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State regulation versus co-management: evidence from the Cochin Estuarine Fisheries in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2005

JEENA T. SRINIVASAN
Affiliation:
Ecological Economics Unit, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Nagarbhavi P O, Bangalore 72, India. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper examines the property rights of the Cochin estuarine fisheries in India, which in spite of having well-defined access and conservation rules imposed by the state, have failed to ensure proper resource management. Considering the resource characteristics and the causes for state's failure, co-management, which requires a redefinition of management functions by state as well as users, has been proposed as an alternative. Analysis of user characteristics, using the two-stage estimation procedure, throws policy signals that under co-management the state can strengthen the licensing system to restrict access to fishing and to impart awareness regarding conservation rules. The logit analysis on users' role indicates that, although certain types of heterogeneities contribute towards the critical mass needed for a collective action, the distributional implications may lead at least some to oppose co-management. This implies that, even if users initially get to agree to co-operate and share any rents from conservation, significant prisoner's dilemma will soon occur returning the resource to its current state, and co-management will have to still grapple with lack of well-defined property rights.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The comments of the anonymous referees of this journal have been very valuable in bringing the paper to its present form and I am grateful to them. Earlier versions of the paper were presented in the Beijer Research workshops at Luxor, Durban and the ICTP in Italy. I am thankful to Professors Jean-Philippe Platteau, Karl Göran Mäler, Partha Dasgupta and David Starret for their constructive comments and suggestions. Thanks are also due to Drs. K. N. Ninan, Frederic Gaspart and the participants of the above mentioned workshops. However, the usual disclaimers apply.