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Resolving Water Conflicts through Participatory Decision Making: A Case Study from the Nakanbé River Basin, Burkina Faso
(2004) Kibi, Nlombi
"Water's importance for socio-economic development cannot be over emphasised. Not only is it key for human survival and welfare, but it is also an essential resource in agriculture (land irrigation, farming, breeding), health, hydroelectricity and industrial production for which there are no substitutes. Unfortunately, in Burkina Faso divergent economic, political, and social interests, the absence of adequate rules governing its use, and the lack of dialogue between the different players and stakeholders, have resulted in frequent conflicts between water users. "Over the course of the last two decades, it has become clear that managing conflict is essential to the sustainable management of common-pool resources, such as water. One approach towards managing water conflicts is the Integrated Water Resources Management Approach by Watershed Basin (IWRMA), which uses participatory approaches to help resolve conflict. The IWRMA refers to a system of decisions and actions about water restoration and conservation. Recent research supports the notion that the IWRMA is perhaps the only approach that is able to efficiently integrate all stakeholders, as well as structural (economic, social, legal) and environmental factors, into the decision-making process (McNitt and Kepford, 1999; Petersen, 1999; in Black, P.E., 1996). "This paper present the main results of a project, sponsored by IDRC from 1998 to 2003, which employed a participatory methodology for resolving water conflicts in the case of 19 villages in the Nakanbé River Basin, Burkina Faso. In these villages, especially at handpumps, intense water conflicts arose between women and girls or between women, girls and stockbreeders because of the waters insufficiency for all users. These conflicts often resulted in disputes or quarrels between two or more end- users. The Participatory Decision-Making Aid Approach divided the conflict resolution process into ten steps and involved all stakeholders in mediation activities such as informal discussions, roundtable discussions, meetings and forum discussions, and theatrical representations. The solutions, proposed and implemented with the involvement of all stakeholders (mainly grassroots stakeholders) fell into three distinct categories: 1) technical solutions, 2) solutions aimed at changing mentalities, behaviours and taboos of the local population about water use and water conflicts, and 3) solutions related to restructuring water management committees. The result of these grassroots-initiated interventions has been fewer water conflicts between users around water handpumps in the majority of villages and the increasing of the villagers' autonomy with regards to the management of the water supply. The Participatory Decision-Making Aid Approach holds promise as a conflict resolution mechanism for managing conflict in different circumstances and with other common-pool resources such as land and forests."
Dinámica Regional, Sociedad Campesina y Gestión de Recursos Hídricos: El Caso de la Cuenca del Río Espíritu Santo en San Miguel Chimalapas
(2004) Ciesas-Istmo, Yanga Villagómez V.
"El territorio indígena, entendido como un espacio apropiado y valorado por los pueblos autóctonos, ha sido el resultado de la transformación socio-productiva y de la aplicación del conocimiento técnico para que los grupos sociales se apropien del medio natural que los rodea. "Sin embargo, la búsqueda continua de nuevas oportunidades económicas, al diseño y ejecución de políticas de 'desarrollo' diseñadas desde las distintas agencias gubernamentales, con sus exclusiones forzadas y los consecuentes problemas agrarios que aun persisten, etc..., parecen afectar cada vez más a las culturas indígenas. "Por tal motivo, se ha vuelto necesario dotar a estos pueblos de una serie de metodologías aplicadas al manejo de sus recursos naturales, bajo las distintas propuestas que se realizan como planes de manejo de cuencas, o de ordenamiento territorial. Además de que son estos pueblos los que han mantenido un conocimiento del manejo de estos recursos colectivos -selvas, bosques, acuíferos-, lo que les ha permitido desarrollar mecanismos de cohesión social para mantenerse y reproducirse como sociedad. "Ahora bien, los retos que se presentan para las comunidades indígenas es realizar una serie de programas que les permitan no sólo una relación de conservación de esos recursos naturales que se encuentran en su territorio, sino también obtener una serie de beneficios por realizar dicha tarea. "Lo anterior es más relevante si se considera la estrecha relación entre los territorios indígenas y las áreas estratégicas para la conservación de la biodiversidad en México, donde la mitad de los ejidos y comunidades indígenas, se localiza justamente en los 10 estados de la República mexicana considerados los más ricos en términos biológicos. "Oaxaca es un estado que concentra una diversidad étnica que puede presentarse como ejemplo en esta relación entre sociedad recursos colectivos - territorialidad."
Understanding Processes of Institutional Change within Local Common- Pool Resource Systems: Can the 'Analytic Narratives Approach' Help?
(2004) Schleyer, Christian
"In this paper, the concrete example of a local water management system in a postsocialist reclamation area in East Germany will be investigated. Here, more then ten years of institutional change have resulted in an physically and institutionally dysfunctional system of water regulation. This system, centrally and hierarchically organised during socialist times, has been degraded and is operated in an uncoordinated manner. This paper aims to explore the reasons for the physical and institutional failure of the present water management system in the Schraden. More precisely, I will investigate the process of change that has lead to an institutional structure that has been unable to successfully deal with the problems. This paper is organised in two main parts. In the first part, I will sketch out preliminary results of the analysis of the processes of institutional change. In the second part, I will outline a research concept that might allow us to go beyond these first results and to develop a more comprehensive and theory based understanding of those processes."
Hydropower in Lao PDR: The Taxable Transformation of Natural Resources
(2004) Virtanen, Maarit
From the Introduction: "...This paper aims at looking at foreign direct investment, and especially Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) hydropower schemes, in Lao PDR trying to evaluate their role in reaching the national development goals. The study uses the Theun-Hinboun hydropower project as a case study to assess the impacts of a project and to determine possible lessons learned for the future development of hydropower in Lao PDR. The study is based on interviews of various actors involved in hydropower sector in Lao PDR and the analysis of relevant literature."
Integrating Institutional and Market Approaches: Collective Action Strategies for Water Management in South India
(2004) Reddy, V. Ratna; Behera, Bhagirath
From p. 1: "This paper is an attempt to examine the impact of tank restoration on rural livelihoods in the context of fragile resource regions. Some of the important aspects in this regard include: viability of tank irrigation practices in the context of their size, distribution of water resources across farm size classes and the role of communities in the process. The specific objectives of the study include: 1) to examine the impact of the tank restoration programme on rural livelihoods in terms of changes in crop pattern, crop intensity, yield rates, employment, equity, etc.; and, 2) to critically evaluate the viability, replicability and sustainability of the programme and suggest further interventions for sustainable water resource management in these regions."
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."
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."
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."
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."
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."

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