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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Main Authors: Christoph Oberlack, Philipp LaHaela Walter, Joachim Schmerbeck, B K Tiwari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals (Publishing Services) 2015-09-01
Series:International Journal of the Commons
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.thecommonsjournal.org/articles/538
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spelling 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
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