IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v7y1990i2p40-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local government and rural development in the bengal Sundarbans: An inquiry in managing common property resources

Author

Listed:
  • Harry Blair

Abstract

Of the three strategies available for managing common property resources (CPR)—centralized control, privatization and local management—this essay focuses on the last, which has proven quite effective in various settings throughout the Third World, with the key to success being local ability to control access to the resource. The major factors at issue in the Sundarbans situation are: historically external pressure on the forest; currently dense population in adjacent areas; a land distribution even more unequal than the norm in Bangladesh; and a decentralized local government structure initiated in the mid-1980s. The first three factors have encouraged the local population to view this CRP as a frontier to be exploited,rather than as a resource to be preservedfor sustained yield. Thus to the extent that the new local government structure proves to be democratic and responsive to popular needs, it would most likely accelerate destruction of the Sundarbans, using the area as a cheap and easy way to provide some livelihood to the rural poor and landless. Accordingly, decentralization cannot be a viable strategy for preserving this unique forest resource; only a strong central control can ensure its survival into the next century. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1990

Suggested Citation

  • Harry Blair, 1990. "Local government and rural development in the bengal Sundarbans: An inquiry in managing common property resources," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 7(2), pages 40-51, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:7:y:1990:i:2:p:40-51
    DOI: 10.1007/BF01530435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF01530435
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF01530435?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wade, Robert, 1987. "The Management of Common Property Resources: Finding a Cooperative Solution," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 2(2), pages 219-234, July.
    2. Conyers, Diana, 1986. "Future directions in development studies: The case of decentralization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 593-603, May.
    3. Jnanabrata Bhattacharyya, 1990. "Uses, values, and use values of the Sundarbans," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 7(2), pages 34-39, March.
    4. Florence McCarthy, 1990. "The role of foreign assistance and commercial interests in the exploitation of the Sundarbans," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 7(2), pages 52-60, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jnanabrata Bhattacharyya, 1990. "Uses, values, and use values of the Sundarbans," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 7(2), pages 34-39, March.
    2. Harry W. Blair, 1996. "Democracy, Equity and Common Property Resource Management in the Indian Subcontinent," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 27(3), pages 475-499, July.
    3. Ronald Herring, 1990. "Rethinking the commons," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 7(2), pages 88-104, March.

    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. Michael Hubbard, 1997. "The ‘New Institutional Economics’ In Agricultural Development: Insights And Challenges," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1‐3), pages 239-249, January.
    2. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2006. "Better Rules or Stronger Communities? On the Social Foundations of Institutional Change and Its Economic Effects," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 82(1), pages 1-25, January.
    3. François BLANC & Richard W. MATTHEWMAN, 1995. "COOPÉRATIVES ET GESTION COMMUNALE EN ÉLEVAGE: Un aperçu cornparatif entre pays en voie de développement anglophones et francophones," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(3), pages 253-274, September.
    4. Stefano Moroni, 2014. "Towards a general theory of contractual communities: neither necessarily gated, nor a form of privatization," Chapters, in: David Emanuel Andersson & Stefano Moroni (ed.), Cities and Private Planning, chapter 3, pages 38-65, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Magnan, Nicholas, 2015. "Property rights enforcement and no-till adoption in crop-livestock systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 76-83.
    6. Batchelor, Charles, 1999. "Improving water use efficiency as part of integrated catchment management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(2-3), pages 249-263, May.
    7. Baland, Jean-Marie & Bardhan, Pranab & Das, Sanghamitra & Mookherjee, Dilip, 2010. "Forests to the People: Decentralization and Forest Degradation in the Indian Himalayas," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 1642-1656, November.
    8. Jan‐Willem F. Knegt & Linden F. Vincent, 2001. "From open access to access by all: restating challenges in designing groundwater management in Andhra Pradesh, India," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(4), pages 321-331, November.
    9. Ruth Meinzen-Dick & Margreet Zwarteveen, 1998. "Gendered participation in water management: Issues and illustrations from water users‘ associations in South Asia," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 15(4), pages 337-345, December.
    10. David Slater, 1989. "Territorial Power and the Peripheral State: The Issue of Decentralization," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 20(3), pages 501-531, July.
    11. Harry W. Blair, 1996. "Democracy, Equity and Common Property Resource Management in the Indian Subcontinent," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 27(3), pages 475-499, July.
    12. Jeena T Srinivasan, 2005. "The Differential Impact of User Heterogeneity in Resource Management : A Case Study from Kerala," Microeconomics Working Papers 22411, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    13. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/f0uohitsgqh8dhk980ea412b5 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Robin Grimble & Man‐Kwun Chan, 1995. "Stakeholder analysis for natural resource management in developing countries," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 19(2), pages 113-124, May.
    15. repec:ilo:ilowps:283665 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Stefano Moroni, 2015. "Beni di nessuno, beni di alcuni, beni di tutti: note critiche sull?incerto paradigma dei beni comuni," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3), pages 137-144.
    17. Heriniaina Andriananja & Vahinala Raharinirina, 2004. "Quels enjeux pour la durabilité et la gouvernance des ressources naturelles et forestières à Madagascar ?," Mondes en développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 127(3), pages 75-89.
    18. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/f0uohitsgqh8dhk980ea412b5 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Theesfeld, Insa & Pirscher, Frauke (ed.), 2011. "Perspectives on institutional change - water management in Europe," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 58, number 109519.
    20. Alauddin, Mohammad & Quiggin, John, 2008. "Agricultural intensification, irrigation and the environment in South Asia: Issues and policy options," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 111-124, March.
    21. Baland, Jean-Marie & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 1999. "The Ambiguous Impact of Inequality on Local Resource Management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 773-788, May.
    22. Siddig A. Salih, 1992. "Managing Renewable Natural Capital in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1992-097, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    23. Gérard Grellet, 2001. "Systèmes d'irrigation et droits de propriété," Revue Tiers Monde, Programme National Persée, vol. 42(166), pages 317-331.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:agrhuv:v:7:y:1990:i:2:p:40-51. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.