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Conference Paper Impact of Co-Management Agreements on the Exploitation and Productivity of Floodplain Lake Fisheries in the Lower Amazon(2002) Almeida, Oriana T."Community initiatives to regulate the exploitation of lake fisheries have proliferated in the lower Amazon, and may now be legalised as co-management agreements whereby the government endorses and enforces community rules. Most agreements aim to raise stock abundance and thereby the productivity of lake fisheries by limiting exploitation by larger, often external commercial boats as well as by local fishers. This study evaluates the perceived and actual impact of co-management agreements on fisheries exploitation and productivity by comparing lake fisheries within and outside agreements. A survey was conducted in 18 paired communities with and without co-management agreements (i.e. 9 pairs of a co-managed and non-managed fishery each). Rules in comanaged fisheries typically comprised restrictions on the use of gill nets, daily catch limits and limits on the size of boats. A total of 259 households (13 or 18 per community) were surveyed to estimate local fishing effort and catch. Non-managed fisheries were subject to additional fishing by external commercial boats which could not be quantified independently, but has been accounted for in the analysis. Results showed a reasonable degree of perceived and actual compliance within the communities with comanagement agreements. The productivity (catch per unit of effort) of managed fisheries was significantly higher, by about 60%, than that of non-managed fisheries even though no significant difference in household fishing effort was detected. An empirical model relating fishing effort and yield per unit area was derived for a sub-set of lakes (both managed and non-managed) where lake area could be clearly delineated and fishing was carried out predominantly by communities covered in the survey (i.e. excluding lakes shared by several communities). Fishing effort explained much of the variation in yield between lakes. Managed lakes showed significantly higher levels of yield and productivity (by about 70%) than non-managed lakes for the same level of fishing effort. This difference is likely to reflect the additional, non-quantified fishing effort and catch by external commercial boats in non-managed lakes. We conclude that the comanagement agreements have brought significant yield and productivity benefits to the communities implementing them, largely as a result of reduced commercial fishing by outsiders. The yield predictive model derived in this study provides a quantitative tool for assessing effects of effort regulation within co-management fisheries."Conference Paper Globalization, New Agricultural Technologies and IPRS: Implications of Modern Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering for Capabilities, Exclusion, and Livelihoods in Developing Countries(2002) Parthasarathy, D."The paper seeks to develop a broad framework for analysing the implications of changes in intellectual property rights regimes deriving from both new international legal mechanisms and conventions, and from new agricultural technologies based on modern biotechnology and genetic engineering. The framework can function as a model for analysis and further research on the impact of these changes on the commons and related issues such as biodiversity, and on indigenous knowledge. These impacts could be in terms of social exclusion, loss of skills and knowledge for specific groups and categories of people resulting in a loss of capabilities and entitlements, and a consequent reduction in livelihood choices and strategies. It is also stated that these technologies have the capacity to perpetuate inequalities among groups within a community and between nations and economies. This occurs through excluding people from access to forms of knowledge, skills, techniques, and markets, which are important for subsistence, survival and for competing in a globalized economy. "The paper is based on and uses the influential capabilities and entitlements approach developed by Amartya Sen, to analyse the effects of legal and technological changes on the survival and subsistence abilities and livelihood choices of farm households in developing countries. The capabilities and entitlements approaches are applied to study these effects in terms of changing 'rights regimes', and impacts on poor people's functioning arising from changes in livelihood options or 'capabilities set'. A trend away from pluralistic approaches to law, from a diverse technology and livelihoods basket, and towards greater uniformity and reduction in biodiversity is seen to contribute to the exclusion and marginalization of the rural poor from the development process. Shifts in technology and IPR regimes resulting from the process of globalization transform the social organization of knowledge systems and their application - with a concomitant decay in indigenous knowledge systems. More importantly these have significant impacts on particular social groups such as women, small and marginal farmers, pastoral communities, agricultural labour, groups more dependent on commons etc. A significant aspect of the new