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Accounting for the Links Between Social and Ecological Systems for Effective Nature Conservation
(2015) Gonzalez, Angela Guerrero
"This thesis addresses one of the greatest challenges faced by conservation researchers and practitioners: understanding and accounting for the social-ecological complexity that characterises most global environmental problems. This thesis makes theoretical and empirical contributions to research on the problem of fit that extend beyond the conservation planning field. It provides empirical support for how collaboration approaches to governance can enable the coordination of actions across different management scales, and demonstrates how interactions between the social and ecological systems can be accounted for in conservation planning decisions, and in assessments of the effectiveness of environmental governance arrangements."
Adaptabilidad Institucional: Dinamicas en la Evolucion de los Sistemas Socio-Ccologicos de Uso del Agua en Espana
(2009) Florensa, Meritxell Costeja
"The evolution of institutions is an increasing concern among scholars interested in institutional analysis. This study investigates the processes of institutional adaptation regarding the use of common property resources. The evolution of social-ecological systems (SESs) based on the use of water resources in Spain is the main object of study. In particular, it focuses on the factors that can positively influence the adaptive capacity of SESs to internal and external disturbances. "It is argued that the changes agents that constitue a novelty and are of an intensity not experienced before by the system can have the potential of increasing the vulnerabilty of the SES beyond its resilience. The homogeneity of perceptions and interests among the group of users of the resource, the availability of information and the presence of leadership appear as the combination of factors which exert a greater influence on the adaptive capacity of the system to these changes. The intervention of upper levels in the governance structure can also have a positive effect on the adaptability of the SESs, specially in those SESs in which the presence of leadership, the existence of participative common ground arenas and a certain degree of autonomy of the system have been identified."
Adaptation Within Constraints An Evolutionary Approach to Change in Individual and Social Constitutions
(1996) Shivakumar, Sujai
"The past three decades have witnessed a revival of interest in the study of institutions by economists outside the disciplinary mainstream. Approaches in, what has become identified as, 'New Institutional Economics' promote an understanding of social institutions as a complex of rules which, because of their reliability, recognizability, and general applicability, serve to reduce uncertainty and promote coordination and cooperation among individuals. The more recent tradition in 'Constitutional Economics' has complemented and broadened this perspective by focusing attention on the constraints circumscribing adaptive change within and among rule complexes of various kinds. This thesis focuses on how such an integration is part of a broad fixed framework that includes a particular theory of knowledge and behavior within an evolutionary perspective. "Our aim then is to show how the Institutional-Constitutional view can rest on a robust understanding of the knowledge and behavior of individuals. In particular, this thesis demonstrates the proffered approach--built upon while at the same time reflecting the structure of arguments in evolutionary, behavioral, and epistemological theories--provides a theoretically compact and integrated explanation that can form a more sound basis for the study of social and economic phenomena."
All Hands on Deck: An Interactive Perspective on Complex Common-pool Resource Management Based on Case Studies in the Coastal Waters of the Isle of Wight (UK), Connemara (Ireland) and the Dutch Wadden Sea
(1999) Steins, Nathalie A.
"This book is about the management of coastal resources. It is about fishermen, shellfish cultivators, salmon farmers, yachtsmen, cargo operators, nature conservationists, researchers, development agents and authorities. It is also about fish cages, fairways, birds, fishing vessels and 'vacuum cleaners'. In particular, the study is about collective action processes amongst multiple stakeholders in the coastal waters and how such processes are shaped in time and space as a result of interactions amongst such stakeholders (and non-human entities). "The study is the outcome of several research projects carried out while I was working at the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom (February 1996 - August 1998). Some of the projects were driven by a purely academic interest in the collective management of natural resources. Others were part of consultancy work or programmes funded by the European Union. The thread of all these projects is the management of coastal resources that are used in common by multiple users for multiple types of use, and, more particularly, the problems associated with multiple-use and the users' strategies to deal with these problems through collective action."
Appropriation Externalities in the Commons: Theory and Experimental Evidence
(1996) Herr, Andrew
"A common-pool resource (CPR) is defined as any resource in which exclusion is difficult and consumption of resource units is rival. Examples of CPRs include groundwater basins, fisheries, forests, grazing ranges, and irrigation systems in which property rights--or the ability to uphold such rights--do not allow for privatization. In situations where these characteristics exist, the predicted outcome is overuse of the resource relative to the social optimum, commonly known as the 'tragedy of the commons.' This dissertation combines the tools of game theory and experimental methods to gain a broader understanding of the incentives that underlie this prediction. "First, an extensive analysis of a game theoretic CPR model is conducted. A distinction is made between two types of appropriation externalities: those that are restricted to a single period (time-independent), and those that occur across several periods (time-dependent). This study examines the impact of various factors--including group size, heterogeneities, myopia, and the ability of appropriators to commit to an extraction path--on the predicted outcome of the CPR game. The behavioral impacts of time-dependency and group size are then examined in a controlled experimental setting designed to capture the essential features of the model. "While the equilibrium of the game theoretic model provides a fairly accurate prediction of aggregate outcomes, it fails to satisfactorily explain behavior at the individual level. Most notably, individual behavior in time-dependent designs is characterized by myopia, in the sense that subjects appear not to consider the full impact of their current decisions on future payoffs. This myopic behavior exacerbates the predicted tragedy of the commons."
Aspectos Ecológicos de Patrones Espaciales de Arboles Tropicales, Caracteres de Historia Natural y Tipo de Hábitat en una Selva Húmeda Neotropical
(2002) Salinas-Melgoza, Miguel Angel
"El análisis de los patrones espaciales de poblaciones de organismos sésiles es una herramienta muy útil en el entendimiento de los procesos que determinan el establecimiento y desarrollo de los individuos en un ambiente dado. El objetivo del presente estudio fue investigar como las poblaciones de árboles tropicales se encuentran espacialmente organizadas, y la correlación de tal organización con diferentes atributos de historia de vida (tamaño de la diáspora, síndrome de dispersión de la semilla, estatus sucesional), el tipo de hábitat (terraza aluvial, planicie de inundación, lomerío-bajo y sierra cárstica) y la densidad poblacional. El estudio se llevó a cabo en la selva húmeda de Chajul, Chiapas. En catorce parcelas permanentes de 20 x 250 m (0.5-ha), los individuos con diámetro a la altura del pecho (dap) > 10 cm, representantes de 44 especies y 85 poblaciones, se mapearon a escala. Se usó el Índice de Morisita, un método con área ampliamente usado, para cuantificar el patrón espacial de las poblaciones de estas especies a nivel de cada parcela y empleando tres diferentes escalas de análisis (25 m2, 100 m2, 400 m2). La mayoría (61.6 %) de las poblaciones analizadas mostraron un patrón al azar en las tres escalas de análisis. La frecuencia de poblaciones con patrón agregado fue significativamente mayor en la sierra cárstica donde la heterogeneidad topográfica fue mayor. Por el contrario, en la terraza aluvial se presentó la mayor frecuencia de poblaciones con patrón al azar, siendo este hábitat el topográficamente más homogéneo. Existió una mayor frecuencia de poblaciones agregadas a la escala de 25 m2. Se observó una frecuencia mayor de especies pioneras dentro del grupo de poblaciones agregadas y de no-pioneras dentro del grupo de poblaciones al azar. La diáspora de las especies no pioneras con distribución espacial al azar fue más grande y la de las especies pioneras con distribución agregada fueron las más pequeñas. El Índice de Morisita disminuyó conforme la densidad poblacional aumentó; está tendencia se presentó en las tres escalas de análisis. Con base en los resultados obtenidos, propongo que el arreglo espacial de las poblaciones de árboles en Chajul se encuentra influido por el nivel de variación de factores relacionados con la topografía del terreno, con la calidad del suelo y con el régimen de perturbación del dosel. Al parecer, existen factores dependientes de la densidad (e.g., depredación sensu lato y competencia) que producen un aclareo, y una disminución del grado de agregación, en poblaciones que muestran una fuerte agregación en fases tempranas de desarrollo, particularmente en especies abundantes, de semilla grande y no pioneras."
Assessing Wetland Assessment: Understanding State Bureaucratic Use and Adoption of Rapid Wetland Assessment Tools
(2012) Arnold, Gwen
"Rapid wetland assessment tools, technically complex science policy innovations that are deployed within the regulatory sphere and have relatively low public salience, can highlight and help interpret the data a bureaucrat should use when making wetland regulatory choices. These tools can help bureaucrats overcome the longstanding challenge of quantifying wetland benefits when making such choices. However, state wetland bureaucrats use these tools infrequently in regulation, and states find adopting tools into regulatory policy difficult. This research explores why.These problems are analyzed by focusing on six Mid-Atlantic states and using an original survey of state wetland bureaucrats (n=149), interviews with policy actors (n=98, 58hours), ethnographic data collection (18 months spent working with federal wetland bureaucrats who work regularly with state counterparts), and secondary source analyses.Research reveals that street-level wetland bureaucrats are more likely to deploy tools in regulation when they have more opportunities to learn about tools via on-the-job experience, lateral communication about tools with policy network members, and vertical communication of tool-supportive cues from their administrative hierarchies. The institutions of cooperative environmental federalism and the Clean Water Act generate power inequities, path dependencies, and perverse incentives which discourage states from adopting tools into regulatory policy. This phenomenon is illuminated via synergistic institutional analysis, an approach the dissertation proposes for using the complementarities among rational choice, sociological, and historical institutionalism to explain policy outcomes. Contrary to a core expectation of cooperative environmental federalism, ostensibly pro-environment pressures the federal government imposes on states can prevent states from pursuing environmentally beneficial policies. Finally, the dissertation develops the concept of the street-level policy entrepreneur,an implementing bureaucrat who crafts or secures a policy innovation intended to improve implementation processes, then seeks to entrench the innovation in the practices of bureaucratic peers. Neither the conventional political science literature on policy entrepreneurship nor the street-level bureaucracy literature gives sufficient attention to the entrepreneurial capacity of these actors. Yet case studies of tool adoption efforts pursued by states show that implementing bureaucrats can pioneer, rather than merely receive and execute, policy innovations."
Authority Flowing Downwards? Local Government Entrepreneurship in the Chinese Water Sector
(1997) Turner, Jennifer L.
"In this study I investigate the factors that shape and enable local governments to evade, modify, or innovate central government policies during implementation. I consider the ability of local governments to undertake any of these three actions as examples of policy entrepreneurship. This study explores how the increase in decentralization in China has affected local government discretion and entrepreneurship in water policy implementation. Many scholars researching China's reforms maintain that the decentralization policies have enhanced local government power and autonomy. But the qualities, limitations, and causes of this enhancement merits a more thorough exploration. In order to address this broad research question, I create an analytical framework to explore the intergovernmental dynamics in Chinese water policy implementation as more responsibilities and authority have been devolved to lower levels of government."
