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Conference Paper Collective Action in the Management of Water Sources in the Highlands of Eastern Africa(2008) Mowo, J.G.; German, Laura; Wickham, James; Zenebe, A.; Mazengia, Waga"Participatory constraints and opportunities analysis conducted in three watersheds in Tanzania and Ethiopia established that water quantity and quality were the major constraints to adopting integrated natural resource management (INRM) practices. The African Highlands Initiative (AHI) working with communities in the three watersheds considered management of water sources as an important entry point for enhanced INRM. Focus group discussion, key informants interviews and historical trend analysis were used to obtain information on the status of water sources in the target watersheds, reasons why most of them have deteriorated, the impact of this on NRM and available opportunities for reversing this trend. The study established that rehabilitation of water sources was possible through collective action, which in this paper refers to direct actions carried out by groups of people working toward common goals. Further, appropriate policies and realistic by-laws, planting of water friendly tree species and putting in place an effective management structure were necessary for the long term survival of the water sources. Through AHI interventions, 32 water sources have been rehabilitated in Baga Watershed in Tanzania where target communities indicated a reduction on the time spent in collecting water from 5 hours to 5 minutes. A health centre in one village in this watershed reported a 55 % reduction in the incidences of waterborne diseases. In Ginchi (Ethiopia) three springs have been rehabilitated and are being used to protect the catchments around through enacting of local rules and regulations for their management. In Areka (Ethiopia) a total of 300 households have benefitted from rehabilitated water sources while reduction in the time for collecting water has increased the time available to attending to other developmental activities. It is concluded that collective action in managing water sources is an effective way of addressing issues that are beyond the capability of individual households, and through this, save time that can be directed to other activities including NRM, apart from having a healthier community."Conference Paper Is an Exemption from U.S. Groundwater Regulations a Loophole or a Noose?(2008) Daniels, Brigham; Weinthal, E.; Hudson, B."Groundwater is a classic common pool resource. In the United States, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) regulates most groundwater used for drinking water. The Act covers most urban areas but because it does not cover small water systems, it implicitly exempts nearly half of those living in rural America. In large measure, monitoring required by the SDWA has illustrated the prevalence of naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater in concentrated areas throughout the country. Even though many in Congress seem aware of this threat and have, indeed, supported more stringent arsenic standards, Congress, on the whole, has failed to update the SDWA to cover those water systems left unprotected by the Act. Conventional political science theory suggests that effective congressional oversight depends on Congress creating both active (e.g., hearings and commissioned studies) and passive oversight mechanisms (i.e., citizen suits and opportunities for constituent feedback). In this case, Congress had, in fact, created sufficient tools to detect a serious problem but, having identified it, nevertheless failed to respond. Why? In exploring Congress's inaction, we find something unexpected: the structure of the SDWA has created perverse incentives not only for unregulated water systems but also for regulated systems to push to keep exempted water systems unregulated. The outcome is that those outside of the SDWA's protections remain outside and continue to drink contaminated water by the glass full. So, while Congress created a loophole, it may have inadvertently tied a noose."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 Governing Wetlands in the Commons: The Challenges to Management of Complex Systems(2008) Cousins, Tessa; Pollard, Sharon"The upper reaches of Sand River Catchment contribute significantly to the water production of the Inkomati system; the drainage basin stretching across South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique. Much of this area are communal lands: the former 'homelands' of the apartheid era which today reflect high levels of socio-economic and environmental problems. Recently there has been increased attention on the wetlands within these areas, and their important role in the socio-ecological system. Degrading and dessicating wetlands threaten important livelihood sources of poor local residents, as well as impacting on down-stream users and the eco-system. "Work is being undertaken to rehabilitate wetlands, and to work with farmers on more sustainable practices. However it is clear that the problem of degradation goes beyond the practices of wetland farmers. There are other users upstream and beyond the wetlands and of the community itself, (including a new brick factory with substantial outside investment) whose activities have significant impacts. Moreover there are others who are impacted upon, most obviously by water insecurity. There are also multiple structures that have responsibilities to manage and care for the affected resources, at a range at levels or scales. Understanding of the roles of different agencies is currently weak, as