scholarly journals Towards Adaptive Commons: A Case Study of Agro-Pastoral Dams in Northern Ghana

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 319
Author(s):  
Ruben Weesie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Resource Theory ◽  
Common Pool Resource ◽  
Popular Method ◽  
Water Abundance ◽  
Common Pool ◽  
User Groups

Agro-pastoral dams (APDs) are an increasingly popular method of adaptation interventions improving communal water supply in rural West Africa. However, APDs are often constructed in areas where culturally heterogeneous pastoralists and farmers compete for similar land and water resources. Lifting open access water abundance is likely to change if not intensify ongoing tensions between farmers and settling Fulani herders. The extent of collective action and inclusivity of 6 APDs in Northern Ghana are analysed, combining theory from common-pool resource management and equity and justice in climate change adaptation into a proposed Inclusive Collective Action (ICA) model. Practically, the article demonstrates that neither fully excluding Fulani pastoralists nor making dams openly accessible results in inclusive APD usage and management where collective action is successful, and more dynamic forms of regional inclusion and exclusion are needed. Theoretically, the article identifies some of the limitations of applying the enabling conditions for collective action of common-pool resource theory as it tends to overlook negative aspects of excluding certain user groups in culturally heterogeneous contexts from managing and using a commons.

Understanding the Outcomes of Climate Change Campaigns in the Australian Environmental Movement

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Robyn Gulliver ◽  
Kelly S. Fielding ◽  
Winnifred Louis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Environmental Advocacy ◽  
Personal Support ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Collective Response ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Advocacy Network ◽  
Australian Climate

Climate change is a global problem requiring a collective response. Grassroots advocacy has been an important element in propelling this collective response, often through the mechanism of campaigns. However, it is not clear whether the climate change campaigns organized by the environmental advocacy groups are successful in achieving their goals, nor the degree to which other benefits may accrue to groups who run them. To investigate this further, we report a case study of the Australian climate change advocacy sector. Three methods were used to gather data to inform this case study: content analysis of climate change organizations’ websites, analysis of website text relating to campaign outcomes, and interviews with climate change campaigners. Findings demonstrate that climate change advocacy is diverse and achieving substantial successes such as the development of climate change-related legislation and divestment commitments from a range of organizations. The data also highlights additional benefits of campaigning such as gaining access to political power and increasing groups’ financial and volunteer resources. The successful outcomes of campaigns were influenced by the ability of groups to sustain strong personal support networks, use skills and resources available across the wider environmental advocacy network, and form consensus around shared strategic values. Communicating the successes of climate change advocacy could help mobilize collective action to address climate change. As such, this case study of the Australian climate change movement is relevant for both academics focusing on social movements and collective action and advocacy-focused practitioners, philanthropists, and non-governmental organizations.

scholarly journals Common Pool Resource Management: Assessing Water Resources Planning for Hydrologically Connected Surface and Groundwater Systems

Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Francisco Muñoz-Arriola ◽  
Tarik Abdel-Monem ◽  
Alessandro Amaranto
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Integrated Management ◽  
Design Principles ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Common Pool Resource ◽  
Common Pool ◽  
Connected Surface

Common pool resource (CPR) management has the potential to overcome the collective action dilemma, defined as the tendency for individual users to exploit natural resources and contribute to a tragedy of the commons. Design principles associated with effective CPR management help to ensure that arrangements work to the mutual benefit of water users. This study contributes to current research on CPR management by examining the process of implementing integrated management planning through the lens of CPR design principles. Integrated management plans facilitate the management of a complex common pool resource, ground and surface water resources having a hydrological connection. Water governance structures were evaluated through the use of participatory methods and observed records of interannual changes in rainfall, evapotranspiration, and ground water levels across the Northern High Plains. The findings, documented in statutes, field interviews and observed hydrologic variables, point to the potential for addressing large-scale collective action dilemmas, while building on the strengths of local control and participation. The feasibility of a “bottom up” system to foster groundwater resilience was evidenced by reductions in groundwater depths of 2 m in less than a decade.

scholarly journals Evaluating the utility of common-pool resource theory for understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Forrest D Fleischman ◽  
Brent Loken ◽  
Gustavo A. Garcia-Lopez ◽  
Sergio Villamayor-Tomas
Keyword(s):  
Resource Theory ◽  
Forest Governance ◽  
Common Pool Resource ◽  
Common Pool

scholarly journals Return to the Isle of Ted: Simulating the Collective Action Problem of Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-555
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Sage Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Common Pool Resource ◽  
Global Inequality ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
The Commons

ABSTRACTThis article modifies the classic “Isle of Ted” simulation to teach students about the collective action problems associated with climate change. Modifications include the introduction of a common-pool resource (i.e., fish) and increased pirate attacks to model rising climate threats and unequal distribution of risk. A return to the Isle of Ted enables a deeper engagement with specific collective action problems of climate change, including the tragedy of the commons and issues of global inequality. This article provides a road map for the incorporation of this modified simulation into active-learning classrooms.

Commons and Cognition

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 587-616
Author(s):  
Carol M. Rose
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Cognitive State ◽  
Common Pool ◽  
Common Resource ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Full Benefit ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Great Knowledge

Abstract Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons primarily concerns actions rather than thoughts. But he did famously describe the cognitive state of a hypothetical herder on a grassy field. With respect to the field and its other users, Hardin’s herder is both ignorant and indifferent; he coolly calculates that his best option is to take the full benefit of grazing his stock while suffering only a fraction of the cost — an action that contributes to the decimation of a common resource. While Hardin viewed the herder’s attitude as identical to that of actors in many other collective action situations, the work of other commons theorists suggests several different cognitive stances among such actors, largely depending on the scale of the commons issues they face. Thus participants in the Prisoner’s Dilemma (a very small commons) would appear to be dominated by distrust rather than the hypothetical herder’s ignorance or indifference. Participants in mid-sized commons — such as Hardin’s herders in real life — show some distrust, but also great knowledge and engagement in common pool management. Participants in the largest-scale commons issues are actually those most likely to exhibit the ignorance and indifference that Hardin attributed to the herder. This Article discusses the ways in which these different cognitive stances track the scale of collective action “tragedies” as described by major theorists and concludes with some observations about the cognitive aspects of climate change.

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