Between Commons and Anti-commons: A Study on the Structure and Structural Development of Small Scale Private Forest Property under the Conditions of Societal Transformation in the Free State of Saxony
(2007) Schurr, Christoph
"The study aims at finding general conditions, criteria and restrictions for functional small scale private forest property under the conditions of transformation from a socialist to a democratic and market system. Criteria for the economic and social operability of property in a complex resource system are deducted from property and collective action theories. They are used to evaluate the structures of private forest property in the Free State of Saxony in eastern Germany. The three major problems shown by this structural analysis (lacking viability as private property, low degree of co-operation between owners and underutilization of the resource) are a result of extreme spatial and legal fragmentation. Spatial or legal bundling of property rights therefore is essential for overcoming them. "Cost and benefit of various ways of property bundling are then compared by means of an economic model of a parcellized area of private forests. The approaches deducted are evaluated by experts representing different groups of stakeholders and forest policy actors. Individual enlargement of small forest property appears as the main path of structural adjustment that meets experts' support, a second suitable path of development being the establishment of shared private property. Both paths need to be supplemented by stronger co-operation of forest owners and changes in public forest policies. The main recommendation of the thesis is transferring management responsibility to small forest owners, while government action should be limited to the provision of information and rules that are apt to strengthen self-responsibility and the capacity of small forest owners to act by themselves."
Beyond Institutional Diversity: Studying Governance and Leadership in the Social-Ecological System of Urban Lakes in Bangalore, India
(2017) Nath, Sanchayan
"This dissertation seeks to explain how the lakes, in the Indian city of Bangalore, have been governed over time."
Beyond the Commons: The Expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation, The Elimination of Uncertainty, and the Politics of Enclosure
(2002) McCann, Anthony
"This thesis (online at http://www.beyondthecommons.com)provides a theoretical analysis of the expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) during the period 1995-2000. Since achieving independence in 1995, the Irish Music Rights Organisation has emerged as the sole performing rights collection agency in the Irish state. From 1995-1998 the organisation met often fierce resistance as it sought to expand the base of its licensing operations. Since that time, however, resistance has subsided, and the Irish Music Rights Organisation now holds a position of unchallenged dominance. Discourse relating to the expansion of IMRO is needed. "'Beyond the Commons' explores the relational implications of the hegemonic authority of this performing rights organisation. To this end, the expansion of the organisation is characterised as an example of 'enclosure'. Enclosure has been variously understood in opposition to the commons, common right, or common property. This thesis provides an analysis of the process and practices of enclosure itself. IMRO's expansion is examined as an example of enclosure without taking recourse to the concept of the commons. "Expansion is the dominant feature of IMRO's activities during the period 1995-2000. In this thesis a descriptive model is used to show that this expansion follows a cycle. It is characterised by expansion, resistance to that expansion, and legitimation of the expansion, followed by further expansion. By drawing correlations between the political dynamics of IMRO and what economist John Kenneth Galbraith terms the 'Planning System', a contribution to an explanatory understanding of this cycle of expansion is explored in which an underlying and pervasive organisational tendency towards the elimination of uncertainty is identified. To move from organisational analysis to an analysis of the relational implications of enclosure, a dynamic theory of 'negotiation' in social interaction is proposed, incorporating uncertainty, meaning, power, and expectation. "Building on theories of critical legal studies, social interactionism, social psychology, and the work of Michel Foucault, it is argued that enclosure can be characterised as a consistency of expectations, that is, a 'disposition'. The disposition of enclosure is that of a tendency towards the elimination of uncertainty. It is disclosed by the evidence of 'attitude', that is, consistency of expectation as evidenced in social interaction. The attitude of enclosure, as evidenced by IMRO's expansionary practices described herein, is characterised by strategies of framing (monologic generalisation, closure, and separation), expansion (representation and resistance), and consolidation (displacement, legitimation, and hegemony). "The dynamic model of enclosure presented in this thesis deconstructs IMRO's expansion, revealing the relational implications of copyright and performing rights in social interaction. It also discloses the implicit complexity in any claims to definitive collective authority from this relational perspective. An awareness of these implications raises ethical questions concerning power, authority, and agency relational to an unquestioned acceptance of the Irish Music Rights Organisation."
Biomass Burning in Tropical Ecosystems: An Analysis of Vegetation, Land Settlement, and Land Cover Change to Understand Fire Use in the Brazilian Lower Amazon
(1998) Sorrensen, Cynthia
"Research in global environmental change emphasizes that biomass burning significantly contributes to increased atmospheric trace gases and possible climate change. Analyses of what drives anthropogenic fire is less thoroughly examined because such study involves examining the human and physical dimensions of biomass burning at local and regional scales. This dissertation uses a multi-scale approach to address fire use within local and regional contexts. It investigates dynamics and effects of fire use within four rural communities with different settlement histories, then expands these findings to understand burning patterns in a larger agricultural frontier south of Santarem, Brazil's third largest Amazon city. The aim of the dissertation is to understand how landscape environmental factors and land settlement shape land use practices and the burning patterns associated to those practices. Abstract: Research in global environmental change emphasizes that biomass burning significantly contributes to increased atmospheric trace gases and possible climate change. Analyses of what drives anthropogenic fire is less thoroughly examined because such study involves examining the human and physical dimensions of biomass burning at local and regional scales. This dissertation uses a multi-scale approach to address fire use within local and regional contexts. It investigates dynamics and effects of fire use within four rural communities with different settlement histories, then expands these findings to understand burning patterns in a larger agricultural frontier south of Santarem, Brazil's third largest Amazon city. The aim of the dissertation is to understand how landscape environmental factors and land settlement shape land use practices and the burning patterns associated to those practices. The dissertation integrates analyses of biomass burning at three spatial scales: regional, ecological field, and local. At the regional scale, a model of biomass change is developed from remotely sensed data and used in combination with household land use information to infer extent of biomass burning in the study region over a 9 year period. At the field scale, physical evidence of slash and burn agriculture is examined through vegetation inventories and measure of post-fire fuel loads in 14 agricultural fields. At the local scale, in-depth household interviews on household history, land use strategies, and present/historical burning practices compliment physical evidence, to provide a fuller understanding of the local causes and impacts of fire use. Throughout the dissertation a geographic information system (GIS) is used to assess temporal and spatial characteristics of human settlement; and a global positioning system (GPS) is used to link vegetation information and settlement findings to land cover classifications derived from remotely sensed data. This dissertation advocates the need for local and regional studies on environmental issues to inform global environmental change research and estimation. It provides a framework that links human dimensions of biomass burning to larger global change issues. Findings in the dissertation contribute to the discipline of geography in the area of human/environment interactions."
Building Robustness to Disturbance: Governance in Southern African Peace Parks
(2008) Schoon, Michael L.
"Transboundary conservation has gained currency over the past decade as an effective means for achieving a wide array of goals ranging from improved biodiversity conservation to regional economic development to the promotion of peace between countries. Studies to analyze these competing claims oscillate between views of transboundary protected areas (TPBAs) as panaceas that can solve wide-ranging societal challenges in any type of setting to studies that view them as idiosyncratic entities with no generalizable traits, and few studies assess institutional arrangements for governance. This study, by contrast, uses 150 key informant interviews within two TBPAs in southern Africa the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Botswana and South Africa and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe to address analytically how different governance structures of transboundary protected areas maintain robustness in response to various types of disturbance. "The insights arise from the fundamentally different institutional development paths of the two cases. This study argues that that the bottom-up institutional development and the slow, unforced evolution of governance in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park have allowed governing bodies to learn how to adapt and respond to transformations in the social-ecological system from an operational level. By contrast, institutional development in the Great Limpopo has struggled operationally due to the top-down imposition of the park on local-level communities and officials and the short time horizons permitted for goal attainment. However, top-down park formation has resulted in other accomplishments, primarily in bridging international boundaries. The central premise is that the national-level commitment to the Great Limpopo results in greater degrees of cooperation at a policy level than in a park that develops from the bottom-up. Such high levels of policy cooperation without parallel gains in operational cooperation have led to unexpected challenges in the Great Limpopo."
Can Decentralization Save Bolivia's Forests? An Institutional Analysis of Municipal Forest Governance
(2002) Andersson, Krister P.
"Decentralization has become a common policy strategy to address governance failures associated with natural resource management. Several international treaties, for example, point to the advantages of a decentralized government structure for addressing environmental problems. Yet, the scientific understanding of the institutional and environmental effects of decentralization reform remains quite limited in most developing countries. This study raises concerns about the prevalence of a decentralization panacea as it obscures a realistic assessment of the specific institutional arrangements that underpin decentralized governance structures. The institutional analysis carried out in this study finds that several institutional and socioeconomic factors are critical determinants of the success of a decentralized governance regime. Drawing on survey data from a representative sample of 50 municipalities as well as in depth case studies from six forest-dwelling communities in the Bolivian Lowlands, the empirically grounded analysis assesses the influence of each of the hypothesized drivers of successful decentralized governance. The empirical research concludes that the prospects of successful decentralized forest governance in Bolivia rest to a great extent on how the decentralized regime's actors manage to develop institutional arrangements that can effectively overcome motivational and informational problems of collective action. Finally, by applying the particular approach and methods of institutional analysis used in this study, monitoring programs can be developed to detect changes, and derive the causes of such changes, in the institutional conditions for decentralized governance. The information generated by such a monitoring program would be useful for the readjustment and fine-tuning of existing policy instruments, if the policy makers who receive the information are motivated to take this information into account when they make the decisions."
Can Forest Sector Devolution Improve Rural Livelihoods? An Analysis of Forest Income and Institutions in Western Uganda
(2009) Jagger, Pamela
"Forest sector devolution is widely promoted throughout the low income tropics as a policy that leads to poverty reduction. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence to support this assertion. Drawing on the case of a major forest sector reform in Uganda, this dissertation addresses the question: has Uganda's forest sector reform led to improvements in rural livelihoods? Uganda provides an excellent case study of two parallel devolution processes: democratic decentralization of oversight of private forests to local government; and devolution of ownership and management of Central Forest Reserves to the for-profit parastatal National Forestry Authority. The first empirical chapter uses pre and post-reform household level data to estimate the direction and magnitude of the effect of the reform on the contribution of forest income to rural income portfolios. The findings show that decentralization to local government has had minimal impact of the contribution of forests to household income portfolios. However, for the case of devolution to the National Forestry Authority, relatively wealthy households have significantly increased forest income since the reform was implemented. Using the methods of institutional analysis, the second empirical chapter discusses the incentives facing actors involved in and affected by reform implementation. The analysis demonstrates that the motivations and information shaping incentives for forest officials and forest users are hindering the ability of poor and vulnerable households to increase the share of their income from forests. The third empirical chapter describes heterogeneity in perceptions of formal withdrawal rights for forest products. The findings demonstrate that there is considerable heterogeneity in knowledge of formal forest withdrawal rights among forest officials, village leaders and households. Perceptions of formal rights do not appear to have a significant effect on the harvesting behavior of rural households. The findings from this study challenge the assertion that forest sector devolution is an effective strategy for rural poverty reduction."
