‘We Are Not Bad People’- Bricolage and the Rise of Community Forest Institutions in Burkina Faso

From a critical institutionalism and institutional bricolage perspective, this article analyses what drives institutional change in the commons and the outcomes for forest and people. It builds on the comparison of three neighbouring villages in Burkina Faso that in 1989, expecting higher returns, a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Karambiri, Mawa, Brockhaus, Maria, Sehring, J., Degrande, A.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Ubiquity Press, Ltd. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/113343
_version_ 1855532395436965888
author Karambiri, Mawa
Brockhaus, Maria
Sehring, J.
Degrande, A.
author_browse Brockhaus, Maria
Degrande, A.
Karambiri, Mawa
Sehring, J.
author_facet Karambiri, Mawa
Brockhaus, Maria
Sehring, J.
Degrande, A.
author_sort Karambiri, Mawa
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description From a critical institutionalism and institutional bricolage perspective, this article analyses what drives institutional change in the commons and the outcomes for forest and people. It builds on the comparison of three neighbouring villages in Burkina Faso that in 1989, expecting higher returns, agreed to release their common lands for the creation of a community forest called Chantier d’Aménagement Forestier (CAF) within an international forestry project. The project created new bureaucratic institutions to replace the pre-existing customary and socially embedded system. Decades later, the three villages display different institutional change pathways and outcomes: one village abandoned the CAF, converted, and sold its forest and land; another maintained the CAF; and a third operates in-between. Using qualitative research methods, we ask why and how these different change trajectories and outcomes occurred among villages of identical cultural and sociopolitical background. The results show that poor design and implementation of the new bureaucratic institutions, as well as their disrespect of customary and socially embedded rules, led to forestland disputes between the villages. The bureaucratic institutions failed to solve those disputes, effectively manage the forest, and share the benefits equitably. This caused local people’s discontent and prompted actions for change. Actors in diverse ways made use of their social networks, agency, and power relations within and between the villages to either reshape, re-interpret or reject the new forest institutions. These processes of institutional bricolage led to highly diverse trajectories of change. The findings demonstrate the crucial role of locals as agents of change from below and question universal claims in institutional theory on how institutions induce rule-guided behaviour and create path dependencies.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace113343
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
publishDateSort 2020
publisher Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
publisherStr Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1133432024-02-29T09:08:40Z ‘We Are Not Bad People’- Bricolage and the Rise of Community Forest Institutions in Burkina Faso Karambiri, Mawa Brockhaus, Maria Sehring, J. Degrande, A. natural resource management power network landscape conservation From a critical institutionalism and institutional bricolage perspective, this article analyses what drives institutional change in the commons and the outcomes for forest and people. It builds on the comparison of three neighbouring villages in Burkina Faso that in 1989, expecting higher returns, agreed to release their common lands for the creation of a community forest called Chantier d’Aménagement Forestier (CAF) within an international forestry project. The project created new bureaucratic institutions to replace the pre-existing customary and socially embedded system. Decades later, the three villages display different institutional change pathways and outcomes: one village abandoned the CAF, converted, and sold its forest and land; another maintained the CAF; and a third operates in-between. Using qualitative research methods, we ask why and how these different change trajectories and outcomes occurred among villages of identical cultural and sociopolitical background. The results show that poor design and implementation of the new bureaucratic institutions, as well as their disrespect of customary and socially embedded rules, led to forestland disputes between the villages. The bureaucratic institutions failed to solve those disputes, effectively manage the forest, and share the benefits equitably. This caused local people’s discontent and prompted actions for change. Actors in diverse ways made use of their social networks, agency, and power relations within and between the villages to either reshape, re-interpret or reject the new forest institutions. These processes of institutional bricolage led to highly diverse trajectories of change. The findings demonstrate the crucial role of locals as agents of change from below and question universal claims in institutional theory on how institutions induce rule-guided behaviour and create path dependencies. 2020-09-25 2021-04-14T04:38:05Z 2021-04-14T04:38:05Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/113343 en Open Access Ubiquity Press, Ltd. Karambiri, M., Brockhaus, M., Sehring, J., Degrande, A. 2020. ‘We Are Not Bad People’- Bricolage and the Rise of Community Forest Institutions in Burkina Faso. International Journal of the Commons, 14(1), 525-538. http://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1061
spellingShingle natural resource management
power
network
landscape conservation
Karambiri, Mawa
Brockhaus, Maria
Sehring, J.
Degrande, A.
‘We Are Not Bad People’- Bricolage and the Rise of Community Forest Institutions in Burkina Faso
title ‘We Are Not Bad People’- Bricolage and the Rise of Community Forest Institutions in Burkina Faso
title_full ‘We Are Not Bad People’- Bricolage and the Rise of Community Forest Institutions in Burkina Faso
title_fullStr ‘We Are Not Bad People’- Bricolage and the Rise of Community Forest Institutions in Burkina Faso
title_full_unstemmed ‘We Are Not Bad People’- Bricolage and the Rise of Community Forest Institutions in Burkina Faso
title_short ‘We Are Not Bad People’- Bricolage and the Rise of Community Forest Institutions in Burkina Faso
title_sort we are not bad people bricolage and the rise of community forest institutions in burkina faso
topic natural resource management
power
network
landscape conservation
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/113343
work_keys_str_mv AT karambirimawa wearenotbadpeoplebricolageandtheriseofcommunityforestinstitutionsinburkinafaso
AT brockhausmaria wearenotbadpeoplebricolageandtheriseofcommunityforestinstitutionsinburkinafaso
AT sehringj wearenotbadpeoplebricolageandtheriseofcommunityforestinstitutionsinburkinafaso
AT degrandea wearenotbadpeoplebricolageandtheriseofcommunityforestinstitutionsinburkinafaso