Networks and Institutions in Natural Resource Management

Numerous institutional designs for managing natural resources have been implemented and attempted throughout the world to achieve sustainable management of especially common pool resources or public goods. Networks and Institutions in Natural Resource Management, edited by Yvonne Rydin and Eva Falleth, reports on the results of original fieldwork focusing on how networks and institutions in natural resource management (NRM) work in practice. The starting point for the research is the increasingly fragmented institutional setting for NRM and natural resource planning. With fragmentation (a high number of participants involved in NRM, each with their own agenda, preferences, norms, and working routines) arises a need for collective action (the setting of rules for individual use of natural resources). Without such collective action, free-riding can become a problem as long as resources are common pool or public goods. How can such collective action be enabled? A possible answer, analyzed in this book, is networking. To examine all of these concepts, the book presents nine case studies: three in Norway; three in England; and one each in Sweden, Spain, and Zimbabwe. The collaborative research framework presented in the book is said to be based on an institutionalist approach, in which two elements are identified as central: network analysis and attention to the norms, values, routines, and everyday working practices of those within networks. The book states that the concepts of institutions, networks, social capital (bonding: intercommunity ties; bridging: horizontal ties; and bracing: both vertical and horizontal ties within a delimited set of actors), and institutional capacity (particularly the role of knowledge resources) will be used ‘‘to investigate how collective action over natural resource management is fostered (or not) in situations of fragmentation’’ (p. 32). The emphasis on both the formal and the informal within institutionalism is mentioned as a strength. The components of the network analysis (social capital and institutional capacity) seem to receive more attention than the formal side. As a result, with the formal side of institutionalism less visible at times, the definition of institutions becomes a bit uncertain and unclear as the book progresses. The presentation of the conceptual framework, which relates the conceptual research tools to each other, results in a couple of overarching research questions: How do bodies and parties involved in NRM succeed in developing networks and strategies to overcome this fragmentation? Does this lead to an optimum situation for the planning and management of natural resources? These research questions are then examined with the help of the nine case studies: five broadly dealing with landscape and nature conservation and four relating to various aspects of water management. All nine present solid empirical mapping of networks identifying key factors and relationships shaping the balance between free-riding and collective action for sustainable management. Characteristics discussed include factors across boundaries of scale, level, territory, and function; resource users and those with policy or regulatory authorities; local and central government representatives; local representation; and multiple interests. Scale of inclusion and depth of involvement vary among the case studies, as does the focus of the network, from the development of strategies for NRM to a change in behavior of resource users. Considering the wealth of knowledge coming out of the nine case studies on the many different dimensions introduced by the research behind Networks and Institutions in Natural Resource Management, the reader should be grateful for the succinct and clarifying conclusions chapter. It is well written and adds value by revealing linkages that are not necessarily visible to the first-time reader. The case studies also manage to prove the importance of the ‘‘middle-range’’ theories (e.g., social capital, institutional capacity theory) as supplemental to the institutionalist approach if one is to be able to say anything about the role of networks in achieving sustainable NRM. Attributable to the researchers’ discipline in sticking to the conceptual framework, the project is able to present a number of conclusions related to the role of the different types of networks in overcoming fragmentation within NRM. The extent of social capital determines the presence of collective action. On this point, the nine chapters range from relatively prevalent bridging social capital in the New Forest, England, to virtually absent bridging capital in the Mafungautsi area, Zimbabwe. Aspects shaping networking, according to the research presented, include: