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Conference Paper La Creación de un Distrito de Riego y las Contradicciones de una Comunidad Regional de Regantes en el Contexto Neoliberal(2004) Gómez Carpinteiro, Javier"El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las acciones, las ideas y las formas de organización que los campesinos de la cuenca baja del río Nexapa, ubicada en el suroeste de Puebla, México, han desplegado en los últimos meses para constituir un 'distrito de riego' en el marco de las reformas de la nueva ley de aguas y las actividades que ha desarrollado la Comisión Nacional del Ag (CNA) para transferir o descentralizar la administración del agua para la irrigación. La iniciativa de la creación de tal distritito ha sido promovida por personal de la CNA, y ha sido vista con bueno ojos por las personas integrantes de un comité regional de regantes que pretenden la conversión de ese organismo en un 'distrito', reconocido oficialmente. Entre los habitantes de pueblos y barrios que componen el citado comité, no existe un consenso absoluto sobre la pertinencia de crear el distrito de riego. De hecho, en cada lugar, de cerca de 40 comunidades con derechos reconocidos de agua, existe en su interior grupos o facciones opuestas a ese propósito, y pueblos y barrios enteros han manifestado tajantemente su negativa a formar parte en tal proyecto. No obstante esas desavenencias, es perceptible un sólido deseo por transformar una organización que con relativo éxito ha administrado y controlado el agua por varias décadas en una entidad que forme parte del Estado y, por esa condición, de los 'beneficios' que suponen gozarán los regantes por entrar en el campo de la política y la burocracia estatal. "El punto de partida es pensar que este caso puede ilustrar cómo las transformaciones del Estado están teniendo efectos sobre los modos de organización, sociabilidad y subjetividad de los actores rurales dentro de un proceso hegemónico desarrollado con enormes contradicciones en el contexto neoliberal. Argumento que la conformación de la unidad de riego activa deseos por (re)construir una comunidad política que posibilite una intervención más firme y directa del Estado en el mejoramiento de la infraestructura física y social y que moralmente sancione prácticas y formas de organización. Con la pretendida creación de un marco de interacción entre el Estado y los campesinos, diversos grupos y actores albergan la posibilidad de frenar disputas, reglamentar prácticas organizativas, eliminar abusos, corrupción y, en suma, constituir un contexto propicio para la expresión de proyectos productivos e ideas que modernicen la administración del sistema de riego. Tales deseos, relacionados a diferentes actores, aluden también directamente a la heterogeneidad que constituye la base de los campesinos regantes. En efecto, distintas y opuestas categorías sociale identifican a esta gente, y la génesis de cada una de ellas está asociada a procesos pasados vinculados a estructuras históricas de organización del trabajo."Conference Paper War and the Commons: Assessing the Changing Politics of Violence, Access and Entitlements in Sri Lanka(2004) Korf, Benedikt; Fünfgeld, Hartmut"This paper investigates the impacts of political violence on access to local commons and looks at local contestsover resource entitlements under the condition of warfare and post-war transition in Sri Lanka. We map out two essential trajectories of refused and contested access to commons in the highly volatile institutional setting ofwar and post-war situations: On the one hand, the political geography of war and fighting creates 'no-go zones'. These often include local commons, such as jungle, lagoon and marine resources that become places ofincreased military contest. On the other hand, threats, intimidation and violence to admit or refuse access toresources for the 'ethnic other' is utilized as an essential instrument in the local contestations over ethnic identity, historical entitlements and discourses of spatial claims. In this volatile setup, social and politicalcapital play crucial, though highly ambiguous roles for accessing the commons, and they are subject to continuous value change, depending on the political developments of the conflict. We illustrate this dynamism using two case studies of local common-pool and open-access resource systems in the war-affected east of Sri Lanka. In the first case study, we describe local contests over water distribution in a large-scale irrigation scheme located in a multi-ethnic area. In this case, farmers utilize their hydraulic positions within the irrigationset-up for both, gaining material advantages (diverting more water for irrigation) and using water as a means of power against the 'ethnic other'. Spatial access to water and land may be actively denied by physicalviolence or discouraged by intimidation. In doing so, civilians are embedded in a complex clientele network with local political and military power holders. The second case study highlights issues of changing access rights and resource use patterns in a large lagoon ecosystem. Since the lagoon was part of a militarily contested terrain during times of war, this produced severe access restrictions and security problems for local customary resource users. When overt violence came to a halt with the signing of a ceasefire and access was open again, alarge number of customary and new users started exploiting lagoon resources, which led to increasing interandintra-community tension and resource overexploitation. Both case studies illustrate the volatile, polarised and hybrid nature of local institutions which produce a governance failure. These failed institutions undermine local peace building, because they feed back into existing political grievances."