems in Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, and Mexico, respectively. I line up the following variables to explain variation in community forestry systems - ability to develop sustainably: Diversity in types of actors, social memory, functional redundancy, and trust among actors. These explanatory variables are operationalized through social network analysis metrics - i.e. quantifiable algorithms regarding relevant social network characteristics. I propose to derive the indicators related to the dependent variable (the sustainable development of community forestry systems - the social as well as the ecological side of the picture) from an existing database, compiled by the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research program."
Adaptive Learning Networks for Improved Floodplain Management
(2011) Sultana, Parvin
"Adaptive learning is a structured process of 'learning by doing' that emphasises the learning process in management. Previous work on adaptive learning networks has focused on exchanges between individuals or focused on technical aspects of resource management across villages. However, co-management is increasingly being adopted in floodplain commons. In Bangladesh many community based organizations (CBOs) have been formed and left to continue managing wetlands when projects ended. Over 250 existing CBOs involved in managing floodplain natural resources were brought together into a learning network. The CBOs identified lessons and good practices and spread their adoption. They identified gaps and opportunities, and coordinated innovation to address common problems. The adaptive learning process evolved through workshops among CBO leaders at a regional level and two-way communication between leaders and members of their CBOs. By bringing together CBOs that had before concentrated on either fishery management or water management for rice, and reviewing together constraints and opportunities, proven practices spread and new options were tested. Over three years 56% of participating CBOs acted to improve fisheries management, and 72% now have fish sanctuaries. Taking a system-based view of natural resource management encouraged a quarter of the CBOs to test dry season crops that need only about 20% of the water used by the dominant irrigated rice. The aim was to preserve more surface water for fish to survive in. Most of the alternative crops were shown by the farmers to give better financial returns than rice, and crops such as garlic are now spreading in several CBO areas. Overall the benefits of an adaptive learning network are: more rapid and systematic learning than individual trial and error, encouraging innovation, more efficient channels for advice, and strength in numbers to face threats such as external pressure to access common water resources."
Adaptive Management and Welfare Enhancement of Kattudel Fishery in Negombo Lagoon
(2013) Iwasaki, Shimpei
"This paper presents a case study of Kattudel(stake-seine) fishery for catching fishery resources in Negombo Lagoon, Sri Lanka. The research aims to address fishery adaptation to tackle with the commons dilemma by introducing a padu system which is a gear-specific with rules to define fishing grounds and right holders. Among the right holders belonging to particular families, an effective mechanism has been evolved for resource sharing in the fishery over the hundreds of years dating back to the 18th century. Evidence from the case study showed that a nested structure of the fishery at the vertical level among stakeholders has been developed. For equity sharing of the resource, different fishing dates are assigned among four Kattudel fishery societies, and fishing grounds are then allocated to the right holders in each society using alottery. Complicated challenges and issues related to demarcation of territories and conflicting situations among the societies have been settled through active involvement of the Roman Catholic Church. The findings revealed that the role of the Roman Catholic Church served as a basis for coordinating the societies over fishery resources and introducing a welfare scheme for fishing communities. In the latter, afunding for the welfare scheme has been incorporated in the income generation process including auction for specific fishing grounds devised by each society. It enables to respond to livelihood security, in terms of death, loss of physical strength and unforeseeable accident, and to promote cultural development at the base of the Roman Catholic Church. Religious enhancement is expected to strengthen the fishery operation among the societies and among the right holders in each society. Based on these findings, this paper provides a significance of the linkages of adaptive management and welfare enhancement beyond the commons dilemma."
Adaptive Management of Marine Mammals: Accentuating the Positive
(1995) Freeman, Milton M. R.
