The formation and transformation of local institutions within a community-based natural resources management framework in the context of transition: comparative case studies in Northern Thailand and Yunnan, China

Wang, Jianping (2009). The formation and transformation of local institutions within a community-based natural resources management framework in the context of transition: comparative case studies in Northern Thailand and Yunnan, China. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

Wang09PhD.pdf
PDF
Restricted to Repository staff only until 31 December 2039.
Download (12MB)

Abstract

Based on comparative case studies drawn from rural communities in both northern Thailand and southern Yunnan, China, this study associates institutional transformation during the transition period with reformed resource management practices at the local level. Evidence from this study shows that accountable, adaptive and inclusive local institutions equipped with good social capital, clear property rights and strong enforcement, have great potential in establishing locally-adopted resource governance mechanisms. With an ambiguous definition of property rights and weak local institutional capability to claim and practise these rights, the local actors in the rural Chinese communities were hardly able to negotiate with other stakeholders and involve themselves in market-oriented NRM practices as significant players. In Thailand, although local institutions enjoyed a better degree of autonomy and more negotiation power in terms of locally-based NRM practices, customary tenure without official legal protection undermined the local actor’s ability to better benefit from the extension of the market economy and globalization. In both of the two countries, the extension of individualism and opportunism brought forth by market-oriented values and privatization policies threatened the functioning of the local institutions. Rekindling local institutions and integrating with formal decentralized institutional innovations in order to build up a pluralist institutional framework, were critical

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):