IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/natres/v36y2012i1p50-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Institutional cooperation at a basin level: For what, by whom? Lessons learned from Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake

Author

Listed:
  • Marko Keskinen
  • Olli Varis

Abstract

Water is fundamental for the development of any society. Several concepts in water management promote integration, cooperation and a basin‐wide approach as a means to achieve sustainable development of water resources. Management institutions aiming to put these concepts into practice are developed around the world, with varying success. This paper looks at the institutional setting in the Tonle Sap Lake area in Cambodia, and analyses three initiatives for establishing a coordinating organization for the lake basin. Due to the significance of the Tonle Sap to the entire country and the transboundary Mekong River Basin, the area's management is an important yet contested issue. Our study indicates that while the discussion about the most suitable forms of management revolves around commonly accepted ideals of cooperation and sustainability, the actual drivers for institutional reforms are strongly influenced by the existing institutions and their political rivalries and interests. Following, the basin‐wide approach currently dominant in water management — for good and logical reasons — can actually hinder institutional cooperation, as the existing institutional hegemons may see it as a threat to their mandate. We therefore argue that a process seeking to establish a new basin organization should pay particular attention to the existing institutions, including the way the differing scales, levels and boundaries within the basin affect their relations.

Suggested Citation

  • Marko Keskinen & Olli Varis, 2012. "Institutional cooperation at a basin level: For what, by whom? Lessons learned from Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(1), pages 50-60, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:natres:v:36:y:2012:i:1:p:50-60
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01445.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01445.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01445.x?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. Svendsen, Mark & Wester, Philippus & Molle, Francois, 2005. "Managing river basins: an institutional perspective," IWMI Books, Reports H036301, International Water Management Institute.
    2. Marko Keskinen & Mira Käkönen & Prom Tola & Olli Varis, 2007. "The Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia: Water-related conflicts with abundance of water," Economics of Peace and Security Journal, EPS Publishing, vol. 2(2), pages 49-59, June.
    3. Jonathan Lautze & Sanjiv de Silva & Mark Giordano & Luke Sanford, 2011. "Putting the cart before the horse: Water governance and IWRM," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35, pages 1-8, February.
    4. Molle, Francois, 2008. "Implementing integrated river basin management: lessons from the Red River Basin, Vietnam. Working paper," IWMI Working Papers H041494, International Water Management Institute.
    5. 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.
    6. D. J. Bandaragoda, 2006. "Status of Institutional Reforms for Integrated Water Resources Management in Asia: Indications from Policy Reviews in Five Countries," IWMI Working Papers H038707, International Water Management Institute.
    7. Svendsen, Mark & Wester, Philippus & Molle, Francois, 2005. "Managing river basins: an institutional perspective," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    8. Svendsen, Mark (ed.), 2005. "Irrigation and river basin management: options for governance and institutions," IWMI Books, International Water Management Institute, number 138050.
    9. Svendsen, Mark, 2005. "Irrigation and river basin management: options for governance and institutions," IWMI Books, Reports H036300, International Water Management Institute.
    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. Blake D. Ratner & Sovannarith So & Kosal Mam & Il Oeur & Sour Kim, 2017. "Conflict and collective action in Tonle Sap fisheries: adapting governance to support community livelihoods," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(2), pages 71-82, May.

    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. Molle, François & Wester, Philippus & Hirsch, Philip, 2010. "River basin closure: Processes, implications and responses," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(4), pages 569-577, April.
    2. Kuzdas, Christopher & Wiek, Arnim & Warner, Benjamin & Vignola, Raffaele & Morataya, Ricardo, 2015. "Integrated and Participatory Analysis of Water Governance Regimes: The Case of the Costa Rican Dry Tropics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 254-268.
    3. Andrea Gerlak & Jonathan Lautze & Mark Giordano, 2011. "Water resources data and information exchange in transboundary water treaties," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 179-199, May.
    4. Kaune, Alexander & Werner, Micha & Rodríguez, Erasmo & Karimi, Poolad & de Fraiture, Charlotte, 2017. "A novel tool to assess available hydrological information and the occurrence of sub-optimal water allocation decisions in large irrigation districts," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 229-238.
    5. Francois Molle & Jeremy Berkoff, 2009. "Cities vs. agriculture: A review of intersectoral water re‐allocation," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(1), pages 6-18, February.
    6. Mwangi Joseph Kanyua, 2020. "Effect of Imposed Self-Governance on Irrigation Rules Design among Horticultural Producers in Peri-Urban Kenya," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    7. Shah, Tushaar, 2007. "The groundwater economy of South Asia: an assessment of size, significance and socio-ecological impacts," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    8. Ian Calder & Ashvin Gosain & M. Rao & Charles Batchelor & M. Snehalatha & Emma Bishop, 2008. "Watershed development in India. 1. Biophysical and societal impacts," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 537-557, August.
    9. Lei Xie & Shaofeng Jia, 2017. "Diplomatic water cooperation: the case of Sino-India dispute over Brahmaputra," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 677-694, October.
    10. Shah, Tushaar, 2007. "The groundwater economy of South Asia: an assessment of size, significance and socio-ecological impacts," IWMI Books, Reports H039669, International Water Management Institute.
    11. Falkenmark, M. & Finlayson, Max & Gordon, L. J. & Bennett, E. M. & Chiuta, T. M. & Coates, D. & Ghosh, N. & Gopalakrishnan, M. & de Groot, R. S. & Jacks, G. & Kendy, Eloise & Oyebande, L. & Moore, M. , 2007. "Agriculture, water, and ecosystems: avoiding the costs of going too far," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    12. Nilgun B. Harmancioglu, 2017. "Overview of Water Policy Developments: Pre- and Post-2015 Development Agenda," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(10), pages 3001-3021, August.
    13. Claudious Chikozho, 2008. "Globalizing Integrated Water Resources Management: A Complicated Option in Southern Africa," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 22(9), pages 1241-1257, September.
    14. Robert Costanza & Shuang Liu, 2014. "Ecosystem Services and Environmental Governance: Comparing China and the U.S," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 160-170, January.
    15. Grillitsch, Markus & Asheim, Björn & Fünfschilling, Lea & Kelmenson, Sophie & Lowe, Nichola & Lundquist, Karl Johan & Mahmoud, Yahia & Martynovich, Mikhail & Mattson, Pauline & Miörner, Johan & Nilsso, 2023. "Rescaling: An Analytical Lense to Study Economic and Industrial Shifts," Papers in Innovation Studies 2023/11, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    16. Merrie, Andrew & Olsson, Per, 2014. "An innovation and agency perspective on the emergence and spread of Marine Spatial Planning," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 366-374.
    17. Steven M Manson, 2007. "Challenges in Evaluating Models of Geographic Complexity," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 34(2), pages 245-260, April.
    18. Cesar Casiano Flores & Joep Crompvoets & Maria Eugenia Ibarraran Viniegra & Megan Farrelly, 2019. "Governance Assessment of the Flood’s Infrastructure Policy in San Pedro Cholula, Mexico: Potential for a Leapfrog to Water Sensitive," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-28, December.
    19. Kanchanaroek, Yingluk & Termansen, Mette & Quinn, Claire, 2013. "Property rights regimes in complex fishery management systems: A choice experiment application," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 363-373.
    20. Jonathan Lautze & Herath Manthrithilake, 2012. "Water security: Old concepts, new package, what value?," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(2), pages 76-87, May.

    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:wly:natres:v:36:y:2012:i:1:p:50-60. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1477-8947 .

    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.