Cooperation in the Commons: Community-based Rangeland Management in Namibia

D. Layne Coppock, Lucas Crowley, Susan L. Durham, Dylan Groves, Julian C. Jamison, Dean Karlan, Brien E. Norton and R. Douglas Ramsey

No 29469, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Classic theories suggest that common pool resources are subject to overexploitation. Community-based resource management approaches may ameliorate “tragedy of the commons” effects. Using a randomized evaluation in Namibia’s communal rangelands, we find that a comprehensive four-year program to support community-based rangeland and cattle management led to persistent and large improvements for eight of thirteen indices of social and behavioral outcomes. Effects on rangeland health, cattle productivity and household economics, however, were either negative or nil. Positive impacts on community resource management may have been offset by communities’ inability to control grazing by non-participating herds and inhibited by an unresponsive rangeland sub-system. This juxtaposition, in which measurable improvements in community resource management did not translate into better outcomes for households or rangeland health, demonstrates the fragility of the causal pathway from program implementation to intended socioeconomic and environmental outcomes. It also points to challenges for improving climate change–adaptation strategies.

JEL-codes: O12 O13 P11 Q15 Q24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
Note: DEV EEE LE LS PE POL
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w29469.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Cooperation in the commons: Community-based rangeland management in Namibia (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29469

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w29469

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by (wpc@nber.org).