From introduction: "The recent history of marine mammal management includes examples where conflict rather than cooperation characterizes the discourse. One cause of the conflict appears to be the tendency toward globalizing (or progressively de-localizing) the management regimes, with a result that many actors peripheral to resource users' concerns come to play a role in management decision-making. This has the result of greatly increasing the politicization of the management process without increasing the sustainability of the resource user - resource stock interdependency that has come to be seen as an important conservation principle. "Today it is increasingly recognized that community-based fishery and wildlife users in many areas of the world have developed systems of using these local resources on a sustainable basis (e.g. NRC 1986; Berkes et al. 1989; Ostrom 1990; Ruddle and Johannes 1990). In many cases this sustainable use takes place despite the introduction of, e.g., modern technology and the community's commercial integration with the world economy (e.g. Dyer and McGoodwin 1994). "This paper will examine the management and use of certain marine mammals in the coastal zone or near shore areas in the northern regions, where for many years the traditional use and commercial trade of marine mammals has sustained the health and vitality of both aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities and their distinctive cultures. In these regions there exist successful management and conservation programs operating with and without government (or other outside) involvement. "In the discussion that follows, two intergovernmental marine mammal management regimes will be briefly described and their performance analyzed. These two management bodies are the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears (abbreviated to the Polar Bear Agreement, or PBA). "In marked contrast to the highly polarized and conflict generating nature of debates that characterizes the IWC management style, the PBA operates with a high degree of consensus and an almost total absence of conflict between governments and user groups. One very important difference between these two management regimes is the different understanding of the role of people in wildlife and fisheries management, in which the reactionary position exemplifying the whaling regime is strongly contrasted with the progressive view represented in the polar bear regime."
Adaptive Management, Organizations and Common Property Management: Perspectives from the Community Forests of Quintana Roo, Mexico
(2000) Bray, David Barton
"For over 15 years an unusual experiment in community-based management of common property resources, particularly forest resources, has been underway in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Mexico's ejido system gave communities permanent and secure access to common pool forest resources under defined common property management regimes in two stages, 1) When the ejido land grant was originally given as far back as the 1920s, and 2) when communities won the right to exploit the timber on their forest lands in the early 1980s. It is a system of common property management which was almost entirely induced from the outside, a 'donor-initiated common pool resource institution,' although in some cases it clearly was able to draw on indigenous cultural forms and practices. Thus, it is not 'self-organized' although in the best of the cases it now has a significant degree of self-governance. It involves the organized industrial production of timber for commercial markets, an economic activity which occurs in few other common property regimes in the world outside of Mexico. It involves not just sets of rules in use, or 'institutions' but formal community organizations, indeed, market-oriented 'community enterprises' dedicated to commercial forest exploitation. These formal organizations occur not only at the community or ejido level, but also participate in and depend upon second-level organizations at the state level and third-level organizations at the national level in a 'nested' fashion. "These and other factors to be discussed in this paper make community forest management in Quintana Roo an exceptional but still little described case within the common property literature. I will be attempting a synthetic analysis of the history of these organizations, the social and ecological conditions which forged their emergence, and how they have transformed over time within a turbulent policy and political environment and in interaction with the constraints and possibilities of the ecosystem. Some of the key conceptual elements I will use in the discussion include adaptive management and organizational learning, the linking of social and ecological systems, common property theory, social capital, and community-based conservation. The adaptive management approach is a framework that allows us to look at the Quintana Roo organizations as actively adapting and reacting to a typically complex social and ecological environment, as organizations that 'learn.' A practical implication is that it calls for the elimination of the barrier between research and management. In this approach, resource management policies, and resource-directed actions should be treated as 'experiments' from which land managers and 'stakeholders' at all levels of a social system can learn. It takes the assumption of 'trial and error' in the evolution of self-organized CPR systems, and attempts to place it on a more formal foundation of scientific research and adaptive organizational strategies."
An Adaptive Organizational Learning Framework for Resilience in Fisheries Co-Management: Based on an Analysis of Fisheries Regimes in Malawi
(2008) Russell, A.J.M.; Dobson, T.
