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Conference Paper The Role of Social Capital and Further Assets for Collective Action and User Participation to Solve Water Resource Problems in Megacities(2011) Meyer-Ueding, J.; Rommel, J.; Hanisch, Markus"Many large cities around the world face huge challenges of water scarcity. In the South-Indian emerging megacity Hyderabad, uncontrolled population growth and negative effects of climate change add to the existing water crisis. While the upper middle class, farmers around the city, and industries consume a lot of water, slum residents are left behind with inadequate water supplies. As successful cases from slums in other developing countries show, neighborhood organizations can help to improve upon the status quo of water service provision. The degree of collective organization in Hyderabad’s slums is low, however. This paper hypothesizes that differences in assets are responsible for this gap. From a stratified survey of 500 households in Hyderabad we describe differences in endowments across neighborhoods and analyze the way in which assets in general and social capital in particular affect the willingness to address water-related problems collectively. We find that this willingness strongly depends on location – i.e. city zone and type of neighborhood –, having experienced water quality problems, and norm following. In slum neighborhoods also the level of education positively impacts the willingness to organize with one’s neighbors. From these findings we conclude that endowments with social capital and other assets cannot satisfactorily explain the lack of organization. Further research should be directed towards the strong geographical differences in the willingness to organize."Conference Paper Commons for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): Excluded from Policy(2011) Sarma, Sushanta Kumar; Agrawal, Ishan"Almost half of the displaced persons in India are tribals, most of whom are located in the natural resource-rich dryland and rain-fed areas of central Indian tribal belt and in North- Eastern region. Apart from loosing private properties, IDPs also lose access to common property resources. Commons are prime providers of food, especially for fodder and fuel wood in these areas. Small and marginal farmers and agricultural laborers are more dependent upon commons for their redistributive role. Common also add to social stickiness of communities leading to stronger social ties among them. Security of livelihoods is an important guiding principle for rehabilitation policies. The assessment of impact of displacement as stated in the rehabilitation bill (2007) includes assessment of Commons from livelihood perspective. However, the provisions for resettlement, in the bill, do not accommodate Commons as a part of compensation. In absence of any specific policy, the case for conflict-induced IDPs is even worse. Moreover, as the institutions around commons are locally embedded, they cannot be created in absence of an enabling policy framework for communities. Similarly, the access to commons of indigenous population as against IDPs is also an ambiguous area. National policies on most of the natural resources deal with the state and private control only, augmenting to the neglect of significance of Commons in all other development policies, including one for IDPs. The IFAD framework for sustainable livelihood examines the livelihood of poor by linking different elements like assets, vulnerabilities, policies etc., within a context. It examines the linkages between ‘service delivery agencies’ like institutional arrangement for commons and ‘enabling agencies’ like policy-making bodies, on livelihoods. IFAD framework can bring out the criticality of commons for IDPs. An analysis of current situations and legal-policy frameworks for resettlement in select states will help to bring out the lacunae in given agro-ecological and social contexts."Conference Paper Loss of Access Rights Leads to Collapse of Traditional Fisheries Governance and Rise of Conflicts: A Case from Malala and Ebillakela Lagoons in Sri Lanka(2011) Rathnaweera, Erwin; Gunasekara, Jayantha"A traditional fisheries governance system was in place in Malala-Ebillakela lagoons, which involved all relevant parties including fishers, non fishers and government organizations to manage the lagoon ecosystem. The special features of this system were the involvement of all parties, from different layers of decision-making, in the different forums across levels and the pressure which came from both fisher and non-fisher communities who were totally dependent on the resources of the lagoons. However, with the declaration of the lagoons as a Bird Sanctuary and National Park, subsequently, under the Wild life Act of Sri Lanka in 1990s, this common property was turned into a state property. Consequently, it came under the direct supervision of the Wild Life Department. As a result, the Wild Life Department started to control the access rights of the traditional fishers and non fishers, leading to conflicts between fishers, fishers and non-fishers, fishers and the Wild Life Department and so on. In the meantime, the ecosystem