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Conference Paper Livelihood Support from Watershed Development in India: Issues of Equity and Property Rights Regime(2008) Shah, Amita"It is therefore important to examine the issue of equity in sharing of benefits from watershed projects, focusing on common property land as well as water resources. It is however important to recognised that there is a limit beyond which the inherent inequality in ownership of land, which in turn determines access to ground water, could be overcome even if regulatory mechanisms for benefit sharing are in place. Understanding the limits set up by the existing property rights regimes thus, is an essential pre-condition for understanding the issue of equity and benefit sharing within the context of micro watershed projects. "Given this backdrop, this paper will examine: (a) role of common lands (including forest) and ground water in determining the benefits from micro watershed projects; (b) distribution of benefits across households within the village community; and (c) policy imperatives for ensuring more equitable distribution of benefits in the light of the examples of good practices. The study will be based mainly on primary data collected form households in 12 micro watersheds (about five) in the western part of Madhya Pradesh-a state having large number of watershed projects implemented in regions with substantially large proportion of forest land. "The analysis is divided into four sections. The next section discusses the issue of equity in watershed development in the light of interface between private and common property resources in Indian context. Section 3 presents evidence on equity in benefits from various watershed projects in the country. This is followed by discussion on good practices for addressing the issue of equity and livelihood promotion within watershed projects. The last section highlights policy implications."Conference Paper Towards Successful Collective Action for Watershed Development for Improved Smallholder Livelihoods in West Africa(2008) Dangbegnon, Constant; Mando, A.; Sogbedji, J. M.; Zougmoré, R.; Youl, S."Livelihoods of many people in Sub-Saharan Africa are tightly depending on sustainable watershed resources. Therefore in several countries, watershed development has become a major issue and many interdependent smallholders with low resource endowments are concerned by the use of associated natural resources. In the particular context of West Africa, watersheds are embedded in complex property right relations among users, making collective or individual investments for their development too risky or too difficult to organize. The diversity of watershed development outcomes, for instance infrastructures like stone bunds and institutions for governing watershed activities are analyzed as public goods and common pool resources (CPRs) using the common theory perspectives. It is well known in the literature that collective action is a necessary condition to resolve problems related to public goods and CPRs in different circumstances. Beyond existing empirical explorations of conditions for collective action, this paper focuses on the design of a pathway to make successful collective action to happen using ideas, concepts and theories of communication, social learning, and management sciences. Insights from watershed projects in Benin, Togo, Mali and Burkina Faso enabled understanding of the (i) nature of watershed development problems, (ii) the learning path for alternative solutions, (iii) external support to implement solutions, and (iv) effects on collective action and smallholders livelihoods. Key lessons are learnt concerning ways of making watershed problems visible, learning to share a common understanding, and strategies for catalyzing behavioral changes for facilitating the emergence of successful collective action. A synthesis is provided to inform new practices that underpin local institutions building for watershed development that would benefit resource poor smallholders in West Africa."Conference Paper Are Village Common Forests (VCFs) a Model for Sustainable Natural Resources Management in Uplands of Bangladesh?(2008) Misbahuzzaman, K.; Ghosh, S.; Alam, M."Over the last several decades, the once highly productive natural forest ecosystem in the upland watersheds of Chittagong Hill Tracts in south-eastern Bangladesh has been destroyed through clear-felling of trees by government agencies for the establishment of monoculture plantations. The process has jeopardized the livelihoods of the indigenous communities living in the region by affecting their customary rights over forest resources and subsistence farming practices. In a highly degraded forest landscape, a few community-managed Village Common Forests (VCFs) or mouza-ban occurring in smaller watersheds demonstrate excellent models of ecosystem management as they contain headwaters of streams, natural springs and other aquifers, and represent large repositories of biodiversity. However, their strategic importance and potential for sustainable natural resources management has not been given due attention. The objectives of the study were to examine the resource use culture of the VCF communities and to evaluate the role of their indigenous knowledge systems in the conservation of natural resources and community livelihoods. In the present study a structured questionnaire was administered with 140 households from 13 villages in the mouza-ban areas of Rangamati and Banderban Districts. The analysis suggests community potential for conserving resources by: making greater use of bamboos thereby conserving timber species; more judicious use of medicinal and culinary herbs and wildlife; and better maintenance of the perennial water sources as compared to the neighbouring non-mouza-ban communities. Income earned from cultivating paddy rice in the valley bottoms of the VCF hills, growing a wide variety of vegetables and horticultural crops, and rearing livestock in their homesteads was also important. The traditional indigenous knowledge systems maintained in the VCF institutions are very important