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Conference Paper The Tragedy of the Commoners: The Decline of the Customary Marine Tenure System of Tonga(2001) Malm, Thomas"The purpose of this paper is to outline how a rapid process of modernization, in combination with urbanization and population growth, have resulted in a breakdown of the traditional marine tenure systems and an over-exploitation of marine organisms. Although there are cases in Oceania where marine areas adjoining villages have remained under communal control even after having become legal Crown or state property in modern times, Tonga exemplifies how Crown/state ownership has come to replace communal ownership but been less able than the local communities to regulate the use of the marine resources."Conference Paper Representing Communities: The Case of a Community-Based Watershed Management Project in Rajasthan, India(1998) Ahluwalia, Meenakshi"In the Indian development policy context there is increasing concern about why community-based natural resource management projects fail to achieve their expected levels of equity or sustainability (Saint, 1995; Kerr, 1996). Such community-based approaches are themselves a departure from earlier policies which tended to be based solely on state priorities, treating natural resource management as a technical and administrative issue, rather than a socio-economic and political one (Pretty and Shah, 1996), and focusing on large-scale projects such as large dams, reservoirs and canal systems (CSE, 1985). The high social and environmental costs of such schemes, now well- documented, have been an important stimulus in a shift evident since the 1980's towards small-scale community based projects. "In this context, donors, governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGO's) are currently investing heavily in participatory watershed development. Widely cited project examples include the Sukhmajri project (Chopra, 1990) and the Relagaon Sindhi Project (Deshpande and Reddy, 1991). NWDPRA is a well-funded endeavour undertaken by central and the state governments with the objective of involving people in project planning, implementation and maintenance, over 99 districts in 16 states. World Bank-funded integrated watershed development projects have also been launched, covering 94 watersheds. "Emerging critiques of such projects highlight how, for instance, farmers are used as labourers for construction or the interests of the weaker sections of society are overlooked so that they bear the labour burden of the projects for little benefit (Sharma, 1995). Some schemes have floundered in the face of local resource conflicts. In other cases, farmers accept otherwise unsuitable programmes because they offer a short-term source of income and access to subsidies, but resource management efforts are not sustained beyond the departure of the implementing agency (Sanghi, 1987; Pretty and Shah, 1996). Many of these problems can be traced to the misleading assumptions about 'community' and 'participation' informing these approaches. Certain commentators are now urging the need for greater attention to local ecological specificity, social organisation and institutions in natural resource management in the Indian context (e.g. Mosse, 1997). "This paper focuses on a community-based watershed project in Rajasthan to provide a better understanding of how social, institutional and ecological dynamics affect practical efforts to achieve community-based sustainable development. The paper applies the tools of environmental entitlements analysis in a project evaluation mode to explore how people's different endowments and entitlements to natural resources, as influenced by institutions, affect their experience of watershed development interventions. The paper also considers whether social actors' differential abilities to overcome the transaction costs that they face make it viable for them to invest in institutions and environmental management in the ways expected by the project."Journal Article Lost in Development's Shadow: The Downstream Human Consequences of Dams(2010) Richter, Brian D.; Postel, Sandra; Revenga, Carmen; Scudder, Thayer; Lehner, Bernhard; Churchill, Allegra; Chow, Morgan"The World Commission on Dams (WCD) report documented a number of social and environmental problems observed in dam development projects. The WCD gave particular emphasis to the challenges of properly resettling populations physically displaced by dams, and estimated the total number of people directly displaced at 40-80 million. Less attention has been given, however, to populations living downstream of dams whose livelihoods have been affected by dam-induced alterations of river flows. By substantially changing natural flow patterns and blocking movements of fish and other animals, large dams can severely disrupt natural riverine production systems – especially fisheries, flood-recession agriculture and dry-season grazing. We offer here the first global estimate of the number of river-dependent people potentially affected by dam-induced changes in river flows and other ecosystem conditions. Our conservative estimate of 472 million river-dependent people living downstream of large dams along impacted river reaches lends urgency to the need for more comprehensive assessments of dam costs and benefits, as well as to the social inequities between dam beneficiaries and those potentially disadvantaged by dam projects. We conclude with three key steps in dam development processes that could substantially alleviate the damaging downstream impacts of dams."Journal Article Resilience in Transboundary Water Governance: The Okavango River Basin(2013) Green, Olivia O.; Cosens, Barbara A.; Garmestani, Ahjond S."When the availability of a vital resource varies between times of overabundance and extreme scarcity, management regimes must manifest flexibility and authority to adapt while maintaining legitimacy. Unfortunately, the need for adaptability often conflicts with the desire for certainty in legal and regulatory regimes, and laws that fail to account for variability often result in conflict when the inevitable disturbance occurs. Additional keys to resilience are collaboration among physical scientists, political actors, local leaders, and other stakeholders, and, when the commons is shared among sovereign states, collaboration between and among institutions with authority to act at different scales or with respect to different aspects of an ecological system. At the scale of transboundary river basins, where treaties govern water utilization, particular treaty mechanisms can reduce conflict potential by fostering collaboration and accounting for change. One necessary element is a mechanism for coordination and collaboration at the scale of the basin. This could be satisfied by mechanisms ranging from informal networks to the establishment of an international commission to jointly manage water, but a mechanism for collaboration at the basin scale alone does not ensure sound water management. To better guide resource