changes is that they are brought about by a specific combination of international legal mechanisms and technological / scientific techniques that recast social and economic relations between social groups, communities and nation-states. To capture the nature and consequences of these changes, the paper develops an 'impact map for the commons' that will serve as a model for analysis. The 'impact map' is then integrated with Sens entitlement mapping so as to enable the clear delineation of impacts of livelihood changes on poverty and exclusion. In doing so it draws upon selected case studies of farm household, village, and community level impacts of technological and rights regime changes in the access to and use of common property resources in south Asia. A second strand of analysis derives from established scientific evidence on products of modern biotechnology and genetic engineering, and infers logical conclusions regarding possible impacts on the rural poor in developing countries, in terms of their livelihood choices as reflected in shifts in entitlements and capabilities."Conference Paper Institutions, Participation, and Protected Area Management in Western Amazonia(2002) Pyhala, Aili"With the world's tropical forest cover, and the associated losses of biodiversity decreasing at alarming rates, there are still very powerful and persuasive arguments to designate large parts of Amazonia as protected areas. The past few decades have witnessed a transition in the approach of protected area implementation, from the traditional, exclusionary fortress parks approach commonly implemented in the 1970s and 80s towards an approach that seeks to directly link biodiversity conservation with local livelihoods. Although some conservationists remain reluctant about the idea of such a linkage, (Terborgh, 1999), many conservationists today believe that unless local livelihoods and conservation are made to be compatible, there is no future for conservation (McNeely and Miller, 1984; Western et al., 1994; Salafsky and Wollenberg, 2000). "Recent years have seen the emergence of 'integrated conservation and development programs' (ICDPs) and 'community-based conservation' (CBC) projects in many different parts of the world - approaches which seek to link environmental conservation with development. Such projects have prompted much discussion about the implications of the integration of human populations to the objectives of biodiversity preservation (Redclift, 1989; Robinson, 1993; Western et al., 1994). ICDPs and other projects have demonstrated that a range of factors need to be taken into account in order to achieve successful conservation performance. Amongst these, the participation of local populations has become recognised as a critical element in determining the success of any conservation or development project (West and Brechin, 1991; Ghai and Vivian, 1992; Wells and Brandon, 1993; Little, 1994; Pimbert and Pretty, 1995; Kothari et al., 1996; Hall, 1997; Warner, 1997). Despite widespread recognition, participation of local populations is a relatively new and foreign notion in conservation circles, and is proving to be more a myth than a local reality. As a result, many protected areas today remain little more than parks on paper, with few cases demonstrating effectiveness in preserving biodiversity and in enhancing human welfare. "This paper presents empirical data from the National Reserve of Allpahuayo-Mishana in North-eastern Peru to discuss the importance of participation in protected area design, planning, and management in achieving successful reserve management. The paper examines exactly what participation entails, who should be involved in the process, and argues that in order for it to be more effectively promoted, institutional conflicts and limitations must be addressed and overcome. This paper highlights the importance of institutions both in promoting participation, and in directly enhancing sustainable management of a protected area. Institutional arrangements are analysed at the national, regional and local level to diagnose the root causes of current shortcomings in protected area."Conference Paper Household Characteristics and Common Property Resource Management: A Model for Households Dependency on Local Commons(2002) Adhikari, Bhim"In recent years, the relationship between socio-economic characteristics and dependency of households on forest resources has become a growing concern in issues of local level collective action. On the one hand, it has often been argued that poor people extract more resources from the commons due to their greater reliance on natural resources. On the other hand, it is claimed that compared to non-poor, the poor may depend more on the commons in relative terms, but in absolute terms their dependency is lower. In this study I advance this argument by formally modelling household production systems to explore how socio-economic characteristics influence household dependency on local commons in reference to community-based forest management in Nepal. The analysis is based on field data from 309 households from the mid-hills of the country. Econometric analyses suggest that household labour allocation decisions for forest product collection are dictated by various socio-economic