LOCALIZING DEVELOPMENT: DOES PARTICIPATION WORK?
to overcome adverse local characteristics—that is, can design induce the right type and level of participation? How dependent is success on the role played by the central state? The literature on community involvement in the management of natural resources is large and multidisciplinary, but most of it is based on case studies. Well-done case studies can add greatly to the understanding of processes; they are often less helpful, however, in establishing causal relationships between the structural features of communities, the institutions of governance established within them, and their impact on measures of system performance. The few research studies that use large datasets and attempt to deal with problems of selection into community management, are therefore highlighted in the discussion below. Local Management and Resource Sustainability
Several studies based on large data sets suggest that it may be possible for governments to successfully induce natural resource management on a large scale.
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Much of the literature on CBNRM and decentralized resource management focuses on the conditions under which the commons can be better governed—that is, the conditions under which community participation leads to greater resource sustainability (see, for example, Wade 1985; Ostrom 1990; Baland and Platteau 1997). This focus is in large part driven by Hardin’s concerns about the fate of an unregulated commons. Many case studies suggest the viability of community management of natural resources with or without state assistance (see Agrawal and Benson 2010 for a review). The verdict on governmentinitiated institutions for community resource management has been bleaker.14 However, several studies that use large data sets to examine the impact of government-initiated institutions of community forest management show that it may be possible for governments to successfully induce natural resource management on a large scale. A key point made by all of these studies is that there is considerable selection in community management of natural resources, because community takeover is usually voluntary. Case studies cannot deal with such selection or with spillover effects, which can also bias results considerably. Edmonds (2002) uses data from Nepal to determine the impact on the level of extraction of wood for fuel of a government-initiated program that transferred management of forests to local user groups. The evidence suggests that there was a significant reduction in wood extraction in areas with forest user groups.15