for understanding the multi-functionality of the upland watersheds and has broader implications for natural resources management in the region."Conference Paper Impacts of Wetland Drainage on Domestic Water Supplies and Peoples Livelihoods in Kabale District, Uganda(2008) Barakagira, Alex; Kateyo, Eliezer"Increased population growth in Kabale District, Southwestern Uganda, has resulted into wetland drainage in search of more arable land. This has impacted on the livelihoods and water supply for the surrounding communities. Water situation gets worse when there is increased water demand during community ceremonies like weddings when a lot of water is needed to prepare food and local drinks in large quantities. During such ceremonies, wells yield muddy water or even dry up because of reduced filtration and recharge capacity of drained wetlands, respectively. If such water is contaminated with disease-causing organisms that have not been filtered off, then it becomes a health hazard to people. Stomach upsets have now become more common and related treatment using Metronidazole at a cost of one thousand Uganda shillings (about US$ 0.6 or two litres of milk) per dose has to be incurred. Stomach upsets were not common before the wetlands were drained. Peoples livelihoods based on drained wetlands include growing of sweet and irish potatoes, maize, cabbages, beans, sorghum and dairy animal grazing. Beans and maize brought the net returns per unit land area (ha) of Shs. 276,323(US$ 154) per season, followed by irish potatoes, Shs. 54,101(US$30) and lastly cabbages which brought net returns per unit land area (ha) of Shs. -510,540(US$-283). Overall, 91% of the people have acquired more land in the drained wetlands (about 0.05 ha each on average), which they say is more fertile, and have milk at household level. Negative impacts associated with wetland drainage include reduced and/or loss of biodiversity such as the population reduction of Crested cranes (Ugandas symbol) while the Sitatunga or water antelope (Tragelaphus spekei Sclater), a globally threatened species, has been eliminated from many areas. Raw materials for traditional artisanal industries are no longer readily available as well as medicinal herbs. The District ranks number one in malarial cases in the country and this has been attributed to micro-climatic change (increased temperatures) due to wetland drainage."Conference Paper Study on Water Utilization in Chinese Rural Areas(2008) Rong, Tan; Zhiyong, Yu; Xiangheng, Luo"In China, because rural population is great and agriculture is very important in national economy, rural areas have becomes a main sphere of water consume. There exist the problems of water shortage and water waste in the countryside. The conflicts of water resource supply and demand between industry and agriculture are very conspicuous. Various factors that include ideology, finance, technology, management and policy restrict the rational and effective use of water resource. The survey on the villages of Jiagezhuang and Yaobaizhuang in Ji County, Tianjin reflects these problems. The government tries to solve the problems by making laws and policies, as well as affording financial and technology support to towns and villages. At the same time, it is necessary for the government to make officials and farmers realize the importance of rational water usage and saving by doing propaganda, coordinating the inter-governments relations, and defining the departments' duties. For realizing the objective of rational water usage, it is necessary to take measures to construct and perfect irrigation installations by both superior and local governments 'investment and farmers' labor force."Conference Paper Common Pool Resources: The Search for Rationality through Values - Empirical Evidence for the Theory of Collective Action in Northern Italy(2008) Marelli, Beatrice"This paper examines the relationship between values and institutions for water management in small rural irrigation systems. This topic has been approached by investigating two farm communities in Northern Italy and comparing how values shape institutional performances in terms of accomplished resource sustainability. First, the paper gives an overview of the literature on the topic, and then introduces the bio-physical features that frame the institutional path of the communities. It analyzes the processes through which the internal attributes of trust, reputation and reciprocity act within shared values in the two groups, developing different institutional performances in terms of the rules in use applied in the irrigation process by each community. Data have been collected from in depth interviews and semantic differentials from relevant community members, including farmers and extended family members who might help with farm-work. The paper concludes that among individual attributes and values, trust is required for overcoming selfishness in appropriators groups to achieve long- term institutional construction. In addition, in order to accomplish satisfactory and sustainable water management, a common vision of the resource based on consciousness raising about common interventions for preserving irrigation capability, is highly desirable."Conference Paper The Resistant of Central Government towards Participatory Resources Management: Case of Irrigation and Forestry Resources in Decentralized Indonesia(2008) Yonariza"Where global trend on common resources management has been toward participatory resources approach through decentralization, i.e. stakeholders at local level play a more equal role in resources management; this concept found it's still hard to be implemented in Indonesia. Although the macro political condition has been conducive, i.e.; regime has already changed from authoritarian one to a more democratic one, administration has been changed from centralization into a democratic decentralization, civil society has been active in promoting participatory management, but the bureaucracy at central government hardly changes. Through a strategy of 'transfer and grab back', central bureaucracy manage to constantly play dominant role