The interactive effect of endogenous and exogenous institutions on forest use practices in socio-culturally diverse landscapes of Cameroon

Abstract

In resource-dependent communities of sub-Saharan Africa, it is widely held that endogenous institutions either countervail or complement exogenous institutions, indicating inconsistency in empirical evidence. This has re-ignited interest to establish the independent and/or interactive effect of both endogenous and exogenous institutional structures. This paper quantitatively analyses the independent and interactive effects of community-based (endogenous) and state-based (exogenous) forest management institutions (FMIs) on the exploitation of forest resources, drawing from a representative sample of 446 households from three socio-culturally diverse landscapes of Cameroon. The paper introduces a multiplicative interaction term and used the heteroscedasticity-based instrumental variables approach to estimate the direct and indirect effects of exogenous and endogenous institutions on the behaviour of users of forest-based resources. The results indicate that: (i) Both exogenous structures of FMIs and the interaction term significantly constrain the extractive behaviour of forest resource users; (ii) endogenous structures and not rules are vital in improving the role of exogenous structures in forest resource management; (iii) while traditional rules are less significant in shaping forest resource exploitation, their effectiveness is highly significant across the study sites and (iv) institutional compatibility and complementarity was observed in landscapes that were formerly shaped by British colonial influence (Bakossi and Kilum-Ijim). This paper does not only establish the relative influence of exogenous and endogenous FMIs, it also highlights future research pathways on institutional change in the context of environmental resource management in sub-Saharan Africa.

Conceptualising Arbitrary Detention

“…197 Anthony Hopkins, 'The Relevance of Aboriginality in Sentencing: "Sentencing A Person for Who They Are" ' (2012) 16(1) Austr Indigenous L Rev 37. 198 Cunneen and Tauri (n 180) 115. 199 R v Gladue [1999] 1 SCR 688.…”

“…196 International criminal law definitions recognise that, when the underlying criteria for the crimes are present, arbitrary detention may constitute a war crime, 197 and a crime against humanity. 198…”

“…This individualising discourse has left open the subsequent reading down of these principles to the extent that they apply to fewer and fewer Aboriginal people before the courts. 198 In Canada, efforts to address high indigenous incarceration levels include the Gladue sentencing principles. R v Gladue involved a guilty plea by 19year-old Jamie Tanis Gladue for manslaughter for the killing of her fiancé while she was intoxicated.…”

“…196 This is a question the ECtHR will be faced with should Shamima Begum's case come before it, following the exhaustion of domestic remedies in the UK. 197 Begum was allegedly lured (and it was determined by UK courts that there was 'credible suspicion that she had been recruited, transferred and then harboured for the purpose of sexual exploitation' 198 ) to join Da'esh when she was a child. She married an Islamic State fighter and lived under Islamic State rule for more than three years.…”

Deterring Dissent

“…When assessing "arbitrariness", the UN Human Rights Committee determined that 'remand in custody pursuant to lawful arrest must not only be lawful but reasonable ' 197 and 'necessary in all the circumstances, for example to prevent flight, interference with evidence or the recurrence of crime'. 198 The WGAD includes, as the second of its categories of arbitrary detention, where the arrest and subsequent detention results from the detainee's exercise of other recognised rights and freedoms. Most cases involving the arbitrary detention of dissenters fall within this second category.…”