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Conference Paper Environmental Policy as an Institution of Collective Ownership: Water Pollution Control Policy in the United States, 1850-1980(1998) Paavola, Jouni"My paper argues that the contemporary research in common property opens up an interesting avenue for economic analysis of environmental policies. It facilitates the conceptualization of environmental policies as institutions for the ownership and management of environmental resources that may have been established, formulated, maintained, and/or changed in part to forward values other than economic efficiency and welfare. Research in common property also offers a structural model of institutions for ownership and resource management that enables a more detailed analysis of these complex institutional arrangements than environmental economics and law and economics have been able to accomplish. Law and economics can in turn offer tools to examine how the formulation of institutions affects their enforceability, consequences, and viability. In what follows, the first section of my paper discusses in greater detail how research in common property can be extended to the analysis of environmental policies. "The subsequent parts of my paper aim at demonstrating that research in common property can fruitfully inform the analysis of environmental policies by examining water pollution control policies in the United States from the middle of the 19th century until the environmental decade of the 1970s. The second section will examine how riparian law governed the polluting use of watercourses by early industrial establishments in the 19th century. I will discuss how, in part to facilitate economic growth and development, riparian law constituted a use of water as a transferable asset and established market allocation of water quality. The third section will examine how early water pollution control statutes enacted in many states after the turn of the century established collective ownership and political allocation of water resources to protect public health. The fourth section will discuss how federal water pollution control legislation responded to the larger scale and broader range of water pollution problems in the postwar era and protected the quality of water also for recreational purposes and for their own sake. I will also discuss in each section to what degree institutions succeeded in forwarding these objectives. "My conclusions summarize my observation on the structure, functioning, performance, and evolution of water pollution control policies in the United States. I will also indicate the implications of common property research for the analysis of environmental policies and vice versa."Conference Paper The Driving Forces Behind Collective Action in a Community in the Lower Amazon (Santarem, state of Para, Brazil)(1998) Futemma, Celia; de Castro, Fábio; Silva-Forsberg, Maria Clara"Studies on local management of common-pool resources (CPRs) usually emphasize analysis at the community level. However, empirical data have shown that the fact of considering community as a homogenous social group overlooks important social dynamics among actors which may lead to different outcomes (Schlager and Blomquist 1998). The analysis of local and external factors which affect individual's incentives may uncover such heterogeneities within a community. Edwards and Steins (1998) argue that such contextual factors are crucial to reveal 'hidden' factors that may affect collective decisions. Factors such as governmental policy (at the regional level), and household structure and ecological features (at the local level) may affect the opportunities and constraints to use a given resource. "Perhaps the main difficulty in identifying the primary driving forces to join a collective action is because most studies of successful collective action have focused on groups who organized themselves at a time substantially prior to the fieldwork conducted by the researcher (Bromley et al. 1992; McCay and Acheson 1990; Netting 1973; Ostrom 1992a; Wade 1988). In this regard, the analysis of a collective action in formation may provide information which better reveals the driving forces behind individuals' decisions concerning natural resources. It may, for example, reveal if the reason of a collective action is conservation, or if it is embedded in a 'hidden' agenda that is not directly related to the managed system (Steins 1997). Likewise, it may explain why some individuals are more prone to participate than others (Gibson and Koontz 1997). "The study analyzes a collective action that recently took place in a traditional riparian community in the Lower Amazon. The settlement is located between the floodplain and upland ecosystems, but only one-third of the residents joined a common property of the floodplain area. This paper tries to answer two questions: 1) why have only one-third of the households initiated collective action in the floodplain forest? and 2) how is the collective action in the floodplain related to the upland ecosystem?"Conference Paper Gendered Water and Land Rights in Construction: Rice Valley Improvement in Burkina Faso(1998) Van Koppen, Barbara"It is widely assumed that local gender and class hierarchies are the major obstacles for achieving equity. However, skewed expropriation and vesting of new rights exclusively in the local male elite or male heads of households may result from how an agency structures local forums and determines title criteria. This chapter analyzes negotiations on water and land rights under externally supported construction of water infrastructure in southwest Burkina Faso, West Africa. "The project used the concept of the unitary household to legitimize expropriation of women's rights to rice land. Initially the local forum was dominated by the male elite and paid male construction workers. At later sites, allocation became producer-based. At the initiative of local male leaders, forums expanded to include women, who farmed almost all the rice land. Decision-making on title criteria was based on productivity considerations and on respect for former rights, which were registered before construction started. These locally invented practices crystallized into a standard procedure for expropriation and reallocation, which was time-efficient and in which