8 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
Conference Paper Challenges in Managing Fisheries in the Sao Francisco Watershed of Brazil(2004) Gutberlet, Jutta; Seixas, Cristiana Simao; Glinfkoi Thé, Ana Paula"Effective, sustainable governance and adequate management of socially valued, common-pool resource systems have been a major challenge to society on a global scale. With rapid population growth and intensification of resource extraction, the magnitude and number of resulting impacts and conflicts have significantly increased, particularly since the 1970s in developing countries. The present paper will discuss the multifarious situation of resource-user conflicts in the Sao Francisco watershed in central and northeastern Brazil. Here the situation is multi-leveled with this river crossing different ecosystems, various socio-economic systems and several state boundaries. Moreover, government agencies from different levels (federal, state and municipal) and sectors have a stake in this river management. A rapid assessment of main environmental and socio-economic problems related to common-pool resource use, particularly fisheries, has been carried out in June 2003. Through observations, interviews and focus group discussions with representatives from the local Government, NGOs and fishers' associations (Colonia de Pescadores, Associacao de Pescadores), major conflicts and tensions have been mapped out in various communities along the river. Professional, traditional fishers seem to be the most disadvantaged stakeholder group, in the given common-pool resource scenario, because their livelihood directly depends on resource abundance and diversity. With declining fish populations most of the traditional communities nowadays live in poverty and consequently are often in conflict with sport fishers, farmers, cattle ranchers and hydroelectric power plants. The paper analyses the role of major stakeholders and their concerns with respect to resource use. It discusses the possibility of co-management to overcome stakeholder conflicts in the watershed and searches for answers to questions such as: Can fishing accords as co-management arrangements, contribute to effective governance? What can local and regional governments do to promote co-management? What role may international bilateral agreements and international NGOs play in sustaining this resource system? The paper finally concludes with an evaluation of the potential and hindrances regarding co-management in the specific case of the Sao Francisco watershed."Conference Paper Multi-Stakeholders' Dialogue as an Approach Towards Sustainable Use of Groundwater: Some Experiences in the Palar River Basin, South India(2004) Janakarajan, Srinivasan"Due to rapid urbanization and brisk industrialization, there has been growing competing demand for groundwater among various users and sectors. A disturbing feature of this 'developmental process' has been intense pollution and conflicts. In this paper it is argued that groundwater which is regarded as a common pool resource has been subject to over extraction and pollution due to unlimited and unregulated access enjoyed by individuals. This has implications for rural indebtedness, unemployment, poverty, social inequity and conflict in rural India. All available institutional mechanisms have failed to restore order in such stressed river basins. In such a critical situation, multi-stakeholders dialogue (MSD) is seemingly a logical solution to find ways forward. Thus, the MSD process was initiated in the Palar river basin (one of the heavily stressed river basins in southern India) in the year 2002 and the results of this initiative have been quite encouraging. The dialogue process is ongoing but its success very much depends upon the support that it gets from the government."Conference Paper Local Water Management Institutions and the Bulk Intersectoral Water Transfer: A Case Study of the Melamchi Water Transfer Project in Nepal(2004) Bhattarai, Madhusudan; Pant, Dhruba"To mitigate drinking water crisis in Kathmandu city, the Government of Nepal has recently initiated Melamchi water transfer project, which will divert water from the Melamchi River to Kathmandu city's water supply network. In the first phase, the project will divert 170,000 cubic meters of water per day (@ 1.97M3/sec), which will be to triple-using the same infrastructure- as city water demand increases in the future. This paper analyzes some of the major local water management related changes brought by the water transfer project, and the changes in local water governance and CPR institutions in the Melamchi basin. Our study showed that traditional informal water management institutions were effective in regulating present water use practices, but the situation will vastly change because of this scale of water transfer decisions, and inequity in bargaining power due to the involvement of organized public sector at one side and dispersed and unorganized marginal waters users and FMIS institutions at the other end. This has made it difficult for the local farmers (users) and institutions to collectively bargain and negotiate with the central water transfer authority for fair share of the project benefits, and/or, due compensation of the losses imposed to them. The process and scale of project compensation for economic losses and equity over resources uses are at the heart of concerns and debates about the Melamchi water transfer decision. The Melamchi project has plan for one time fixed type of compensation package and about one percent of revenue sharing package from the city collected water revenue with the basin of water origin. The main issues here are what forms of compensation packages and water rights structures would emerge in relation to the project activities that are socially acceptable and also ensure equitable distribution of the project benefits between the two water sharing basin-communities. This paper illustrates some of these issues exclusively in the case of Melamchi water transfer project in Nepal, but these issues are equally applicable to wider regions of other developing countries where such rural to urban water transfer decisions are in discussions."Conference Paper Environmental Cultures of Development and Indigenous Knowledge: The Erosion of Traditional Boundaries in Conserving Wetlands in Rural Zimbabwe(2004) Sithole, Pinimidzai"This paper is situated in the intersections between environmental cultures, indigenous knowledge, and development in the conservation of wetlands. One case will be explored to illustrate the continuing importance of complexity, context and contingency in our understanding of the intersections between development and indigeneity in local conservation practices in contemporary Zimbabwe. Indigenous knowledge literature emphasizes how small-scale societies and cultures have lived in harmony with nature and practiced sustainable development. In the process, these societies