The Challenges of Inclusive Cross-Scale Collective Action in Watersheds

Swallow, Brent; Johnson, Nancy L.; Meinzen‐Dick, Ruth; Knox, Anna

doi:10.1080/02508060608691938

Cited by 37 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The framework provides us with a structured way to compare across cases with successful and unsuccessful outcomes to identify combinations of factors that act as barriers and facilitators for collective action and environmental restoration. In the peri-urban context, which poses particular challenges for collective action due to a number of factors, including heterogeneity of actors, a high degree of institutional fragmentation, and the dominance of statutory institutions (Stoker 2000, Swallow et al 2006, our study provides insights for future participatory institutional co-design.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying the social-ecological system framework to the diagnosis of urban lake commons in Bangalore, India

Nagendra¹,

Остром²

2014

E&S

140

109

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ABSTRACT. The south Indian city of Bangalore provides a challenging yet representative context within which to examine issues of governance of urban social-ecological commons. The city was once famous for its numerous large water bodies, which have witnessed tremendous encroachment and pollution in recent years. These water bodies, called tanks or lakes, were typically managed by adjacent village communities but are now administered by a number of government departments involved with aspects of lake management, with multiple overlapping jurisdictions. The public's perceptions of lakes has also changed with urbanization, transitioning from community spaces valued for water and cultural services to urban recreational spaces used largely by joggers and walkers. We focus on a set of seven lakes located in the urbanizing peripheral areas of southeast Bangalore. Some water bodies have been restored and managed effectively by newly forged collaborations between citizens and local government. Others are extremely polluted, and some have completely dried up and have been encroached. We use a social-ecological system (SES) framework to investigate why some locations have been successful in negotiating changes in governance from community-based systems to state management following urbanization, whereas other lakes have deteriorated. We use seven second-tier SES variables that were associated with self-organization in previous research: size of resource system, number of actors, leadership, social capital, importance of resource, existence of operational-choice rules, and existence of informal mechanisms for monitoring. We also include three third-tier variables previously identified as important in urban lake commons in Bangalore: scale and type of pre-existing pollution, exclusion of socioeconomic groups from the planning process, and networking with government organizations. We use this subset of 10 variables to examine social outcomes of the lakes, which we define as the extent of collective action by residents working together for lake restoration and ecological outcomes based on the ecological condition of the lakes. Collective action was low in only one of seven lakes, which challenges the presumption that citizens will not organize efforts to cope with common-pool problems. However, only two of seven lakes were highly successful in regard to both the extent of collective action and the level of ecological performance. While one lake was small and the other moderate in size, these two cases shared similar ranking in all other variables. Both lakes were polluted at a relatively low level compared with the other lakes, and in both cases, the leaders of local groups were able to network with government officials to clean up the lakes. Unfortunately, the challenge of cleaning up urban lakes after many decades of pollution is very difficult without effective interaction with various governmental units. Our analysis illustrates the usefulness of the SES framework in examining the combination of variables that makes a coll...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying the social-ecological system framework to the diagnosis of urban lake commons in Bangalore, India

Nagendra¹,

Остром²

2014

E&S

140

109

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“…Participatory watershed management processes, however, face the challenge of engaging groups that are often systematically excluded from political and social processes within the watershed (Swallow et al 2006). Thus, good practice in watershed management processes, like health promotion, needs to explicitly address issues of equity, social justice, and differentials in power (Schulz and Northbridge 2004).…”

Section: Watershed Contexts To Enhance Livelihoods and Reduce Povertymentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting Health and Well-Being by Managing for Social–Ecological Resilience: the Potential of Integrating Ecohealth and Water Resources Management Approaches

Bunch¹,

Morrison²,

Parkes³

et al. 2011

E&S

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“…These can range from neighbors managing a shared water point to a large number of stakeholders from different towns, cultural groups, social classes and economic sectors negotiating to govern the dealing with the vertical flows of water, nutrients and soil across a watershed. The vertical nature of the watershed produces asymmetries in water access and these are often compounded by the fact that stakeholder in watershed management are heterogeneous and often do not know each other, because of their locations, have limited or sometime no interaction that would enable them to build trust and resolve conflicts (Swallow et al, 2006). Watershed contexts are characterized by a variety of actors, e.g., farmers, livestock keepers, mining companies, municipal land use planners, and urban water suppliers, who make decisions or take specific actions related to water or other landscape resource such as farm land, forests, or pastures.…”

