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Consolidation of Local Democracy In River Preservation And Fisheries Management on The Lower Sao Francisco River, Northeast Brazil
(2006) Andrade, Renata Marson Teixeira de
"This paper focuses on the effects of institutional choices and recognition on decentralization of river preservation and fisheries management on the Lower Sao Francisco River, Northeast Brazil, especially since the 1990s. By emphasizing issues of inequities and marginalization that stem from identity politics and institutional choices, the objective is to understand how the institutionalization of participatory watershed and fisheries/aquaculture management programs increase or decrease the possibility of democratic action and democratic control at the local level. Grounded in a detailed ethnographic study in two municipalities, this paper explores how the decentralization of the Federal Government's Revitalization Plan in the Sao Francisco River basin changes access to democratic control over fishing resources. It finds that the decentralization of the Revitalization Plan in some cases expands and in others undercuts the possibility of democratic action, especially for historically marginalized local communities whose livelihoods have traditionally depended on the river habitat, water quality and flow regime. This paper also examines the extent to which elected municipal versus traditional fishing authorities represent the interests and needs of fishing communities with regard to fisheries management. It first traces the historical context of the relationship between fishing communities and state in the region, and then presents detailed findings drawn from two municipalities alongside the Sao Francisco River. It finds that the process of institutionalizing participatory watershed and fisheries management in Brazil has helped in some circumstances to undermine and in others to strengthen both elected municipal and fishing communities along the lower Sao Francisco River."
Evolution in Nature of Collective Action around Water-Bodies in Bangalore
(2015) Nath, Sanchayan
"The city of Bangalore in India has been struggling to prevent the destruction of its water-bodies. Over the last few decades, the city has witnessed sustained self-organized efforts to prevent the destruction of its numerous water-bodies. The nature of collective action has however changed over the years – what started off as a very state-led initiative in water-body rejuvenation has gradually transformed into a citizen led movement. The ideology of governance has also changed, as the nature of participants involved in the collective action process has changed. The objective of this paper is to map these changes. Using a series of intensive semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the collection action around a sample of 8 water-bodies from Bangalore, I seek to understand how the nature of collective action has evolved and how the ideology of governance has also changed parallelly. I try to support the data collected through my interviews with data collected through archival and secondary research."
Bioeconomic Approach to Investment and Regulatory Policy Formulation for Cage Culture of Tilapia in Sampaloc Lake, Philippines
(1993) Tan, Reynaldo L.; Higuchi, Teizo; Honma, Tetsushi
"The main concern of this study is two-fold: to improve the efficiency and productivity of cage culture operation of Tilapia in Sampaloc Lake and to provide practical bases for reassessing the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) Fishery Zoning Plan. Primary data consisted of surveys of fishcage farmers operation in 1986 and 1990. Results of regression analysis showed that fish size at harvest, stocking density and feeding rate affect yield significantly. Moreover, due to the shift to more intensive feeding, the issue of overcrowding can be ignored and locational advantage plays a minor role. However, it was empirically confirmed that feeds were being applied in excess relative to the prevailing stocking density. At the prevailing technology, the optimal stocking density was found to be 19 times higher than the actual average of about 20 fingerlings/ sq. m. This optimum stocking density was compared to the stocking densities in other countries and it turned out to be relatively moderate. Technical investigation of the cage size-stocking density relationship showed that the carrying capacity of a cage varies primarily with its size. A stochastic frontier total cost function employing translog functional form was used in measuring the levels of inefficiency of the individual cage farmers and the average inefficiency level was found to be 14%. Cage size, stocking density and culture length tend to affect inefficiency the most and the prevailing average yield level, only about 15% of the existing average cage size is needed to produce it. Thus, the 15-ha fishcage belt limit being imposed by LLDA can be met without necessarily dislocating any of the fishcage farmers in the lake."
Vertical Collective Action: Addressing Vertical Asymmetries in Watershed Management
(2009) Cárdenas, Juan-Camilo; Johnson, Nancy; Rodriguez, Luz Angela
"Watersheds have the characteristic of connecting people vertically by water flows, making relationships among users of water more complex. The location of the people along the watershed defines their role in the provision and appropriation of water. Verticality in watersheds thus imposes a challenge to collective action. This paper presents the results of field experiments conducted in four watersheds of two different countries: Colombia (South America) and Kenya (Africa). We recruited around 639 watersheds inhabitants from upstream, midstream and downstream locations in these basins and conducted field experiments to study the role that location and verticality plays in affecting cooperation at the provision and appropriation decisions. Two field experiments were conducted: the 'Irrigation Game' a new experimental design that includes the provision and appropriation nature of the resource, and the 'Water Trust Game' an adaptation of the Trust Game where we explicitly announce the actual location upstream or downstream of the two players. The results show that reciprocity and trust are very important motivations for upstream-downstream cooperation and that the role of upstream players has important implications in water provision decisions. Results from both experiments suggest that the lack of trust from downstream players towards upstream players restricts the possibilities of cooperation among the watershed users."
