Disputing the Floodplains

Download or read book Disputing the Floodplains written by Tobias Haller and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-07-15 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African Floodplains in semi-arid areas are important for local livelihoods as they harbor many common-pool resources such as fisheries, pasture, wildlife, veldt products, water and land for irrigation. However, in many of these areas resources are under pressure. This book is presenting seven case studies from Mali, Cameroon, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana based on anthropological fieldwork (2002-08) and explores how these common-pool resources have been managed in pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial times. The major focus of the study is how institutional change has contributed to resource management problems and offers a comparative analysis based on the New Institutionalist approach (Jean Ensminger, Elinor Ostrom), which is combined with a special focus on ideology, discourse and narratives while focusing on conflict and power issues. With a foreword by Elinor Ostrom. This book has received the Environmental Research Award 2011 of the University of Bern, Switzerland.