productivity considerations prevailed over short-term construction interests."Conference Paper From Conflicting to Shared Visions for a Commons: Stakeholder's Visions for Integrated Watershed Management in Thailand's Highlands(1998) Ayudhaya, Prathuang Narintarangkool na; Ross, Helen"Our research is part of an interdisciplinary program to develop a framework for integrated water resources assessment and management. It includes participatory research to elicit, compare, and hopefully to help to integrate the different visions for development of particular highland watersheds held by local people (ethnic minority groups and lowland Thai farmers), government departments, NGOs and business interests. It also acknowledges the effects of highland practice on downstream water users. Other stages of the research include resource assessment, and the development and evaluation of options for the sustainable development of the highlands (Jakeman, Ross and Wong 1997; Ross, Narintarangkool and Wong 1997). "This paper describes the visions of stakeholders in two of the four sub-catchments we are studying in the Mae Chaem watershed: Mae Pan, in the middle reaches of the system, and Mae Lu, in the lower reaches. The Mae Chaem is a tributary of the Ping River, and lies to the west of the well-known northern town of Chiangmai adjoining the Burmese border. The visions are compared using conflict mapping techniques, with a focus on underlying needs as well as the stated aims of each stakeholder. Our interest is in exploring the capacity to improve stakeholders' understanding of one another's situations and needs, identifying the potential for stakeholders to develop shared visions for the development of these catchments, and for them to enter into participatory process of local policy- making and environment management. Are there prospects for some forms of co-management of these watersheds, and if so in what form? This paper is based on work in progress, since not all stakeholders have been interviewed yet...."Conference Paper When Fishermen Decide, Co-managing Local Resources, User Conflict and Regulatory Decision-making in Fjord Fisheries: A Case Study(1998) Sagdahl, Bjorn K."In the Norwegian fisheries there is a long line of conflicts over access and exploitation of local resource systems, located to fjords or inshore waters adjacent to local communities. Local user groups have often had to compete with ex-locals exploiting seasonal or stationary resources, mostly coming out as losers due to differences in gear equipments, drifting patterns and catch capacities. More or less it is a conflict between mobile, specialized and capitalized fishing versus local, diversified drifting patterns using traditional and less capitalized technology. "Over the last decades the local fjord fishermen have diminished both in number and in political importance whereas local fish resources have become increasingly important due to declining access and dwindling resources both nationally and internationally. Along with increased competition over accessible resources, local resource systems tend to become less local in regulatory terms. Local regulations favouring local user groups are hard to come by and conflicts come to the force as the pressure on local ecosystems arises. "This study will focus on such local conflicts, drawing upon some developmental lines in fjord fisheries. What are the characteristics of the fishing taking place in fjord systems and why are conflicts still vivid after so many years of public regulations? How has the public authorities organized and responded to local regulatory needs and claims? What are the prospects for functional maintenance of local resource systems and their public recognition as local systems? These are some of the questions for discussion. The study will draw upon recent experiences from a local fjord fishing conflict in Nordland county. also including Sami communities and proclaimed indigenous rights."Conference Paper Irrigation Systems as Multiple-Use Commons: Experience from Kirindi Oya, Sri Lanka(1998) Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Bakker, Margaretha"Irrigation systems are often recognized as common pool resources supplying water for agricultural production, but their role in supplying water for other uses, notably fishing, homestead gardens, domestic water supply, and micro-enterprises is often overlooked. The importance of non-agricultural uses of irrigation water in livelihood strategies has implications for irrigation management and water rights, especially as increasing scarcity challenges existing water allocation mechanisms. This paper identifies the multiple uses of water in the Kirindi Oya irrigation system in Sri Lanka, examines who the users are likely to be, and explores implications for water rights and management policies. "There are important gender, class, and residential differences among the different water users. In addition to the cultivators of irrigated paddy fields, other households use the irrigation system water for fishing, harvesting lotus, livestock, and other enterprises. Even within irrigated farming households, men have more control over paddy crops in the main fields, whereas homestead gardens are women's domain. Because the irrigation system provides water for a variety of birds and animals, even wildlife and non-resident environmental groups can be considered stakeholders. "Current policies for supply in Sri Lanka, as in many countries, emphasize increasing user involvement in both irrigation and domestic water. While government agencies have had primary responsibility, institutions such as Farmers' Organizations are being promoted. These have the potential to serve as user platforms for negotiating water allocation among irrigated farmers. However, the user organizations mirror the sectoral responsibility of the government agencies--either irrigation or domestic water supply. Their membership and structure do not take into account the multiple uses or users of water. Developing platforms that accommodate different user groups remains a major challenge for improving the overall productivity, as well as equity, of water use."Conference Paper Toward an Improved Management of Common Property in Tam Giang Lagoon, Vietnam(1998) Truong Van, Tuyen; Veronika, Brzeski"Tam Giang lagoon in Vietnam provides sources of