often have constructed profound knowledge of their environment, which is in danger of being lost and/or appropriated. The assertion of the importance of indigenous knowledge and practices is used in Africa to counter the notions that only the western type of development can bring progress. The focus of this paper is on how and in what ways local populations have articulated their knowledge and perspectives in complex settings in Zimbabwes communal lands in light of the water sector reforms. In addition the paper focuses on how indigenous knowledge has been (and is being used by local communities in Bangira, Murombedzi and Kaondera villages (in their own specific ways) to counter (and/or embrace misplaced ideas and practices in the use and conservation of seasonal wetlands to alter and or adjust their situations in the shadow of the water reform process in Zimbabwe. Finding the complex balances between local knowledge and practices with national, ecological and scientific concerns in an ever- changing hydro-ecological environment will continue to be one of the challenges in sustaining wetlands conservation efforts."Conference Paper Water Resources as a Common Good in Brazil: Legal Reform Between Theory and Practice(2004) Diz, Daniela; Soeftestad, Lars T."Water resources management in Brazil has been based upon its legal characteristics of a common good. After the 1988 Federal Constitution established that the environment is a common good, a legal reform took place in order to better adjust the Brazilian environmental policy to this new regime. The first attempt of doing so was the 1997 Water Resources Policy Act that had its basis in the water's economic value, and the polluter and user pays principles. This paper aims to show the legal status of water resources management in Brazil, focusing on the economic instruments, such as water changes, as well as the political structure created to guarantee an envisaged quality of these resources. Taking as a case study the Paraiba do Sul river basin, located in the Southeast region, the paper presents some trends and constraints experimented by the first River Basin Committee that implement the legal provisions on water charges in Brazil."Conference Paper Conservación, Derechos Indígenas y Poder en la Gestión de los Bienes Comunes: El Caso de la Reserva Comunal El Sira en la Amazonía Peruana(2004) Benavides, Margarita"Las reserva comunal es una categoría de área natural protegida (ANP) creada para conservar la flora y fauna en beneficio de las poblaciones vecinas. A diferencia de otras categorías de ANPs las reservas comunales deben ser administradas por las poblaciones beneficiarias que son las asentadas en su entorno. En los casos de las cinco reservas comunales creadas hasta el momento en la Amazonía peruana, la mayoría de la población que habita en su entorno son indígenas que consideran estas áreas como parte de sus territorios ancestrales."Conference Paper Governing New Mexico's Water: Lessons from the Commons(2004) Brown, John R."New Mexico's diverse Native American and Hispano acequia traditions both inform and complicate the process of crafting institutions for governing the water resources of the state. Before the 20th century, both these cultures (to oversimplify a complex reality) treated their water sources and supplies as commons, governed them at the community level, and made collective decisions about access, uses, and responsibilities of individual users. Near the beginning of the 20th century, the power to decide who had access to a source of water moved to the State Engineer, while determining how water would be used became the province of the individual water right holder, 'hollowing out' the authority of the community to make collective decisions. "In the 21st century, as population pressures collide with physical constraints and management regimes that often fail to protect the rights of senior appropriators, officials are trying to balance conflicting values while introducing greater flexibility and efficiency into procedures to move water from historical to new uses. Water planning processes with strong public participation have raised awareness of issues of institutional design concerning 'active water resource management' -- how much 'market' and how much 'regulation'? "Both collective and autonomous market choices have roles in institutional arrangements that reflect the multiple values of New Mexicans, but in a situation of growing scarcity, collective choices will predominate. Protecting and strengthening mechanisms for collective choice, particularly at the local level, responds to peoples core values, while appropriately structured and regulated markets may allow willing buyers and sellers to transact productive agreements. Negotiation has an important place in a framework for market regulation that accounts for negative externalities of proposed transfers."Conference Paper Ecological Economic Modelling for Integrating Environmental Services in the Welfare of Commons: A Case Study in Tonameca Catchment, Oaxaca, Mexico(2004) Avila-Foucat, Sophie; Raffaelli, D.; Perrings, Charles"Environmental services had been recognized as an important part of social welfare. In particular, the socio-economic and ecological relevance of coastal regions and impacts are presented as the general framework, for proposing in Tonameca catchment, an ecological economic model, for integrating environmental services in the welfare of commons. Tonameca watershed has 90% of common property land where agriculture and ecotourism are the main economic activities, as well as fisheries. Living conditions improvement depend on the maximization of profits from the previous activities without impairing the environment. An ecological economic model is proposed and described as a method for integrating environmental goods and services, in the production function of economic activities, in order to improve living conditions of the commons in Tonameca catchment. Ecological and economic diagnosis is followed by an optimization of socioeconomic profits. "Ecosystem diagnosis considers land use changes, water availability and quality as well as, an analysis of mangrove food web interactions using ECOPATH software. Fertilizer run-off and the effects on mangrove and phytoplankton biomass methods are presented. Results derived form the previous analysis provide the information for restricting the economic production function of ecotourism, agriculture and fisheries. An optimization of profits for each activity will be carried on in order to establish management recommendations. Ecotourism is presented as an example of environmental services used by Ventanilla community. Sustainable indicators are presented highlighting the benefits of creating a cooperative as a form of common property rights. Environmental deterioration causes changes on demand and on the cooperative profits showing the value of ecosystem services and the importance of their conservation."