many policies and structures are new in South Africa and the region. "While improved management is clearly needed, this is in the context of a multiplex system i.e. a system that has many aspects to it. To strengthen governance we need to understand the dynamics of the institutional environment, and also the complexity of the socio-ecological system. We believe that the community level is critically important, but that appropriate linkages need to be made with other levels, in order to have integrated planning and capacity for implementation of agreed approaches. "In this paper we explore the contribution of the experience of a research, learning and action project working in the village of Craigieburn. Working from the basis of some understanding of the socio- ecological system, both practical and strategic considerations are informing how to proceed in this complex and uncertain environment. The paper sets out the emerging insights, challenges and lessons regarding strengthening community based governance of wetlands."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 Vicuña Conservation and Poverty Alleviation: Trying to Link the Two Ends of the Social Scale(2008) Lichtenstein, Gabriela"This paper explores the link between vicuna management and poverty alleviation in Andean countries, and analyses the factors that limit a more equitable distribution of benefits among stakeholders. The study is based on fieldwork carried out in Peru and Argentina, and the analysis of secondary data (including the Proceedings of the Vicuna Convention) for Chile and Bolivia. Results suggest that the establishment of an open international market for the fiber, proper institutional arrangements for resource management, capacity building at local level and the implementation of fair trade schemes would allow for [a] sustainable use plans to be more effective and [b] more equitable distribution of benefits. These should be accompanied by conservation of untouched ecologically functional populations and proper implementation of protected areas to ensure the species conservation."Conference Paper 'Shared Water for All': An Experience in Community-Based Watershed Management(2008) Pool-Illsley, Emilia; Illsley, Catarina; del Pilar Morales, Maria; Marielle, Lucio Diaz; Alarcon, Javier; Chana, Felipe; Flores, Marco Antonio; Tlacotempa, Albino; Flores, Juana"This paper analyzes an experience in community-based watershed management, which involves 17 peasant communities of the Mexican dry tropics of the State of Guerrero. In these communities, where peasants are the owners and custodians of the ecosystems where water is produced, local institutions, regulations and organization forms, as well as local knowledge and practices, determine the access, use, conservation and veneration of water. The project considers this is the base upon which to build a new model for intervention, at community and regional levels, by which to improve local control, integrate new technologies and create an atmosphere for stimulating collective learning and technological/knowledge appropriation to guarantee enough water in the region for the present and the future. "Into its sixth year, the experience has accumulated a large number of small water conservation projects implemented according to the plan each community has drawn out, through its Water Committee, in a participative land use planning and training process. A series of interviews with the members of these committees were carried out to assess their perception of the project, of the main results and impacts, problems and possibilities. This input is being used as the base for building both qualitative and quantitative indicators for measuring impacts from the local point of view. Also, to gain certain insight into the process of appropriation of the project by the communities and their institutions."Conference Paper Community-Based Irrigation Water Management in Ladakh: A High Altitude Cold Arid Region(2008) Angchok, Dorjey; Stobdan, Tsering; Singh, Shashi B."Ladakh constitutes the easternmost trans-Himalayan part of India, bordering Pakistan and China. Truly described as cold arid desert, is one of the coldest and most elevated inhabited regions of the world. Because of diverse environment and lower population density there is greater need for social networking, which is clearly evident from the local institutions, the role they play in sustainably managing the meager and unpredictable resources available with the people of Ladakh, in designing strategies to deal with the inhospitable and tough environmental conditions. "The present case study explores the management of irrigation water (inter and intra village level) by local institutions in Ladakh. Local people are involves at every step of study. The study describes how irrigation water is managed by the local people of Phyang (upstream) and Phey (downstream) villages. Crop raising depends on irrigation water, originating from snowmelt and glaciers. The availability of this water is not easily predictable because it depends on the amount of snowfall in preceding winters and the prevailing weather condition. There exist local institutional arrangements for equitable and timely distribution of this water. The system of water distribution is certainly complex but exploitation is rare. The chhur-pon (water supervisor) is the most important functionary related to water distribution. The distribution system is pegged to the household or the channel according to the nature of resource availability. There exist proper rules regarding who, when, and how to access the resource, with provision of sanctions (different degree) on defaulters."