Ciencia en Abierto en El LHC (CERN): Discursos Proclamados y Conductas
(2012) Pérez González, María de Lourdes
"Prevailing science is undergoing a change process in which different actors, norms and contexts are leading to a radically different way to discover and research, e-science. From the point of view of information, this new paradigm touches everything: resources, processes and outcomes, thus it is an imperative to know the construction of these new architectures of knowledge regarding issues such as access, opening or closing them. In this paper we approach to the cyberinfrastructure of the Large Hardon Collinder, LCH from the Centre Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire, CER,N and we do it, from the focus of the open science, ‘openness’, movement under construction which we try to inquire the scaffolding of their epistemology (knowledge as a common resource and public domain). For this we deconstruct, at first, the regulations at CERN, trying to trace its mesopolitics and discourse, its understandings and ways of conducting science in this current context. And ultimately, following other sociologists of science, we approached at a local research group from a Spanish university, part of the LHCb from the CERN collaboration to see how are shaping to these models of per-production, its reading, practices and behaviors in relation to issued / ignored discourses by the collaboration."
Claiming Reindeer in Norway: Towards a Theory of the Dynamics of Property Regime Formation and Change
(2005) Bergstrøm, Cassandra
"The study focuses on the formation and change of property regimes with respect to the reindeer of Norway. The aims of the study are to use the Saami-reindeer nexus in Norway: to understand the emergence and change of property regimes; to identify sources of contradiction and conflict in the claims made on resources or goods; to explore how conflicts are played out - regulated or not, resolved or not - and the consequences of these processes; to examine the politics of property, including the role and impact of the politics of non-property issues and policies on property regimes; and to identify other factors that influence and affect property regimes, including unintended consequences of policies, and exogenous events including accidents."
The Co-Production of Property Rights: Theory and Evidence from a Mixed-Right System in Southern Mexico
(2005) Kauaneckis, Derek
"This dissertation presents a framework for explaining variation in property right institutions as a result of interactions among decision-makers at three levels; formal government actors, the community of right-holders and individual right-holders. It uses a simple game-theoretic model where enforcement is the mechanism linking levels of interaction to the property institution. Property rights are understood as a function of the value of the resource to which a right has been assigned and the cost of enforcement. It recognizes that representatives of formal government, including bureaucrats, regulators and various types of law enforcement and monitoring agents do not uniformly enforce claims to property. Right- holders make decisions about contributions to the production of a property right institution based on expectations of external third-party enforcement, levels of peer-enforcement and their own ability to individually enforce property claims. This combination of different types of enforcement activities determines the structure of rights that ultimately results. The theoretical framework is applied to the empirical case of mixed-right system among communities bordering a National Park in the southern Mexican state of Campeche. Data collection incorporated a structured survey administered across a selection of twelve communities and semi-structured survey administered across a selection of twelve communities and semi-structured interviews with public and private agency officials. The results support the institutional economics perspective that resource value is fundamental to agency officials. The results support the institutional economics perspective that resource value is fundamental to understanding property right institutions, and that enforcement activity influences the type of right. However, it provides additional evidence that is the actions by different types of enforcement agents; bureaucratic, community and individual, which ultimately determines the specific structure of property rights. While the research focuses on property rights to environmental resources, the framework is useful for understanding rights across a variety of public policy areas."
Collective Action and Assurance of Property Rights to Natural Resources: A Case Study from the Lower Amazon Region, Santarem, Brazil
(2000) Futemma, Celia
"The present study aims to analyze human cooperative behavior in a rural setting in regard to assurance of property rights to natural resources, and to understand the reasons why some people cooperate and some do not. To pursue this goal, I analyzed communities of native peasant people from the Ituqui settlement in the Brazilian Lower Amazon region. Their livelihood relies heavily upon resources from surrounding ecosystems--floodplain and upland. The floodplain is composed of two main ecological zones: natural grassland and flooded forest. The upland ecosystem is also composed of two main zones: bottomland and upland dense forest (tropical moist). This case focuses on two collective actions in which they have been involved. The first collective effort involved seven communities from the Ituqui settlement and dealt with assurance of property rights of the upland ecosystem. After approximately 15 years of land movement, the upland ecosystem was privatized through agrarian reform by the end of the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, the second collective action took place in one community whose residents had participated in the first collective endeavor. The second group effort involved only one-third of the households and its main purpose was to guarantee property rights to the floodplain ecosystem. Household analysis uncovers heterogeneity in terms of household structure and economy, which creates different incentives for people to cooperate or not. Historical accounts reveal that social capital facilitated involvement in the collective action. Finally, in places where individuals explore more than one system in an integrated production economy, the actions taken in one ecosystem may affect other related ecosystems. Analysis of structure and composition of the upland forest and remote-sensing analysis of patterns of land use indicate that although the target of the collective action is the floodplain, the upland is indirectly affected. In this case, opening a pasture and removing wood species to subsidize cattle activity in the floodplain creates a consequential effect on the upland. To conclude, this study shows the importance to consider multi-scale analysis in studies of collective action and conservation."
Collective Management of Irrigation in Eastern Spain: Integration of New Technologies and Water Resources
(2015) Ortega Reig, Mar Violeta
"The aim of this thesis is to analyze how farmer-managed systems adapt to the changes related to the integration of new water resources and drip irrigation technologies. Chapters two and three study the operating principles for water management. These principles, when applied by farmers as collective rules, result in interactions that create equity on water rights and transparency. The study area includes the irrigation system of the Huerta of Valencia (Spain). This system, well known internationally, has traditionally used surface water from the Turia River. Though recently, the use of groundwater and treated wastewater have been integrated with surface water. In this context, the analysis evolves around the subject of how the rules, developed for the sharing of surface water, have been adapted for conjunctive use of these new water resources. In addition, attention is also placed on how this process was crucial for the management of the 2005 - 2008 drought period. Results show that the operating principles, based in the proportionality and uniformity on irrigation frequency between users, underlie a system of distribution that is equitable, transparent and robust. In addition, the use of drought emergency wells and the reuse of treated wastewater have not resulted in any important conflict. These resources are used together with surface water during drought periods, increasing the guarantee of supply. However, treated wastewater use affects the uniformity on irrigation frequency among Water User Associations. Besides, Groundwater User Associations overlap in irrigated surface, farmers and infrastructure with Water User Associations using surface water. This situation results in informal conjunctive, a strategy that seems effective to deal with drought. Chapter four analyses the conversion to drip irrigation, an important technological transformation. In order to do that, institutional and management changes are examined. The cases studied are the Acequia Real del Júcar, the Júcar-Turia Channel and the General Community of Irrigators of Vall d'Uixó. At Water User Association level a centralization of managment has been observed (in the irrigation network, water resources managment and the merging of preexisting associations). In addition, the reasons to convert, the advantages, disadvantages and the satisfaction of users are also assessed. Besides, the work examines some aspects of how users adapt the use of irrigation and fertigation technology to their needs, diverging in some cases from the initial criteria of design. Chapter five discusses and compares the implications of the previous chapters. Some aspects of irrigation management and governance are assessed in a more detailed manner for the case of gravity irrigation Water Users Associations. In addition, the changes related to the introduction of drip irrigation technologies and new water resources are further compared In conclusion, the thesis reflects on current water policy dilemmas, focusing in currently prevailing water policy measures in the Valencia region, but also at world level: drip irrigation implementation, reuse of treated water and conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water. This allows identifying and comparing local aspects that influence the adoption and adaptation of new technologies and the integration of new water sources. Considering these features in irrigation policy would increase the efficacy of traditional solutions. Including these perspectives would also help to adapt new solutions to collective water and irrigation management settings characterized by significant complexity."
Common Goods in Uncommon Times: Water, Droughts, and the Sustainability of Ancestral Pueblo Communities in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, AD 1100-1700
(2017) Aiuvalasit, Michael
"Adapting our infrastructure and institutions to climate change is a crucial dilemma for modern society. Archaeologists should be well positioned to address this issue with examples from the past. Yet, too often when we find that cultural changes are synchronous with climate variation, such as abandonment of a region during a drought, we advance causal arguments to what may merely be correlations. I argue that identifying proxies for resource management in the archaeological record, particularly for resources managed by collective action and vulnerable to climate change, can help to address this problem. To test this approach I studied water management practices of Ancestral Pueblo communities living on the highland mesa-tops of the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. Between AD 1100-1700 cultural histories across this region diverged. Ancestral Towa communities of the Jemez Plateau sustained high populations until Spanish removal in the 17th century. The adjacent Pajarito Plateau was nearly completely depopulated by ancestral Tewa and Keres communities by the early 16th century. Archaeologists hypothesize that droughts were a factor in pushing people off the Pajarito Plateau, yet the endurance of communities on the Jemez Plateau is unconsidered. Mesa-top communities in both regions constructed artificial water reservoir features, which historical Pueblo communities managed as common pool resources. I hypothesize that these archaeological features reflect collective action decision-making for managing water, a resource vulnerable to scarcity on these mesa-tops during droughts, and that decisions made about water management influenced the long-term sustainability of Ancestral Pueblo communities. Through diachronic socio-hydrological modeling, I identify how climate variation influenced feedbacks between resource users, water infrastructure, and hydrological systems. I conducted modeling of paleohydrological system responses to droughts, direct geoarchaeological investigations of fifteen reservoirs at nine Ancestral Pueblo villages, and geospatial analyses of water access. My hydrological modeling found that the Pajarito Plateau is more vulnerable to hydrological droughts than the Jemez Plateau. My geoarchaeological investigations found that communities on the Jemez Plateau built reservoirs before droughts when populations were low, and that reservoirs were used and maintained through their entire occupation histories. By contrast, communities of the Pajarito Plateau built reservoirs in the early 1300s when hamlets were coalescing into villages at the peak of regional populations. All of the reservoirs on the Pajarito Plateau, as well as many of the villages with reservoirs, were then abandoned by the mid-1400s. Through least cost analyses from hundreds of water sources to thousands of archaeological sites I found that water costs became much higher during droughts on the Pajarito Plateau, which was further exacerbated by the pooling of resources (and risks) in aggregated communities. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that an over-reliance on collective action approaches to water management made communities on the Pajarito Plateau more vulnerable to hydrological droughts than communities on the Jemez Plateau. My work shows how archaeological research into resource management, employing earth science methods and common pool resource theory, contributes to dialogs surrounding adaptations to climate change."
Common Property and Commercialism: Developing Appropriate Tools for Analysis
(1994) McElwee, Pamela
"Understanding what is meant by the 'tragedy of the commons' in relation to commonly owned property is fundamental to understanding resource and development economics. Far from being a tragedy, however, common property actually provides many economic, social and political benefits to users. Users of common property organise themselves in various ways using institutions to manage property communally, and the results are often successful examples of sustainable development. Unfortunately, common property has been under increasing threats from privatisation, population growth and other factors. One of the most significant pressures on common property is the commercialisation of products, especially non-wood products from forest-based common property resources. Commercialisation can have many effects on a resource, its users, and the institutions used to manage the resource. This paper develops an analytical model for understanding the interactions between common property and commercialisation, based on a number of case studies. It concludes that common property regimes are not threatened by commercialisation itself, but by the intensity of commercialisation. This intensity is a function of many socio-economic factors, which all combine to determine how a common property resource copes with commercial pressures. Tools for understanding CPRs and commercialisation are suggested, and possible ways to strengthen common property management are presented."
