People and Forests: Communities, Institutions, and Governance (Politics, Science, and the Environment) [Paperback]

Clark C. Gibson (Editor), Margaret A. McKean (Editor), Elinor Ostrom (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Politics, Science, and the Environment | Publication Date: June 12, 2000

Unplanned deforestation, which is occurring at unsustainable rates in many parts of the world, can cause significant hardships for rural communities by destroying critical stocks of fuel, fodder, food, and building materials. It can also have profound regional and global consequences by contributing to biodiversity loss, erosion, floods, lowered water tables, and climate change.People and Forests explores the complex interactions between local communities and their forests. It focuses on the rules by which communities govern and manage their forest resources. As part of the International Forestry Resources and Institutions research program, each of the contributors employs the same systematic, comparative, and interdisciplinary methods to examine why some people use their forests sustainably while others do not. The case studies come from fieldwork in Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Nepal, and Uganda.People and Forests offers policymakers a sophisticated view of local forest management from which to develop policy options and offers biophysical and social scientists a better understanding of the linkages between residents, local institutions, and forests.Contributors : Arun Agrawal, Abwoli Y. Banana, C. Dustin Becker, Clark C. Gibson, William Gombya-Ssembajjwe, Rosario Leon, Margaret A. McKean, Elinor Ostrom, Charles M. Schweik, George Varughese, Mary Beth Wertime.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Clark C. Gibson is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego.

Elinor Ostrom is Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, Codirector of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, and Codirector of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC) at Indiana University.Ostrom was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1st edition (June 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262571374
• ISBN-13: 978-0262571371
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #683,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good editors, frustrating contributors, May 19, 2007

By 

Arthur Digbee (Indianapolis, IN, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: People and Forests: Communities, Institutions, and Governance (Politics, Science, and the Environment) (Paperback)

Like most edited books, this one shows every sign of editors valiantly trying to get the authors onto the same page, while the authors ignore (or actively resist) their suggestions. Having edited a book myself, I'm all too familiar with the pattern - - and I side with the editors.

The editors present a common framework focusing on the importance of (mostly local) institutions in explaining successful and unsuccessful forest management in developing countries. It's not as strong as a real theory would be, but it's useful enough as a unifier for a collection of hypotheses that Ostrom draws out in her conclusion. About half of the chapters - - those written by one of the editors - - use the framework in a serious way, while the other half don't. The editors' chapters address larger issues about local management of common pool resources, while the other chapters tend to be largely descriptive case studies of local problems.

Both editors and contributors are part of an intellectual community that's interested in successful management of environmental problems (such as common pool resources) at the local level. It's an important topic, but it encourages the worst kind of case study research. All too often, research involves going off to a study site chosen for practical reasons such as language skills, local contacts, or government permission. Analytical questions get pushed off to the side, and I'm afraid that's true of many chapters here too.

In short: read it for the editors, whose chapters provide interesting analyses of local solutions to forest management problems.