"Due to fish stock declines in Lakes Malawi and Malombe, the Malawian government introduced co-management to replace a central fisheries management regime that lacked local legitimacy. Based on a combination of ethnographic and archival data collected over a three year period, we present analyses of co-management regime 'successes' and 'failures' through a model of organizational learning. Existing local leadership institutions tend to cater to social demands for stability and continuity. As ecological and social contexts evolve, crises develop that these institutions may be unwilling/unable to address. In some cases, governments, communities, donor agencies and NGOs promoted the creation of co-management regimes in direct opposition to existing institutions, causing many co-management institutions to fail. Even where successfully introduced, co-managementregimes' effectiveness may be eroded by rival institutions' attempts to resist the changes imposed, or due to the new institution's own inertia. "We argue that the success of institutional innovations in fisheries regimes is influenced by the awareness of local leaders and extension agents to 'psychological failures' and their in/abilities to address these challenges to adaptive organizational learning processes. Only if local institutions are helped to balance the natural desire for stability with adaptivity to social/ecological change, will co-management institutions be able to achieve resilience. We discuss predictable psychological failures experienced in local fisheries contexts in Malawi, and suggest ways in which NGOs and local Fisheries Department staff should address them. For an agency to succeed in promoting these types of adaptive learning processes at the local level, its field staff must be supported in playing the roles of sensitizers, facilitators, and advisors, addressing locally-relevant needs. Co-management in Malawi poorly addresses the influence of traditional authorities, and the proposed framework can be used to support institutional innovation by fisherfolk stakeholder groups and traditional authorities."
Adat and Globalization: Living Apart Together
(2002) Moeliono, Moira
"Common property management is almost always linked to customary (adat) institutions. Adat, however, is more than institutions regulating tenure of natural resources, but comprises a social system structuring all aspects of life. However, in the past drive for modernization, customary or traditional rules, regulations and the related lifestyle were regarded as back-wards, inefficient and an obstacle for development. "The 1990s saw the growth on national adat movements demanding self-governance and self-determination. NGOs often act as their mouthpiece and over time demands have increased, and in some cases even sovereignty of adat is demanded. But what does sovereignty of adat mean to the adat communities? Do adat communities themselves want to return to adat? Is there still an adat to return to? Is adat able to take on self-governance and rational management of common property? In additon, can adat law exist besides national or even international law, where all have to be equal and equally treated? "This paper is an attempt to provide some answers. A brief overview on the possible origin of adat is presented, followed by a description of two ways in which adat continues to play a role in adat communities. Although I talk about adat in general my focus will be on that part of adat concerned with tenure and rights over land as this lies at the heart of adat movements today. The last part of this paper is a discussion on the possible implications to the potential role of adat in a decentralized Indonesia. Three main assumptions form the core of the discussion: adat is more than land tenure; adat exists together and intersects with other systems; and adat is used today both at the local and the national level as an element in the struggle for political and economic power."
Adding Value and Conserving Community Forests: The Case of Certification in Vermont, USA
(2002) Lorenzo, Mark
"Can independent third-party forest certification, as promoted by the internationally recognized Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) support the conservation of biological diversity in community forests while adding economic value to forest products? Vermont Family Forests (VFF), a fledgling community forestry initiative based in Bristol, Vermont (pop. 3800), earned the first FSC group certificate in the US, verifying that over thirty separate forest parcels were jointly well-managed. VFF is directed by the Addison County Forester, and works in partnership with the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, and National Wildlife Federation to stem rates of forest loss and wildlife habitat decline by creating opportunities for improved economic returns commensurate with careful land stewardship. VFF marketing explicitly links ecological forestry practices on participating forests to creative, direct forest product marketing to customers and the general public. "The family and community-owned forests in VFF operate in an ecological context of fragmented young second-growth forest, an economic context of increasingly global forest products markets, and a social context of controversy about forest practices and deforestation. VFF benefits from the counter-trend of interest in policies and programs that integrate community, economic and ecological sustainability, especially as to be implemented in sustainable forest management. At this stage, FSC certification serves as an intervening filter between local forest ecosystems and economic markets, enhances community social capital, and helps generate market premiums."
Addressing the 'Tragedy of Commons' by Creating Social Capital: Some Experiments and Experience with the Street Vendors in Orissa
(2011) Ramana, D.V.
"The paper documents the journey of the researcher and a group of vendors and links it with the relevant theoretical underpinnings. The paper makes an effort to answer the following questions: How to conceptualize the social capital in the context of the street vending?; Can an institutional support play a role in strengthening the social capital?; Will social capital help in addressing the tragedy of common?"