Common Property Resource Management In Vanuatu: Perspectives from a Community
(2008) Leathers, Amanda
"Vanuatu's common property natural resources provide essential ecological services for the global community and sustain the livelihoods of 80% of the Vanuatu population. Sustainable management of natural resources is dependent on locally developed systems that govern common property resources. Understanding the drivers of commons management problems from local resource-users’ perspectives is essential to know how local governance systems can be supported and strengthened. I explore locally identified drivers of commons management problems using a case study of the Tangoa Island community of South Santo, Vanuatu. Methods include participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques and 31 interviews with local people. Literature from Vanuatu as well as 18 interviews with Vanuatu government departments, NGOs, and aid donors informs how relevant the issues identified in the case study are for other communities across Vanuatu. I found that drivers at different contextual scales, from local to global, affect two main elements of a community’s cooperative capacity for commons management - social cohesion and governance systems. The issues identified by the Tangoa Island community affect many Vanuatu communities because they are driven by wider processes of social, cultural, economic, and institutional change. Approaches to support and strengthen local social and governance systems can target drivers at multiple contextual scales."
Common Property to Co-Management: Social Change and Participation in Brazil's First Maritime Extractive Reserve
(2002) Pinto da Silva, Patricia
"Maritime Extractive Reserves, a new type of government-community collaborative management regime, are being established in coastal areas of Brazil in order to protect natural resources while sustaining local livelihoods. The long-term participation of resource users provides the cornerstone of this conservation and development model. This approach to conservation is supported by common property theory that questions the inevitable destruction of collectively managed resources. "This thesis explores the relationship between Maritime Extractive Reserves in Brazil and the traditional coastal communities they are created to protect. Specifically, it investigates the quality of the institutions which have traditionally governed the beach seining community in Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It then analyses the levels and kinds of participation and perceptions of the newly created Extractive Reserve, which attempts to build upon these traditional relationships. Finally, the study identifies community level factors that constrain or provide potential for long-term participatory conservation in this area. "A case study approach is adopted, involving both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data were collected through a questionnaire, participant observation, formal and informal interviews, focus groups and document review. This hybrid approach enables contextual exploration for which qualitative methods are essential ensuring a higher degree of accuracy and reliability than either could offer in isolation. "The data reveal that, although local traditional resource management institutions have a long history and were once effective, they have weakened over time. The data also indicate that there are significant social barriers to collective action within this user group which have implications for the operational viability of the Extractive Reserve concept. These barriers include weak organization, hierarchical structures, high levels of intra-community conflict and mistrust of government. Consequently, both the quantity and quality of participation in the reserve is low and therefore, local fishers are not becoming decisive players in the decision-making process. The implications of these conclusions for future maritime conservation policy in Brazil are explored."
The Commons Dilemma: A Quantitative Review
(1990) Hine, Donald W.
"Commons delimmas involve a conflict between individual and group interests with respect to the management of limited shared resources. Many of the most serious problems facing mankind (e.g. the greenhouse effect, the destruction of South American rainforests, ocean pollution etc.) can be recast in commons dilemma terms. Within psychology, the bulk of commons dilemma research has focused on identifying factors that increase cooperation among consumers (and hence resource management efficiency) of shared resources."
Communal Land Tenure: A Social Anthropological Study in Laos
(2015) Bounmixay, Luck
"Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) or Laos is a landlocked and mountainous country situated in the center of the Continental Southeast Asia region bordering with Myanmar, China, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. It is considered one of the most forested countries in the region and ranked as one of the most culturally diverse with almost 50 percent indigenous peoples. Yet, it is one of the poorest nations in the world. Over the last decade, forest resources have become degraded because of logging, concessions, hydropower and mining as well as shifting cultivation due to rising population density in the uplands. Lao Government policy has focused on eradicating shifting cultivation, but the initial government land and forest allocation program meant that the ethnic groups lost their rain-fed upland fields as they were no longer allowed to practice customary land use with long fallows. None of the upland ethnic groups have title to the land they use. Many environmentally sound traditional land use systems still exist in Lao PDR in remote areas in the form of communal tenure. Here the land is managed by the village which each year re-distributes it according to need and labor. This research focuses on these traditional systems to identify which particular features of the management regime could help 'reverse degradation by innovation'. The research hypothesis is that common property regimes are a means for the poor to secure access to natural resources’ benefit streams that serve as a safety net against vulnerability. At the same time and most importantly, with communal tenure recognized by government, the communities can lower the risk of their lands being grabbed by concessions. The thesis reviews Elinor Ostrom’s theory on Common Property Resource (CPR) of literature to test the hypothesis. Field study was conducted in Houaphan province in Lao PDR focusing on Hmong and Tai Daeng ethnic groups in three districts (Xum-Nue, Viengxay and Sopbao). It is seen that the traditional communal land management as a system which for the ethnic groups is linked to their culture. It allows for equity and if the government endorses communal land title which is possible by law but not yet implemented, this system could be copied under appropriate institutional arrangements to other places in the country. It is also realized that land may not be under shifting cultivation for many more years due to growing population density and that proactive measures should be taken to quickly restore the fertility of the fallows. This change of land use can best be practiced by the communities as a whole with control over their lands. This study is not only considered an important contribution to current land policy making process; it also is necessary to take into account when carrying out in practice land management in Lao PDR."
Community Forestry, REDD+ Pilot Project, Power, and Corruption: A Case Study of Ludikhola Watershed in Gorkha District, Nepal
(2015) Kandel, Tara
"REDD integrates conservation, sustainable management of forest and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, emerged though a global partnership under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ludikhola watershed in Gorkha district, Nepal, is selected for this research where REDD+ pilot project was carried out from 2010 to 2013. The dynamic relationship between actors, knowledge, power, corruption and policy at the micro level and the reciprocal effects of these relationships on gender, class and caste has been investigated in REDD+. The objectives of the study were; to analyze the community forestry as a resource regime and investigate the empirical aspect of REDD+ through governance policies, to evaluate how powerful actors exercise their power in the introduction and implementation of REDD+ in CF and to study how corruption occurred in the REDD+ pilot project. Three CFUGs were selected for the household survey. The findings showed that the CF is a place where different actors exercise their power to influence decisions regarding forest management. In the REDD+ pilot project, main goals of maintaining and enhancing biodiversity were not met; there were a lack of distribution of benefits and information to different groups of local people. 69% of the total respondents say that powerful actors did not take account of their voice during the formation of rules and regulations. The community forestry was not properly conducted in levels of a participatory mechanism; it is more functioning through key actor´s interests. A significant relationship between corruption and powerful actors was found; the test also showed that higher castes and government officials have the significant relationship with corruption in community forestry. 47% thought that there was fraud monitoring and reporting, 42% embezzlement and 11% bribing. It is realized that much of the existing policy frameworks in community forestry needs to be revised to create a facilitating environment for REDD+ and there is a great need of improved agricultural practices and providences of the option for other livelihood diversification to reduce the forest dependency. Although, its ability to reduce net-carbon emissions, control leakage and increase local benefits through a national REDD+ policy may seem difficult to accomplish. Globally, there are no acknowledged motivations connected to the REDD+ policy, besides the obvious interest in limiting climate change."
Community Readiness for Self-Managed School
(2007) Mani Man Singh, Rajbhandari
"The concept of Self-managing schools involving local community members, teachers and parents with the formation of School management Committee is gaining ground in Nepal after the world conference WCEFA held in Jomtien, Thailand in the year 1990. Transferring the management of public schools in the hand of willing community and motivating them to reform education by their own ability are self-managed schools. As the government of Nepal has planned to gradually increase the number of self-managed schools throughout the country, a need was realized to assess the readiness of communities (willingness and ability) to resume the delegated responsibility, which was the main reflection of the research study. The research on self-managed school reflects the community involvement and participation in school management in the line with SMCs to transform the school as self-managed school. Community willingness and ability were the focal points of this research for assessing the readiness of the community to take the responsibility of school management and transforming them into self-managed school. The theoretical framework that supports the research was based upon the critical perspective of Karl Marx conflict theory in education, McClelland’s need theory of motivation, and Deci and Ryan self determination theory, based on which the reflection of community willingness, and ability in self managing school were discussed. The qualitative method was used for data collection and the sources of data were both primary and secondary in nature. Semi-structured interview was used as a research tools for primary data collection. The secondary data were collected from research department, Ministry of Education, The World Bank reports and educational web portal. The interviewed respondents were the members of the school management committee, which include parents, teachers, head teachers, chairpersons and local community people of three community managed school of Lalitpur district. Triangulation method and cross verification was used for reliability and validity. The major findings of this research were that despite the community schools located in the poor geographical location, the SMC have become successful in involving the local people in decision-making process. The willingness of communities was found high in terms of participation and involvement in school management. Involvement of the community in school management resulted in high rates of students’ enrolment, improvement in quality of education and introduction of English subject and English speaking environment in the school premises. The readiness of community was accentuating for resource generation by utilizing unutilized natural resources, for instance, water and forestry. Apart from being isolated from the perspective of financial capabilities, the local communities have the potentialities to develop school so that the local community people do not have to seek for the private school for their children education. In addition, the School Management Committees also demonstrated their skills in participating and involving the students in committee meetings aspiring them to bring healthy suggestion. The commitment of the local communities to manage school also have solved the problems of poor maintenances of school buildings and classroom facilities with the ability to maintain relationship with NGOs, INGOs, CBOs and other business organization to support the school with necessity financial means. In summary, the community of self-managed schools demonstrated both capability and willingness (readiness) for managing schools in a decentralized context."
A Community-Based Approach for Managing Forest Patches in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil: A Case Study of the Micro-Watershed Barracão dos Mendes, Rio de Janiero State
(2014) de Souza, Fernanda Oliveira
"In the last 400 years, the coastal Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the world's top biodiversity hotspots, has been transformed from once being a continuous forest, into an intensely fragmented landscape due to human activities. Rural small communities living embedded into this mosaic of forest fragments rely on natural resources, and their livelihoods depend on their capacity to use and manage these fragments effectively. Thus, the inclusion of rural communities in the processes of forest conservation and management may serve both environmental and community development objectives. The current study aims to close the existent gap between communities and legal environmental requirements to ensure livelihoods and to preserve functioning ecosystems and ecosystem services, in Barracão dos Mendes micro-watershed. The objective is to develop ideas how local people can be involved in forest conservation processes within the concept of community-based development. The study area is located inside the buffer zone of a protected area, the Três Picos National Park. The methodology consists of the following steps: as a basis, the Brazilian legal framework for nature conservation was analyzed. In addition, interviews with 34 local people, 5 local actors as well as a participatory mapping was carried out, to identify local assets regarding their organizational profile and individual talents, local knowledge on ecosystem values, as well as, their sense of attachment to place; and interviews with 3 external actors to identify their supporting role inside the study area. The results show that the Brazilian legal framework is still centralized-commanded and excludes rural livelihoods. External actors mainly act as funding agents, which partly causes communities dependency on external interventions instead of capacity building, which may mobilize local assets. On the other hand, the existing local assets such as organizational ones are significant – such as local associations and committees for their representation – in addition of local knowledge on ecosystem values – such as establishment of riparian forests for water provision – showing a positive trend for grass-root development and conservation to occur. Through the proper use of the natural resources by local people, rather than prohibition, the local conservational status and community development may succeed. Moreover, the study showed that additional in-depth researches under a community-based development and conservation approach is needed for Barracão dos Mendes micro-watershed."
