Esther Mwangi

Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction: A Review of Methods and Approaches

This article provides a review of literature on the relationship between poverty and the institutions of collective action and property rights, as outlined in the conceptual framework of Di Gregorio et al. (2008). Using the elements of the framework as a guide, it offers an overview of how researchers and practitioners identify and evaluate these concepts. The article emphasises the multidimensionality of poverty and the necessity of applying various approaches and tools to conceptualising and measuring it. In addition to highlighting the crucial role that institutions play in poverty reduction, it shows power relations and the political context to be of fundamental importance in poverty-related studies.

Communities, property rights and forest decentralisation in Kenya: early lessons from participatory forestry management

The introduction of participatory forestry management (PFM) in Kenya has led to the formation of community forest associations (CFAs). Data collected from 12 forests over a decade indicate that most associations are confederating to manage shared forests through the Forests Act of 2005. Emerging findings indicate that associations are responsible for diverse management activities in forest protection, monitoring, and management, yet access to decision-making, revenue streams, and overall resource control rights are vested in the Kenya Forestry Service. Still, this is an improvement as CFAs perform most governance functions autonomously, including the crafting of resource harvesting rules, the choice of leadership, and conflict resolution. In order to balance community incentives with the burdens and responsibilities they bear, rights to revenue streams generated from forest resources must be shared with communities to ensure continued commitment to the PFM process. Furthermore, the viability of CFAs is threatened by power struggles, leadership wrangles, and the splintering of groups. Negotiation support to moderate conflicting interests, and strengthen internal conflict resolution and governance is necessary.

A Century of Institutions and Ecology in East Africa’s Rangelands: Linking Institutional Robustness with the Ecological Resilience of Kenya’s Maasailand

In analyzing the interactions between institutions and ecology, it is useful to evaluate the robustness of the designed governance system and the resilience of the ecological system that together comprise a Social-Ecological System (SES). In this chapter, we will examine the patterns of interaction between ever-changing governance institutions related to the highly variable ecology of Eastern Africa extending in time from prior to the British colonial rule until early in this century. That will enable us to examine three questions: (1) Which of the institutions that have existed during this time are more robust and why? (2) How does institutional robustness influence ecosystem resilience? and (3) What assumptions can be made about human behavior and incentives in light of this sweep of human history? We find that the indigenous institutions of the Maasai people were the most robust of the set of institutions studied over time since pre-colonial days until contemporary times. And, these robust institutions were associated with a more resilient ecology.

What are the environmental impacts of property rights regimes in forests, fisheries and rangelands? a systematic review protocol

BackgroundProperty rights to natural resources comprise a major policy instrument for those seeking to advance sustainable resource use and conservation. Despite decades of policy experimentation and empirical research, however, systematic understanding of the influence of different property rights regimes on resource and environmental outcomes remains elusive. A large, diverse, and rapidly growing body of literature investigates the links between property regimes and environmental outcomes, but has not synthesized theoretical and policy insights within specific resource systems and especially across resource systems. Here we provide a protocol for conducting a systematic review that will gather empirical evidence over the past two decades on this topic. We will ask the following questions: a) What are the environmental impacts of different property regimes in forests, fisheries, and rangelands? b) Which property regimes are associated with positive, negative or neutral environmental outcomes? c) How do those environmental outcomes compare within and across resource systems and regions?MethodsWe will assess current knowledge of the environmental impacts of property rights regimes in three resource systems in developing countries: forests, fisheries and rangelands. These resource systems represent differing levels of resource mobility and variability and capture much of the range of ecosystem types found across the globe. The review will use a bundle of rights approach to assess the impacts of three main property regimes—state, private, and community—as well as mixed property regimes that involve some combination of these three. Assessment of the impacts of property rights regimes across a range of different resource systems and ecosystem types will enable exploration of commonalities and differences across these systems. Our analysis will emphasize major insights while highlighting important gaps in current research.

Experimental evidence on payments for forest commons conservation

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) represent a popular strategy for environmental protection, and tropical forest conservation in particular. Little is known, however, about their effectiveness. Many argue that even if PES increase conservation while payments last, they may adversely affect other motivations for pro-environmental behaviour in the longer term. We test whether conditional payments also encourage forest users to conserve shared forest resources after payments end. Using a framed field experiment with 1,200 tropical forest users in five countries, we show that (1) during the intervention, conditional payments increased conservation behaviour; (2) after payments stopped, users continued to conserve more on average than they did before the intervention, especially when they were able to communicate with each other; and (3) trust amplified the lasting conservation effects of the interventions. PES effectiveness may increase when interventions facilitate interpersonal communication and when implemented in contexts where forest users enjoy high levels of trust.A framed field experiment in five countries shows that Payments for Ecosystem Services increase forest conservation, that communication contributes to payment effectiveness and that positive effects outlast payments.

What is the evidence that gender affects access to and use of forest assets for food security? A systematic map protocol

BackgroundThere is increasing awareness of the importance of gender in natural resource management. Especially for communities dependent upon forests for their livelihoods, gender roles and relations can affect access to forest resources, income and food generating activities. As a consequence, gender mediated access to forest products may lead to different food security outcomes for women, men and children. Because gender is a cross-cutting issue of importance for many development, research and state institutions, this study examines the existing evidence base related to gendered access to forest products and food security in low to middle income countries. Hence, the primary question for this study is: what is the evidence that gender affects access to and use of forest assets for food security? The study will systematically map the evidence in order to get a comprehensive understanding of what evidence exists in terms of type of studies, geographical distribution, length of assessment periods, methodological approaches, and document outcomes related to food security as well as identify gaps for further research.MethodsThis systematic map protocol describes the methodology that will be used to search, identify and describe the evidence on gender and access to and use of forest resources in low and middle-income countries. The searches will be conducted for the period from 1970 to 2015 using main bibliographic databases and grey literature sources. To identify relevant evidence, predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria will be used to screen the title, abstracts and full text of the secured literature. This will be followed up with a study appraisal and data mapping process describing the methods and outcomes reported in the studies. The final output will be a simple descriptive statistical narrative report and an evidence map.