Tobias Haller

Culture changing livelihoods and HIV / AIDS discourse: reframing the institutionalization of fish-for-sex exchange in the Zambian Kafue Flats.

Discussions about the cultural dimensions of the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa persist. Drawing on data on fish‐for‐sex deals between local Ila or Tonga women and immigrant fishermen in the Zambian Kafue Flats, we argue against the notion that traditional institutions governing extra‐marital sexual relationships are responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS. We argue that fish‐for‐sex exchanges are based not on tradition, but on the economic opportunities provided by the fish trade in conditions of poverty and changing livelihoods. Stigmatization of women involved in fish‐for‐sex deals is, however, on the increase, since they are accused of spreading the disease in their community. Womens inability to follow the sexual prescriptions conveyed by HIV prevention programmes produces shame and moral distress, associated with the fear of social exclusion. In this situation, lubambo, a former customary regulation of extramarital sexual relations among the Ila, may provide women with legitimacy for sexual transactions. Additionally, customary marriage arrangements institutionally secure their access to fish.

Who Gains From Community Conservation? Intended and Unintended Costs and Benefits of Participative Approaches in Peru and Tanzania

Who are the beneficiaries from participative approaches in conservation? The authors compare two protected areas Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in Peru and Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania and show how in similar institutional settings local interest groups react very differently to the possibility of participation. The difference, however, does not regard economic benefits. In the case of Peru, local groups defining themselves as indigenous peoples see a political gain in participatory conservation, which seems to offer the possibility for securing land rights in their area. In Tanzania, however, local actors oppose participative conservation strategies or passively resist those forced on them because they cause high-economic costs and no political gains. By comparing both cases based on a new institutionalism analysis, the article reveals how intended and unintended costs and benefits can explain different attitudes of local groups to participative conservation.

How fit turns into misfit and back: institutional transformations of pastoral commons in African floodplains

We enlarge the notion of institutional fit using theoretical approaches from New Institutionalism, including rational choice and strategic action, political ecology and constructivist approaches. These approaches are combined with ecological approaches (system and evolutionary ecology) focusing on feedback loops and change. We offer results drawn from a comparison of fit and misfit cases of institutional change in pastoral commons in four African floodplain contexts (Zambia, Cameroon, Tanzania (two cases). Cases of precolonial fit and misfit in the postcolonial past, as well as a case of institutional fit in the postcolonial phase, highlight important features, specifically, flexible institutions, leadership, and mutual economic benefit under specific relations of bargaining power of actors. We argue that only by combining otherwise conflicting approaches can we come to understand why institutional fit develops into misfit and back again. Key Words: African floodplains; governance; institutional change; institutional fit; New Institutionalism; pastoral commons

Constitutionality: Conditions for Crafting Local Ownership of Institution-Building Processes

This article presents constitutionality as a new approach for analyzing bottom-up institution-building processes emphasizing local perceptions and local agency in common pool resource management. Using four case studies—fisheries in Zambia; pasture and forestry in Mali; fisheries in Indonesia; forestry in Bolivia—this approach analyzes examples of local institution building differing from top-down imposed participation. Our analysis highlights six components of constitutionality: emic perceptions of the need for new institutions, participatory processes of negotiation, preexisting institutions as a basis for institution building, outside catalyzing agents, recognition of local knowledge, and higher level acknowledgment of the new institutions.

Governance of the commons in southern Africa: knowledge, political economy and power.

Millions of southern African livelihoods continue to depend on the successful management and sustainable use of the commons – land and natural resources that are supposedly or actually managed, with varying degrees of success, as common property. This, above all, is the challenge to governance. The poor must tackle it – and governments and development agencies must support their endeavours – in the triple context of knowledge, political economy and power. This paper highlights the major factors and trends in these three areas that we must understand if we are to optimise support for the governance of the commons in southern Africa. If more commons around the region are studied from the same analytical perspectives, it will be easier to share experience and lessons in ways that can usefully inform development and conservation policy and programmes. This is what the Cross-Sectoral Commons Governance in Southern Africa project, reported in this special issue, has tried to do.

Dynamics of common pool resource management in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

This paper discusses the historical dynamics of common pool resource use and management in the floodplain of the Okavango Delta by comparing Ikoga and Seronga, two multi-ethnic villages located along the Delta panhandle. During colonial and post-colonial times, many local institutions for managing and using common pool resources were dismantled. Despite this trend, open access has not led to overuse of common pool resources. The paper argues that despite the marginality of the area there is relatively little interest in the commercial use of common pool resources since the diamond industry and tourism provide a relatively high income. While Ikoga residents fail to capture gains from tourism, in Seronga some gains do come from community-based natural resource management. However, these gains, or the failure to receive them, can lead to conflicts that take an ethnic shape when local elites benefit differently and inequalities are perpetuated.

