Institutions for sustainable forest governance: Robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in Mawlyngbna, Meghalaya, India
This study adopts Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework in empirical fieldwork to explain how local forestry institutions affect forest ecosystems and social equity in the community of Mawlyngbna in North-East India. Data was collected through 26 semi-structured interviews, participator...
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doaj-11ee367af187427db0effb648d2782c22020-11-25T02:10:00ZengUtrecht University Library Open Access Journals (Publishing Services)International Journal of the Commons1875-02812015-09-019267069710.18352/ijc.538256Institutions for sustainable forest governance: Robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in Mawlyngbna, Meghalaya, IndiaChristoph Oberlack0Philipp LaHaela Walter1Joachim Schmerbeck2B K Tiwari3Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany; Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, SwitzerlandAlbert-Ludwigs-University FreiburgTERI University, New Delhi Albert-Ludwigs-University FreiburgNorth-Eastern Hill University, ShillongThis study adopts Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework in empirical fieldwork to explain how local forestry institutions affect forest ecosystems and social equity in the community of Mawlyngbna in North-East India. Data was collected through 26 semi-structured interviews, participatory timeline development, policy documents, direct observation, periodicals, transect walks, and a concurrent forest-ecological study in the village. Results show that Mawlyngbna's forests provide important sources of livelihood benefits for the villagers. However, ecological disturbance and diversity varies among the different forest ownership types and forest-based livelihood benefits are inequitably distributed. Based on a bounded rationality approach, our analysis proposes a set of causal mechanisms that trace these observed social-ecological outcomes to the attributes of the resource system, resource units, actors and governance system. We analyse opportunities and constraints of interactions between the village, regional, and state levels. We discuss how Ostrom’s design principles for community-based resource governance inform the explanation of robustness but have a blind spot in explaining social equity. We report experiences made using the SES framework in empirical fieldwork. We conclude that mapping cross-level interactions in the SES framework needs conceptual refinement and that explaining social equity of forest governance needs theoretical advances.https://www.thecommonsjournal.org/articles/538cross-level interactionsequityforestryinstitutional analysisnorth-east indiarobustnesssocial-ecological systems |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Christoph Oberlack Philipp LaHaela Walter Joachim Schmerbeck B K Tiwari |
spellingShingle |
Christoph Oberlack Philipp LaHaela Walter Joachim Schmerbeck B K Tiwari Institutions for sustainable forest governance: Robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in Mawlyngbna, Meghalaya, India International Journal of the Commons cross-level interactions equity forestry institutional analysis north-east india robustness social-ecological systems |
author_facet |
Christoph Oberlack Philipp LaHaela Walter Joachim Schmerbeck B K Tiwari |
author_sort |
Christoph Oberlack |
title |
Institutions for sustainable forest governance: Robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in Mawlyngbna, Meghalaya, India |
title_short |
Institutions for sustainable forest governance: Robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in Mawlyngbna, Meghalaya, India |
title_full |
Institutions for sustainable forest governance: Robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in Mawlyngbna, Meghalaya, India |
title_fullStr |
Institutions for sustainable forest governance: Robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in Mawlyngbna, Meghalaya, India |
title_full_unstemmed |
Institutions for sustainable forest governance: Robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in Mawlyngbna, Meghalaya, India |
title_sort |
institutions for sustainable forest governance: robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in mawlyngbna, meghalaya, india |
publisher |
Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals (Publishing Services) |
series |
International Journal of the Commons |
issn |
1875-0281 |
publishDate |
2015-09-01 |
description |
This study adopts Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework in empirical fieldwork to explain how local forestry institutions affect forest ecosystems and social equity in the community of Mawlyngbna in North-East India. Data was collected through 26 semi-structured interviews, participatory timeline development, policy documents, direct observation, periodicals, transect walks, and a concurrent forest-ecological study in the village. Results show that Mawlyngbna's forests provide important sources of livelihood benefits for the villagers. However, ecological disturbance and diversity varies among the different forest ownership types and forest-based livelihood benefits are inequitably distributed. Based on a bounded rationality approach, our analysis proposes a set of causal mechanisms that trace these observed social-ecological outcomes to the attributes of the resource system, resource units, actors and governance system. We analyse opportunities and constraints of interactions between the village, regional, and state levels. We discuss how Ostrom’s design principles for community-based resource governance inform the explanation of robustness but have a blind spot in explaining social equity. We report experiences made using the SES framework in empirical fieldwork. We conclude that mapping cross-level interactions in the SES framework needs conceptual refinement and that explaining social equity of forest governance needs theoretical advances. |
topic |
cross-level interactions equity forestry institutional analysis north-east india robustness social-ecological systems |
url |
https://www.thecommonsjournal.org/articles/538 |
work_keys_str_mv |
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