Community-Based Conservation of the Callo de Hacha Fishery by the Comcáac Indians, Sonora, Mexico
(2002) Basurto, Xavier
"In recent times, fishery management scholars have suggested the need to develop a better suited small-scale fisheries management approach for developing countries, than the one offered by conventional Western fishery science. This alternative approach is based on the development of better resource access controls, community-based management, and an increased use of local traditional fishery knowledge. "In response, this research aimed to understand what are the most important social and ecological elements that contribute to the successful community-based management of the Seri Indians' callo de hacha (pen shell scallops) fishery. Toward this end, Seri controls over access to the fishery, as well as the integration of traditional ecological knowledge into local fishing practices were documented and analyzed. "Results showed that the success of this locally managed fishery originate from a good fit between well-defined property rights, locally designed institutions, and the natural system. "Outside fishers are allowed to fish in Seri waters on a regular basis, in exchange for benefits to the Seri. The integration of Seri communal worldview, fishing norms and beliefs, into local management rules, allows them to achieve low-cost monitoring and successful exclusion from their fishing grounds when necessary. Therefore, this case study suggests that absolute exclusion is not necessary to avoid overexploitation and the attainment of successful local management of coastal fishing resources. "Some of the most important Seri fishing practices that might be responsible for promoting resilience and sustainable use of the callo de hacha fishery are: multi-species management, existence of no-take fishing areas, and rotation of fishing grounds."
Conservation, Development and Collaboration: Analyzing Institutional Incentives for Participatory Conservation in Uganda
(2000) Beck, Peter
"Throughout the world, scholars and practitioners are increasingly promoting participatory conservation strategies as improvements over traditional protected area models that focus on enforcement. Despite this widespread support, most examples in practice have experienced little sustained success at either elicing participation or improving ecological outcomes. This dissertation addresses this policy dilemma by examining how different community conservation incentives encourage the participation of local people in the conservation of Ugandan national parks."
The Constitution of Order Among the Yoruba of Nigeria
(2005) Oyerinde, Oyebade Kunle
"Understanding how human beings constitute order to affect productive ways of life is one of the central concerns of scholars. This study examines why three Yoruba communities of Nigeria - Ile-Ife, Ibadan and Abeokuta - differ in the extent to which their diverse groups of Yoruba elements engage in inter-group cooperation, resolve conflicts, and encourage commercial and industrial openness. The prevailing biophysical conditions and beliefs and past experiences in the three communities are first considered in order to come to terms with the particular contexts within which governance and property relationships are shaped. "In each community, the dominant beliefs and past experiences have served as the main sources of institutions for governance and property relationships. In Ile-Ife, most Ife elements believe that they are the individuals who can claim an ultimate descent from the presumed founder of the community. They serve as lords over most non-Ife elements such as Oyo elements. Most diverse Yoruba elements in Ibadan and Abeokuta, however, regard one another as equals in governance and property relationships. They see themselves as descendants of diverse groups of oppressed individuals that jointly founded their respective communities to be able to open up growing ranges of productive opportunities for most individuals. "Unlike Ibadan and Abeokuta, the failure to treat most individuals as equals in governance and property relationships in Ile-Ife has led Ife and Oyo elements to relate to each other as enemies and to use violence as a means to process their conflicts. The resultant insecurity of life and property has incapacitated Ile-Ife from having distinguished individuals, industrial estates, manufacturing companies and the substantial business investments found in Ibadan and Abeokuta. "These differences show that mutually productive ways of life can be precariously at risk when individuals relate to one another based on principles of inequalities rather than through principles of self-responsibility and mutual agreement among associates working with one another in self-governing communities of shared relationships. Ecological conditions, conflict types, cleavage structures and exposure to national political affairs are relatively similar across the three Yoruba communities and play little, peripheral role in explaining the different outcomes."
Constitutional Orders and Deforestation: A Cross-National Analysis of the Humid Tropics
(1998) Turner, Paul Warren
"In this study, I explore the intermediary role of national political institutions in the context of deforestation in the humid tropics. More specifically, I focus on those institutions that shape the constitutional order—that is, the basic macropolitical framework that defines a polity's most fundamental rules regarding political roles and relationships. I give special attention to those rules that determine the locus of policymaking authority and the accountability relationships that obtain between politicians and citizens. I hypothesize that open constitutional orders will suffer lower levels of deforestation because such orders are more likely to be responsive to the policy preference of peasant producers—the predominant occupational class in the humid tropics—for a more diffuse distribution of landed property rights. Where the distribution of landed property rights is more diffuse, fewer shifted cultivators (peasant producers displaced to frontier regions) will be created and, therefore, the pressures to clear tropical forest cover will be less pronounced. To examine this hypothesis, I conduct a statistical analysis of fifty-eight (58) countries in the humid tropics using data from the period 1976-1990. Because of the presence of several influential cases in the data set, I employ robust regression methods, supplemented with bootstrap methods. To probe the potential fragility of the relationship between constitutional openness and tropical deforestation, I also perform a sensitivity analysis. This consists of the estimation of various alternative model specifications, controlling for additional factors that existing theory suggests are also important in explaining cross-national variation in tropical deforestation levels. The results of the analysis reveal that the relationship between constitutional openness and tropical deforestation levels is consistently in the hypothesized direction, and generally within the limits of conventional levels of statistical significance. Among the important conclusions of the study are that tropical deforestation processes are inextricably linked to landed property rights struggles within tropical countries and that national political institutions matter in determining the outcomes of such struggles."
Contestable Markets for State Economic Governance: Reducing the Costs of Democracy in U.S. States
(2000) Collins, Brian K.
"The research asks what causes US states to make policies that decrease or increase the costs of democracy? The costs of democracy arise when a democratic government exploits an agency relationship and monopoly policy-making powers to provide distributive policy regimes that undermine economic performance."
Crafting Cooperation in the Commons: An Economic Analysis of Prospects for Collaborative Environmental Governance
(2001) Marshall, Graham R.
"A collaborative vision for agri-environmental governance whereby collaboration among stakeholders in addressing problems supposedly leads them to cooperate more in implementing solutions emerged in the 1980's. This vision was prompted by mounting dissatisfaction with the progressive vision upon which such governance had been founded, a vision that had resulted in compartmentalised, paternalistic governance. It was based on a modern worldview regarding social behaviour as mechanistic and concerns about scientific progress as irrational. Accomplishments to date in pursuit of this collaborative vision through the favoured vehicle of integrated catchment management (ICM) have mostly been disappointing. While governments remain outwardly optimistic that administrative refinements to ICM programs will ultimately deliver success in this pursuit, others argue that systemic cultural changes are required. Prominent among the latter's concerns is the complacency with which leaders have addressed the challenge of translating the vision into practice."
Credit Risk Management and Rules: The Experience of Group-Based Microcredit Programs in the United States
(1999) Hung, Chi-Kan Richard
"This dissertation focuses on peer group lending programs in the United States."
A Critical Assessment of Marketing Strategies in Increasing Market Share: A Case Study of Aima Dora Lingerie
(2017) Pooja, Ramyead
"As the world grows bigger into a global village, there is a need to bring buyer and seller together and this has been possible by new technologies and communication methods. People are now able to trade, test and experience a whole new phase in business as costs are being reduced and have a wider market access. The aim of this study was to investigate on the assessment of marketing strategies in increasing market share of Aima Dora Lingerie (ADL). Faced with ever demanding client expectations and fierce competition, ADL is having difficulties to meet client expectations and increase its sales force. One of the major problem faced by the brand is that its marketing strategies are not aligned with its business model. Marketing is the core activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, partners, and society at large. This research has made use of quantitative research strategies to investigate on the assessment of marketing strategies in increasing market share at ADL. Primary data was collected using online-administered questionnaires and the survey was conducted on the targeted population. The population was small and therefore convenience sampling technique was used. The whole population of 155 respondents was taken as the sample due to the accessibility and proximity of participants. The findings revealed that there were some areas of weaknesses regarding the strategies used at ADL to engage its customers. It had a negative impact on company engagement levels and was a reason for poor advertisements. Based on the findings, recommendations have been proposed to put forward new marketing strategies to increase brand awareness and brand recognition, to differentiate from other competitors and as well as to rise in the sales force."
Cutting Up the Commons: The Political Economy of Land Privatization Among the Samburu of Kenya
(2002) Lesorogol, Carolyn K.
"This dissertation takes as its primary concern the privatization of communal land that occurred in one community in Samburu district called Siambu. The conflict over land tenure that engulfed the Siambu community for almost a decade provides an excellent example of the dynamics of institutional change. The shift from communal to private property struck at the heart of pastoral livestock production, which requires access to large tracts of range land. It pitted a group of younger, educated men who sought private land ownership against the 'traditional' elders of the area who defended the status quo."
Decentralization Puzzles: A Political Economy Analysis of Irrigation Reform in the Philippines
(2006) Araral, Eduardo K.
"In the 1970's, the Philippines embarked on a program to decentralize the management of public irrigation. Early studies have shown that these reforms led to consistently positive results and earned widespread international documentation and recognition as a role model. Twenty years later, however, an examination of the program now indicates problems of poor performance. "How could poor performance occur in a system known worldwide for its major decentralization efforts? How are the incentives faced by key irrigation players linked to performance? What factors may have influenced these incentives? These questions build on the literature of decentralization, collective action, bureaucracies, foreign aid, common pool resources and irrigation institutions in developing countries. "To explain this puzzle, I hypothesize that, first, irrigation performance is linked to inherent incentive problems faced by public agencies. Second, these incentive problems can be aggravated by the incentives embedded in foreign aid particularly by the moral hazard problem. Third, I argue that performance is also a function of the incentives faced by farmers as shaped by their physical, social and institutional context. "I examine the hypothesis on bureaucratic and foreign aid incentives using panel data describing the performance of the irrigation agency. To test my hypotheses about farmer's incentives, I examined a cross section data on 2,056 irrigation associations. I examined archives, conducted field work from 2003-2005 and employed key informant interviews, focus group discussions, photo-documentation, participant-observation and focused on conceptual and measurement reliability issues. "My findings confirm my hypotheses. I find that irrigation performance in the Philippines is characterized by a cycle of chronic underinvestment in maintenance, deterioration of facilities, poor water service, low productivity and poor farm incomes. Bureaucratic self interest drives the problem of underinvestment in maintenance and can be aggravated by incentives embedded in foreign aid. Underinvestment is also driven by farmer's incentives to free ride which differs between labor and monetary contribution. Finally, I find how different configurations of physical, social and institutional factors have different effects on farmer incentives. "The study has implications for 25 developing countries undertaking irrigation reforms and faced with the same issues of poor performance and incentive problems."