Addressing Uncertainty in Multiple Use Landscapes of Desert Australia
(2006) Davies, Jocelyn
"This paper focuses on pastoral rangelands of arid Australia - multiple use landscapes, where extensive land uses such as livestock grazing and self drive tourism co-exist with indigenous peoples' access to and use of their traditional lands. Legal recognition of indigenous native title rights started only in the early 1990s. Native title overlays an array of 'terra nullius' institutions and its meaning continues to be contested. This paper explores how a polycentric change process has been progressively crafting more equitable and effective institutions for multiple use of rangelands that are responsive to the rights and interests of native title groups as well as those of other actors. "In South Australia, native title groups decided in 2000 to participate in a statewide approach to resolution of their native title claims with the vision that it would restructure the state's institutions 'with native title built in'. Five years on there has been some significant progress on this aim on pastoral lands, as well as other sectors, through negotiation at local and statewide levels. A strategic two-tiered approach to the negotiations has enabled legislative change to create incentives for local agreements and address barriers to sustainability of agreements. One of its hallmarks is its focus on building relationships between people. The approach has been effective in harnessing leadership for change and in being responsive to local actors' authority, concerns and accommodations about co- existing rights and interests. The approach is resource hungry and demanding of negotiating skills and innovation in approaches to entrenched issues and interests. However it is not only cheaper than the likely cost of litigation but, unlike adversarial strategies, is providing opportunities to develop partnerships for improved economic and social outcomes into the future."
Adjusting to Change: The Dynamics of a Local Management Establishment in the Amazon
(2000) de Castro, Fábio; McGrath, David; Crossa, Marcelo
"The focus on local management systems as dynamic institutions that evolve through time is fundamental to understand how users respond to environmental change in order to adjust to new scenarios, and how those responses are consonant with social and ecological systems. In this regard, recently-established local management systems are live laboratories to comprehend under what circumstances local management systems can take place, and how are the internal dynamics of users in the learning process of adjusting their resource use practices in the early stages of such institutions. "This paper discusses the local management of lake that emerged in the 1960s in the Amazon Basin--the fishing accord. In focuses on one case study, covering a 30-year time frame--15-years prior (1970-1985) and 15-years after (1985-2000) its establishment. This fishing accord encompasses two major rules: 1) to refrain gillnet fishing, and 2) to restrict commercial fishing to six months (June through November), and to a few fish species-- catfish and pirarucu (relatively sedentary species with high market value). Dataset combine interviews, fish landing statistics in two time periods (1992-1993 and 1996-1997), fishing accord document, and participant observation at community meetings. "Ethnohistorical data show that the decrease of lake productivity was a major factor in the establishment of the fishing accord, and recent fish landing statistics show that fishing productivity has steadily increased after the establishment of the local management. The fishing accord has constantly been adjusted in order to address ecological (lake productivity) and social issues (internal conflicts and conflicts with outsiders). Problems related to misunderstanding and social heterogeneities within the group have been solved through verbal agreement, while problems related to constant rule breaking, and to threat to lake productivity have been solved by adding new rules. In particular, the rapid recovery of pirarucu fishing productivity after five years of the fishing accord establishment has enabled local residents to rely upon this fishery as one of their major economic source. On the other hand, the increased fishing pressure on pirarucu recently started to threaten the sustainability of this fishery, leading the users to discuss new regulations regarding this activity. Besides the local organization, the increasing involvement of NGOs, GOs and grassroots in this community-based management has started another phase in adapting the rules into a larger policy framework that is legally consistent and supported by scientific knowledge. "The paper discusses the early process of establishing and adjusting local management to ecological and social systems according to new demands raised from constant environmental change both at the local and regional levels. The role of ecological features of the lake system, of the social features of the users, and of the increasing involvement of external agents in the consolidation of this local management system are discussed. "We conclude that ability of the users to respond rapidly to environmental change, combined with the ecological features allowing rapid productivity recovery were major supporting factors in the success of this local management to date."