Managing common pool resources in the Kafue Flats, Zambia: from common property to open access and privatisation

Governing common pool resources in floodplains is a challenge due to high variability between seasons. Nevertheless, the case of the Kafue Flats in southern Zambia illustrates how local groups (Ila, Balundwe and Batwa) have developed common property institutions governing access to fisheries, wildlife and pasture. After the colonial and post-colonial periods these institutions were altered or eradicated by state control. State institutions have failed for the following reasons: complex economic and political processes and lack of knowledge have made state management ineffective; local rules have been eroded or severely altered by more powerful actors; immigrant groups (seasonal fishermen, commercial hunters, absentee herd owners) have increased their bargaining power as citizens; and neither local nor state institutions are enforced due to limited state capacity. This has led to open access situations and partial privatisation, both of which are major causes of unsustainable use of the commons.

Gendered division of labour and feminisation of responsibilities in Kenya; implications for development interventions

Abstract Analysing gender roles as a social organisation element of a community is critical for understanding actors’ rationales and agency with regard to allocation and use of resources. This article discusses gender relations and how they determine development outcomes, based on a highland-lowland case-study of participants of Farmer Field Schools in Kakamega Central Sub-County (highland) and Mbeere South Sub-County (lowland). The gender relations at stake include the gendered division of labour, gender roles and intra-household power relations as expressed in access and control of resources and benefits and their implications for agricultural development. The study used mixed methods, the Harvard Analytical Framework of gender roles and draws on the Neo-Marxist position on exploitation, categorisation and institutionalisation of power relations, empowerment and the critical moments framework to discuss the results. Results in both Sub-Counties show that patriarchy prevails, determining institutional design, access and control of resources and benefits. Social positions shape capabilities and strategies of actors in decision-making and use of resources to justify gender-specific institutional arrangements. In Kakamega, men get the lion share of incomes from contracted sugarcane farming despite overburdening workloads on women, while in Mbeere, both men and women derive incomes from Khat (Catha Edulis) enterprises. However, women are expected to spend their earnings on household expenditures, which were hitherto responsibilities of men, thereby contributing to the feminisation of responsibilities. Development policies and interventions thus need to be based on an understanding of men and women’s differential access and control over resources and the institutions underpinning men and women’s bargaining power in order to adopt more effective measures to reduce gender inequalities.

Common pool resource management in Lake Chilwa, Malawi: a wetland under pressure

This paper uses primary and secondary data sources to discuss changes in the management of the Lake Chilwa floodplain, Malawi, a wetland that is an important source of livelihood for over a million people who subsist on agriculture, fishing and birds. These common pool resources are under pressure, largely due to the economic value of the wetland and weaknesses in management. Colonial development split up this complex ecosystem into departmental districts and sections, making it hard to manage. Although the area is a Ramsar site, changes in economic interests combined with larger-scale economic developments have negatively affected the status of these resources, putting pressure on them and causing conflicts. The paper addresses the questions of entitlement to the use of interrelated common pool resources and power relations among local leaders, local people and immigrants to the area.

“Institutional Shopping” for natural resource management in a protected area and indigenous territory in the Bolivian Amazon

Focusing on an overlapping protected area and indigenous territory in the Bolivian Amazon, this article discusses how indigenous people continue to negotiate access to natural resources. Using the theoretical framework of New Institutionalism, ethnographic data from participatory observations, and interviews with Takana indigenous resource users and park management staff, we identified four phases of institutional change. We argue that under the current institutionally pluralistic setting in the overlapping area, indigenous users apply “institutional shopping” to choose, according to their power and knowledge, the most advantageous institutional framework in a situation. Indigenous users strategically employed arguments of conservation, indigeneity, or long-term occupation to legitimize their claims based on the chosen institution. Our results highlight the importance of ideologies and bargaining power in shaping the interaction of individuals and institutions. As a potential application of our research to practice, we suggest that rather than seeing institutional pluralism solely as a threat to successful resource management, the strengths of different frameworks may be combined to build robust institutions from the bottom up that are adapted to the local context. This requires taking into account local informal institutions, such as cultural values and beliefs, and integrating them with conservation priorities through cross-cultural participatory planning.