Institutional frameworks in CBNRM

• Institutions are formal or informal rules about

making decisions that are permitted and
payoff that will be assigned to an individual.
 Role of institutional frameworks in
CBNRM
1. As a diagnostic tool
-To highlight problems, trends, forces, resources as
well as possible consequences of various types of
interventions with the view to prescribe situations
that would modify action situation.
2. As an evaluation tool
- used to describe and action situations
- to logically arrange information to examine
relationships among attributes and describe
outcomes
 Cont.
3. As a design tools
•Design and implement new action situation
(how are people likely to behave e.g. in dam
construction.
4. as a research tool.
•Allows identification and allocation of data on
attributes and conditions of each contextual
variables and then examine relationships
between and among each of them.
 The social concept
• Is people oriented.
• Seeks to maintain the integrity of
social, cultural systems including
reduction of destructive concepts.
• Aimed at sustainability of resource
use.
 System Analysis
• Analytical tool
• Looks at degree to which each variable in a system
affects the system to attain stability or instability in
leadership
• In studying social systems aim at minimising conflicts
- understand that people are affected by policy changes
and varies with people and their economic stand
affected by
• Social boundaries
• Physical boundaries
• Taboos e.g. sacred trees
 External factors
• Economic
• Legal
• Political
• International e.g. REDD+, CDM, CITES
Social systems
• Institutions work within a system
• A system is a set of interconnected
variables/parts coherently organised for a
purpose
• Systems theory – argues that interdependence
and relationships of different parts form a system
• Social systems are open and respond selectively
to various influences from the environment.
• Analysis of the society should include all groups
 Social Systems
• Based on Human Behaviour and the Social
Environment
• Energy and the organization of energy are
the prime characteristics of social systems.
• All systems are composed of energy
interchange.
• Structural and functional aspects of social
systems are merely descriptions of this basic
interchange.
 Cont.
• Those processes of energy interchange that are
slower and of longer duration and appear to the
observer to be relatively static can be called
structural.
• Those processes that are of relatively fast tempo
and short duration can be called behavioral.
• Those processes that change slowly over time but
are not static are termed evolutionary.
 Example
• A structural change in the family may be from
extended family to nuclear family over centuries;
• evolutionary change may be from traditional
nuclear family to single-parent families over
decades in the twentieth century; and
• behavioral change includes a particular family’s
functioning during its life cycle.
 Evolution of Social Systems
• Systems are always both changing and maintaining
themselves at any given time.
• The balance between change and maintenance may
shift drastically toward one pole or the other, but if
either extreme were reached, the system would
cease to exist.
 Steady State and Transition State
• Steady state refers to a state in which energies are
continually used to maintain the relationship of the
parts and keep them from collapsing in decay.
• Occurs when the whole system is in balance.
• The system is maintaining a viable relationship with
its environment thus ensuring its continual existence.
 Steady State
• Steady state is characterized by a sufficient degree of
organization, complexity, and openness to the
environment.
• The concept of steady state applies to all social
systems.
• The terms equilibrium and homeostasis have
meanings similar to steady state but with important
differences.
 Definitions
• Equilibrium – Fixed balance in a relatively closed
system characterized by little interchange with the
environment and avoidance of disturbance.
• Homeostasis – Fixed balance in a partially open
system, characterized by very limited interchange
with the environment and by maintenance of the
system’s present structure.
 Steady State
• All systems must maintain a shifting balance
between status quo (morphostasis) and change
(morphogenesis).
• Also a balance between order and disorder.
• Another important distinction between steady state,
equilibrium, and homeostasis is the significance of
stress.
 Comparison of Equilibrium, Homeostasis, and
Steady State
Equilibrium Homeostasis Steady
State
Stress Least Minimal Optimal and
possible necessary