and demographic variables. In general, it appears that household land and livestock holdings, gender, ethnicity and education of household head exert more influence on household labour allocation decisions for extraction and gathering activities than other factors. The results show that women are not the sole collectors of forest products as conventionally accepted. Based on this analysis, it can be concluded that poorer households are currently facing limited and restricted access to community forestry than relatively better off households. Policy measures that aim to reduce heterogeneity among user households along with non-timber forest products (NTFPs) oriented management regimes in community forestry help to increases income of the poorer households from the local commons."Conference Paper Flood Mitigation Strategies for the Red River Delta(2002) Hansson, Karin; Ekenberg, Love"The increase of natural disasters and especially floods are causing economical losses to escalate. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the global problem of climate change. Governments of both developed and developing countries are therefore concerned with increasing post-disaster liabilities in aiding recovery, repairing infrastructure damage and compensation of victims. In particular, governments of developing countries are ill prepared to cover the financial losses of disasters. Moreover, they often experience difficulties of raising funds for the recovery process. In this article, we identify possible policy strategies for coping with complex environmental and social decisions with flood risk involved; using the Red River delta in Vietnam as a case for investigating various mitigation strategies. The delta is densely populated and many people are at risk of flood. The paper is concluded by an outline of a model used for policy scenario simulations and decision support."Conference Paper The Use of Irrigation Water During Transition in Bulgaria's Plovdiv Region(2002) Penov, Ivan"The amount of water used for irrigation has sharply declined during transition in Bulgaria. Large sections of existing irrigation systems were abandoned, and the ones still in use are barely maintained. Crops such as wheat and barley have replaced more water-intensive crops, including vegetables, rice and maize. This problem has an impact on the future development of agriculture and the allocation of the country's water resources. The central argument is that land fragmentation in the wake of decollectivization and restitution contributes to the irrigation systems' abandonment. This paper concentrates on the institutional factors, but also considers additional factors, that may have influenced the process; further, it examines the causes driving these changes and analyses their effect on irrigation. It is based upon a review of relevant legislation, as well as field work in 17 villages located in the Plovdiv region of Bulgaria. The paper concludes that, in addition to changes in large-scale market forces and weakening of the state enforcement mechanism, institutional settings have contributed to the decline of irrigation in Bulgaria."Conference Paper La Problematique du Controle des Organismes Genetiquement Modifies (OGM) et l'Accord sur les Droits de Propriete Intellectuels qui Touchent au Commerce (ADPIC): Quels Enjeux pour les Pays en Developpement?(2002) Gadji, AbrahamFrom Page 1: "La question de la modification génétique des organismes et la reconnaissance des droits de propriétés sur le vivant cristallise de nos jours les débats entre les Etats, les organisations internationales, les ONGs et les groupes sociaux. Les mouvements de protestation qui ont eu lieu lors de la Réunion lOMC à Seattle en 1999 témoignent de lampleur des frictions entre les enjeux commerciaux et les considérations écologiques. Ces questions qui ont pris de lampleur face aux affaires telles que la vache folle, les poulets à la dioxine, la fièvre aphteuse, l'introduction des organismes génétiquement modifiés dans lalimentation et la brevetabilité du vivant méritent dêtre traitées."Conference Paper Participatory Natural Resources Management in Mozambique: An Assessment of Legal and Institutional Arrangements for Community-Based Natural Resources Management(2002) Alomao, Alda I. A."The objective of this paper is to assess whether the legal provisions for community participation natural resources management contained in the Mozambican environmental laws take into account the various factors that shape the effectiveness of participation and decentralization and the elements that promote the achievement of the dual objective defined for CBNRM. As studies in decentralization and participatory natural resources management reveal, granting natural resources management powers and the right to accrue benefits from such management to local communities is a complex task (Agrawal and Ribot, 1999). The complexity results from the political, legal and institutional issues that must be addressed in order to enable the effective exercise of management powers by local communities. Furthermore, ensuring that the powers devolved to local communities contribute to the efficient and equitable satisfaction of their economic and social needs, and simultaneously to natural resources