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Abstract:
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"Scholars of common property resource theory (CPR) have long
asserted that certain kinds of institutional arrangements based on collective
action result in successful environmental stewardship, but feedback and the
direct link between social and ecological systems remains poorly understood.
This paper investigates how common property institutional arrangements
contribute to sustainable mangrove fisheries in coastal Ecuador, focusing on
the fishery for the mangrove cockle (Anadara tuberculosa and A. similis), a
bivalve mollusk harvested from the roots of mangrove trees and of particular
social, economic, and cultural importance for the communities that depend
on it. Specifically, this study examines the emergence of new civil society
institutions within the historical context of extensive mangrove deforestation
for the expansion of shrimp farming, policy changes in the late 1990s that
recognized 'ancestral' rights of local communities to mangrove resources, and
how custodias, community-managed mangrove concessions, affect the cockle
fishery. Findings from interviews with shell collectors and analysis of catchper-
unit-effort (CPUE) indicate that mangrove concessions as common property
regimes promote community empowerment, local autonomy over resources,
mangrove conservation and recovery, higher cockle catch shares, and larger shell
sizes, but the benefits are not evenly distributed. Associations without custodias
and independent cockle collectors feel further marginalized by the loss of
gathering grounds, potentially deflecting problems of overexploitation to 'open-access' areas, in which mangrove fisheries are weakly managed by the State. Using Ostroms Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, the explicit link between social and ecological systems is studied at different levels, examining the relationship between collective action and the environment through quantitative approaches at the fishery level and qualitative analysis at the level of the mangrove landscape. Implications for coastal and fishery management are discussed in the conclusions."
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