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Conference Paper Shade or Energy: Resource Views At the Kunene River (Angola/Namibia)(2000) Hjort-af-Ornäs, Anders"This case study draws on a politically sensitive situation in Southern Angola and Northern Namibia where national and local interests conflict over the use of river water in a very narrow riparian stretch of the Cunene river, forming what can be described as a line oasis. Access to this riparian area is key to the current livestock production capacity. Added to this is an intense focus by international NGOs on the issue of potential hydropower production. "The riparian zone has different meanings in terms of a common resource: It forms a pivotal component in a local pastoral production system, providing livestock reproduction resources (fodder, water and not least shade). It represents an emergency food area for both humans and animals during critical weeks of the seasonal cycle. It holds the potential to be a national asset for improved self-reliance and political independence from the big neighbour, South Africa. It is located within the SADC region political domain, though still with insufficient legally binding agreements. Finally, it is an international issue because of the plans for hydropower production. "The inhabitants of this riparian zone subsist primarily on livestock rearing. While the cultural tradition of relying on riparian commons has deep historic roots, the current social forms are relatively new. Today's so-called traditional pastoral Himba society is, to a great extent, shaped by colonial events (Portuguese, German and South African dominance). The pastoral production system relies on the riparian zone in a seemingly sustainable fashion, but eco-tourism and unemployment seem to begin to degrade both physical and social landscapes. "With the possible introduction of a hydropower project in this setting, yet another large-scale impact seems likely. The paper focuses on social consequences and how common resources are perceived and maintained. The different views of the primary users on the riparian commons are accounted for, and are contrasted with a number of interpretations of community interests. In the final analysis, the ethical issue boils down to how the riparian interests of a small population, in this case only partly seasonal, can be balanced with the democratic rights of a majority population."Conference Paper Comparative Study of Groundwater Institutions in the Western United States and Peninsular India for Sustainable and Equitable Resource Use(2000) Nagaraj, N.; Frasier, W. Marshall; Sampath, R. K."This study is aimed at the institutional perspective of groundwater management in dealing with overdraft problems in India and the western U.S. A great deal of management problems relating to groundwater over-development and use are emerging in both India as well as in the western U.S. In the western U.S. these problems are being effectively addressed through institutional policy instruments with local control. These include formation of natural resource districts with varying responsibilities over groundwater issues, creation of an enabling framework specifying user rights, correlative rights to a reasonable use, issue of permits for extraction, allocating quotas and declaration of moratorium on new wells in critical/over exploited areas. These regulations enabled to set an upper boundary for extraction of groundwater and made groundwater legally scarce. This has had a profound impact on use pattern and conservation of groundwater in the region. In India, lack of effective groundwater institutions at local level to deal with emerging problems in groundwater development and use has resulted in intergenerational, inter-temporal and inter-spatial misallocation and severe overdrafts creating several externalities. Further, the markets are not responding to correct the distortions in groundwater use. This has severely mauled equity, efficiency and sustainability of groundwater resource use. The emerging environmental implications resulting from groundwater overdraft will be terrible for the future generations. Drawing experiences from the Nebraska model there is a need for creation of an effective user-based groundwater management institutions at the local level with local control that are viable and reflective of social concern for conservation ethics, environmental values, equity consideration and efficiency in resource use. Towards this endeavor a package of incentives could be extended to promote user-based groundwater management institutions at grass root levels."Conference Paper Informal Cooperation in the Commons? Evidence from a Survey of Australian Farmers Facing Irrigation Salinity(2000) Marshall, Graham R."Land and water management plans developed for the four irrigation districts surrounding Deniliquin in the River Murray catchment are said to be at the leading-edge of Australian institutional innovations for integrated resource management. Farmers have been strongly involved in the development of the Plans and in deliberations regarding their implementation. Implementation accountabilities have been devolved to Murray Irrigation Limited, a company wholly owned by its irrigator customers. The plans primarily focus on an emerging tragedy of the commons, with the area's soils are predicted to become increasingly degraded by salinisation unless local cooperation is achieved in limiting watertable recharge. The