Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-h6jzd Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-02-23T05:33:44.582Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Attitudes and cooperation: does gender matter in community-based forest management?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2016

Biswajit Ray Open the ORCID record for Biswajit Ray [Opens in a new window] ,
Promita Mukherjee  and
Rabindra N. Bhattacharya
Biswajit Ray
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Calcutta, 56 A, B.T. Road, Kolkata-700050, West Bengal, India. Tel: (+91)3325575082 (Office). Fax: (+91)3325284066 (Office). E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
Promita Mukherjee
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Calcutta, India. E-mail: [email protected]
Rabindra N. Bhattacharya
Affiliation:
School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University, India. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Does gender matter in people's attitudes and cooperation in community-based natural resource management? If so, how do gender differences in conservation-related attitudes help or hinder sustaining the commons? Since biases ingrained in community norms and expectations often exclude women from decision making in co-management, it is imperative to find plausible answers to these queries in order to understand gender relations and cooperation in co-management. To this end, the authors conducted psychometric surveys and trust experiments on 196 forest-dependent households in West Bengal, India during 2009–2010. The findings suggest that, despite an overall negative perception about women's involvement in co-management, women are more conservation friendly and pro-social than men. It is also noticed that forest biomass and forest incomes as the indicators of sustainability have increased in those forest communities where women's proportional strength as decision makers is greater and people hold an overall positive conservation attitude.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , October 2017 , pp. 594 - 623
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adhikari, B. (2005), ‘Poverty, property rights and collective action: understanding the distributive aspects of common property resource management’, Environment and Development Economics 10: 7–31.Google Scholar
Adhikari, B. and Lovett, J. (2006), ‘Institutions and collective action: does heterogeneity matter in community-based resource management?’, Journal of Development Studies 42(3): 426–445.Google Scholar
Agarwal, B. (1992), ‘The gender and environment debate: lessons from India’, Feminist Studies 18: 119–158.Google Scholar
Agarwal, B. (2000), ‘Conceptualising environmental collective action: why gender matters’, Cambridge Journal of Economics 24: 283–310.Google Scholar
Agarwal, B. (2001), ‘Participatory exclusions, community forestry and gender: an analysis and conceptual framework’, World Development 29(10): 1623–1648.Google Scholar
Agarwal, B. (2009), ‘Rule making in community forestry institutions: the difference women make’, Ecological Economics 68: 2296–2308.Google Scholar
Agarwal, B. (2010a), ‘Does women's proportional strength affect their participation? Governing local forests in South Asia’, World Development 38(1): 98–112.Google Scholar
Agarwal, B. (2010b), Gender and Green Governance: The Political Economy of Women's Presence Within and Beyond Community Forestry, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Agarwal, B. (2015), ‘Power of numbers in gender dynamics: illustrations from community forestry groups’, Journal of Peasant Studies 42(1): 1–20.Google Scholar
Agrawal, A. (2006), Environmentality: Technologies of Government and the Making of Subjects, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ajzen, I. and Fishbein, M. (1980), Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Alesina, A. and La Ferrera, E., (2002), ‘Who trusts others?’, Journal of Public Economics 85: 207–234.Google Scholar
Baland, J., Bardhan, P., and Bowles, S. (2007), Inequality, Cooperation, and Environmental Sustainability, Princeton, NJ: Russell Sage Foundation, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Berg, J., Dikhaut, J., and McCabe, K. (1995), ‘Trust, reciprocity and social history’, Games and Economic Behavior 10: 122–142.Google Scholar
Bouma, J., Bulte, E., and van Soest, D. (2008), ‘Trust and cooperation: social capital and community resource management’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 56(2): 155–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chattopadhyay, R. and Duflo, E. (2004), ‘Women as policy makers: evidence from a randomized policy experiment in India’, Econometrica 72(5): 1409–1443.Google Scholar
Cronbach, L.J. (1951), ‘Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests’, Psychometrika 16: 297–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croson, R.T. and Gneezy, U. (2009), ‘Gender differences in preferences’, Journal of Economic Literature 47(2): 448–474.Google Scholar
