Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T14:21:25.227Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Common property theory and resource governance institutions: strengthening explanations of multiple outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

ARUN AGRAWAL  and
CATHERINE SHANNON BENSON
ARUN AGRAWAL*
Affiliation:
SNRE, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 48109, USA
CATHERINE SHANNON BENSON
Affiliation:
SNRE, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 48109, USA
*
*Correspondence: Dr Arun Agrawal Tel: +1 734 647 5948 e-mail: arunagra@umich.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Different strategies to govern resource commons generate outcomes that can be assessed along different dimensions, in terms of the ecological or social sustainability of the resource system, contributions to the livelihoods of those who rely on these resources, or equity in the allocation of benefits. This paper reviews the existing literature concerning three major renewable resource commons, namely pasture lands, fisheries and irrigation water. Most existing work on these commons has been inattentive to the multiple outcomes that management of all renewable resources generates. Studies of commons can provide better information about livelihoods, sustainability and equity dimensions of natural resource governance outcomes than previously. Attending to the distinctive determinants and drivers of these outcomes and the nature of trade-offs and synergies among them has the potential to advance common property theory substantially. Possible relationships among livelihoods, sustainability and equity are identified, and the major explanations of outcomes advanced by scholars of fisheries, pastoral and irrigation commons reviewed. An interdisciplinary approach is needed to improve existing efforts to determine the outcomes that resource commons generate.