irrigator-owned company can thus be regarded as a common property regime insofar as its watertable management function is concerned. "The community ownership rhetoric behind these institutional developments seems to signify an attempt to come to terms with the high, often prohibitive, transaction costs typically associated with formal governance of a common-pool resource. The reasoning appears to be that local human and social capital is the key to finding institutional arrangements which realise the potential of local informal capacity for self-organisation and thereby lessen the need for formal governance. "In an effort to go beyond anecdotal evidence of the alleged contribution of the informal in this instance, a face- to-face survey of 235 farm businesses was undertaken. This allowed the influence of various products of social capital, including trust, reciprocity and norms, on both farmer commitment to, and intention to comply with, their district's plan to be tested statistically. Findings are discussed in the paper."Conference Paper Bring People Together for Watershed Restoration: The Coquille Watershed Restoration Model(2000) Heikkila, Paul"The Coquille Watershed contains the largest coastal river organizing within the coastal range of Oregon. The Coquille River presently supports over 57 species of fish including; coho, spring and fall chinook salmon, resident and sea run cutthroat trout, winter steelhead, and a remnant population of chum salmon. Coho salmon have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. "Many factors including habitat alterations, harvests, hatchery introductions, and ocean conditions have led to the decline of many Coquille River fish stocks. Habitat changes since European settlement began in the mid 1800s, including logging and log transport, road building, draining, and diking for agriculture and urbanization have all contributed to the decline of fish stocks and water quality within the watershed. "The recognition of habitat problems as a key limiting factor for fish production and water quality led to the formation of the Coquille Watershed Association (CWA) in early 1994. The formation of the CWA was another step in a 20 year local effort to address habitat problems through restoration of natural processes. "The CWA is organized as a non-profit corporation and is governed by a 28 member executive council representing landowners and stakeholders within the watershed and works by consensus. "The goals of the CWA include creating water quality conditions that will meet Clean Water Act standards and enhancing native fish survival and production through public and private partnerships. "To reach those goals the CWA has organized a technical advisory group, developed a action plan which addresses limiting factors and sets priorities for identifying, prioritizing, coordinating, accomplishing, and monitoring restoration projects and educational efforts. To date, the CWA has generated over $3.5 million in public and private funding to implement projects. Some key projects are riparian restoration through fencing and planting, wetland development, the addition of large channel wood and rock, off-channel livestock watering and over 60 educational tours."Conference Paper Developing Small Dams and Social Capital in Yemen: Local Responses to External Assistance(2000) Vermillion, Douglas L."This paper examines six cases of small dam development along small seasonal rivers (wadi) in the rugged mountainous province of Al-Mahweet in north central Yemen. Development of small dams is a current priority of the Government of Yemen and various foreign donors. The government's objectives for small dam development are to recharge groundwater aquifers, create new irrigated area and provide sources of water for domestic uses. "The paper examines how external assistance effects local social responses of whether to invest, as groups, in further dam development, to construct water delivery systems and create rules for management. Most external assistance strategies are designed and managed in ways which discourage development of local 'social capital' for dam development--even in cases where local people desire to develop small dams. Social capital tends to develop in cases where assistance is modest, dependent on matching local investment, or is unavailable. "The cases show that where the share of farmer investment in a dam project is dominant (such as in Al-Mamar and Saheb) the cost per ha and even cost per m3 of water storage created is significantly lower compared with projects dominated by government assistance. The cases suggest that external assistance produces high-cost projects and discourage local investment. The cases with high proportions of external assistance also have poorly developed rules for investment, water rights and O&M. "The author recommends that assistance strategies be reoriented to place highest priority on facilitating development of local institutions and social capital. External technical assistance should be designed to facilitate local initiatives and financial assistance should be provided to stimulate, not supplant, local investment capacity."Conference Paper Acequias de Común: The Tension between Collective Action and Private Property Rights(2000) Brown, John R.; Rivera, José A."The acequias (communal irrigation regimes) of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado have for centuries accomplished many objectives for the communities they