Poverty, institutions and environmental degradation: Fishing commons governance and the livelihood of rural households amid mangrove deforestation in Puttalam, Sri Lanka

Pri Perera and Risa Morimoto
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Pri Perera: Department of Economics, SOAS University of London
Risa Morimoto: Department of Economics, SOAS University of London

No 229, Working Papers from Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK

Abstract: Mangrove forests are critical to protecting our environment against the damaging impacts of climate change. While a third of global mangrove species are found in Sri Lanka, considerable mangrove deforestation has occurred over the last few decades, primarily due to the expansion of shrimp farming. This has degraded the mangrove ecosystem and led to the depletion of fish population, in turn affecting the livelihoods of local communities who depend predominantly on fishing for their survival. This study quantitatively analyses household survey data collected from local communities in and around the Puttalam lagoon, northwest Sri Lanka, to explore the institutions that are used for fishing commons governance (using Elinor Ostrom’s (1990) design principles as a theoretical underpinning) and their relation to poverty and environmental (and commons) degradation. The analysis finds that mangrove conservation is considered important regardless of poverty level and that poverty is related to greater institutional adherence. While adherence to the design principles leads to greater sustenance of the fishing commons, certain design principles are found to be more important than others. In this study, we found monitoring is the most important design principle.

Keywords: fishing commons; mangrove deforestation; Sri Lanka (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q13 Q22 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51
Date: 2019-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:soa:wpaper:229

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