Stress is then laid on the global context within which user groups operate, including the nature and the forms of state intervention and the effects of increasing market integration. To date, this context has generally been uncongenial to community-based resource management; therefore, the authors recommend that, whenever a co-management approach is feasible, the concrete institutional form adopted is tailored to the specific features of local cultures.
The session was closed with papers that provided a prognosis on the future development of property rights in fisheries management. Thus, the conference papers addressed the theory and application of property.
The book addresses the gaps in the body of knowledge from two grounds. Firstly, it adds value through explaining the dynamics of natural resource governance by focusing on the particular arenas of biodiversity resources, water resources and climate change in developing country context. Secondly, it critically scrutinizes the market-centric perspectives on one hand and combines political economy questions that are generally overlooked in discussions of current resource governance framework, on the other. It develops a new framework to examine the reasons behind the degradations of natural resources to offer sustainable solutions to the problems. It shows that the natural resources have been exploited beyond sustainable limits due to the structural rigidities, embedded in, and reproduced by, fragile institutions and unequal power-sharing arrangements under the market-centric economic system. The book formulates a new understanding of sustainability in case of usage and management of natural resources by incorporating the idea of human sociality. It highlights the importance of the well-being of nature, and human beings must go side by side; one without the other is not a sustainable option. The book contains key learnings for scholars and researchers working in the field of development studies who wish to gain a deeper understanding on the sustainable natural resource governance specifically in the contexts of developing countries. For policymakers and policy advocates, the book serves as the groundwork on policies regarding biodiversity resources, water resources, and climate change, specific to the context of developing countries, providing more relevant contents in terms of laying out justification for policy objectives.
�This volume develops the rich conceptual and empirical content of public-private relationships, increasingly acknowledged as the dominant realm of natural resource governance. Ten wonderful studies from around the world illuminate opportunities for advancing the theory, analysis and effective formation of sustainable systems of resource use. The book is excellent for courses in governance and public policy in any resource and environmental field.�JEFF ROMM, PROFESSOR FOR RESOURCE POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, US�The book addresses the theoretically and politically most important division of social organization into public and private. The authors bring an exciting, multidisciplinary perspective to bear on changing and multiple publics and the strength of relationships connecting these two spheres in rural development and natural resource governance. The contributions range from consumer health and food safety, soil science, forestry and water management to sociological and economic aspects of natural resource property and governance.�FRANZ VON BENDA-BECKMANN, MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, GERMANYNatural resources have historically been considered as being governed in public or private spheres - that is, by the state on behalf of the people, or by companies or individuals driven by the market. This dichotomy between private and public is now recognized as overly simplistic, and it is clear that �publics� and �privates� operate at a range of levels and with differing degrees of separation or overlap.Bringing together a group of internationally respected researchers, this book provides a new perspective on prominent issues in resource governance, including the state, NGOs, civil society, communities, participation, devolution, privatization and hybrid institutions, highlighting the three-dimensional nature of relations between �public� and �private�. It builds on empirical analyses from six fields of natural resource governance - agri-environment, biodiversity, bioenergy, food quality and safety, forestry and rural water - and employs a comparative approach that goes beyond the specifi cities of individual policy fields, recognizing shared elements and allowing for a greater understanding of the dynamics underlying governance processes. Introductions to the volume and to each section summarize the key debates and highlight linkages between chapters. This is essential reading for academics, students and policy experts in natural resource governance, development and environmental policy.