Adjustment of Resource Exploitation in European Cooperative Pastoral Systems: Impact of External Changes on the Efficiency of Implemented Institutions and Utilisation Rights
(2004) Gueydon, Anne; Roeder, Norbert; Hoffmann, Helmut
"European biodiversity significantly depends on large scale livestock systems with low input levels. In most countries such forms of grazing are organised in permanent or seasonal cooperations (land-owner/land- user agents) and covers different landscape such as forests, pastures, mires and even arable land. The reason for the emergence of cooperative structures was to limit the access of individuals to the resource in order to prevent over-exploitation. Its aim was also to provide large-scale areas facilitating the grazing of big flocks with low costs. Today, the existence of these structures is threatened due to changes in agricultural land-use practices and inappropriate governmental policies. "At first some basic characteristics and the trends of development of the systems are presented. The present paper investigates five livestock systems with varying degrees of cooperation in different European countries and landscapes. These systems are reindeer husbandry in Northern Fennoscandia, sedentary sheep grazing in Central Spain, cattle grazing in the German and Swiss Alps and sheep grazing in the Polish Tatra Mountains. These systems show very heterogeneous organisational patterns in their way of exploiting the pastoral resources and different degree of resource exploitation. "A comparative analysis of the organisation and structural form of the grazing systems presents the role different groups of actors play in these systems and their inter-relationships. Further, the economic implications of the legal definitions of the forage resources and the institutions dealing with the resource exploitation are presented. This leads to an analysis of the way the resource is managed and exploited. "The investigated systems range from ones with a relatively rigid internal structure and rule system, like in Entlebuch and Upper Bavaria, ones with a high degree of governmental involvement, like in Central Spain and in Northern Fennoscandia, and ones which are relatively unbounded by any formal regulations, Poland. "The last section the analysis shows how the systems react to constantly changing economical, environmental, social, technical or legal settings. Adjustment to these external changes entails a modification of the type of good of the resource under management and consequently of the way of managing the resource. For the efficiency of the system the balance between property rights, internal structures, public regulations and institutions has to be maintained."
Administración de Sistemas de Riego: Tipos de Autogestión
(2000) Palerm Viqueira, Jacinta
"En este ensayo pretendemos caracterizar dos tipos de administración autogestiva y presentar posibles implicaciones y problemáticas de uno y otro tipo. La caracterización está basada en una revisión de más de 20 casos mexicanos y de otras regiones del mundo. "Tipos de autogestión: El primero corresponde a los casos donde la operación (y otras actividades) son realizadas por los mismos regantes; el segundo corresponde a casos donde los regantes contratan personal especializado para la operación. "Esta tipología de autogestión surge de la percepción en la diferencia de conocimiento entre regantes que operan ellos mismos y regantes que contratan personal, o dicho de otra manera el regante de un sistema o subsistema recientemente transferido no parece haber adquirido nuevos conocimientos y habilidades en relación a la operación del sistema."
Administrative Behavior in Forest Governance Reform in India: A Preliminary Report on Case Studies from Maharashtra & Andhra Pradesh
(2011) Fleischman, Forrest
"This paper reports preliminary results from a study of administrative behavior in the implementation of forest governance reforms in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The focus here is on evidence collected between August and October, 2010 from fieldwork in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. I begin with an examination of the organization of the Forest Department in the region, and continue with an examination of how this organization effects policy implementation. I find qualitative differences in the kinds ofinteraction accompanying different policies and policy reforms. Policies that are implemented effectively empower powerful and competent actors to do things that are in their interest. This includes many of the policy changes that were required by the Supreme Court as part of the Godavarman Case. By contrast, many of the policy changes required as part of Joint Forest Management and the Forest Rights Act were not implemented effectively, since there was no empowered constituency for these changes at the local level."
Administrative Centralization Threatens Commons-Owning Municipal Sub-unit: Property Wards (Zaisanku) in Toyota City, Japan
(2011) Saito, H.
