Explaining Success on the Commons: Community Forest Governance in the Indian Himalaya

background

This study describes how a range of causal influences shape forest conditions in diverse ecological and institutional settings in the Indian Himalaya.

Research Goals & Methods

The auhtors conduct a context-sensitive statistical analysis on 95 cases of decentralized, community-based forest governance in Himachal Pradesh and target their analysis on underlying institutional variables that are common to different community-level governance systems or regimes. This study attempts to include biophysical, economic, social, political, and demographic context into their consideration of governance institutions and underlying causal factors. For example, five demographic variables are used in their analysis, including population size, population change, grazing of migratory sheep, cattle-months, and cattle numbers.

Conclusions & Takeaways

The authors find a range of variables across the 95 cases that have a significant relationship to forest condition, including rainfall, distance to market, population change, whether a guard is being used, and gender relations.