in common resources management. To revitalize its role, central government keeps modifying policies on these resources management. It consistently inserts phrases in natural resources law/regulation that allow it to penetrate into district level, it also uses moment of administrative split up of the province which put more resources categorized as national resources, accepting request from local government to upgrade district and provincial natural resource becoming national resources. These have bee facilitated by the fact that the country still depend on foreign aid for development program. This paper discusses how and why central government bureaucracy re-play dominant role in natural resources management amid the decentralization policy."Conference Paper The role of Participatory Hydrological Monitoring in Groundwater Governance: Towards Evolving Informed Adaptative Mechanisms(2008) Ravindranath, R.; Sharma, Varun"Groundwater issues have become prominent since last three decades due to the erratic rainfall pattern, irregular supply of surface water flows and growing demand for agriculture, industries and for other domestic requirements. Alongside many basins are already closed or on the verge of closure. With increasing scarcity of water, Groundwater has become all the more important for the agriculture and for the livelihoods of the people. Consequently, the stress on groundwater has been increasing tremendously and it has been over exploited in the last couple of decades, which lead to the deterioration of the water table at an alarming rate and causing environmental hazards in some places. Semi arid regions are the worst affected due to the deepening of water levels in wells. "Many localized initiatives have been launched to address water scarcity; however, these developmental programmers are improving situation at local level without the perspective of basin flows at a larger level, thus leading to upstream and downstream conflicts sometime within a village or community due to the slag in supply and demand status of the resource. The problem of course, is that groundwater has been not treated as a common pool resource. This is compounded by the fact that there is also a lack of knowledge on base flows, which depend on the aquifer properties rather than on the administrative divisions, and some times the flows could be across villages, tehsils, districts and even countries like surface water. "In order to address these issues much technological advancement happened in the last two decades in understanding the hydrological aspects of the resources. However, it would have no value unless these innovations are practiced. Community could only adopt these technologies only if these are robust and user friendly. Government and non-government organizations have initiated a few attempts. At the outset, the participatory hydrological monitoring is a good solution to curb the groundwater depletion and managing the resources in a sustainable manner. "This paper talks about the management of groundwater resources by communities adopting various regulatory mechanisms and assessing the status of the resources with robust methods and utilizing the resources more sustainable across community."Conference Paper Common Water Management with Local Participation: An Approach to Use Xagueyes on Yautepec Microbasin, Morelos, México(2008) Guzman, Maria"The microbasin of Yautepec has had a history of unequal distribution of water. The situation has been that of scarcity in the highlands and abundance in the valleys, such problem could be solved following the process of local participation as seen among three communities of the highland of Yautepec microbasin. "The process of three communities and their local participation in the Yautepec microbasin give important elements to reflect on how a community through their traditional culture have modified some ancestral ways of communal organization into modern times, this process has shown the power and potential that exist within the communities in order to implement more efficient strategies in the work of water management. "Some of their agreements and rules have worked very well, these have been reached through solidarity, autonomy and self determination to promote some level of development within the community. Furtheremore, through internal and external cooperation, the community made possible their desire to have a better water supplies through a piping system. This experience clearly shows how marginal communities can eventually solve their water problems. "This microbasin has unequal distribution of water: scarcity in the highlands and abundance in the valleys, this is the historic problem of Yautepec microbasin, which could be solved following the process of this local participation."Conference Paper The Slaves of Water: Socio-Cultural Construction of the Community-Based Coastal Resource Management in the South-Eastern Bangladesh(2008) Deb, Apurba Krishna"The hereditary Hindu 'Jaladas' (literally slaves of water) caste-based fishers, a socio-politically secluded ecological community, developed and reshaped their resource and territorial management practices tuned to ethno-ecological knowledge, hydro-geological conditions, cultural heritage, value-systems and economic well-being through a long interaction with their immediate environment. This study, based on extensive participatory field works in coastal fishing villages of Coxs Bazaar district, Bangladesh for around twenty months, examines how locally crafted diverse management institutions survived for several decades, with special focus on 'faar' management system. Based on generally accepted values and operational clarities, such age-old institutions manage fishing entitlements through exercising set of rules. Faar system is widely prevalent among estuarine and marine set bag net (E/MSBN) and gill net operators targeting seasonally available commercial species. The scope, principles, and temporal and spatial variations of fishing entitlements are described. This study also examines the relevant socio-cultural constructions of the rural institutions and fishing in pretty details."