Keywords

commons theoryfisheries commonsirrigation commonsmultiple outcomespastoral commonstrade-offs
Type
THEMATIC SECTION: Interdisciplinary Progress in Environmental Science & Management
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 38 , Issue 2: Thematic section. Interdisciplinary Progress in Environmental Science and Management , June 2011 , pp. 199 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agrawal, A. (1999) Greener Pastures: Politics, Markets, and Community among a Migrant Pastoral People. Durham, NC, USA: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Agrawal, A. (2001) Common property institutions and sustainable governance of resources. World Development 29 (10): 1649–1672.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agrawal, A. (2007) Forests, governance, and sustainability: common property theory and its contributions. International Journal of the Commons 1 (1): 51–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agrawal, A. & Redford, K. (2006) Poverty, development, and biodiversity conservation: shooting in the dark? WCS Working Paper 26. WCS, Bronx, NY, USA.Google Scholar
Agrawal, A., Chhatre, A. & Hardin, R.D. (2008) Changing governance of the world's forests. Science 320 (5882): 1460–1462.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ainsworth, C.H., Pitcher, T.J. & Rotinsulu, C. (2008) Evidence of fishery depletions and shifting cognitive baselines in Eastern Indonesia. Biological Conservation 141 (3): 848–859.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alchian, A. & Demsetz, H. (1972) Production, information costs, and economic organization. American Economic Review 62: 777–795.Google Scholar
Baland, J. & Platteau, J. (1996) Halting Degradation of Natural Resources: Is There a Role for Rural Communities? Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Baticados, D.B. & Agbayani, R.F. (2000) Co-management in marine fisheries in Malalison Island, central Philippines. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 7 (4): 343–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, E.M., Peterson, G.D. & Gordon, L.J. (2009) Understanding relationships among multiple ecosystem services. Ecology Letters 12: 1394–1404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bennett, J. & Barrett, H. (2007) Rangeland as a common property resource: contrasting insights from communal areas of central Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Human Ecology 35 (1): 97–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkes, F., ed. (1989) Common Property Resources: Ecology and Community-Based Sustainable Development. London, UK: Belhaven Press.Google Scholar
Berkes, F., Davidson-Hunt, I. & Davidson-Hunt, K. (1998) Diversity of common property resource use and diversity of social interests in the western Indian Himalaya. Mountain Research and Development 18 (1): 19–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogale, A. & Korf, F. (2007) To share or not to share? (Non-)violence, scarcity and resource access in Somali Region, Ethiopia. Journal of Development Studies 43 (4): 743–765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branch, G.M., Hauck, M., Siqwana-Ndulo, N. & Dye, A.H. (2002) Defining fishers in the South African context: subsistence, artisanal and small-scale commercial sectors. South African Journal of Marine Science (Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif Vir Seewetenskap) 24: 475–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cao, S., Zhong, B., Yue, H., Zeng, H. & Zeng, J. (2009) Development and testing of a sustainable environmental restoration policy on eradicating the poverty trap in China's Changting County. Proceedings of the National Academies of the USA 106 (6): 10712–10716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chakravarty-Kaul, M. (1998) Transhumance and customary pastoral rights in Himachal Pradesh: claiming the high pastures for Gaddis. Mountain Research and Development 18 (1): 5–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnley, S. & Poe, M.R. (2007) Community forestry in theory and practice: where are we now? Annual Review of Environment and Resources 36: 301–336.Google Scholar
Cheung, S.N.S. (1970) The structure of a contract and the theory of a non-exclusive resource. Journal of Law and Economics 13 (1): 49–70.Google Scholar
Chhatre, A. & Agrawal, A. (2009) Tradeoffs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commons. Proceedings of the National Academies of the USA 106 (42): 17667–17670.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coase, R. (1937) The nature of the firm. Economica 4 (3): 386–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coase, R. (1960) The problem of social cost. Journal of Law and Economics 3: 1–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
da Silva, P.P. (2004) From common property to co-management: lessons from Brazil's first maritime extractive reserve. Marine Policy 28 (5): 419–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J.K., Ainslie, A. & Finca, A. (2008) Coming to grips with ‘abandoned arable’ land in efforts to enhance communal grazing systems in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. African Journal of Range and Forage Science 25 (2): 55–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demsetz, H. (1964) The exchange and enforcement of property rights. The Journal of Law and Economics 3 (1): 1–44.Google Scholar
Dietz, T., Ostrom, E. & Stern, P. (2003) The struggle to govern the commons. Science 302: 1907–1912.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eggertsson, T. (1990) Economic Behavior and Institutions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandez-Gimenez, M.E. (2002) Spatial and social boundaries and the paradox of pastoral land tenure: a case study from postsocialist Mongolia. Human Ecology 30 (1): 49–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, J., Yonzon, P. & Podger, N. (1996) Mapping conflicts between biodiversity and human needs in Langtang national park, Nepal. Conservation Biology 10 (2): 562–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fratkin, E. & Mearns, R. (2003) Sustainability and pastoral livelihoods: lessons from East African Maasai and Mongolia. Human Organization 62 (2): 112–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fudenberg, D. & Maskin, E. (1986) The folk theorem in repeated games with discounting and imperfect information. Econometrica 54 (3): 533–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garaway, C. (2006) Enhancement and entitlement-the impact of stocking on rural households’ command over living aquatic resources: a case study from the Lao PDR. Human Ecology 34 (5): 655–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilborn, R. (2007) Moving to sustainability by learning from successful fisheries. Ambio 36 (4): 296–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirsch, P. & Thinh, N.V. (1996) Implications of economic reform in Vietnam: agrarian and environmental change in Hien Luong. Australian Geographer 27 (2): 165–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C. (2001) Community formation and fisheries conservation in Southern Thailand. Development and Change 32 (5): 951–974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kajisa, K., Palanisami, H. & Sakurai, T. (2007) Effects on poverty and equity of the decline in collective tank irrigation management in Tamil Nadu, India. Agricultural Economics 36 (3): 347–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Libecap, G. (1990) Contracting for Property Rights. New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maliao, R.J. & Polohan, B.B. (2008) Evaluating the impacts of mangrove rehabilitation in Cogtong Bay, Philippines. Environmental Management 41 (3): 414–424.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maroney, R.L. (2005) Conservation of argali Ovis ammon in western Mongolia and the Altai-Sayan. Biological Conservation 121 (2): 231–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCay, B. & Acheson, J.N., eds (1987) The Question of the Commons: The Culture and Ecology of Communal Resources. Tucson, AZ, USA: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