started to deteriorate in the face of uncoordinated infrastructure development interventions. This paper attempts to discuss the consequences of these developments and the collapse of the traditional fisheries governance system, and the impacts of introducing State-led management under the Wild Life Act."Conference Paper Creating New Urban Commons: A Baltimore Case Study(2011) Herrod, K.A."In 2003, Baltimore was a city in distress, with over 14,000 vacant houses and a population that had dropped by more than one-third since 1950. Tired of alleyway crime, residents decided to gate and beautify their alleys, creating common spaces outside their backdoors. Residents faced significant legal and political challenges before, in April 2007, a landmark ordinance passed allowing for alley gating and greening. This historic legislation culminated from the efforts of government, residents, private sector and nonprofit partners, including Ashoka’s Community Greens. This new ordinance protected the city from frivolous law suits and provided residents with a transparent, reasonable, and replicable process. Dozens of blocks in Baltimore are now taking advantage of this ordinance. Because of the social, environmental, and fiscal benefits it provides, other cities are beginning alley greening programs, customized to their unique needs. None, however, appear as community-driven as Baltimore. Baltimore’s program rests at a unique intersection of grass-roots responsibility (residents must undertake the process primarily on their own including gaining their neighbors’ consents and raising funds for improvements) and top-down, municipal authority (a city wide ordinance and application process that must function in order for the program to spread city-wide). This paper will explore the context for and the challenges of creating Baltimore’s alley gating and greening initiative. It will also cover the process residents underwent, the legislation that was ultimately passed and the impact alley gating and greening has had to date. In addition, it will address how other cities’ green alley programs are evolving and key elements for replication."Conference Paper Towards New Institutional Arrangements for Managing Forest Commons in Northwestern Ontario(2011) Palmer, Lynn; Shahi, Chander; Smith, Peggy"The forest industry has been the backbone of local economies in many remote locations in Canada. While this industry, which has focused on commodity products such as pulp, paper and lumber, thrived until the early part of this century, in recent years it has faced a major downturn that has resulted in extensive mill closures and unprecedented job losses to forest industry workers. Although municipalities that once benefited from the forest industry through employment and taxation are now experiencing negative social and economic impacts, Indigenous (First Nation) communities have generally been marginalized and historically received little benefit from the forest industry. This study examines the emergence of new institutional arrangements for the management of forest commons in northwestern Ontario (NWO) as an approach to improve the resilience of the communities that inhabit this vast boreal forest region. The study utilizes a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with participants from 10 municipalities and 18 First Nation communities throughout NWO. The study participants include community leaders (mayors, chiefs, council) and key informants familiar with the forestry situation (former loggers and mill workers, lands and resources staff, and economic development officers). The study results have been used to formulate policy recommendations to develop a long-term economic vision to support sustainable local communities and the forest ecosystems that they depend on."Conference Paper The Challenges of Managing Increasing Landslides Vulnerability in Mount Elgon Ecosystem, Uganda: A Case of Human Interactions With its Environment on the Verge of Collapsing(2011) Kato, Stonewall S.; Mutonyi, R."Mount Elgon ecosystem has experienced a dramatic increase in landslides incidences in the last decade with often catastrophic consequences on settlers who dwell on its steep slopes. Many scientists argue that the problem has been brought by severe environmental degradation coupled with the changing rainfall pattern in the region. The problem has reached human-environmental crisis level with over 350 people buried alive in just one incident in March, 2010. The issue that affects over a million people is of big concern to Uganda government which is now planning to relocate thousands of people to safer places. The guiding question of the paper is to what extend has landslides affected the co-existence of the people and their environment on Mount Elgon. The overriding objective is to determine the possible causes, effects and measures put in place to deal with the problem. We analyze the environmental, socio-economic, livelihood and management indicators to determine the above mentioned variables. We take a snap-shot at enabling legislations being used to guide the process of managing the problem and also examine and compare similar situations happening elsewhere in the world