IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v73y2015icp72-84.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Importance of Inequality for Natural Resource Governance: Evidence from Two Nicaraguan Territories

Author

Listed:
  • Ravnborg, Helle Munk
  • Gómez, Ligia Ivette

Abstract

Natural resources constitute an important axis around which rural territorial dynamics revolve. Based on empirical registration of how applications for and denouncements of natural resource use are dealt with in two Nicaraguan rural territories, this paper examines the importance of inequality for the institutional practices through which district-level governance of natural resource use takes place. Notable differences are identified. The paper concludes that institutional practices which promote rule-based natural resource governance and gradually curb the veto possibilities of powerful actors are more likely to emerge in territories where political voice is not restricted to the economic elite.

Suggested Citation

  • Ravnborg, Helle Munk & Gómez, Ligia Ivette, 2015. "The Importance of Inequality for Natural Resource Governance: Evidence from Two Nicaraguan Territories," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 72-84.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:73:y:2015:i:c:p:72-84
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.11.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X14003507
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.11.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berdegué, Julio A. & Bebbington, Anthony & Escobal, Javier, 2015. "Conceptualizing Spatial Diversity in Latin American Rural Development: Structures, Institutions, and Coalitions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-10.
    2. Robinson, James A., 2010. "Elites and Institutional Persistence," WIDER Working Paper Series 085, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Christian Lund, 2011. "Property and Citizenship: Conceptually Connecting Land Rights and Belonging in Africa," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 46(3), pages 71-75.
    4. Deininger, Klaus & Zegarra, Eduardo & Lavadenz, Isabel, 2003. "Determinants and Impacts of Rural Land Market Activity: Evidence from Nicaragua," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 1385-1404, August.
    5. Paavola, Jouni, 2007. "Institutions and environmental governance: A reconceptualization," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 93-103, June.
    6. Andersson, Krister P., 2004. "Who Talks with Whom? The Role of Repeated Interactions in Decentralized Forest Governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 233-249, February.
    7. Ravnborg, Helle Munk & Gómez, Ligia Ivette, 2015. "Poverty Reduction Through Dispossession: The Milk Boom and the Return of the Elite in Santo Tomás, Nicaragua," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 118-128.
    8. Zimmerman, Frederick J. & Carter, Michael R., 2003. "Asset smoothing, consumption smoothing and the reproduction of inequality under risk and subsistence constraints," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 233-260, August.
    9. James Boyce, 1994. "Inequality as a Cause of Environmental Degradation," Published Studies ps1, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    10. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2002. "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1231-1294.
    11. Matthieu Clément & André Meunié, 2010. "Is Inequality Harmful for the Environment? An Empirical Analysis to Developing and Transition Countries," Post-Print hal-00546598, HAL.
    12. Krister Andersson & Elinor Ostrom, 2008. "Analyzing decentralized resource regimes from a polycentric perspective," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 41(1), pages 71-93, March.
    13. Vijayendra Rao, 2006. "On “Inequality Traps” and Development Policy," World Bank Publications - Reports 9588, The World Bank Group.
    14. James Robinson, 2010. "Elites and Institutional Persistence," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-085, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Boyce, James K., 1994. "Inequality as a cause of environmental degradation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 169-178, December.
    16. Gomez, Helle & Ravnborg, Munk, 2011. "Power, inequality, and water governance: The role of third party involvement in water-related conflict and cooperation," CAPRi working papers 101, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Matthieu Clement & Andre Meunie, 2010. "Is Inequality Harmful for the Environment? An Empirical Analysis Applied to Developing and Transition Countries," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(4), pages 413-445.
    18. Berdegué, J. & Ospina, P. & Favareto, A. & Aguirre, F. & Chiriboga, M. & Escobal, J. & Fernández, I. & Gomez, I. & Modrego, F. & Ramírez, E. & Ravnborg, H.M. & Schejtman, A. & Trivelli, C., 2011. "Determinantes de las Dinámicas de Desarrollo Territorial Rural en América Latina," Working papers 101, Rimisp Latin American Center for Rural Development.
    19. Ravnborg, Helle Munk, 2003. "Poverty and Environmental Degradation in the Nicaraguan Hillsides," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(11), pages 1933-1946, November.
