Ethnic diversity and forest commons

The management of forest commons requires coordination within a community and between communities. This coordination is usually challenging given the incentives for free riding. The literature suggests that communities with heterogeneous members, particularly from different ethnic groups, are less e...

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Autores principales: Barba, Francisco M., Jaimovich, Dany
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141362
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author Barba, Francisco M.
Jaimovich, Dany
author_browse Barba, Francisco M.
Jaimovich, Dany
author_facet Barba, Francisco M.
Jaimovich, Dany
author_sort Barba, Francisco M.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The management of forest commons requires coordination within a community and between communities. This coordination is usually challenging given the incentives for free riding. The literature suggests that communities with heterogeneous members, particularly from different ethnic groups, are less effective in commons management and public goods provision. In this paper, we empirically test if forest degradation differs within and between ethnically diverse communities. Using data for the majority of villages in rural Gambia, our first set of results suggest that ethno-linguistic fractionalization within villages correlates with a reduction in forest cover and an increase in forest loss over a period of 15 years. Then, we propose a new approach to assess forest management between heterogeneous communities. Forest units within exclusively shared territory between pairs of neighboring villages are defined by dyadic polygons, which are used to apply dyadic regression methods. In our second set of results, we find evidence suggesting that spaces shared between ethnically distant communities exhibit higher forest cover and lower forest loss. Further analyses suggest that the effect of ethnic distance on reduced forest degradation is present mainly when villages are heterogeneous in other characteristics as well. Our study motivates the identification of relevant spaces for the analysis of competition over local commons, providing a novel approach of potential interest to applications beyond our area of study.
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spelling CGSpace1413622025-12-08T10:11:39Z Ethnic diversity and forest commons Barba, Francisco M. Jaimovich, Dany satellites data forests forest management forest degradation population dynamics commons diversity ethnic groups satellite data The management of forest commons requires coordination within a community and between communities. This coordination is usually challenging given the incentives for free riding. The literature suggests that communities with heterogeneous members, particularly from different ethnic groups, are less effective in commons management and public goods provision. In this paper, we empirically test if forest degradation differs within and between ethnically diverse communities. Using data for the majority of villages in rural Gambia, our first set of results suggest that ethno-linguistic fractionalization within villages correlates with a reduction in forest cover and an increase in forest loss over a period of 15 years. Then, we propose a new approach to assess forest management between heterogeneous communities. Forest units within exclusively shared territory between pairs of neighboring villages are defined by dyadic polygons, which are used to apply dyadic regression methods. In our second set of results, we find evidence suggesting that spaces shared between ethnically distant communities exhibit higher forest cover and lower forest loss. Further analyses suggest that the effect of ethnic distance on reduced forest degradation is present mainly when villages are heterogeneous in other characteristics as well. Our study motivates the identification of relevant spaces for the analysis of competition over local commons, providing a novel approach of potential interest to applications beyond our area of study. 2022-10 2024-04-12T13:37:46Z 2024-04-12T13:37:46Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141362 en Open Access Elsevier Barba, Francisco M.; and Jaimovich, Dany. 2022. Ethnic diversity and forest commons. World Development 158(October 2022): 105986. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105986
spellingShingle satellites
data
forests
forest management
forest degradation
population dynamics
commons
diversity
ethnic groups
satellite data
Barba, Francisco M.
Jaimovich, Dany
Ethnic diversity and forest commons
title Ethnic diversity and forest commons
title_full Ethnic diversity and forest commons
title_fullStr Ethnic diversity and forest commons
title_full_unstemmed Ethnic diversity and forest commons
title_short Ethnic diversity and forest commons
title_sort ethnic diversity and forest commons
topic satellites
data
forests
forest management
forest degradation
population dynamics
commons
diversity
ethnic groups
satellite data
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141362
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