Determinants and Impact of Local Institutions for Common Resource Management

Abstract

"In this article, local institutions for forest conservation and management are analysed. The discussion is based on data from 37 villages and 180 households randomly sampled from the area surrounding a protected area in Rajasthan, India. Local management institutions are described, factors affecting inter-village differences in institutional build-up are analysed in a logit model, and the impact of institutions on common resource dependency and forest outcomes is tested using instrumental variable regression. It is found that (1) size of user group, natural resource scarcity, poverty and prior institutional experience do not appear to affect the likelihood of collective action in the way it is normally envisaged; (2) the poor are not the major agents of forest degradation, as often assumed; and (3) local institutions have a significant impact on biomass dependency and forest outcomes. The magnitude appears insufficient, however, for exclusive reliance on village natural resource management institutions to safeguard forests and commons from continued degradation. Conservation policies should target win-win options through interventions aimed at improving technologies for private and common lands as well as institutional changes."