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 Irrigation and Collective Action: A Study in Method with Reference to the Shiwalik Hills, Haryana(2004) Kurian, Mathew"In recent years decentralized development approaches have gained prominence in the agricultural sector. A host of community based watershed management projects have been implemented that encourage community organizations to undertake management of previously government controlled irrigation systems and forests. Community organizations have been given the responsibility of managing water distribution, collection of irrigation service fees and undertaking routine maintenance of irrigation infrastructure. In this context analysis of irrigation management has argued that groups that a rerelatively homogeneous may fare better than heterogeneous groups in facilitating collective action. However, this paper argues that analysis of the influence of group heterogeneity on collective action is complicated because of its multi-dimensional nature and the presence on non-monotonic effects in mechanisms linking heterogeneity and collective outcomes. We emphasize therefore, the importance of context specification in analysis of group heterogeneity through a discussion of elements of a joint management contract in Haryana, identification of key variables with a potential to explain collective action in irrigation management and construction of household endowment and water interest scores to account for the influence of group heterogeneity in facilitating collective action. In the process of applying household endowment and water interest scores we highlight the role of local ecological variation and non- farm employment in influencing collective action. Proper specification of local contextenables us to rely on household endowment and water interest scores to predict conflicts and potential for irrigation service provision and compliance with irrigation service rules."Conference Paper Disturbances and Resilience in Common-Pool Resource Management Systems(2004) Ternström, Ingela"In this paper, I take the analysis of common-pool resource management one step further by looking closely at how the users adapt to different types of disturbances. The analysis provides insights for how to analyze and promote resilience in common-pool resource systems. The main conclusion is that we need to start using a new tool-box if we are to further improve our understanding. I analyze historical data from ten farmer managed irrigation systems in Nepal. By tracing the processes triggered by the most common types of disturbances, I am able to pinpoint the actions that are taken by the users to counter the negative effects of these disturbances. I find that the reactions can be grouped into decision- making, reconstructions activities, rule changes, conflict management and change of leadership or institutions. I also find that many of these activities are undertaken by a few key individuals, the leaders. Furthermore, the main threats to the sustainability of these irrigation systems are disturbances that change the composition of individual users and those that directly affect the institutional structure. This strongly suggests that we start using the tool-box provided by various organizational theories."Conference Paper Water Management and the Poor: Organizing to (Re)Gain Access to Water in the Nicaraguan Hillsides(2004) Munk Ravnborg, Helle"Many rural areas increasingly constitute the arena for increased competition for water, not only between different users within the locality, but also between internal versus external users. In hillside areas, water is important not only for household consumption but also for productive purposes. Even where formal irrigation systems do not exist, the ability to water crops significantly improves peoples livelihoods. Evidence from many parts of the world, however, suggests that the poor are gradually losing their access to water. Based on research conducted in the Nicaraguan hillsides, this paper illustrates the processes through which access to water is lost by some while gained by others as well as some of the issues involved in water management. The paper shows how everyday water management takes place in the context of complex and often conflictive social relations at multiple and often overlapping levels. Combined, these two features make it hard to imagine that efforts to design a single river basin or watershed institution charged with representing and negotiating different interests relating to water management can succeed and become effective. The examples from the Nicaraguan