conservation interests has also proven to be a difficult endeavor (Gibson, 1999). The paper will show that what is commonly called 'rights' is nothing more than simple privileges given and taken at the discretion of state authorities without real transfer of decision-making powers to local communities. Representation mechanisms proposed in laws as well as procedures established for CBNRM processes still need to be better clarified for these initiatives to correspond to the objectives declared. While upward accountability mechanisms for local actors can be found in most laws, downward accountability is lacking in all documents analyzed."Conference Paper Strengthening Use-Rights Over Resources for Farmer-Led Natural Resources Management(2002) Manaye, Sintayehu"Meket Woreda (North Wollo Administrative Zone) is almost wholly dependant on agriculture for the livelihood of its people. Ranging in altitude from below 2,000 metres above sea level (masl) to about 3,400 masl, it is characterised by a mix of agro-climatic zones, each offering a different set of opportunities and constraints for subsistence farming. However, over the last 20 years or so, a gradual trend of natural resource degradation has accelerated so rapidly as to render the Woreda structurally food insecure, even in the years of 'good rainfall.' "According to many official documents, as increasing population has put more pressure on the land, fallow periods have been severely curtailed and continuous ploughing is becoming the norm. Extensive deforestation (due to expanding cultivation and increasing demand for wood products) has left even the steepest slopes unprotected. As a result much of the annual rainfall is now lost in run-off while provoking both flood damage to crops and severe soil erosion (both gully and sheet). Natural regeneration of indigenous trees is non-existent (or limited to some church land) and efforts at promoting reafforestation have had little impact on the steadily increasing rate of degradation. "Futhermore, in addition to technical and methodological failure in natural resource management, land tenure or user-rights has been one of the key problems in promoting sustainable natural resource management in the Amhara National Regional State. Faced with this reality, the line-departments and people of Meket (with support from the SOS Sahel team working in the Woreda), have begun to develop and pilot a range of participatory methodologies to strengthen agricultural and off-farm sources of livelihood while promoting longer-term natural resource regeneration. "One of these approaches (PLUPI - Participatory Land Use Planning & Implementation) deals with some of the technical and methodological concerns. That is, it attempts to develop a holistic approach to sustainable land husbandry to complement the Government's existing agricultural extension programme. The experiences to date (on PLUPI) have already been documented in SOS/ MoA technical paper no.2 by Tenna Shitarek and Dagnachew Adugna, 1997). "This paper shares the experience in developing a usufruct procedure in Meket Woreda N. Wollo. It describes the process, the achievments and initial impacts. It also shows the progress to date and concludes by highlighting the key lessons learnt from the process. It further gives some tips and recommendations who wish to practice a usufruct-rights (to communities) approach for sustainable naural resource management."Conference Paper Community Agreements on Conservation as an Approach to Protected Area Management: Experiences from the Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi(2002) Mappatoba, Marhawati; Birner, Regina"Negotiated agreements between local communities and state agencies concerning the management of natural resources have gained increasing importance in recent years. Taking the case of community agreements on conservation in the area of the Lore Lindu National Park, Indonesia, as an example, the paper analyzes such agreements from two perspectives. (1) From the perspective of environmental economics, negotiated agreements are considered as a policy instrument that represents the bargaining solution proposed by Coase to solve externality problems. (2) From the perspective of policy analysis, the paper analyzes to which extent the agreements can be considered as an example of empowered deliberative democracy, a model suggested by Fung and Wright. The empirical analysis showed that the agreements differed considerably, depending on the value orientation and objectives of the NGOs promoting the agreements. Three NGOs were taken into consideration: an international NGO focussing on rural development, an international NGO specialized in nature conservation with a local sister organization focussing on community development, and a local NGO with a strong emphasis on advocacy for indigenous rights. The paper shows that both the Coase model and the deliberative democracy model are useful to better understand the logic behind the different agreements promoted by these organizations. The paper concludes that the community agreements on conservation represent a promising approach to improve the management of protected areas, even though the internal differentiation within the communities represents a challenge for this approach."