Why Does Under-use/Abandonment of CPRs Matter to the Local Community? Case Study of Tai District, Toyooka, Japan

Abstract

"In this paper focuses on the following fact; the communities often take desperate efforts to retain their CPR institution, despite the fact they decrease or cease to depend their livelihood on CPRs due to various changes in the post-‘productivist’ context. Despite its under-use or non-use, the relinquishment of CPRs entails emotional pains and communal disputes. We argue that these issues cannot be explained from conventional CPR theory due to its shortcomings in both of the trends of thought. To encapsulate the issue, we argue that we need to differentiate the fact that CPR institutions are ‘embedded’ into web of institutions inside the community as well as ‘embedded’ contextual factors outside of the community, which we will term as ‘fitted’ into the contextual factors. By making this distinction, we propose a life cycle of institution. We argue that ‘embedding’ of CPR institution occurs when there is a ‘fit’ to the contextual factors. However, even under the circumstances of ‘unfit’, institutions are difficult to change since they are deeply ‘embedded’. We argue that there is institution that is ‘unfit’ but still ‘embedded’ and these institutions create pain and conflict since it awakes fear of community dissolution. Finally, we will state the some of the implication that these findings have on the current environmental policy, like PES."