IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/prodev/v12y2012i2-3p193-212.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Neoliberalization, decentralization and community-based natural resources management in Malawi: The first sixteen years and looking ahead

Author

Listed:
  • Leo Charles Zulu

Abstract

This article reviews the paradoxical gap between theory/policy and reality from 16 years of community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) in Malawi’s fisheries, forestry and wildlife sectors, focusing on influences of imported neoliberal blueprints. The article argues that CBNRM has created shifting institutional hybridities melding neoliberal principles and modern institutions with neo-patrimonial institutions, producing more challenges than opportunities. Recent gains and bias toward revenue generation have not been matched by practical measures for ecological sustainability. Synthesis of trends, challenges, lessons and opportunities through an institutional choice lens contributes to understanding of relative costs and benefits of CBNRM in delivering ecological and socio-economic goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Leo Charles Zulu, 2012. "Neoliberalization, decentralization and community-based natural resources management in Malawi: The first sixteen years and looking ahead," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 12(2-3), pages 193-212, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:12:y:2012:i:2-3:p:193-212
    DOI: 10.1177/146499341101200307
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/146499341101200307
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/146499341101200307?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leach, Melissa & Mearns, Robin & Scoones, Ian, 1999. "Environmental Entitlements: Dynamics and Institutions in Community-Based Natural Resource Management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 225-247, February.
    2. Lund, Jens Friis & Treue, Thorsten, 2008. "Are We Getting There? Evidence of Decentralized Forest Management from the Tanzanian Miombo Woodlands," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2780-2800, December.
    3. Gibson, Clark C. & Ostrom, Elinor & Ahn, T. K., 2000. "The concept of scale and the human dimensions of global change: a survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 217-239, February.
    4. Ribot, Jesse C. & Agrawal, Arun & Larson, Anne M., 2006. "Recentralizing While Decentralizing: How National Governments Reappropriate Forest Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1864-1886, November.
    5. World Bank, 2000. "Can Africa Claim the 21st Century?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 22962.
    6. Jumbe, Charles B.L. & Angelsen, Arild, 2007. "Forest dependence and participation in CPR management: Empirical evidence from forest co-management in Malawi," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3-4), pages 661-672, May.
    7. Kasulo, Victor & Perrings, Charles, 2006. "Fishing down the value chain: Biodiversity and access regimes in freshwater fisheries -- the case of Malawi," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 106-114, August.
    8. Sen, Sevaly & Raakjaer Nielsen, Jesper, 1996. "Fisheries co-management: a comparative analysis," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 405-418, September.
    9. Batterbury, Simon P.J. & Fernando, Jude L., 2006. "Rescaling Governance and the Impacts of Political and Environmental Decentralization: An Introduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1851-1863, November.
    10. Editors The, 2008. "From the Editors," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-1, July.
    11. Charles Blessings Laurence Jumbe & Arild Angelsen, 2006. "Do the Poor Benefit from Devolution Policies? Evidence from Malawi’s Forest Co-Management Program," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 82(4), pages 562-581.
    12. Editors The, 2007. "From the Editors," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-5, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Béné, Christophe & Belal, Emma & Baba, Malloum Ousman & Ovie, Solomon & Raji, Aminu & Malasha, Isaac & Njaya, Friday & Na Andi, Mamane & Russell, Aaron & Neiland, Arthur, 2009. "Power Struggle, Dispute and Alliance Over Local Resources: Analyzing 'Democratic' Decentralization of Natural Resources through the Lenses of Africa Inland Fisheries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 1935-1950, December.
    2. Floriane Clement, 2010. "Analysing decentralised natural resource governance: proposition for a “politicised” institutional analysis and development framework," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 43(2), pages 129-156, June.
    3. Leo Zulu, 2013. "Bringing People Back into Protected Forests in Developing Countries: Insights from Co-Management in Malawi," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(5), pages 1-27, May.
    4. Mbeche, Robert & Ateka, Josiah & Herrmann, Raoul & Grote, Ulrike, 2021. "Understanding forest users' participation in participatory forest management (PFM): Insights from Mt. Elgon forest ecosystem, Kenya," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Julia Brown, 2014. "Evaluating Participatory Initiatives in South Africa," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(2), pages 21582440145, April.
    6. Laurent, Catherine E. & Berriet-Solliec, Marielle & Kirsch, Marc & Labarthe, Pierre & Trouve, Aurelie, 2010. "Multifunctionality Of Agriculture, Public Policies And Scientific Evidences: Some Critical Issues Of Contemporary Controversies," APSTRACT: Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce, AGRIMBA, vol. 4(1-2), pages 1-6.
    7. Angelingis Makatta & Lupala ZJ & Faustin Maganga & Amos Majule, 2018. "Forest Governance at Village Level with Potential for REDD+ in Participatory Forest Management, Tanzania," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 8(2), pages 40-51, - January.
    8. Eliezeri Sungusia & Jens Friis Lund & Christian Pilegaard Hansen & Numan Amanzi & Yonika M. Ngaga & Gimbage Mbeyale & Thorsten Treue & Henrik Meilby, 2020. "Rethinking Participatory Forest Management in Tanzania," IFRO Working Paper 2020/02, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    9. Fischer, Harry W. & Ali, Syed Shoaib, 2019. "Reshaping the public domain: Decentralization, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and trajectories of local democracy in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 147-158.
    10. Verbrugge, Boris, 2015. "Decentralization, Institutional Ambiguity, and Mineral Resource Conflict in Mindanao, Philippines," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 449-460.
    11. Maurice Obstfeld & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2009. "Global imbalances and the financial crisis: products of common causes," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Oct, pages 131-172.
    12. Iršová, Zuzana & Havránek, Tomáš, 2013. "Determinants of Horizontal Spillovers from FDI: Evidence from a Large Meta-Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Antonio di Paolo, 2011. "Knowledge of catalan, public/prívate sector choice and earnings: Evidence from a double sample selection model," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 197(2), pages 9-35, June.
    14. Acharya, Viral & Naqvi, Hassan, 2012. "The seeds of a crisis: A theory of bank liquidity and risk taking over the business cycle," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 349-366.
    15. Mahapatra, Ajay Kumar & Shackleton, Charlie M., 2011. "Has deregulation of non-timber forest product controls and marketing in Orissa state (India) affected local patterns of use and marketing," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(8), pages 622-629, October.
    16. L. Robin Keller & Kelly M. Kophazi, 2012. "From the Editors ---Copulas, Group Preferences, Multilevel Defenders, Sharing Rewards, and Communicating Analytics," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 9(3), pages 213-218, September.
    17. Okumu, Boscow & Muchapondwa, Edwin, 2020. "Welfare and forest cover impacts of incentive based conservation: Evidence from Kenyan community forest associations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    18. Géraldine Froger & Philippe Méral, 2008. "Introduction," Mondes en développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 7-10.
    19. Gyldas Ofoulhast†Othamot, 2018. "The conundrum between political and sectoral decentralizations: The case of Cameroon," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(3), pages 347-367, May.
    20. Clements A.Akinsoyinu, 2015. "The Great Financial Crisis: How Effective is Macroeconomic Policy Response in the United Kingdom?," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 4(2), pages 01-10, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:12:y:2012:i:2-3:p:193-212. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.