Biodiversity Management: An Example of Interaction Between External Demand for Provision of a Global Public Good and Institutionalisation of Local Rules

Abstract

"This article focuses on cross scale linkages that faces by biodiversity management. Considering biodiversity as both, a global and a local public good, we propose to show how external demand for provision of a global public can interact with the institutionalisation of local rules.

"The analyse takes place in Andapa region (Madagascar), considered as a pilot site for decentralisation of natural resources management. The policy process has been implemented by an international donor agency managing protected area. It establishes tripartite arrangements including the Local Community, the Municipality to which the Local Community is administratively linked and Waters and Forests services.

"Following (North 1990), our approach is based on the view that direction of institutional change is shaped by the interaction between institutions and organisations, where institutions are the rules of the game and organisations are the players.

"Therefore, we use a Principal-Agent model, as a positive tool, to represent how the relation, arising between the international organisation and the Local Community concerned by the decentralisation, interacts with the institutionalisation of rules. The construction of the model involve an intermediary level to represent vertical cross scale linkages faced by biodiversity management. None of the relations will be formalised in the article.

"The model shows that due the relation arising between Local Community and the conservation organisation during the design of rules, The organisation in charge of mplementation acquires a central role in a system it establishes and in which it does not constitute a formal stakeholder.

"Concluding comments will emphasise on the need to reinforce the certainty of Local Community about its rights as a way for the system to recover its initial incentive structure based on the recognition of exclusive management rights.

"The article will first present general characteristics of the policy implemented and the context of the region studied. Then the model will be described in a second part. Finally, conclusion and perspectives will be set."