Section: Scales Theoretical Framework: Collective Action Around Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cooperation needed for water provision can be undermined by the rival nature of the resource and the asymmetries in its appropriation. This helps explain why achieving and maintaining collective action in watershed management is particularly challenging (Swallow et al, 2006). This paper is an effort to identify the factors that facilitate collective action in watershed contexts characterized by significant externalities where the land and water use decisions of some individuals affect the options available to others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collective Action for Watershed Management: Field Experiments in Colombia and Kenya

2009

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Edición, diseño de cubierta, preprensa y prensa digital: Proceditor ltda. Calle 1C No. 27 A -01 Bogotá, D. C., Colombia Teléfonos: 2204275, 220 4276, Fax: extensión 102 proceditor@etb.net.co Impreso en Colombia -Printed in ColombiaEl contenido de la presente publicación se encuentra protegido por las normas internacionales y nacionales vigentes sobre propiedad intelectual, por tanto su utilización, reproducción, comunicación pública, transformación, distribución, alquiler, préstamo público e importación, total o parcial, en todo o en parte, en formato impreso, digital o en cualquier formato conocido o por conocer, se encuentran prohibidos, y sólo serán lícitos en la medida en que se cuente con la autorización previa y expresa por escrito del autor o titular. Las limitaciones y excepciones al Derecho de Autor, sólo serán aplicables en la medida en que se den dentro de los denominados Usos Honrados (Fair use), estén previa y expresamente establecidas; no causen un grave e injustificado perjuicio a los intereses legítimos del autor o titular, y no atenten contra la normal explotación de la obra. ABSTRACTThe dilemma of collective action around water use and management involves solving both the problems of provision and appropriation. Cooperation in the provision can be affected by the rival nature of the appropriation and the asymmetries in the access. We report two field experiments conducted in Colombia and Kenya. The Irrigation Game was used to explore the provision and appropriation decisions under asymmetric or sequential appropriation, complemented with a Voluntary Contribution Mechanism experiment which looks at provision decisions under symmetric appropriation. The overall results were consistent with the patterns of previous studies: the zero contribution hypotheses is rejected whereas the most effective institution to increase cooperation was face-to-face communication, and above external regulations, although we find that communication works much more effectively in Colombia. We also find that the asymmetric appropriation did reduce cooperation, though the magnitude of the social loss and the effectiveness of alternative institutional options varied across sites. C E D E Centro de Estudios sobre Desarrollo Económico 2 ACCIÓN COLECTIVA PARA EL MANEJO DE CUENCAS: EXPERIMENTOS EN CAMPO EN COLOMBIA Y KENIA RESUMENEl dilema de la acción colectiva alrededor del uso y manejo del agua implica resolver tanto los problemas de provisión del recurso como de apropiación del mismo. La cooperación en la provisión puede verse afectada por la rivalidad en la apropiación y las asimetrías en el acceso. Es este documento presentamos dos experimentos llevados a cabo en Colombia y Kenia. El Juego de la Irrigación fue usado para explorar las decisiones de provisión y apropiación, bajo unas condiciones de apropiación asimétricas o secuenciales, complementado con el experimento de bienes públicos (Voluntary Contribution Mechanism) el cual se enfoca en las decisiones de provisión bajo condiciones de apropiación simétricas. Los r...

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The Challenges of Inclusive Cross-Scale Collective Action in Watersheds

Cited by 37 publications

References 18 publications

Applying the social-ecological system framework to the diagnosis of urban lake commons in Bangalore, India

Applying the social-ecological system framework to the diagnosis of urban lake commons in Bangalore, India

Promoting Health and Well-Being by Managing for Social–Ecological Resilience: the Potential of Integrating Ecohealth and Water Resources Management Approaches

Collective Action for Watershed Management: Field Experiments in Colombia and Kenya

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The Challenges of Inclusive Cross-Scale Collective Action in Watersheds

Cited by 37 publications

References 18 publications

Applying the social-ecological system framework to the diagnosis of urban lake commons in Bangalore, India

Applying the social-ecological system framework to the diagnosis of urban lake commons in Bangalore, India

Promoting Health and Well-Being by Managing for Social&#8211;Ecological Resilience: the Potential of Integrating Ecohealth and Water Resources Management Approaches

Collective Action for Watershed Management: Field Experiments in Colombia and Kenya

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Promoting Health and Well-Being by Managing for Social–Ecological Resilience: the Potential of Integrating Ecohealth and Water Resources Management Approaches