serve, including enabling agricultural production, sustaining popular participation, promoting income distribution and equity, and protecting the environment. This paper asks whether these institutions can be sustained under novel conditions--global markets, immense development pressures and demands for 'efficient' use of water. "Historically, communal irrigation systems worldwide have performed essential functions of reducing the uncertainty of supply, mobilizing labor needed to construct and maintain the works, and preventing and resolving conflicts over water use. Adequately performing these functions has in turn created economic value for individuals and families participating in collective action and legitimized the institutions over time. Since the late 1960s, a growing literature on the governance of irrigation systems has demonstrated that carrying out these functions requires a high degree of local self-organization and control. "Political 'modernization' theory during this period asserted that successful development of nation-states in emerging countries would destroy or drastically alter traditional political institutions. Studies of the governance of common pool resources suggest that this may not always be so. In the acequia case, local control, not only of the 'works' but also of the water resource, stands as one feature vital to their survival. "Moreover, the collective effort that made possible the existence of water rights (and created their value) involves a mutual understanding of an implicit 'collective right' held by the acequia itself to preserve and protect the value thus created. This understanding is evident in the behavior of appropriator-members (parciantes ) of functioning acequias, although unrecognized in current water law. This is a second key feature of these institutions. "The paper's first section sketches the development of the Rio Grande acequias from their Moorish-Spanish roots, showing how they evolved by adapting to local contextual requirements during the Spanish, Mexican and American periods. It explores differences between Spanish and Anglo-American understandings about property rights in water and their impacts on various actors perceptions of the acequia institution. "The second section examines the acequia's contemporary status in their institutional environment, including population and development pressures, interstate compact and treaty requirements, various conflicting federal mandates, as-yet unquantified tribal rights, and the over-appropriation of New Mexico's surface waters. New institutional arrangements, including state and regional water planning and management regimes, water markets and water 'banking' may provide incentives to transfer historical acequia-based water rights to new uses, far from the 'areas of origin communities' where the rights were established. "Finally, the paper poses questions for further research regarding consequences of alternative decisions about institutional arrangements for the continued vitality or decay of acequia communities. These questions derive from our understanding of the features that have contributed to the viability of acequia institutions up to now local control and the underlying understanding of a collective acequia right. They also stem from the possibility that sufficient political will may be present (at least at the 'regional water planning' level in New Mexico) to protect 'areas of origin communities.'"Conference Paper An Institutional Analysis of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management in France(2000) Frangoudes, Katia"This paper is based on the findings of the European Union funded research programme COASTMAN comparing the conditions of emergence of Integrated Coastal Zone Management policy in three European countries (Norway, France and Greece). The particular case of the preparation and implementation of the French Littoral Law (1986) will be presented. It is an original attempt to legally frame the contradiction between economic development and nature conservation objectives in coastal areas. An association of a vague definitions of concepts and a rigid regulatory approach has not produced the expected outcome of what is viewed in Europe as the most ambitious legal tool to ensure a balanced development of coastal zone under strong anthropic pressure. Although many stakeholders are generally concerned in designing local term collective objectives of development and conservation, the law has given an overwhelming role to State institution under the motive of the difficulty to coordinate many opposed interests. In the meanwhile, France has undergone a deep process of decentralisation increasing the responsibility of locally elected bodies. This contradiction explains a large part of the globally negative appraisal of the implementation of the law while the need for is recognised by all."Conference Paper Linking Policy Changes and Resource Management Decisions: A Game Theoretic Analysis of Coordinated Water Management in Colorado(2000) Heikkila, Tanya"This paper uses game theory to explain the evolution of rules governing ground and surface water in the South Platte River Basin in Colorado. Issues addressed in the analysis include 1) the role of existing institutions in creating credible commitments among actors to follow certain policy change strategies, 2) an examination of other 'off-the path' choices available to actors, 3) the effects of two level games such that efforts at the