Democracy in America Revisited: An Application of Tocqueville's Political Theory to Feminist Theory and Action
(1981) Allen, Barbara
"In the first part of this essay, I will examine this political theory, the foundation of Tocqueville's exceptional insights and prognostications. My primary concern in this analysis of Tocqueville's theory will not be the documentation of Tocqueville's historical place among libertarian theorists of the 19th century. Nor will I be focusing on the evolution of Tocqueville's ideas in the context of the philosophical views of his period. Instead, my chief concern will be with the body of this theory and its potential uses for understanding present day political phenomena. Specifically I will be concerned with what Tocqueville has to say about designing rule ordered relationships between people; I will discuss Tocqueville's ideas about the prerequisites, means and methods of designing political order. "Thus my focus in Part I will be on Tocqueville's methodology, theoretical derivations of hypotheses and empirical explorations of these ideas. I will consider the major variables of concern to Tocqueville in analyzing political relationships, the assumptions about the character of these variables he postulates and the hypothesized relationships of cause and effect between variables he explores. In some cases Tocqueville is not explicit in leading the reader through the logical steps to the conclusions he draws. In such cases, I shall extrapolate from the whole of Tocqueville's analysis to make connections and extensions of his ideas into a coherent, more accessible formulation of his theory."
Democratic Theory and the Commons: Conceptualizing the Relationship Between Deliberation, Publics, and the Internet
(2013) McKay, Spencer
"I aim to achieve two complementary goals in this paper. The first is to provide a corrective to the unfortunate tendency to insist that the internet's natural form is a public that underwrites democracy. Rather, the structure of the internet is contingent and any publicness should be understood as enabled by its structural features as a commons. The second goal is a step towards addressing the relative dearth of explicit theorizing about the commons in political science. I adopt a critical approach to understanding technology to make clear that the internet may transform persons and institutions in ways that support democratic properties, but there is a need to challenge common assumptions that any democratic effects of the internet are inherent or directly caused. Many theories of online politics miss the fact that the internet's structural features suggest that it is better understood as a commons--that is, vulnerable to enclosure and spoilage--than as a public or a democracy. The technological developments of the internet upset the traditional allocative roles of states and markets in reference to physical goods, intangible goods, and the means of production. The internet enables an increase in the scope and scale of the commons paradigm such that the problem of democracy online seems not to be one of too much participation, but too little. I argue that a commons only exists as such as a result of self-management practices and that these practices are only self-management inasmuch as they are democratic. Self-management requires that participants reflect and deliberate, consider others, and enhances the capacities of actors to exercise their autonomy. Furthermore, I clarify that commons and associations are necessary preconditions for the emergence of publics and thus the potential for deliberative democracy. So, democracy requires publics, which require common goods, which require commons self-management; that is, democracy and commons self-management are together always intertwined and democracy itself is an intangible commons."
Den Gemensamma Forvaltningens Mojligheter och Problem
(2007) Lund, Staffan
"The debate concerning how to manage common-property resources has for a long time been between state property and private property regimes. None of these has proven to be totally successful in managing common recourses. Studies regarding common-property regimes have started to focus more on the possibilities with communal property regimes. The expectation is that individuals that are directly concerned with the resource will have incentives to mange the resource in a sustainable way. To be able to superintend a resource in an effective way the rules that form the institutional arrangements are highly important. The rules must be adapted in a way that suits both the users' preferences and the resource ability to remain in a sustainable way. "This essay presents a case study of a communal managed fishing lake. The conclusion of the study is that the rules first of all must be adapted in ways that make the users obey them. Secondly the rules must be analogous to the sustainability of the resource. Rules can be modified over time, but they are useless of no one obeys them.
The Development of Degradation and Impoverishment: Neocolonialism and the Crisis of People and the Environment in East Africa
(1996) Emmons, Gavin
"This thesis focuses on a consideration of the issues of conservation, sustainable development, and environmental management in the East Africa Region - primarily in the East African nations of Kenya and Tanzania - within the larger sociocultural and political framework of the complex diversity of interactions between people and the environment at the international, national, and local levels. In particular, this study examines the power dynamics that have historically characterized issues of human and environmental management, sustainability, and development in East Africa, by focusing on global capitalist and colonial factors, community oppression and resistance, gender domination, and the geographical context of the physical, social, and ideological realms in East Africa. In stressing the exploitation and domination inherent in conservation strategies and development policies in East Africa, this thesis is intended to demonstrate not only that human impoverishment and inequality are inseparably linked with environmental degradation and crises in East Africa, but also that economic wealth, over development, and dominance in 'the North' (primarily Europe and America) are directly connected to this continuing degradation in 'the South.' This thesis suggests that these power dynamics must be addressed directly if environmental and human sustainability are to emerge, and if ecological and social degradation and crises of epic proportions are to be avoided in East Africa and globally."
Die Siedlungswasserwirtschaft unter Wettbewerbsdruck : Nachhaltigkeit, Demokratie und die Neuregulierung des Oeffentlichen
(2005) Katzmayr, Michael
"In Austria, the local water services are in most cases still provided by public authorities. However, this may change due to strong tendencies to liberalise and privatise the public services. Especially the European Commission and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of World Trade Organisation (WTO) favour a liberalisation of the public services. This thesis deals with the effects of the liberalisation and privatisation of municipal water services (water supply and sewage disposal) on democracy and environmental policy aspects related to a sustainable local development. The theoretical part of this thesis provides a general overview of the relevant discourses in this field. Next, the concept of sustainable development is described, related to local communities. In the following, considerations are provided, how participation can be realised effectively in the community. Focus points in this connexion are the concepts 'strong democracy' (Teilhabe in German) and 'publicness'. After an overview of the social and ecological specialities of the local water services, reasons for and against liberalisation and privatisation in this sector are presented. In the empirical part of the thesis, the status quo of the local water services in Vienna and Linz is researched by the means of experts' interviews and an analysis of relevant documents. It is described, how these cities deal with the neoliberal claims concerning the public services. As a result, it can be stated that from an ecological point of view a decrease of the ecological performance due to privatisation can not be argued generally in the local water sector. However, a raise in the ecological performance is also not likely. Concerning the local democracy and participation, it can be stated that the local water services at present act paternalistically and undemocratically. This means that a substantial loss of democracy is not likely. Nonetheless, in case of privatisations the still existing chances and potentialities for 'strong democracy' and a democratisation of the public services are likely to get lost." German Abstract: "Die kommunale Siedlungswasserwirtschaft in Oesterreich wird derzeit noch weitgehend durch die oeffentliche Hand erbracht, allerdings steht dies durch Bestrebungen der Liberalisierung und Privatisierung der Daseinsvorsorge zunehmend zur Disposition. Insbesondere die Europaeische Kommission und das GATS-Abkommen der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) treiben eine Liberalisierungspolitik in der Daseinsvorsorge voran. Diese Arbeit behandelt Auswirkungen der Liberalisierung und Privatisierung der kommunalen Wasserver- und Abwasserentsorgung auf demokratie- und umweltpolitische Aspekte einer nachhaltigen Gemeindeentwicklung. Im theoretischen Teil wird zu Beginn auf die derzeit gaengigen Diskurse in der Debatte rund um die Neugestaltung der Daseinsvorsorge eingegangen. Nach einer Annaeherung an den Begriff der nachhaltigen Entwicklung wird der Stellenwert der Gemeinde darin referiert. Daran fuegen sich Ueberlegungen, wie Partizipation auf kommunaler Ebene verwirklicht werden kann, wobei besonders auf die Konzeptionen 'Teilhabe' und 'Oeffentlichkeit' eingegangen wird. Nach einer Beleuchtung der oekonomischen und oekologischen Besonderheiten der kommunalen Siedlungswasserwirtschaft werden die Gruende für und wider eine Liberalisierung und Privatisierung gegenuebergestellt. Im empirischen Teil wird der Status quo der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft in Wien und Linz mittels Experteninterviews und einer Dokumentenanalyse erhoben und dargestellt, wie sich diese Staedte den neoliberalen Umgestaltungsprozessen der Daseinsvorsorge gegenueber verhalten. Als Ergebnis kann festgehalten werden, dass in oekologischer Hinsicht eine Verschlechterung der Umwelteffektivitaet durch eine marktliche Ausgestaltung der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft nicht pauschal behauptet werden kann, eine Verbesserung scheint jedoch ebenso unwahrscheinlich. Aus demokratiepolitischer Sicht muss festgestellt werden, dass sich die kommunale Siedlungswasserwirtschaft derzeit als weitgehend paternalistisch und undemokratisch darstellt und somit eine Ersetzung der politischen durch eine marktliche Steuerung nur wenig substantiellen Demokratieverlust mit sich braechte. Allerdings wuerden durch Privatisierungen die jetzt noch bestehenden Potentiale für eine Demokratisierung der oeffentlichen Dienste bzw. der res publica insgesamt verloren gehen."
Discerning Differences in Social Capital: The Significance of Interpersonal Network and Neighborhood Association Structure on Citizen Participation
(2006) Smith, Ronald S.
"Scholars, such as Alexis de Tocqueville, have long pointed out that the key to American democracy was an involved citizenry. More recently, we have come to understand that 'social capital' can ease the costs of that participation. sing survey data from South Bend and Indianapolis, Indiana, I show that variations in the structure of both networks and associations shape the impact on political participation, civic activities, or even 'exiting' from the neighborhood. In particular, focus in on two dimensions of the network-social space and geographic space-I am able to show that the geographic concentration of the network is an important resource for supporting local activities, such as participation in neighborhood associations. Ties stretching across social space, on the other hand, are more supportive of traditional measures of political participation-such as campaigning. By the same logic, the impact of neighborhood association is also shaped by their structure. Associations with strong leadership and coercive powers, for example are able to provide public services that discourage exit from the neighborhood. Nor do these associations exist in isolation from other forms of social capital. Certain configurations of interpersonal networks may enable the monitoring of reticent association leadership, while, on the other had, carefully designed associations may stimulate the flow of information lacking in the local networks. "Such a structural approach to social capital, I argue, avoids many of the tautologies that have plagued the concept, leaving us with a tool for both embedding individuals into a social context while acknowledging their ability to influence that context through their design decisions. Should it read its potential, social capital promises a central role in the creation of a second generation of rationality models."
Diseño de un Modelo de Gestión para el Desarrollo Sostenible y Competitivo de las Pequeñas Unidades Agrícolas Rurales del Perú: Una Experiencia Aplicada en el Valle de Virú
(2011) Chong, Mario Gustavo
"One of the main problems of small rural farming units is to establish and implement a management model to exploit, take advantage of its potential and boost its productive development. The research which was very thorough as it included cross-section, exploratory-descriptive, non-experimental and prospective methods was carried on between 2008 and 2011 with the contribution of three sectors so as to establish the validity of the project: public sector (regional governments: La Libertad and Lambayeque), private sector (United Nations Industrial Development Organization--UNIDO Explort Consortia) and academic sector (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos). The methodology, which combines several different research tools such as: observation, surveys, interviews, questionnaires and field work that contribute to obtain a broad view of the Viru valley (located on the north coast of Peru), starts by identifying its problems and goes on to work out its lines of development. The results and the consensus of the main representatives of the area validate the proposed partnership management model for the development of small rural farming units, with the solid bases of integration, competitiveness and sustainable development. This model proposes the development of an autonomous entity and the integration of the three sectors (public, private and academic) so as to make sure the use of resources in a sustainable and competitive way based on the development of agricultural practices, water resources, park technology, non-traditional activities (tourism and aquaculture) and government public policies. The contributions of the research are consolidated into a replicable model and the organization of partnership workshops on the Peruvian coast: San Jose and Olmos."
