Municipal politics and forest governance: Comparative analysis of decentralization in Bolivia and Guatemala

Andersson, Krister; Gibson, Carl H.; Lehoucq, Fabrice

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.08.009

Cited by 120 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…To obtain sufficient data about local government institutions and actions, Andersson and Ostrom (2008) draw on personal interview data with local governance actors in a random sample of 100 municipal governments in Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru (these data are described in detail in Andersson et al 2006Andersson et al , 2009. The interviews were conducted with the elected mayor to gather information regarding the mayor's policy priorities, staffing arrangements, relationships with central and non governmental agencies, and relationships with natural resource users and citizens at large.…”

Section: Decentralization As the Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polycentric governance of multifunctional forested landscapes

2012

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Human-induced causes of forest change occur at multiple scales. Yet, most governance mechanisms are designed at a single level -whether international, national, regional or local -and do not provide effective solutions for the overarching challenge of forest governance. Efforts to "decentralize" governmental arrangements frequently do not recognize the importance of complex, polycentric arrangements and are based on a presumption of a single government at one level taking charge of a policy arena, often ignoring the existence of many vibrant self-governed institutions. Polycentric institutions provide a useful framework for governance, enabling aspects of preferred solutions to be used together in efforts to protect the long-term sustainability of diverse forested social-ecological systems. By considering the interaction between actors at different levels of governance, polycentricity contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the variation in diverse governance outcomes in the management of common-pool resources based on the needs and interests of citizens and the complexity of resources and governance systems at local, regional, national, and global levels. In this paper, we discuss challenges to polycentricity such as the matching of the boundaries of those who benefit, those who contribute with the boundary of the resource. We describe some approaches that have been effectively utilized to address these challenges in forests in various parts of the world. We also provide a brief overview of how the concept of polycentricity helps in the analysis of climate change and the closely related international effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through degradation and deforestation (REDD).Polycentric governance of multifunctional forested landscapes 105

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Section: Decentralization As the Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polycentric governance of multifunctional forested landscapes

2012

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“…However, many scholars and policy makers now perceive such an approach failed to sustain both forests and the livelihoods of the groups that depend on them (1,2). Starting in the 1980's, many national governments and international donors responded to this new view by aggressively pursuing policies to decentralize the governance of forests, transferring many rights and responsibilities associated with forest governance from the central to subnational governments (3)(4)(5). Currently only a handful of developing countries have not decentralized forest governance (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11).…”

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confidence: 99%

Decentralization can help reduce deforestation when user groups engage with local government

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Andersson

Gibson

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Policy makers around the world tout decentralization as an effective tool in the governance of natural resources. Despite the popularity of these reforms, there is limited scientific evidence on the environmental effects of decentralization, especially in tropical biomes. This study presents evidence on the institutional conditions under which decentralization is likely to be successful in sustaining forests. We draw on common-pool resource theory to argue that the environmental impact of decentralization hinges on the ability of reforms to engage local forest users in the governance of forests. Using matching techniques, we analyze longitudinal field observations on both social and biophysical characteristics in a large number of local government territories in Bolivia (a country with a decentralized forestry policy) and Peru (a country with a much more centralized forestry policy). We find that territories with a decentralized forest governance structure have more stable forest cover, but only when local forest user groups actively engage with the local government officials. We provide evidence in support of a possible causal process behind these results: When user groups engage with the decentralized units, it creates a more enabling environment for effective local governance of forests, including more local government-led forest governance activities, fora for the resolution of forest-related conflicts, intermunicipal cooperation in the forestry sector, and stronger technical capabilities of the local government staff.

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“…But detailed field studies of monitoring and enforcement, as they are conducted on the ground, illustrate the challenge of achieving high levels of forest regrowth without active involvement of local users (see Batistella et al, 2003;Agrawal, 2005;Andersson et al, 2006;Tucker, 2008). Our research shows that forests under different property regimes -government, private, communal -sometimes meet enhanced social goals such as biodiversity protection, carbon storage, or improved livelihoods.…”

Section: Studying Forests Around the Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Do We Need to Protect Institutional Diversity?

Остром

2011

Eur Polit Sci

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In past decades, scholars have tended to recommend 'optimal' solutions for coping with common-pool resources. Examples exist of both successful and unsuccessful efforts to establish government property, private property, or community property. The absence of any property rightsopen access -related to valuable resources is associated with overuse. The resource institutions that research has documented as working well in the field differ substantially in their detailed design but can usually be characterised as adaptive, multilevel governance systems related to complex, evolving resource systems. We need to overcome the tendency to recommend panaceas and encourage, instead, considerable experimentation at multiple levels to reduce the threats of massive collapses of valuable resources.

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Municipal politics and forest governance: Comparative analysis of decentralization in Bolivia and Guatemala

Cited by 120 publications

References 48 publications

Polycentric governance of multifunctional forested landscapes

Polycentric governance of multifunctional forested landscapes

Decentralization can help reduce deforestation when user groups engage with local government

Why Do We Need to Protect Institutional Diversity?

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