Structure No change No change Wide

possibility of
change

Interchange Least Minimal Optimal and

with the possible necessary
environment
Openness Closed Minimal Open
 Transition state
• The condition of a system that is moving from one
steady state to another.
• Transition states may be more frequent that steady
states.
• Like other polarities, it is a ratio of change or
maintenance of current structure.
 Bifurcation
• One of Prigogine’s (1984) major points is that open
systems “at the edge of chaos” react to stress or to
new stimuli that require adaptation by transforming
themselves to significant degrees.
• He called this bifurcation, meaning ‘branching’.
 Bifurcation
• Theorists no longer regard steady state as the most
natural or desirable condition of living systems.
• Bifurcation is now seen as the ‘normal’ condition of
complex systems.
• Another important aspect is that system’s adaptation
is accomplished by altering relationships between
components of the system.
 Structural Characteristics
• Boundary – the limits of the interaction of the
components of a system with each other or with the
environment. It is usually defined by intensity or
frequency of interaction between systems and
components.
• Linkage – energy exchange among and between
components and systems. They are reciprocal in
nature.
 Structural Characteristics
• Open or closed systems – “Open” denotes energy
exchange across a system’s boundaries. “Closed”
denotes lack of energy exchange across boundaries.
• Hierarchy – a form of organization that characterizes
all viable systems. Hierarchy is a superordinate-
subordinate relationship between systems in which
any unit is dependent upon its suprasystem for
performance of energy functions and must provide
direction to its subsystems.
 Hierarchy
• Another hierarchy is that of power and control; some
parts control others by regulating access to
resources or by regulating communication.
• A third form is that of authority. Some parts serve as
sources of sanction and approval.
• A fourth form is a fixed sequence in which
development must occur.
 Structural Characteristics
• Autonomy – independence from other components within a
system. The components are related to a common
suprasystem but are largely or entirely separate from each
other.
• Autonomy is achieved and maintained by feedback cycles
that are continually initiated by the system.
• Autopoiesis – refers to self-development;
– Connotes both self-origination and on-going self-modification by the
system; and
– Connotes that a major ongoing task of the system is the establishment of
its identity, its steady state, its character, and the traits that are
characteristic of the system and that are observed to be relatively
constant during its evolution.
 Structural Characteristics
• Differentiation – selectivity of function or activity
among components of a system.
– “Division of Labor” is one example.
• A function or activity is performed by one, or some,
components and not others.
• This differs from specialization in that the
component may perform other functions or activities
in addition to the assigned, differentiated one.
 Structural Characteristics
• Specialization – performance of a function or activity
to the exclusion of other functions or activities by a
component or part of a system.
• A system may differentiate its components by
allocating functions or activities among them; some
perform certain functions, whereas others do not
perform the same functions.
• If the part performs only the differentiated function,
then it has specialized; if it performs other functions
as well, it is differentiated but not specialized. The
two are separate.
 Behavioral Aspects of Social Systems
• Behavioral aspects are those interchanges that are of shorter
duration and faster tempo.
• Social Control – the use of energy by a system to assure that
its components fulfill assigned functions.
• Such activity includes socialization and enforcement of norms
of behavior.
• Enforcement may entail persuasion, authority, or force.
• The purpose of social control is to permit continued
functioning of the system through reducing or preventing
deviance among the components.
 Behavioral Aspects
• Socialization – one form of social control intended to
assure the availability of components’ energies to
the system.
• The means to achieve this are primarily through
assimilating the culture.
• Hence education, indoctrination, and enculturation
are forms of socialization.
 Behavioral Aspects
• Communication – in a narrow sense, the transportation of
information between or within systems; in a broader sense,
the transportation of energy, also. In this broader sense,
information is considered a special form of energy.
• Feedback – the process in which a system receives internal or
environmental responses to its behavior and, in turn, reacts
to these received responses by accommodating and
assimilating the energy/information received, by altering the
system’s structure, and then engaging in altered exchanges of
energy/information.
 Behavioral Aspects
• Adaptation – action by the system to secure or
conserve energy from the environment.
• Two forms:
– Assimilation – the acceptance or rejection of incoming
information without any change on the part of the system;
– Accommodation – modification of structure in response to
the incoming information.
 Sources of incentives
Community
•Internal values that individuals assign to
different outcomes and activities needed
to achieve those outcomes
•Cultural values shared by individuals in
community (ethics, religion, caste), village
and family value systems.
 Cont.
Biophysical and technological
•-physical and technological which affect
the transformation of activities into
outcome.
•Decision making arrangements include
rules in use relating to specific situations in
which people repeatedly find themselves
 Measures of Performance
1) Ecological based performance
- measures extent to which stocks of natural capital are
maintained
- The meeting of management objectives
2) Economic based performance
- economic efficiency focus on extent to which
production of best economic outcome is produced by
means of least combination of inputs
- impacts on users
3) Social measures
- Focusses on equity
-Fairness in distribution of benefits and costs (Equity)
 Cont.
Equity is composed of:
- Representation
- Process clarity
- Homogenous expectations
- Distributive effects
 Cont.
• Equity based design principles prevent aggregation
of rights to selected few without compensation for
those affected at both industry and community
level
• Distributes risk burdens
• Support structures that favour the disadvantaged
• Reduces incentives that adopt monopolistic and
oligopolistic practices
• Establishes mechanisms that provide a return to
local communities e.g. CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe
 Cont.
 The sharing of benefits, through technology
transfer, research results, training, and profits
can contribute to poverty reduction and
sustainable development in developing
countries.
 Sharing of benefits can take the form of
payment of royalties, joint ownership over
property rights, provision of equipment, etc..
 Sustainability

Composed of three elements:

•Stewardship
•Resilience
•Governance
 Stewardship
• A measure of the degree to which resource
users prefer potential long term benefits to
short term goals
• It pertains to individual behaviour and
motivations
• It also pertains to the capacities of individuals
to engage in collective action for the long
term benefits
 Guided by:
• Cohesion – common identity
• Demarcation- cohesion sets social boundaries
and determines membership
• Legitimacy- bounded by agreed rules and
regulations, both internal and external
 Resilience
• Refers to the capacity of an institutional
system to continue to function as expected.
• Organisational capacity to adapt in content
and structure
• Provides durability to organisations and
creates scope for them to improve through
process of adaptive management
• Allows and encourages structural change
 Governance
• Willingness of users to regularly
follow operational level rules.
• Reflects viability of rules as
coordinated devices.
 Efficiency
• Measured by optimal rate of resource
use
• Measures flow of benefits (should exceed
cost of establishing and maintaining
given institutional arrangements).