Open this publication in new window or tab >>2011 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
Community-based management of natural resource (CBNRM) projects have commonly failed to deliver conservation and development benefits. This thesis examined how the theoretical assumptions of common pool resource (CPR) theory have contributed to the indifferent performance of CBNRM projects. Evidence was gathered from two CBNRM case studies in Zanzibar to show that CPR institutional design does not sufficiently acknowledge the politics or social relations of project sites. Moreover, these limitations reduce CPR theory's explanatory power and the functionality of CBNRM projects. This is because CPR theory's influence on CBNRM projects is to frame people with fixed identities and related interests as 'rational resource users', rather than people enrolled in multiple network relations with differentiated means of influence, interests and responsibilities. Actor-oriented theory is used to show that CBNRM would benefit from a shift in the correlation with institutional design factors to understanding the operation of power and conflict at project sites. These findings suggest that currently CBNRM projects are too mired in concern about regulating the 'direct' relationship between resource users and conservation objectives, with problematic implications. It is shown that actor-oriented theory is more sensitive to the different capacities, interests and strategies of actors in CBNRM institutional transformation processes. While actor-oriented theory does not offer a parsimonious or predictive theory to reform CPR theory or CBNRM policy, it can provide insights into pre-project conditions and emergent practice useful for explaining project interventions.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Huddinge: Södertörns högskola, 2011. p. 74
Series
Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations, ISSN 1652-7399 ; 58
Keywords
Actor-oriented theory, CBNRM, Community conservation, Conservation conflict, CPR theory, Environmental science, ICDP, Institutional theory, Mangroves, Participatory governance, Power, Zanzibar
National Category
Environmental Sciences Human Geography
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-11566 (URN)978-91-86069-31-5 (ISBN)
Public defence
2011-11-04, MA636, Alfred Nobels allé 7, Södertörns högskola, Huddinge, 10:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
2011-10-142011-09-222023-04-03Bibliographically approved