Insights from the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture
(2006) Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture
From Introduction: "This Assessment finds that there is enough land, water and human capacity to produce enough food for a growing population over the next 50 years, so in this sense the world is not 'running out' of water. But the Assessment also finds a multitude of water, food and environmental issues that add up to a crisis. Water is a constraint to acquiring food for hundreds of millions of people. Important aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are damaged or threatened. The competition for scarce water resources is intense. And in many basins there is not enough water to meet all the demands—or even for rivers to reach the sea. These local problems could grow in number and severity, or shrink, depending on whether and how they are addressed. "What is clear is that today’s water management challenges—and tomorrow’s—differ greatly from those of 50 years ago, or even 25, and thus require new approaches. Those approaches will be broader, looking into the opportunities in rainfed, irrigated, livestock and fisheries systems—and in preserving, even restoring, ecosystems. They will build water systems for many purposes and manage them to provide a wide range of ecosystem services. They will be more participatory and involve informed multi-stakeholder dialogues to deal with the many trade-offs. And they will embrace diverse interests and institutions to increase the equity of water’s use. These are the hopes emanating from this Assessment of water for food and for life."
Law & Economics Approach to the Study of Integrated Management Regimes of Estuaries
(2004) Van De Griendt, Wim
"In this working paper a first attempt is undertaken to adapt the Schlager & Ostrom 'Bundle of rights' framework, so that it is applicable in situations of multiple-commons with a coordinating role for the government and/or NGO's. For this purpose, two new types of ownership are added to the framework, namely the trustee and the steward."
The Complexity of Addressing Water Quality in Vietnam's Craft Villages
(2010) Dang, Trung Dinh; Mahanty, Sango
"Does seeing water quality as a ‘complex commons’ create new windows for environmental management? Vietnam’s craft villages are rural villages with many small family-based workshops, specializing in the production of ‘traditional’ handicrafts as well as newer activities such as solid waste recycling. Recent growth in the number and size of craft villages has created economic benefits, but also water pollution and risks for health, agriculture, and other livelihood activities. The Government treats water pollution as an externality to be managed through strict regulations, market-based instruments or public education. In contrast, this research considers what can be learned from viewing water pollution as a complex commons issue. Since water quality is impacted by numerous small and dispersed point sources of pollution, the study aims to understand the scope for coordinated action among individual craft village residents, across villages and between tiers of government. Initial findings suggest that state regulation and local self-regulation are in themselves insufficient; attention needs to be given to coordination between actors at multiple sites, different sectors (e.g. state, resource users and civil society) and at different scales (e.g. local, regional, and national) as a critical factor in addressing pollution from craft villages."
Institutional Sustainability for Water Resource Management: A Case Study of Dong People's Water Resource Management in Zengchong Village, Congjiang County, Guizhou Province, P.R. China
(2003) Zhinan, Li
"In Zengchong village, there was a traditional Kuan institution for water resource management in the past, which was eventually destroyed, but now local people have constructed the Cun Gui Min Yue for water resource management, which was derived from traditional Kuan. Through analyze this dynamic process, this paper found that local tradition can be manipulated even under the modernized China today. And also this paper demonstrates how the development of local water institution articulated with outsider context."
Watershed Institutions and Collaborative Environmental Management: Linking Self- Governance to Existing Governmental Institutions (A Research Proposal)
(2004) Koontz, Tomas
"A rich body of theoretical and empirical knowledge has been building about common pool resource management. From the work of Olson and Hardin providing models of collective action, we have moved to empirically-grounded theories from Ostrom and others. Much of this emphasis has been on the question of self-governance, and on the local scale. But increasingly scholarship aims to develop understanding of larger scale issues, including those with many resource users whose livelihood may not depend significantly on the resource in question. Moreover, self-governance by an isolated community is often less prevalent than is interconnected, multi-jurisdictional decision making for managing common pool resources. In the proposed research I am interested in the interface between stakeholders and government officials with jurisdiction over common pool resource management. In particular, my focus is on watershed management, which typically crosses multiple jurisdictional boundaries and involves a wide range of stakeholders with varying levels of concern about the resource."
Designing Effective Intervention for Irrigation Management: Cases from the Indrawati Watershed in Nepal
(2005) Lam, Wai Fung; Ostrom, Elinor; Shivakoti, Ganesh P.; Yoder, Robert
"Prior research and assistance experiences have suggested that technological fixes alone are not likely to improve irrigation performance. An intervention project stands a chance of success only if it could help develop robust local institutions to support the operation and maintenance of engineering infrastructure, and enhance social capital that has already existed in the local community. While the principle for designing successful intervention project seems to be straightforward, turning the principle into the design of intervention projects is not as simple as some might expect. In particular, how to keep the intervention effect last and sustained in the long run poses a significant challenge. "In 1985, the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) of Nepal and the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) initiated an intervention project to assist 19 farmer-managed irrigation systems located in the Indrawati watershed in Nepal. The project was designed with a view to developing and testing methods for delivering assistance that could enhance farmers organizing ability for irrigation operation and maintenance at the same time as the irrigation infrastructure was improved. The project was innovative in a variety of ways: (1) the farmers could choose whether to be involved or not, (2) the project provided technical assistance but purposely did not provide full funding for engineering improvements and the farmers were expected to provide core labor and some materials, (3) the farmers examined the engineering plans and had to OK them before they were implemented, (4) participating farmers were expected to go through 'farmer-to-farmer' training offered by some of the more productive irrigation systems in Nepal, and (5) each farmer group was expected to write its own internal set of working rules that covered how future decisions would be made for the system. "The intervention was evaluated as being very successful soon after completion. In this paper, we will draw on several rounds of measurement for the systems involved in the project as so to assess and understand how the intervention has affected the operation and performance of the systems in a decade and a half after completion. By comparing the systems experiences of irrigation management, we will identify factors that help explain why there are differences in the long-term effects of this project, and discuss the implications of the experience for the design of intervention projects."

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