"In Japan, when the Meiji government encountered great resistance to its drive to convert traditional commons into national forest and to extinguish village commons by amalgamating villages into larger municipal units, the government consented to allow communities to continue to own their commons, particularly forests and reservoirs, as new legal entities called “property wards” or zaisanku. In this paper, we describe the characteristics of this system and discuss its current problems and its potential for resource management, using Toyota City in Aichi prefecture as a case study. In Japan, local communities and village sections (such as buraku or oaza) below the level of municipalities cannot in principle own land. When local authority borders are altered through processes such as amalgamation of municipalities (gappei), existing community units in the municipality can be granted corporate status as property wards, which are recognized as juridical persons that are then allowed to own their commons. The property ward system is regulated under the Local Autonomy Law and falls under the control of the government bureaucracy. Even though the earlier management structure is respected, its operation can be rejected or negated by the bureaucracy. Before 2004, the Inabu ward of Toyota city, Aichi prefecture was an independent town with 13 property wards. Under the Inabu town authorities, the customs of each ward were respected and each ward was managed autonomously. However, after Inabu merged with Toyota City in 2005, the city authorities placed broad restrictions on the use of revenues, threatening the continuity of autonomous management of the commons by the property wards. This example suggests that city bureaucrats have not recognized the productive possibilities of continued management of resources held by property wards as commons."
Advancing 'Natural Autonomy' in the Negeri of Honitetu - Nudua Siwa, West Seram
(2006) Tebiary, Pitony
"Honitetu is a traditional village in the Kairatu subdistrict (Kecamatan) of West Seram. It is located 24 kilometers from the subdistrict seat, and consists of six hamlets, including Honitetu itself (the administrative centre of the village), also Rumatita, Imabatai, Sokawati, Urasana, and Uraur. Another name for Honitetu is Nudua Siwa, meaning 'nine mouths'. Originally, the village comprised nine hamlets or kampung, i.e., Rumatita, Imabatai, Honitetu, Sokawati (previously known as Solibatai), Ursana, Uraur, Nunaya, Nui and Lakubutui. Each hamlet consisted of several clans, bound into a single soa. A soa is headed by a chief, or Kepala Soa. The nine Kepala Soa all sit on the Saniri council of Honitetu'Nudua Siwa, as they have done for generations. "The livelihoods of villagers in Honitetu derive from farming and hunting. There are numerous traditional ceremonies closely related to forest areas surrounding the village. In addition, there are many sacred sites spread about the forest, where rituals are performed. These rituals usually involve consuming game and other products secured from the forest. Additionally, the forest is source of a variety of medicinal plants used by villagers to treat common ailments. "Clearly, the forest plays a very important role in the lives of Honitetu/Nudua Siwa villagers, in terms of meeting their day-to-day needs, and other important purposes as well."
Advancing a Diagnostic Approach to Addressing Environmental Problems
(2010) Cox, Michael
"Social-ecological systems exhibit patterns across multiple levels along spatial, temporal, and functional scales. The outcomes that are produced in these systems result from complex, non-additive interactions between different types of social and biophysical components, some of which are common to many systems, and some of which are relatively unique to a particular system. These properties, along with the mostly non-experimental nature of the analysis, make it difficult to construct theories regarding the sustainability of social-ecological systems.This paper builds on previous work that has initiated a diagnostic approach to facilitate analysis of these systems. The process of diagnosis involves asking a series of questions of a system at increasing levels of specificity based on the answers to previous questions. The answer to each question further unpacks the complexity of a system, allowing an analyst to explore patterns of interactions that produce outcomes. An important feature of this approach is the use of multiple levels of analysis. As this paper will show, this feature can be used to analyze a diversity of environmental problems. Following this discussion, the implications of such a diagnostic approach for future research and pedagogy in the field of environmental management and policy are explored."
Advancing Environmental Governance: Perspectives from the Regional Environmental Forum for Mainland Southeast Asia
(2003) Regional Environmental Forum
"Advancing Environmental Governance is a compilation of papers and a consensus statement from the Regional Environmental Forum (REF) for Mainland Southeast Asia, a forum of environmental experts that met in Phnom Penh in November 2002. The report contains: ? An introduction describing the REF and exploring the functions of a regional civil society forum; ? A consensus statement from participants at the REF providing recommendations to national governments and regional institutions for improving environmental management; and ? Perspective country papers written by experts from Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. It explores questions of how governments can strengthen their systems of environmental governance to balance environment and development needs; how regional institutions can promote sustainable development in the midst of rapid regional economic and political integration; and the role of regional civil society in advancing environmental governance, both among regional institutions and national governments."