management, study of applied resilience theory has revealed a number of management practices that are integral for adaptive governance. Here, we describe key resilience principles for treaty design and adaptive governance and then apply the principles to a case study of one transboundary basin where the need and willingness to manage collaboratively and iteratively is high--the Okavango River Basin of southwest Africa. This descriptive and applied approach should be particularly instructive for treaty negotiators, transboundary resource managers, and should aid program developers."Working Paper Indigenous and Institutional Profile: Limpopo River Basin(2006) Earle, Anton; Goldin, Jaqui; Machiridza, Rose; Malzbender, Daniel; Manzungu, Emmanuel; Mpho, Tiego"A major drawback of India's agriculture, watershed development and irrigation strategy has been the neglect of relatively wetter catchment areas and the tribal people living therein. Investing in small-scale interventions for improved water control can produce a dramatic impact on the productivity and dependability of tribal livelihood systems."Journal Article Sea Change: Exploring the International Effort to Promote Marine Protected Areas(2010) Gray, Noella J."Citing multiple threats to marine biodiversity and resources, the international marine conservation community is promoting greater adoption of marine protected areas (MPAs). Like terrestrial protected areas, MPAs are characterised by debates over the appropriate role for scientific input and citizen participation and how to balance concerns for both social equity and ecological effectiveness. This paper explores how such debates are influencing the framing of MPAs as a global policy tool, based on an 'event ethnography' conducted at the 2008 World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. International non-governmental organisations (NGOs) dominated the discussions and agenda setting, although multiple concerns for MPAs were incorporated into the discussions. The framing of MPAs highlighted a global scale and vision, reflected by and reinforcing the dominant role of the big NGOs. However, it did not go unchallenged, nor is it prescriptive."Conference Paper Climate Change and Incentives to Cooperate in Local Commons(2024) Halonen-Akatwijuka, Maija"This paper analyzes incentives to cooperate in maintenance and improvement of local commons, such as irrigation systems. I show that climate change modelled as a reduction in agricultural productivity reduces the value of the relationship but also reduces the temptation to freeride in maintenance. The overall incentives to cooperate are improved because lower temptation to freeride is the dominant effect. Therefore, the negative effect of climate change is mitigated by higher degree of cooperation -- but only if agricultural productivity was initially so high that full cooperation was not possible. While climate change results in full reduction of surplus if agricultural productivity was initially relatively low and cooperation at the first best level was already sustainable."Conference Paper Water Development in India: An Historical Overview(1991) Bottrall, Anthony"Total annual rainfall varies widely among different regions of the Indian subcontinent, as do other features of the physical environment (topography, soils, river flows, groundwater storage). However, a common feature of nearly all regions, even those with high precipitations (1200 mm. and above), is a very intense concentration of their rainfall within 3-4 monsoon months. Agriculture in all regions with such rainfall patterns thus stands to benefit substantially from some form of control or conservation of water so that it can be used during drier parts of the year. To simplify discussion (and, in the process, inevitably over-schematize things), we shall focus in this paper on three main regions, each with strongly contrasting agro-climatic characteristics: (1) the low-rainfall (500-700 mm) plains of the North West (Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, extending westward into Pakistan); (2) the higher-rainfall (700-1500 mm), flood-prone Eastern Gangetic plains (eastern Uttar Pradesh, north Bihar, West Bengal, extending eastwards into Bangladesh); and (3) the drought-prone undulating/hilly terrains of the central Deccan plateau, which can be further sub-divided into (A) lower-rainfall (400-700 mm) areas with a long history of settled agriculture (western Maharashtra, western Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu), and (B) higher-rainfall (700-1300 mm) areas, traditionally remote and forested but coming increasingly under cultivation by predominantly aboriginal 'tribal' people (eastern Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, south Bihar, western Orissa)."Journal Article Nature and Extent of Problems of Agro-Graziers in Bhawalpur District, Pakistan(2009) Azam, M.B.; Khan, Z.H.; Yaqoob, S.; Khan, R.A."Studies on nature and extent of problems faced by agro-graziers were carried out in Bhawalpur district of Southern Punjab, Pakistan during 1991. Non cooperative attitude of government departments and farmers for not allowing agro-graziers to graze their animals along canals, forests, rangelands, irrigated plantations and agricultural fields was a very common problem. Due to poverty, agro-graziers were unable to purchase costly concentrates and cultivated fodders to feed their animals. They could not buy veterinary medicines to cure their animals against different diseases. Moreover, no loan subsidy, financial assistance or credit was granted by the Government for the alleviation of poverty of agro-graziers. In addition, 30 and 35% agro-graziers in the district faced problems of shortage or non availability of forage and water, respectively."Conference Paper Study on Water Utilization in Chinese Rural Areas(2008) Rong, Tan; Zhiyong, Yu; Xiangheng, Luo"In China, because rural population is great and agriculture is very important in national economy, rural areas have becomes a main sphere of water consume. There exist the problems of water shortage and water waste in the countryside. The conflicts of water resource supply and demand between industry and agriculture are very conspicuous. Various factors that include ideology, finance, technology, management and policy restrict the rational and effective use of water resource. The survey on the villages of Jiagezhuang and Yaobaizhuang in Ji County, Tianjin reflects these problems. The government tries to solve the problems by making laws and policies, as well as affording financial and technology support to towns and villages. At the same time, it is necessary for the government to make officials and farmers realize the importance of rational water usage and saving by doing propaganda, coordinating the inter-governments relations, and defining the departments' duties. For realizing the objective of rational water usage, it is necessary to take measures to construct and perfect irrigation installations by both superior and local governments 'investment and farmers' labor force."