Incentives for community participation in the governance and management of common property resources: the case of community forestry in Nepal : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in International Rural Development at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Loading...
Date
2012
DOI
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Massey University
Rights
The Author
Abstract
The devolution of resource management access rights, from the state to local
communities, has been an important policy tool in Nepal over the last two decades.
One of the major goals of this policy is to increase the participation of local users in
decision-making and for them to gain benefits from the forests. However, a lack of
meaningful participation amongst users, in relation to forest governance and
management, has resulted in a failure to include socially marginalised groups in
community decision-making and an inability to reflect the needs and aspirations of
these groups within these communities. By employing a mixed method approach
incorporating quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this research explores the
issue of participation in the governance of common property resources; and in
particular the role of incentives in increasing participation. The empirical evidence for
level of participation as a function of incentives is obtained by using an ordered probit
model by constructing an index of participation as a proxy for participation in
governance of common property resources, while a partial least square approach is
also undertaken to link the participation indicators to the various incentives. Focus
group discussions and individual interviews were applied to gain insights into the
influence of caste, socio-economic status and the effectiveness of the institutions in
Nepal and the overall governance and management performances of community forest
user groups.
In this study of community forestry management regimes in the Middle Hills of Nepal,
access to resources and benefits, and enforcement of legal property rights are
identified as the key influential incentive that determines the effective participation of
users in resource governance. The statistical and qualitative findings of this study
support the argument that, for common property resource management regimes to be
successful in achieving meaningful participation of the poor and disadvantaged groups,
in terms of having their strong voice to influence group’s decisions in their favour, it is
important to strengthen their rights to provide them fair access to resources and
benefits. The policy measures may even require a deliberate focus on providing and
guaranteeing the inclusion of poor and disadvantaged groups in CFUG governance
structures and processes, in addition to building their capacity and bargaining power to
influence decision making and to compensate for the cost of this participation through
the economic empowerment of poor users. However, in the Middle Hills of Nepal,
where discriminatory sociocultural norms prevail, transferring property rights to a
specific group does not protect the rights of the poor and disadvantaged members.
Thus, this study proposes the proportional allocation of the most productive part of a
community forest to a sub-group (formed within a user group) of the poor and
disadvantaged members and the transference and enforcement of legal property rights
to this sub-group over the allocated forest, in order to protect their access rights to
resources and to secure their greater participation in resource governance.
Description
Keywords
Community forests, Forest management, Nepal, Citizen participation, Property rights, Access rights