Afectacion en Manantiales por Uso de Agua Domestico en la Cuenca del Rio Cuautla, Morelos
(2003) Palerm Viqueira, Jacinta; Avalos-Gutierrez, Claudio
"The Cuautla municipal water agency built a well close to a spring belonging to a (irrigation) water user association. The spring went dry. The paper relates how this was delt with by the National Water Agency, the WUA and the municipal water agency."
Africa's Two Great Evils: 'Soil Erosion and Soul Erosion' Pressure on Customary Institutions for Common Property Resources Management; East Africa Case Study in Reference to the Maasai
(1996) Ole-Ngulay, Saruni Oitesoi
"Maasai pastoralists are the largest group in East Africa practising common property rights. This paper highlights land tenure arrangements and customary land management institutions. It discusses the causes underlying increasing resource scarcity, decreasing resource access, and pastoralists' displacement from their lands. The paper argues that these changes have been possible because the pastoral mode of production is not understood by those with political and economic influence. With the breakdown of customary or local management institutions, Maasai pastoralists have been disempowered and put into a situation of increasing dependency."
African Customary Land Rights in a Private Ownership Paradigm
(2013) du Plessis, Elmien; Frantz, Gino
"With the advent of constitutionalism in South Africa, customary law is elevated to a position where it now is recognized alongside legislation and the common law as one of the sources of law. This is a major shift from the previous position, where customary law was only recognized in as far as it was easily ascertainable with sufficient certainty or codified, and then only applied when it was not in conflict with the common law. Despite the constitutional imperatives for the recognition of customary law, and interpretation that is in conformity with the constitution (that includes the recognition of customary law), the courts seem reluctant to do so. This paper will look at the South African courts' interpretation of ownership of land held in terms of customary law, and will aim at providing alternative interpretations to 'ownership' of customary land. "
African Indigenous Knowledge and Its Relevance to Environment and Development Activities
(1991) Lalonde, Andre
"The nature of indigenous and post-colonial 'traditional' rural Africa, and the constraints or challenges this poses to the current maintenance and practical use of TEK, including the future transmission among indigenous Africans and development planners alike are examined. Main traditional livelihoods and land-use practices which sustainably exploit the ecosystem include sedentary and shifting agriculture, nomadic pastoralism, hunting, fishing, food gathering, rain forest use and limited agroforestry for food materials and medicines, etc. This is demonstrated, where possible, with case studies involving the following regions of African tribal groups: Kenya--Maasai; Tanzania--Pare, Zaramo, Luguru; Niger -- Fulani; and the San of the Kalahari. "A few promising options for development agencies to improve their understanding of dynamics of renewable resource management were outlined for integrating TEK into modern resource planning techniques such as environmental assessment and proactive environmental programming. Other promising TEK management applications include: i) Adaptive environmental management approach; ii) Participative rapid rural appraisal; iii) Popular education; and iv) Indigenous peoples and habitat conservation areas."
African Indigenous Land Rights in a Private Ownership Paradigm
(2011) du Plessis, Elmien
"It is often believed that indigenous law confers no property in land. Okoth-Ogenda reconceptualised indigenous land rights by debunking the myth that indigenous land rights systems are necessarily 'communal' in nature, that 'ownership' is collective and that the community as an entity makes collective decisions about the access and use of land. He offers a different understanding of indigenous land right systems by looking at the social order of communities that creates 'reciprocal rights and obligations that this binds together, and vests power in the community members over land'. To determine who will be granted access to, or exercise control over, land and the resources, one needs to look at these rights and obligations and the performances that arise from them. This will leave only two distinct questions: who may have access to the land (and what type of access) and who may control and manage the land resources, on behalf of those who have access to it? There is a link with this reconceptualisation and the discourse of the commons. Ostrom’s classification goods leads to a definition of the commons (or common pool resources), as 'a class of resources for which exclusion is difficult and joint use involves subtractablity'” The question this paper wish to answer is: would it be 1) possible to classify the indigenous land rights system as a commons and 2) would it provide a useful analytical framework in which to solve the problem of securing land tenure in South Africa?"

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