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Conference Paper Knowledge, Institutions and Collective Action at the Frontier(2004) Brown, Katrina Myrvang; Muchagata, Marcia"Much has been written about the prospects for sustainable development and possible conservation strategies for Amazonia. Some suggestions have focused on so-called traditional resource management, yet most resource managers in Amazonia are fairly recent migrants to the region. Knowledge, institutions and collective action are thus highly dynamic. This paper examines the evolution and development of knowledge amongst colonist or migrant farmers in the frontier environment of eastern Amazonia. It focuses on the Marab'a area in Brazilian state of Para, where colonists from different regions of Brazil have migrated over the last 30 years. We adapt the Traditional Ecological Knowledge concept to analyse taxonomic knowledge, by examining soil types identified by smallholder farmers; systems knowledge, by examining nutrient flows on individual farms; and social institutionalisation of knowledge, by looking at different forms of collective action developing at the frontier. Even very recent migrant farmers rapidly develop taxonomic knowledge of their environment, for example they have detailed knowledge of soil types and of forest plant species. However, migrant farmers demonstrate much more diverse understandings of processes and ideas about how systems work and interact, such as nutrient flows and soil degradation. These perceptions and understandings are rather more divergent from conventional scientific conceptualisations than are taxonomic insights. New forms of collective action are developing at the frontier. The paper analyses three major rural organisations in Amazonia: the Rural Workers Union Movement, the Rubber- tappers National Council and the Landless Workers Movement. These collective action institutions reflect the diverse knowledge of different farmers and institutionalise knowledge within different production, exchange and management systems. The analysis highlights the dynamic and adaptive nature of knowledge at the frontier and links the evolution of knowledge explicitly to different forms of collective action. These in turn represent different resource management strategies and are likely to be key in determining the future sustainability of the frontier, in terms of both the environmental conservation and the well-being and welfare of its human population."Journal Article Common Challenges: Policy, Theory and Voice(2007) Currie-Alder, Bruce"Berge and Prakash reflect on the role of IASC in light of the inclusion of commons research in other fora and increasing diversity in the IASC membership. Both of these trends are to be rejoiced yet force us to ponder the Associations future directions. Two decades of IASC have seen the commons transformed from a tragedy into an opportunity, from a rogue line of research into accepted practice. Given this success, one IASCs conferences as part of these projects. This creates interest, diversity and breadth of participation at conferences, but it also means there is a substantial 'floating' membership and turnover in participation from one conference to the next option is to simply disband IASC and allow its members to gravitate to other fora. Yet while the idea of the commons has gained currency elsewhere, the Association lies at the intersection of research and practice. To build on this position over the next two decades, IASC must understand how commons research is used, link practice back into theory, and strengthen the voices of Southern members."Conference Paper Community Forestry from Wealth and Caste Perspective: Elivra Graner in the Dock(2002) Sharma, A. R."This article assesses validity of the blame 'Community Forestry discriminates against the lower caste and economically disadvantaged people in Nepal'. Case studies, using two sets of database on the Forest User Groups (FUGs) of Lalitpur and Kabhrepalanchok Districts revealed that People have benefited from Community Forests regardless of wealth and caste through augmented supply of forest products for farm-household activities. The paper recommends for the continuation of subsistence oriented Community Forestry Policies in Nepal."Conference Paper Governing Protected Areas to Fulfil Biodiversity Conservation Obligations: from Habermasian Ideals to a more Instrumental Reality?(2008) Jones, Peter J. S."Previously much CPR research was focused on self-governance by self-organised local actors. The focus is now shifting to the need for linkages to address the interactions amongst actors with market, state, etc structures that influence them, and on the scale challenges that these interactions present. This paper considers the implications of these developments for empirical studies, with a particular focus on those concerning the governance or co-management of protected areas (PAs). Two key scale challenges raised by PAs are considered: (1) the divergence of objectives between sustainable resource exploitation and biodiversity conservation; and (2) the requirement to fulfil biodiversity conservation obligations. These are explored through a UK marine PA case study which found that though even though the state had adopted a controlling role that had created tensions by undermining the authority and livelihoods of some stakeholders, the partnership had been sufficiently strengthened to withstand these tensions through the instrumental development of key links between state and civil actors: bracing social capital. Four conclusions for CPR research with a particular reference to PA governance are drawn: (1) the emphasis should be on the complex dynamics of the network structure and processes in question rather than on attempting to categorise regimes or devise rules; (2) such analyses must explicitly integrate the effects of top- down institutions and interventions, recognising their positive contribution to governance; (3) the linkages at the interface between local communities and higher level state and civil institutions are particularly critical, therefore CPR analyses should be focused at this level, including analysing the potential to transfer what appears to be