McShane, T.O., Hirsch, P.D., Trung, T.C., Songorwa, A.N., Kinzig, A., Monteferri, B., Mutekanga, D., Thang, H., Dammert, J., Pulgar-Vidal, M., Welch-Devine, M., Brosius, J.P., Coppolillo, P. & O'Connor, S. (2010) Hard choices: making tradeoffs between biodiversity conservation and human well-being. Biological Conservation doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2010.04.038CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mearns, R. (2004) Sustaining livelihoods on Mongolia's pastoral commons: insights from a participatory poverty assessment. Development and Change 35 (1):107–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Research Council (1986) Proceedings of the Conference on Common Property Resource Management. Washington, DC, USA: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Novaczek, I., Sopacua, J. & Harkes, I. (2001) Fisheries management in Central Maluku, Indonesia, 1997–98. Marine Policy 25 (3): 239–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, D. (1980) Structure and Change in Economic History. New York, NY, USA: Norton.Google Scholar
North, D. (1990) Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, E. (2007) Explaining Institutional Diversity. Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pagdee, A., Kim, Y. & Daugherty, P.J. (2006) What makes community-forest management successful? A meta-study from community forests throughout the world. Society and Natural Resources 19 (1): 33–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peluso, N. & Vandergeest, P. (2001) Genealogies of the political forest and customary rights in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The Journal of Asian Studies 60 (3): 761–812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pretty, J. (2003) Social capital and the environment. World Development 29 (2): 209–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pretty, J. & Ward, H. (2001) Social capital and the environment. World Development 29 (2): 209–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raudsepp-Hearn, C., Peterson, G.D. & Bennett, E. (2010) Ecosystem service bundles for analyzing tradeoffs in diverse landscapes. Proceedings of the National Academies of the USA 107 (11): 5242–5247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ray, S. & Bijarnia, M. (2007) Power relations and institutional outcomes: a case of pastureland development in semi-arid Rajasthan. Ecological Economics 62 (2): 360–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ribot, J. (1999) Decentralization, participation, and accountability in Sahelian forestry: legal instruments of political-administrative control. Africa 69 (1): 23–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robbins, P. (1998) Authority and environment: institutional landscapes in Rajasthan, India. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 88 (3): 410–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roncoli, C., Jost, C., Perez, C., Moore, K., Ballo, A., Cisse, S. & Quattara, K. (2007) Carbon sequestration from common property resources: lessons from community-based sustainable pasture management in north-central Mali. Scientific Workshop on Land Management for Carbon Sequestration in the Sudan-Sahel Region, Bamako, Mali. Agricultural Systems 94 (1): 97–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, C. (1994) Property and Persuasion: Essays on the History, Theory, and Rhetoric of Ownership. Boulder, CO, USA: Westview.Google Scholar
Schotter, A. (1981) The Economic Theory of Social Institutions. New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sekhar, N.U. (2007) Social capital and fisheries management: the case of Chilika Lake in India. Environmental Management 39 (4): 497–505.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sharma, K.R., Pradhan, N.C. & Leung, P.S. (2001) Stochastic frontier approach to measuring irrigation performance: an application to rice production under the two systems in the Tarai of Nepal. Water Resources Research 37 (7): 2009–2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steffan-Dewenter, I., Kessler, M., Barkmann, J., Bos, M., Buchori, D., Erasmi, S., Faust, H., Gerold, G., Glenk, K., Gradstein, S. R., Guhardja, E., Harteveld, M., Hertel, D., Höhn, P., Kappas, M., Köhler, S., Leuschner, C., Maertens, M., Marggraf, R., Migge-Kleian, S., Mogea, J., Pitopang, R., Schaefer, M., Schwarze, S., Sporn, S. G., Steingrebe, A., Tjitrosoedirdjo, S., Tjitrosoemito, S., Twele, A., Weber, R., Woltmann, L., Zeller, M. & Tscharntke, T. (2007) Tradeoffs between income, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning during tropical rainforest conversion and agroforestry intensification. Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences of the USA 104 (12): 4973–4978.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sugden, R. (1984) Reciprocity: the supply of public goods through voluntary contributions. Economic Journal 94: 772–787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suich, H. (2010) The livelihood impacts of the Namibian community-based natural resource management programme: a meta-synthesis. Environmental Conservation 37 (1): 45–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sudtongkong, C. & Webb, E.L. (2008) Outcomes of state vs. community-based mangrove management in southern Thailand. Ecology and Society 13 (2): 27 [www document]. URL http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art27/CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sunderlin, W., Hatcher, J. & Liddle, M. (2008) From Exclusion to Ownership: Challenges and Opportunities in Advancing Forest Tenure Reform.Washington, DC, USA: Rights and Resources Initiative.Google Scholar
Swallow, B.M., Sang, J.K., Nyabenge, M., Bundotich, D.K., Duraiappah, A.K. & Yatich, T.B. (2009) Tradeoffs, synergies and traps among ecosystem services in the Lake Victoria basin of East Africa. Environmental Science and Policy 12: 504–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, D.H.L. (1996) Fisheries tenure in an African floodplain village and the implications for management. Human Ecology 24 (3): 287–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walpole, M. & Wilder, L. (2008) Disentangling the links between conservation and poverty reduction in practice. Oryx 42 (4): 539–547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, R. (1994) Village Republics: Economic Conditions for Collective Action in South India. Oakland, CA, USA: ICS Press.Google Scholar
White, A. & Martin, A. (2002) Who Owns the World's Forests? Forest Tenure and Public Forests in Transition. Washington, DC, USA: Forest Trends and Center for International Environmental Law.Google Scholar
Young, E. (2001) State intervention and abuse of the commons: fisheries development in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 91 (2): 283–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Young, E.H. (1999) Balancing conservation with development in small-scale fisheries: Is ecotourism an empty promise? Human Ecology 27 (4): 581–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Agrawal Supplementary Material

Agrawal Supplementary Material

Download Agrawal Supplementary Material(File)
File 154.6 KB