hillsides, however, elude us to a possible alternative. In their attempts to gain and secure access to water, new organizational practices are emerging which transcend the local as well as the static, and increasingly seek to involve and engage district and national authorities in supporting their claims and adopting a stronger, but negotiated, role in regulation and arbitration. Therefore, instead of focusing on the crafting of neatly nested water management institutions, this paper argues in favour of supporting the development of an enabling institutional environment which focuses upon making relevant hydrological assessments widely available; broad-based and inclusive public hearing processes; enhancing the legal capacity, particularly among the poor; and last, but not least upon making dispute resolution mechanisms, such as a water ombudsman, widely available and accessible, also to the poor, to provide help in settling conflicts caused by competing water management claims as well as by conflicting claims of users and water management institutions."Conference Paper Policentrismo y Gestión Ambiental en Costa Rica: Retos y Oportunidades de Diseño Institutional, con Énfasis en el Caso del Agua y las Cuencas Hidrográficas(2004) Fernández-González, Álvaro"En Costa Rica, durante la última década, un mayor reconocimiento de la importancia de los bosques y las cuencas hidrográficas como proveedores de energía hidroeléctrica, agua potable y belleza escénica, ha dado lugar a la constitución de una gran variedad de innovaciones institucionales para la gestión de estos recursos: áreas de conservación a escala regional, distritos de riego bajo administración estatal descentralizada, asociaciones comunitarias o empresas privadas (pero perteneciente a gobiernos municipales) para la provisión de agua, comisiones de cuencas en diversos puntos del territorio nacional. En todos los casos se trata de arreglos institucionales mixtos, entre lo público y lo privado, con participación gubernamental, no gubernamental y local, para impulsar programas conjuntos de acción. "También han surgido en los últimos años iniciativas que buscan plasmar las lecciones de estas experiencias en nueva legislación sobre conservación y uso de suelos, gestión de los recursos hídricos y ordenamiento territorial. En la actualidad, el gobierno prepara la primera estrategia nacional de gestión ambiental, incorporando muchas de estas experiencias. "Estas innovaciones se mueven en un horizonte policéntrico, buscando hacer coincidir las escalas de la organización proveedora, el público consumidor y la comunidad política que decide sobre su provisión y apropiación, con los atributos y características propios de los recursos involucrados. El policentrismo emergente tropieza con la deficiente o ausente base legal para respaldar la jurisdicción de las diversas organizaciones públicas participantes, así como para regular las relaciones de cooperación, competencia y resolución de conflictos entre esas unidades gubernamentales, su público, su comunidad política y las otras agencias u organismos (públicos y privados) que intervienen en la provisión y apropiación de los recursos hídricos. Sin embargo, la resolución de conflictos en la esfera jurídica está dando visos de solución a algunas de estas deficiencias, especialmente en el caso de los recursos hídricos. Este estudio analiza la evolución descrita, con énfasis particular en la gestión del agua superficial y subterránea en Costa Rica."Conference Paper Irrigation Management in Nepal: Livelihoods Diversification and Institutional Responses(2004) Berg, Torsten Rødel"Globalisation and economic integration is strongly associated with local, regional and global markets. In the case of rural Nepal it would appear that resultant changes chiefly manifest themselves in livelihoods diversification and demographic transition through migration, at a rather rapid pace. This raises the question of the extent to which irrigation institutions are affected if agriculture is no longer central to people's livelihoods? The question is particularly relevant because current irrigation management approaches and the agricultural policies on which they are based do not reflect increased complexities. This suggests a need for examination of common property institutions in terms that go beyond their institutional capacity, to include both socio-economic circumstances and the livelihood strategies played out within institutional, social and economic contexts. "The issue of how external forces may influence common property institutions has generally focused on penetration of government authority, legal pluralism and focused on tensions between formal legislative and regulatory frameworks and the traditional laws of collective institutions, with concern that dominance by the former may lead to erosion of capacity for collective action. Concern with the disappearance of indigenous management and technological skills is particularly evident in the case of irrigation in Nepal, where a great deal of research, by seeking to define factors of success, organisational form, functions and logics has sought to reverse a trend towards governmentalisation of irrigation management."