with the view utilizing lessons learnt."Conference Paper Climate Change, Global Commons and Corruption in the context of Sundarban Mangrove Forest in Bangladesh(2011) Rahman, Aminur"Global commons are the most threatened objects in climate change scenario. The nature of these commons itself is vulnerable in the world of unclear property rights, externalities and different forms of claims. Sunderban, the world’s largest mangrove forest is in peril due to corrupt practice and its consequences are alarming especially in the realm of climate change. The aim of this paper is to pose the concern that Sunderban as a global commons and its deterioration due to malpractice in using resource is a global loss. In exposing the loss the paper aims to highlight the corruption issue and its true loss in terms of total economic values. The importance of Sundarban is immense in terms of carbon sink as well as “bio-shield” against cyclone and high tidal surges. Moreover, destruction of the forest will bring havoc to ecology and unexplored and unutilized marine resources of the surrounding water system. The total valuation shows that the damaged monetized in normal accounting process is much less than the actual damaged enumerated using total valuation approach. Policy conclusion is drawn strengthening the norms of reducing corrupt practices and better management approach."Conference Paper Innovation Systems in Forest Resources Management: Lessons Learned From Community Forestry Programme of Nepal(2011) Dharam, Uprety; Kalpana, Giri; Rajesh, Bista; Kamal, Bhandari"There have been various attempts to engage states, markets and communities in managing natural resources to achieve both conservation and poverty reduction. In Nepal, a participatory approach to forest management popularly known as 'community forestry' (CF) has proven effective in conserving forests and meeting the livelihood needs of forest-dependent communities. Since 1978, CF has evolved at both the local institutional and national policy levels. However, uneven socioeconomic relations, power dynamics, cultural contexts and other factors pose a challenge for sustainable livelihoods. Moving away from traditional research and extension services, a new emphasis on innovation systems approach has emerged. This approach demands greater attention to interactions among actors in knowledge creation, dissemination and knowledge into use. This research draws on the decade-long experience of Forest Action in adaptive, collaborative processes and management approaches, self-monitoring, and participatory action and learning with 60 community forest users groups (CFUGs) in three districts of Nepal. Preliminary results reveal effective forest management and governance innovations, adoption of planning and self-monitoring in enterprise development, and marketing of forest products and services to user groups. Furthermore, CF service providers and collaborators employ more adaptive and collaborative approaches and are more responsive to the demands and concerns of forest users and other socially marginalized groups."Conference Paper Transactions Matter, but Hardly Cost: Irrigation Management in Kathmandu Valley(2011) Bhattarai, Ram Chandra"This paper estimates the transaction cost in maintaining Farmers Managed Irrigation System (FMIS) in Nepal. It analyzes the factors influencing the transaction cost and compares it with the production cost in agriculture. This study is based on a case of Kathmandu valley covering 60 irrigation systems. The findings of the study show that the main element of transaction time is watching, waiting and negotiating which constitutes more than 92 percent of the total transaction time. The study also shows that the transaction time is relatively low for FMIS amounting to 5 % to that of total time required for the production of crops. The transaction time is higher for the households cultivating the land at downstream of the canal compared to the households cultivating the land at upstream of the canal. In terms of crops transaction time for the cultivation of winter crops is three times higher than that of the summer crop. The total value of output per hectare is significantly affected by transaction cost, reliability of the irrigation facility and infrastructure quality. However, there is an advantage of being a free rider and hence there seems to be a problem in collective action. If the institutions could somehow control for free-riding or deviant behavior, then presumably it would improve institutional efficiency and reduce expost transaction cost."Conference Paper Commons vs Commodities(2011) Ricoveri, Giovanna"In this paper I propose that the subsistence commons of the past can form the backbone of an alternative social order to capitalism, which has dominated the world for the last three centuries. This is because they are based on cooperation, not on competition; they are jointly used, neither private nor public property; they use natural resources sustainable, and they promote forms of direct democracy that integrate and reinforce representative democracy. In brief, they provide goods and services which do not become commodities to be exchanged on the capitalistic market."