An Economic and Institutional Approach to the Use of Natural Common-Pool Resources by the Tourism Industry
(2008) Blanco, Esther
"The analysis of the management of natural resources has traditionally been based on the assumption that agents are free-riders. Under this assumption there is no scope for voluntary environmental initiatives, and public intervention or privatization is considered necessary to prevent overexploitation of resources. This approach contrasts with a body of literature on management of natural resources showing that voluntary environmental action is a theoretical possibility and empirical reality. This thesis analyzes the incentives to undertake voluntary environmental initiatives by the users of common-pool resources in tourism, and how changes in the institutional setting affect these incentives. The conceptual framework is based on the 'Institutional Analysis and Development Framework', which guides the development of a family of tightly related analytical game theory models. First, a baseline model is developed in which firms make use of a natural resource under open access, and where they can mitigate their environmental impacts through voluntary unilateral commitments. Voluntary initiatives are costly, but given the market conditions they enable firms to charge price premiums. Building on this baseline model we analyze the effect on firms environmental behavior of institutional change in form of non-binding norms of behavior, the introduction of an environmental standard through regulation, the existence of corruption, the existence of non-regulated firms, and the creation of an ecolabel of voluntary adhesion. We also consider the effect on the incentives of firms behavior of potential heterogeneity of firms as well as the natural resource dynamics." "El analisis de la gestion de recursos naturales se ha basado tradicionalmente en el supuesto de que los agentes son 'free-riders.' Bajo este supuesto no hay cabida paralas iniciativas ambientales voluntarias y la intervension publica se considera imprescindible paraevitar la sobreexpotacion de los recursos. Este planteamiento choca con un cuerpo de literatura sobre destion de recursos naturales que muestra la accion ambiental voluntaria como una posibilidad teorica y una realidad empirica. Esta tesis analiza los incentivos de las empresas turisticas que usan recursos de libre acceso a desarrollar iniciativas ambientales voluntarias y como estos incentivos se ven afectados por cambios institucionales. El marco conceptual se fundamenta en el 'Institutional Analysis and Development Framework' (IAD), que orienta el desarrollo analitico de una familia de modelos de teoria de juegos estrechamente ligados. En primer lugar se desarrolla un modelo base en el que las empresas usan un recurso natural de libre acceso y pueden mitigar sus impactos mediante decisiones unilaterales voluntarias. Las iniciativas voluntarias son costosas, pero dadas las condiciones de mercado permiten a las empresas cargar primas de precio. Sobre este modelo de partida planteamos cambios institutionales en forma de introduccion de normas de comportamiento no vinculantes, implantacion de un estandar ambiental mediante regulacion, existencia de corrupcion, empresas no reguladas y la creacion de una etiqueta verde de voluntaria adhesion. Consideramos tambien el efecto sobre los incentivos de conportamiento derivados de la potencial heterogeneidad de las empresas asi como de la dinamica del recurso natural."
Economic Efficiency in Common Property Natural Resource Use: A Case Study of the Ocean Fishery
(1969) Bromley, Daniel W.
"The common property ocean fishery is often cited as an example of economic inefficiency in production. The usual recommendation is to restrict entry of fishermen so that 'incomes' of those remaining are improved. Such logic would seem to indicate that the economic theory of common property natural resource use is not well developed. It was with this premise that the current investigation commenced. "A mathematical model of productive interdependence among firms in a common pool situation was developed. Following this, the concept of rising supply price for an industry exhibiting productive interdependence was introduced. The concept of a fishing-day was introduced and it was argued that the firm viewed a fishing-day as one of its variable inputs. "When the above concepts were combined With the biological model presented, a bioeconomic model of the fishery evolved. The model permitted illustration of the impact upon industry output from changes in: (1) technology; (2) demand for the product; and (3) fish population; and the chain of ramifications which result, when current production is something other than the sustained yield of the fish in stock. "The usual charge that a common property fishery is 'inevitably overexploited' was evaluated in the context of the bioeconomic model and seen to be false. The traditional recommendation, to restrict entry such that fleet marginal cost equals fleet marginal revenue, so as to maximize 'rent,' was shown, instead, to. merely create higher than competitive returns (profit) for remaining fishermen. The disregard for those: fishermen excluded, by such action was questioned on equity grounds, as well as on grounds of economic efficiency. It was also demonstrated that depending upon demand for the product and technology of the industry, equating, fleet marginal cost with fleet marginal revenue was not sufficient proof that the fish stock would not be overfished."
The Effect of Institutions on Guatemalan Forests: Conceptual, Methodological and Practical Implications
(2011) Marquez Barrientos, Lilian I.
"Challenging socially accepted notions of rural communities inability to overcome the 'Tragedy of the Commons' and amidst international concern for the fate of Earths remaining forests, resource dependent rural communities (usually poor, barely educated, and neglected) have shown how capable they can be in managing forest resources. Yet resource governance is a complex balance between sustainability and degradation where communities can fail or succeed. Institutional arrangements lie at the core of the explanation of why some succeed and others fail. This dissertation analyzes the institutional arrangements of three Guatemalan community forestry experiences in the tropical dry forests of Chiquimula. Their stories are different, showing both failure and success in managing conflict, involving fruitful and disastrous alliances, and resulting in thriving or declining forests. They offer concrete evidence of how institutional arrangements are created and how they evolve, reflecting on the challenges policy makers, practitioners and researchers face when supporting communities in their governance efforts. Using IFRIs (International Forestry Resources and Institutions Research Program) interdisciplinary approach, institutional and forest ecology analysis constructs a socio-ecological picture of community forestry to assess forest protection and use. The forest showing stronger protection status belongs to the community with stronger resource governance institutions, offering additional evidence that when communities are allowed and supported they can be effective resource users and conservationists. On the other hand, failed community efforts offer a reflection on what may go wrong and how international donors and state agents supporting local resource governance may do more harm than good if they do not fully understand the complexity of the whole endeavor and the role local institutional arrangements play. A methodological analysis on the challenges of interdisciplinary research is also presented."
Effect of Taxation on Economic Performance: A Case of Kenya
(2021) Kadenge, Joshua M.
"The purpose of this study was to investigate the casual relationship between income tax, Excise duty, customs duty and VAT on economic performance. Correlation between taxation and economic performance exist as the most important issue in economic since independence. The level of taxation of taxation affects the level of country’s GDP, using regression model (Y =a+ βx+ β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X3+ ᵦ4X4 + ẹ) Where y=economic performance X1=Total Income tax/GDP X2=Total VAT/GDP X3=Total Excise duty/GPD X4= Total Custom Duty/GDP e= GDP We also use descriptive statistics to find mean and standard deviation for each variable. In our view we find out that indirect tax increase consumption and reduce savings in Kenya. The implication of this is that policy maker should focus more on enhancing international relation. Income tax revenue has been increasing in recent years at a higher proportion than the other taxes in Kenya, making it an important factor in economic decision making."
Effects of Budgetary Accounting Techniques on the Management of Financial Resources at the County Government of Kakamega
(2021) Kadenge, Joshua M.
"Available information reveals that management of public financial resources at the county government has continued to dwindle despite implementation of efforts to their budgets with its inherent control features. Budgetary Control refers to how well managers utilize budgets to monitor and control costs and operations in a given accounting period. It is a process for managers to align financial management goals with budgets, compare actual results and adjust performance. Management of public financial resources at county levels in Kenya still remain a challenge as often reported by Office of the Auditor General where a majority have been found to; be operating on negative working capital, uncontrolled capital expenditure, fraud among others. The main objective of the study is to establish the Effect of Budgetary Accounting Techniques on the management of public financial resources at the county levels in Kenya. The specific objectives guiding the study were; to establish the relationship between Planning and management of public financial resources at county level, to establish the relationship between Control and management of public financial resources at county level, to establish relationship between Revenue Optimization and management of public financial resources at county level. It was guided by a conceptual framework relating the variables of study. The study was premised on theories such as; Theory of Budgeting, Budgetary Control Theory, Fund Accounting Theory and Stewardship Theory. Questionnaire were distributed targeting; Economic planning department, Revenue department and County treasury department. Data was elicited from selected respondents using structured questionnaire whose content validity and reliability were checked. Descriptive and ANOVA methods were used to analyse data. Chi-square method was used to determine existence of significant relationship between independent and dependent variables at x2 0.05 (95% confidence level). The results indicated existence of a significant relationship between Budget Planning, Revenue optimization, Budget Control and Management of Financial resources at the county levels in Kenya as exemplified by X2 values of; 4.94 and 9.15 respectively. The findings of the study may guide policy makers in underscoring the value of Budgetary Accounting Techniques on Management of financial resources at county level and other organizations. It would also go a long way in forming a basis for future similar research studies."
Effects of Logging on Environmental Factors, Natural Regeneration, and Distribution of Selected Mahogany Species in Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda
(2005) Bahati, Joseph
"This study explored some of the basic environmental factors that affect the natural regeneration of four mahogany species existing in the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda. The four species studied are: Khaya anthotheca, Entandrophragma cylindricum, E. utile and E. angolense. For each species, the biology, ecophysiology, silviculture and management are reviewed. Diverse published reports were critically reviewed and efforts made to highlight their contributions and identify knowledge gaps. Whereas forest understorey light is emphasized as the major hindrance to tropical natural forest regeneration, this study also investigated the effects of past logging in the Budongo forest reserve on soil factors and microenvironments (illumination, photosynthetically active radiation and forest temperature) and on mahogany regeneration. Three forest categories ('treatments') including unlogged (one compartment), earlier logged (seven compartments) and later logged (three compartments) were identified from the Budongo forest main block and the two outlying forest patches (Siba and Kaniyo Pabidi). Data were collected from plots established in each compartment. A total of 258 plots were sampled. The plots were 25m x 50m each. Within each plot, mahogany seedlings, saplings and trees were sampled. From the same plots, soil samples were collected and were analyzed for texture, pH and nutrients and compared within and between treatments. Furthermore, illumination, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and temperature (below ground, forest floor and forest understorey-air) were evaluated to ascertain whether there were any variations in and between the three treatments. There was significant difference between the unlogged and the logged treatments (05 < P >= 0. 01) in terms of regeneration, edaphic and micro-environmental factors. K. anthotheca was observed to be quantitatively the most significant mahogany timber species in Budongo Forest Reserve. Next in abundance were E. cylindricum and E. angolense respectively. The least important, in terms of regeneration density was E. utile. Exploitation generally affected individuals in the larger sizes (>= 80cm dbh). Differences in light regimes are between logged and unlogged forest tracts. The earlier and later logged treatments were quite similar, but PAR effects were detectable between the extreme forest categories (unlogged vs. later logged). Values of PAR and illumination were lowest in the unlogged forest than in the logged treatments. Contrasts between forest treatments were most marked in the later logged treatment, particularly with illumination and temperature (below ground and on the forest floor). Lower temperatures in the unlogged forest and higher temperatures in the most recently logged compartments were observed. Direct multivariate analysis of data using DCA and CCA techniques showed a significant correlation between local patterns of mahogany regeneration and some of the soil variables, available phosphorus, potassium and total nitrogen being the most important Given the significance of the role of light/PAR and temperature variations in the treatments sampled, more silvicultural effort, such as enrichment planting and conservation should be placed on compartments that were logged earlier, preferably in the 1960s."
