Holding and Managing Resources in Common: Issues of Scale in Mekong Development

Abstract

"This paper investigates common-pool resource tenure and management issues in the Mekong Basin. Tenure is particularly fluid in this region due to rapid political-economic change and an accelerated infrastructure and resource development agenda. The paper looks at tenure questions with regard to resources managed in common at a number of levels, from basin-wide to national and local scales, and within a number of resource sectors, including water, forests, fisheries, and land.

"The paper begins with a discussion of several key political-economic contexts of change that form a backdrop to management of common-pool resources in the region. These include: * privatisation of resource and infrastucture development * decollectivisation of resources previously held and managed in common under socialist regimes in four of the six countries within the Basin * the agenda of thoroughgoing policy reform with regard to resource tenure and management, specifically with respect to devolved resource management rights and responsibilities from bureaucratic to community levels * the large scale resource development agenda that has helped to bring common property into the policy arena

"Resources managed in common are then considered at a range of scales. At the regional level, issues of common management between riparian states are discussed with reference to water and fisheries. At the national level, a comparison is made between policies of riparian states with regard to co-management of forest resources. At the local level, the paper discusses management issues within a single country, Lao PDR, drawing on case studies."