living directly or indirectly to about 300,000 inhabitants living around the lagoon in 236 villages with 31 communes. The high population density and high growth rate puts more and more pressure on the resources, particularly increasing overexploitation. The lagoon system is very complex because not only human activities are diverse and intensive but also natural environment displays very high heterogeneity. The marine, inland conditions, the river estuaries, seasonal fluctuation and high range in salinity, and different soil property all combine to form the complex ecosystems. There are difficulties to manage such complex systems for sustainable use. "In 1994 a project "Management of Biological Resources of Tam Giang Lagoon" funded by CIDA/IDRC was developed by a group of Canadian and Vietnamese researchers from Hue region. Research activities, started in 1995, had the objectives to understand the aquatic environment, exploitation, use and the present management of the resources. Participatory data collection was to form the basis on which to build a sustainable management strategy of Tam Giang resources. The research was also to address methodological issues on local participation and community-based activities. "First efforts made by the project were to involve resource users in the research activities and raise their awareness about resource problems and conflicts in management. The project collected data to serve as a basis from which to establish community-based management of biological resources in the lagoon. The main project activities were to use a participatory research approach with interdisciplinary perspectives in studying the ecological and human systems. Human efforts, which increase competitive ability to exploit lagoon resources, result in conflicts not only among local groups but also between management strategies. Realizing the conflicts is very important to perceive difficulties and challenges in further expanding community-based activities for management of communal resources. "This paper provides information extracted from preliminary findings to help understand the unique system and highlight issues regarding management of common property in the lagoon. The issues raised include nature of resources, technologies used to exploit these, human behaviour, arrangements for property rights associated with different management strategies, and efficiency and effects of informal and formal rules within the present management."Conference Paper Management Devolution and the Sustainability of Irrigation: Results of Comprehensive versus Partial Strategies(1998) Vermillion, Douglas L.From the Author's Introduction: "This paper focuses on the basic organizational elements which are included in devolution itself. Two questions are addressed. First, what is the essential set of elements (rights, responsibilities and powers) which should be included in a devolution program so that it will result in an effective and sustainable result, and if so, what are these elements? The second question is, what are the outcomes of devolution efforts which do and do not contain this essential set of elements? "This paper argues that the following five characteristics are essential for any irrigation management devolution program, if the objective is to produce sustainable improvements in the performance of irrigated agriculture. Where any of the characteristics are missing, the results will be correspondingly sacrificed. 1. a sustainable water right vested in a legally recognized WUA. 2. an agreed irrigation service. 3. balance between responsibility and authority devolved. 4. devolution of integrated management responsibility. 5. adequate incentives and sanctions to ensure accountability."Conference Paper Skirting the Rules: Collective Management and Informal Exchange of Formal Water Rights in Pakistan(1998) Murgai, Rinku"Irrigation has been a fundamental source of growth in Pakistan's agriculture. The security, flexibility, and enhanced water supply provided by irrigation has directly spurred adoption of high yielding varieties, multiple cropping, and input intensification. However, surface irrigation in much of Pakistan has been crippled by worsening problems of inefficient, inequitable, and unreliable delivery, poor maintenance, and insufficient cost recovery, with potentially severe ill-consequence for the livelihoods of millions of peasant farmers. "These problems can be traced in part to the political economy of public irrigation that in its present form provides inadequate incentives for government agencies to maintain and operate networks effectively. Two solutions that are receiving increasing attention, both in the academic literature and policy circles, are devloution of control to communities and development of water markets. This paper aims to examine the changing roles played by communities and informal markets in irrigation management in Pakistan. We highlight which institutions- whether formal laws, informal norms and customs, or decentralized and uncoordinated management- have been most relevant in influencing appropriation mechanisms at the tertiary level. The empirical data combine household surveys and particpatory rural appraisal of water management by households along two water courses in Pakistan. These have been collected and generously provided by the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) in Lahore. "Five main sections follow. The first section provides the context. The second section highlights that, among many possible reasons, worsening scarcity and inequitable fluctuations in scarcity led to erosion of local mechanisms of control and a reversion to legal and regulatory frameworks for establishing legitimacy of property rights over water. In the third and fourth sections, community-based adaptations that help tailor formal appropriation rules to local circumstances are discussed. Drawing on perspectives derived from the new institutional economics, the final section isolates which of various transaction costs, including those of coordination, monitoring, and enforcement, constrain community-based management to management within self-selected sub-coalitions of households."Conference Paper Holding and Managing Resources in Common: Issues of Scale in Mekong Development(1998) Hirsch, Philip"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."