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Common Property and Collective Action: Cooperative Watershed Management in Haiti

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dc.contributor.author White, T. Anderson en_US
dc.contributor.author Runge, C. Ford en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2009-07-31T14:41:38Z
dc.date.available 2009-07-31T14:41:38Z
dc.date.issued 1992 en_US
dc.date.submitted 2005-06-13 en_US
dc.date.submitted 2005-06-13 en_US
dc.identifier.uri https://hdl.handle.net/10535/2020
dc.description.abstract "Soil erosion is an important contributor to the agricultural decline, rural poverty and emigration which characterize rural Haiti today. Numerous soil conservation projects have used top-down approaches which persuade peasant participation with external incentives and inherently assume peasants to be individualistic, non-cooperative actors. These projects have generally not resulted in sustained conservation. An alternate strategy was utilized in Maissade, Haiti, where peasants now cooperate to treat small, multiple-owned watersheds. Because of up-and downstream interdependencies, watersheds represent common-pool resources. "Field research was conducted to understand the nature of the cooperative activity and to learn of the socio-economic factors associated with participation (e.g. cooperation) and defection. Study results indicate that approximately one-half of watershed-landholders participate and a majority of labor is contributed by persons who do not own land in the watershed. Participants also regularly treat non-participant land, and land tenure status was independent of both landholder participation and structure placement. Indicators of landholder exposure to transboundary erosion and the potential to economically benefit are associated with participation thile the realization of a direct benefit is not. Landholder wealth status is independent of participation though landholders are significantly more wealthy than non-watershed participants. Participation is also strongly associated with membership in farmer cooperatives and labor exchange groups, and the previous adoption of soil conservation innovations. These findings challenge conventional wisdom concerning peasant behavior in Haiti and also suggest that support of indigenous cooperative institutions can facilitate the treatment of common environmental problems." en_US
dc.language English en_US
dc.subject common pool resources en_US
dc.subject collective action en_US
dc.subject water resources en_US
dc.subject conservation en_US
dc.subject participatory management en_US
dc.subject watersheds en_US
dc.subject indigenous institutions en_US
dc.subject erosion en_US
dc.subject cooperation en_US
dc.subject IASC en_US
dc.subject soil
dc.title Common Property and Collective Action: Cooperative Watershed Management in Haiti en_US
dc.type Conference Paper en_US
dc.type.published unpublished en_US
dc.coverage.region Central America & Caribbean en_US
dc.coverage.country Haiti en_US
dc.subject.sector Water Resource & Irrigation en_US
dc.identifier.citationconference Inequality and the Commons, the Third Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property en_US
dc.identifier.citationconfdates Sept. 17-20, 1992 en_US
dc.identifier.citationconfloc Washington, DC en_US
dc.submitter.email arevelle@indiana.edu en_US


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