local level shaped statewide decisions, and 4) the effects of the rule changes on availability of information about ground and surface water in the watershed. From this analysis, the author will consider how water management institutions in Colorado's South Platte support or contradict watershed management theories."Conference Paper Multi-Institutional Experiments in the Participatory Management of Urban Rivers in Amazonian Brazil: The Case of the Mata Fome River Basin of Belem, Pará(2000) Ravena, Nírvia"The freshwater resources of the Amazon basin are immense. Despite their magnitude, the quality of Amazonian water resources is threatened by a number of land use changes, including mining, deforestation and especially urbanization. Impacts on water resources resulting from urbanization are especially problematic and constitute one of the major environmental problems affecting the region, and one of the most complicated and costly to resolve. In recent years international lending organizations are developing partnerships with state and municipal governments to implement projects to address these problems. Many of these initiatives include the development of new institutional arrangements which involve local community participation in the design and execution of the projects. This paper analyzes the experience of one such project involving the city of Belém. "Belém, the largest city in the Amazon basin, is located on the southern margin of the Amazon estuary in an area dominated by tidal basins. Expansion of the city concentrated at first on the higher elevations. In recent years, the tidal lowlands, known as 'baixadas,' have been occupied, frequently through organized land invasions supported by urban politicians. This spontaneous settement, was not accompanied by the development of the necessary urban infrastructure, such as, water runoff control and sewers, or concern for the conservation of the original landscape. The result, as a report of the Urban Management program for Latin America and the Caribbean (1999), noted that public efforts thus far had transformed 'sewage rivers' into 'sewage ditches.' "To address the problems caused by this uncontrolled development, a multi-institutional program for management of urban rivers was designed to implement management plans for selected urban river basins which attempt to reconcile ecological, social and economic uses of local water resources. This multi-instiututional project is coordinated by the UN program in collaboration with the municipal government, and seeks to empower communities for the participatory management of local stream basins. In this paper I will analyze interactions between an international development agency (UN), the municipal government of Belém, and local community associations within the context of the developing federal water resources legislation. A special focus of the paper is on role of community organizations in the implementation of the project."Conference Paper What Affects Organization and Collective Action for Managing Resources? Evidence from Canal Irrigation Systems in India(2000) Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Raju, K. Vengamma; Gulati, Ashok"Policies of devolving management of resources from the state to user groups are premised upon the assumption that users will organize and take on the necessary management tasks. While experience has shown that in many places users do so and are very capable, expansion of comanagement programs beyond initial pilot sites often shows that this does not happen everywhere. Yet much is at stake in this, with more widespread adoption of irrigation management transfers and other forms of community-based resource management. It is therefore important to move beyond isolated case studies to comparative analysis of the conditions for collective action. "This paper identifies factors affecting organization of water users associations, and collective action by farmers in major canal irrigation systems in India, based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of a stratified sample of 48 minors in four irrigation systems (two each in Rajasthan and Karnataka). Using key variables suggested by the theoretical and case study literature, the study first examines the conditions under which farmers are likely to form formal or informal associations at the level of the minor (serving several watercourses, and one or more villages). Results indicate that organizations are more likely to be formed in larger commands, closer to market towns, and in sites with religious centers and potential leadership from college graduates and influential persons, but head/tail location does not have a major effect. We then examine factors affecting two different forms of collective action related to irrigation systems: collective representation and maintenance of the minors. Lobbying activities are not more likely where there are organizations, but organizations do increase the likelihood of collective maintenance work. "Such studies can assist policymakers by identifying whether there is likely to be a rapid response to management transfer, or if more effort (such as community organizers) is required. For program implementers, this type of analysis can help identify the most 'fertile ground' for starting programs to achieve impact, and to expect to devote extra attention in other areas, if devolution programs are expected to achieve high levels of farmer involvement in resource management."