Elinor Ostrom: A Biography of Interdisciplinary Life
(2019) Clark, Sara
"My dissertation is a study of 2009 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) that sheds light on intellectual life and the organization of knowledge in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Using biography, this project uncovers Elinor’s interdisciplinary practice, especially through the influences of her husband and intellectual partner Vincent Ostrom and their interdisciplinary research Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University Bloomington. My analysis focuses on how Elinor, the only woman yet to receive the Economics Nobel, negotiated complex studies of human behavior—from water supply in Southern California to police services throughout the United States to forest governance around the world—by developing a primarily collaborative research approach that integrated methods and insights from the social sciences. Elinor prioritized increasing understanding of these global problems over identifying with a clear disciplinary community. I argue that who Elinor was as a person made it possible for her to develop and give meaning to her interdisciplinary practice. Organized chronologically and structured by significant events, this study examines Elinor’s intellectual life in four parts: her childhood and early adult education, development of the Ostrom Workshop, publication of her most well-known book Governing the Commons (1990), and global expansion of her ideas and research community. Attention to Elinor’s various roles as student, team leader, teacher, mentor, partner, entrepreneur, art collector, field researcher, administrator, and philanthropist contributes a complex, dynamic example of a female intellectual life. Interviews with members of the Ostroms’ academic and personal communities as well as examination of their personal papers and art collection provide primary perspective to this study. Ultimately, the blurred boundaries between her personal life and professional career point to four shaping tenets of Elinor’s interdisciplinary practice: hard work, artisanship and contestation, collaboration, and openness to multiple solutions."
Elite Capture and Forest Governance in India
(2014) Pushpendra, Rana
"Elite capture is a persistent problem in forest governance. Influential and powerful elites often capture a major portion of forest-based benefits due to their well-entrenched structural domination of forest governance. The problem is chronic and many scholars have held it responsible for the continuous failure of the state efforts to manage forests equitably and sustainably. They have blamed it for inequitable outcomes. The representation of the state as an incapable entity in countering the elite domination has encouraged various actors to promote the alternative institutional arrangements. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is one of such initiatives that call for an active involvement of communities in forest governance through arrangements that do not include only government. CBNRM has been implemented in many countries through decentralization reforms mostly driven by international donors, non-governmental organizations, fiscal compulsions of central governments and the demands of the civil society and social movements. CBNRM is considered as an antidote to the persistent problem of elite capture. By empowering communities to make plans, and implement them, CBNRM aims at tackling the influence and the domination of the elites over the decision-making processes. However, the evidence does not support this contention. Many studies have shown that CBNRM is highly prone to elite capture. Overwhelming evidence from several studies have shown that CBNRM ignores issues of power relations favoring elites. The poor fail to participate effectively in the participatory programs due to structural barriers and, therefore, fail to shape the decisions on forest resources on which their own livelihoods depend. CBNRM has largely failed in breaking the tight inter-locking and multifaceted control of the elites over forest-related decisions. The continuous failure of forest governance to tackle elite capture motivates the question: 'What governance mechanisms reduce the probability of elite capture in forest management to ensure equitable and sustainable outcomes?' Drawing on the literature from political science, political ecology, policy sciences and natural resource governance literature to conclude, elite capture is reduced when (i) state or external interventions adopt a pro-poor targeted approach, and (ii) autonomous counter power has emerged in the form of individuals or groups that constantly challenge the institutionalized authority of elites. A mixed method approach - both qualitative as well as quantitative - provides a deeper understanding of the processes involved in elite capture generalizes to large set of cases. This dissertation is based on the analysis of (i) comparative case studies of elite capture in three local governments under decentralized forest management (ii) a dataset of 38 local governments over 7 years on the distribution of timber for house construction and repair from public forests, and (iii) state regulation of felling of trees on private lands."
Engendering the Commons: A Case Study in Gender, Difference and Common Property in Himachal Pradesh, India
(1995) Davidson-Hunt, Kerril Jean
"The focus of 'Engendering the Commons: A Case Study in Gender, Difference and Common Property in Himachal Pradesh, India' is women's use of common property, primarily village forests, and how women of different caste and economic status use common lands for distinct needs. The research is theoretically framed by a perspective in difference, and bounded by common property as a parameter for study. Research is based upon 10 weeks of fieldwork, undertaking interviews with women in 33 households in two small agricultural villages in the Kullu Valley. "The present research supports theory at a macro-level that rural villagers are highly dependent upon common property resources, and may therefore have interest in defending village commons from degradation. At a micro-level, however, this study suggests that there is stratification by caste and class within rural villages that ultimately leaves the poorest within the village outside management and influence in decision making over village common lands. "In this study, 97% of the women interviewed used village commons for the collection of firewood, fodder and/or cow bedding, although each woman relied upon the commons for distinct livelihood needs Households with limited land and cattle resources required products from the commons to sustain agricultural livelihoods. The near-landless often used village commons to gather products for sale or to be utilized within reciprocal relationships with kin households. Within this context of differing needs from village commons, a women's organization, the Mahila Mandal, had organized to protect village forests from continuing environmental degradation The diversity of needs from village commons, as well as women's differing positions within the village socio-political structure, was found to create conflict at the village level over the management and issues of control of common lands. The study concludes that a perspective in difference brings a closer understanding of 'community' management of 'common' resources."
Enhancing Social-Ecological Resilience in the Colorado River Basin
(2012) Eidem, Nathan T.
"This research presents the Colorado River basin as a social-ecological system. Utilizing event data on cooperative and conflictive interactions over fresh water, the system is decomposed to look for evidence of outcomes of resilience enhancement. The Animas-La Plata Project in the upper San Juan basin is presented as a case study, and qualitative methods are used to analyze interactions that led to its construction in order to assess social-ecological outcomes. In the upper San Juan basin, cooperative interactions over fresh water outnumbered conflictive ones. Interactions over water rights and infrastructure were most common, and the most cooperative interactions focused on these issue types. Many of these interactions focused on the Animas-La Plata Project compromise, which ultimately enhances social-ecological resilience in the Colorado River basin."
The Erosion of Public Highways: A Policy Analysis of the Eastern Kentucky Coal-Haul Road Problem
(1978) Oakerson, Ronald J.
"[This dissertation] extends work initially undertaken for a Master's essay on the subject of unlawful coal hauling on the highways of Eastern Kentucky. The analysis builds upon the theory of public goods and considers the impacts of common property relationships on public goods in order to pose the general problem of joint and alternative uses. The object of the research is to explore the limiting factors in present institutional arrangements and the possibilities of different institutions. The methodology includes the use of personal interviews to reconstruct the strategies and claims of different participants and the conduct of legal research to determine the relative availability of different remedies."
Essays on Individual Behavior in Social Dilemma Environments: An Experimental Analysis
(1993) Dudley, Dean
"In this study, individual level behavior is investigated in the context of computer assisted voluntary contribution mechanism public good (VCM) provision experiments and common pool resource (CPR) appropriation experiments. Previous studies of these environments have concentrated on aggregate outcomes and have found, on average, aggregate outcomes fall between the predictions of the models based on privately rational agents and socially rational agents. "In the VCM provision experiments, 43% of the subjects behave consistently with a predictive model based on private rationality (Nash) and 21% of the subjects behave consistently with a predictive model based on social rationality. In the CPR appropriation experiments, 74% of the subjects behave consistently with a predictive model based on private rationality and 5% of the subjects behave consistently with a model based on social rationality. Both of these results help to explain why the aggregate outcomes fall between the privately and socially rational model predictions. The third essay investigates subject forecasting behavior in the CPR provision environment. Here, subjects tend to efficiently use scarce information revealed through lagged forecast error, but their forecasts are biased. This result is not consistent with rational expectations forecasts. Subject forecast behavior is better described by a Bayesian point estimate updating model iv with an updating weight approaching one on prior beliefs. This outcome is consistent with the observed failure of subjects to converge to an equilibrium outcome, in the CPR experiments."
Essays on the Effects of Institutions and Trust on Collective Action
(2009) Coleman, Eric
"This dissertation examines the effects of community-based institutional arrangements and trust on the propensity to act cooperatively in natural resource commons. There are three empirical studies comprising the major chapters of the dissertation. In Chapter 2, the effects of user group monitoring and sanctioning activities are empirically assessed as applied to forestry. In Chapter 3, statistical models are tested to examine the propensity of both user groups and external governments to engage in monitoring and sanctioning activities. Chapter 4 relies on experimental work conducted in Bulgaria. It reports on the effects of common property institutions on cooperation in these experiments."
Evaluation of the Contribution of the Northern Uganda Conflict to Food Insecurity in Gulu District: A Case Study of Bungatira Sub-County
(2008) Okot, James Ochaya
"The study was conducted in Gulu District, specifically in Coo-Pe camp situated in Bungatira Sub-county. It evaluated the contribution of the Northern Uganda conflict to food insecurity through its impacts on the factors of production; land, labour, and capital in form of income and seed availability on the levels of production, availability, and sufficiency of the staple food crops grown in the district. The study involved 60 respondents randomly selected from the camp. There was a 55.6% reduction in the average farm size tilled apparently by the population in the camp. Farmland in the camp is largely hired by 66.7% of the respondents at a cost of UG shs 50,000 per acre per growing season. Access to the originally larger farmlands was possible only to 25% of the respondents; with those who had no access indicating fear of abduction as the most profound barrier. Average distance to the farmlands from the camp is 4.7 Km, this was too far and affected efficient agronomic practices and consequently led to yield declines. Economic constraint was high, as only 48.3% of respondents were engaged in income generating activities. Average income per day was at 1555.6 UG shs per day; this is less than a dollar and puts them all quite below the poverty line. "Labour inadequacy was at 85% and greatly affected the will of the population to carry out larger farming; as stated by 94.2% of the respondents. Labour inadequacy minimally affected effective crop harvesting from fields; an indication that fewer yields were realized and the farmers could harvest them all. 53.3% of the population used local inferior germplasm for crop production; only 46.7% of them exploited improved seed varieties for farming. Most prevalent reason for the use of local seed varieties was that many respondents were not in the selected group of beneficiaries. Non-governmental organizations notably CRS and the IRC provided 82.1% of the improved seed varieties used by the displaced farmers. Government offered no seed variety to the displaced population. "Yield reduction was worst in rice with 100% decline and least in groundnuts with a drop of 17.4%. There were also negative changes in the number of farmers; most prominent decline was in Rice, with 100% drop. Only one crop, maize had an upsurge in the number of growers, as given by the 55.6% rise in number of farmers."

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