Dufwenberg, M. and Muren, A. (2006), ‘Gender composition in teams’, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 61: 50–54.Google Scholar
Eckel, C. and Grossman, P.J. (1998), ‘Are women less selfish than men? Evidence from dictator experiments’, Economic Journal 108: 726–735.Google Scholar
Firey, W. (1960), Man, Mind, and Land: A Theory of Resource Use, Glencoe, IL: Free Press of Glencoe.Google Scholar
Gotschi, E., Njuki, J., and Delve, R. (2009), ‘Equal numbers, equal chances? A case study of gender differences in the distribution of social capital in smallholder farmer groups in Búzi District, Mozambique’, European Journal of Development Research 21: 264–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GoWB (2008), Resolution, No. 5971-For, 3 October 2008, Forest Department, Government of West Bengal.Google Scholar
GoWB (2009), Annual Report of Forest Management, BTR, Office of the Field Director, Buxa Tigre Reserve, Government of West Bengal.Google Scholar
GoWB (2011), State of Forest Report 2010–2011, Directorate of Forest, Office of the Principle Chief Conservator of Forests, Government of West Bengal, [Available at] http://www.westbengalforest.gov.in/publication_pdf/SFR-2010-2011.pdf.Google Scholar
Guhathakurta, P. and Roy, S. (2000), Joint Forest Management in West Bengal: A Critique, New Delhi: WWF for Nature.Google Scholar
Guijt, I. and Shah, M.K. (eds) (1998), The Myth of Community: Gender Issues in Participatory Development, London: Intermediate Technology Publications.Google Scholar
Hobley, M. (1996), ‘Participatory forestry: the process of change in India and Nepal’, ODI Rural Development Forestry Study Guide No. 3, London: Overseas Development Institute.Google Scholar
IIED (1994), ‘Whose Eden? An overview of community approaches to wildlife management’, Report to ODA, London: International Institute for Environment and Development.Google Scholar
Infield, M. (1988), ‘Attitudes of a rural community towards conservation and a local conservation area in Natal, S. Africa’, Biological Conservation 45: 21–46.Google Scholar
Manning, R., Valliere, W., and Minteer, B. (1999), ‘Values, ethics, and attitudes toward national forest management: an empirical study’, Society and Natural Resources 12: 421–436.Google Scholar
Mehta, J.N. and Heinen, J.T. (2001), ‘Does community-based conservation shape favorable attitudes among locals? An empirical study from Nepal’, Environmental Management 28: 165–177.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, P., Ray, B., and Bhattacharya, R.N. (forthcoming), ‘Status differences in collective action and forest benefits: evidence from joint forest management in India’, Environment Development and Sustainability; doi:10.1007/s10668-016-9830-7.Google Scholar
North, D.C. (1990), Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, E. (1990), Governing the Commons, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, E., Gardner, R., and Walker, J. (1994), Rules, Games and Common Pool Resources, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Pretty, J. and Ward, H. (2001), ‘Social capital and the environment’, World Development 29: 209–227.Google Scholar
Ray, B. and Bhattacharya, R.N. (2011), ‘Transaction costs, collective action and survival of heterogeneous co-management institutions: case study of forest management organizations in West Bengal, India’, Journal of Development Studies 47(2): 253–273.Google Scholar
Ray, B. and Bhattacharya, R.N. (2013), ‘Stakeholder attitudes and conservation of natural resources: exploring alternative approaches’, in Banerjee, S. and Chakrabarti, A. (eds) Development and Sustainability: India in a Global Perspective, New Delhi: Springer, pp. 463–495.Google Scholar
Ray, B., Mukherjee, P., and Bhattacharya, R.N. (2016), ‘Explaining gender differences in cooperation and decision-making: the role of social identity in joint forest management in India’, Paper presented at the 25th IAFFE Annual Conference, 24–26 June, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland.Google Scholar
Sarin, M. (1998), ‘Who is gaining? Who is losing? Gender and equality concerns in joint forest management’, New Delhi: Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development.Google Scholar
Varughese, G. and Ostrom, E. (2001), ‘The contested role of heterogeneity in collective action: some evidence from community forestry in Nepal’, World Development 29(5): 747–765.Google Scholar
Westermann, O., Ashby, J., and Pretty, J. (2005), ‘Gender and social capital: the importance of gender differences for the maturity and effectiveness of natural resource management groups’, World Development 33(11): 1783–1799.Google Scholar
Zaggl, M.A. (2014), ‘Eleven mechanisms for evolution of cooperation’, Journal of Institutional Economics 10(2): 197–230.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Ray supplementary material

Online Appendices

Download Ray supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 285.3 KB