effective in one context to another; (4) it is important that presumptions based on Habermasian ideals do not constrain CPR analyses, in that they should constructively incorporate the strategic and instrumental roles of state and their consequences."Journal Article Agriculture Wrapped with Social Networks, Data Mining and Mobile Computing to Boost up Crop Productivity(2010) Akkanini, Haritha; Junapudi, Vasavi"'The backbone of Indian economy' –agriculture which is known for its multifunctional success in generating employment, livelihood, food, nutritional and ecological security is facing several problems in improving the crop productivity. As we had good expertise in the field of agriculture the crucial information is not reaching the farmer community in a timely manner. In this paper we made an effort to find a way out to bridge the gap in the broadcast of information so that timely decisions can be taken for a better farming. We are trying to propose a system which provides advisory services as a decision support to farmers on crop related issues using the mobile services. In addition to these, the effort is being made to familiarize this information through a social network where a human being is a resource to influence others instead of mass media. Initially the proposed system is designed to collect the climatic data and it will be passed to the mobiles of all farmers through messages. There is a coordinator for each region to provide suggestions periodically. At the end of cropping, the coordinator will collect the information like• Had the farmer utilized the climatic information• Type of soils• Type of seeds• Pesticides used• Yield information, etcwill be maintained in a database. Applying data mining techniques the results are analyzed. In each location identifying a person, who utilized the services and achieved the higher productivity. He will act as a motivator/educator to other farmers. Through him we will educate/motivate other farmers about to consider and follow the climate alert message information as valuable as mass media."Journal Article Pirates or Saviours of the Coast?(2009) Mwangura, Andrew"The issue of sea piracy off the coast of Somalia cannot be viewed in the simplistic terms of a law-and-order problem."Conference Paper 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."Journal Article Knowledge for Commons Management: A Commons for the Commons(2005) Wilson, Douglas C."Knowledge about a commons is a public good that has to be created and shared by the commoners so that they have the information then need to make and enforce operational rules and manage conflicts. On many commons people do different kinds of activities and the knowledge that results is also different. When these different experiences are mixed with different interests coming to an agreement on how to proceed can be very difficult. A fishery is a commons where developing a shared picture of what is happening to the fish is one of the toughest aspects of participatory management. For the past seven years most of my work has involved using tools from the sociologies of science and knowledge to try to understand this problem. I have learned that it brings to diverse groups similar kinds of difficulty and pain."Journal Article The Cost of Dividing the Commons: Overlapping Property Systems in Tonle Sap, Cambodia(2015) Thol, Dina; Sato, Jin"This paper examines the political implications of dividing the commons through the case study of private fishing lots in the Tonle Sap Great Lake of Cambodia. The de facto private property in Tonle Sap lasted for over 100 years until the government abolished the system completely in March 2012. Unlike conventional studies of the commons which assume away the question of divisibility as too costly to be realistic, we argue that divided management occurs even when the cost is very high. This 'cost' is not merely economic, but also political. Our case study illustrates how this political cost is channeled through a network of influential people to maintain the resource system and how a private property on the commons can be demolished, also for political reasons."Working Paper Borders, Rules and Governance: Mapping to Catalyse Changes in Policy and Management(2000) Alcorn, Janis B."While researchers have long used mapping techniques and satellite imagery to analyse local situations for academic purposes and for making recommendations to donors and government, NGOs are now increasingly bringing this analytical power to the local level for improving local decisions and enabling local analyses to be shared with outsiders in order to improve national level policies. Maps communicate information immediately and convey a sense of authority. Mapping programmes can empower civil society efforts to bring accountability and transparency to local and national governments. This paper uses numerous examples to highlight the power of maps in bringing about such local change. Maps reveal information about conflicts, overlaps and trends in areas where rights and responsibilities are cloudy. They raise questions and trigger action. Maps serve as evidence in courts of law. They stimulate movement toward policy reforms. Community-based maps allow popular participation in arenas previously dominated by the maps of governments and corporations created for development and exploitation of natural resources. They also provide a way to renew local commitment to governing local exploitation of those same resources. In short, maps are powerful political tools in ecological and governance discussions. The paper also provides some guiding principles for the use of mapping processes with communities. With the advent of inexpensive GPS technology to tap this potentially powerful tool for grassroots-based advocacy, mapping for policy change sounds deceptively easy. But for the full power of maps to be realised, before carrying the GPS into the field, mappers need to facilitate a process at the community level in order to build a consensus-based goal and strategy for using the maps. The key guiding principle is that the mapping facilitator turns authority and decision-making over to the community so they can direct the mapmaking pencil’s trace and the map’s use."