Document Type

Article

Adding Environment to the Collective Action Problem: Individuals, Civil Society, and the Mangrove-Fishery Commons in Ecuador

Authors

Christine M. Beitl, University of Maine - MainFollow

Publication Title

World Development

Publisher

Elsevier

Publication Date

2014

Issue Number

C

Volume Number

56

Abstract/ Summary

Research on the commons suggests a more robust understanding of human-resource interactions is needed to strengthen theories about collective action and sustainable governance. I combine ethnographic and fishery data to explore how resource characteristics and institutions influence people’s behavior toward common pool resources in coastal Ecuador. This comparative study of the commons at two levels (mangroves and the cockle fishery) highlights how trust, communication, and social obligation depend on social histories of resource systems and types of collective action problems, largely explaining why local institutions encourage individuals to uphold mangrove forest conservation but have little effect on cooperation in fisheries.

Repository Citation

Beitl, Christine M., "Adding Environment to the Collective Action Problem: Individuals, Civil Society, and the Mangrove-Fishery Commons in Ecuador" (2014). Anthropology Faculty Scholarship. 7.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/ant_facpub/7

Version

pre-print (i.e. pre-refereeing)