    20. Bebbington, Anthony, 1999. "Capitals and Capabilities: A Framework for Analyzing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelihoods and Poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 2021-2044, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ravnborg, Helle Munk & Gómez, Ligia Ivette, 2015. "Poverty Reduction Through Dispossession: The Milk Boom and the Return of the Elite in Santo Tomás, Nicaragua," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 118-128.
    2. Ospina Peralta, Pablo & Bebbington, Anthony & Hollenstein, Patric & Nussbaum, Ilana & Ramírez, Eduardo, 2015. "Extraterritorial Investments, Environmental Crisis, and Collective Action in Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 32-43.
    3. Frija, Aymen & Sghaier, Mariem & Fetoui, Mondher & Dhehibi, Boubaker & Sghaier, Mongi, 2023. "Pathways for improving rangeland governance under constraining land tenure systems: Application of a participatory Bayesian Belief approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kashwan, Prakash, 2017. "Inequality, democracy, and the environment: A cross-national analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 139-151.
    2. Salih Ozturk & Murat Cetin & Harun Demir, 2022. "Income inequality and CO2 emissions: nonlinear evidence from Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(10), pages 11911-11928, October.
    3. Ravnborg, Helle Munk & Gómez, Ligia Ivette, 2015. "Poverty Reduction Through Dispossession: The Milk Boom and the Return of the Elite in Santo Tomás, Nicaragua," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 118-128.
    4. Kemkes, Robin J., 2015. "The role of natural capital in sustaining livelihoods in remote mountainous regions: The case of Upper Svaneti, Republic of Georgia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 22-31.
    5. Bo Yang & Minhaj Ali & Shujahat Haider Hashmi & Mohsin Shabir, 2020. "Income Inequality and CO 2 Emissions in Developing Countries: The Moderating Role of Financial Instability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-24, August.
    6. Korah, Prosper Issahaku & Nunbogu, Abraham Marshall & Cobbinah, Patrick Brandful & Akanbang, Bernard Afiik Akanpabadai, 2019. "Analysis of livelihood issues in resettlement mining communities in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    7. Ravnborg, Helle Munk, 2003. "Poverty and Environmental Degradation in the Nicaraguan Hillsides," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(11), pages 1933-1946, November.
    8. Berthe, Alexandre & Elie, Luc, 2015. "Mechanisms explaining the impact of economic inequality on environmental deterioration," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 191-200.
    9. Daniel Etongo & Ida Nadia S. Djenontin & Markku Kanninen, 2016. "Poverty and Environmental Degradation in Southern Burkina Faso: An Assessment Based on Participatory Methods," Land, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-23, June.
    10. Gallemore, Caleb & Di Gregorio, Monica & Moeliono, Moira & Brockhaus, Maria & Prasti H., Rut Dini, 2015. "Transaction costs, power, and multi-level forest governance in Indonesia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 168-179.
    11. Alexandre BERTHE & Luc ELIE, 2014. "Les conséquences environnementales des inégalités économiques : structuration théorique et perspectives de recherche (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2014-18, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    12. Das, Monica & Basu, Sudip Ranjan, 2022. "Understanding the relationship between income inequality and pollution: A fresh perspective with cross-country evidence," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    13. Nicole D. Peterson, 2015. "Unequal sustainabilities: The role of social inequalities in conservation and development projects," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(2), pages 264-277, June.
    14. Adaman, Fikret & Gökşen, Fatoş & Zenginobuz, Unal, 2003. "Political economy of citizens’ participation in environmental improvement: The case of Istanbul," MPRA Paper 375, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Mark Sommer & Kurt Kratena, 2016. "The Carbon Footprint of European Households and Income Distribution. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 113," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58787, February.
    16. David Barkin, 2005. "Wealth, Poverty and Sustainable Development," Development and Comp Systems 0506003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Chao Zhang & Ruifa Hu, 2020. "Does Fertilizer Use Intensity Respond to the Urban-Rural Income Gap? Evidence from a Dynamic Panel-Data Analysis in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, January.
    18. Andersson, Krister, 2013. "Local Governance of Forests and the Role of External Organizations: Some Ties Matter More Than Others," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 226-237.
    19. Alassane Drabo, 2011. "Impact of Income Inequality on Health: Does Environment Quality Matter?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(1), pages 146-165, January.
    20. Christopher B. Barrett, 2005. "Rural poverty dynamics: development policy implications," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(s1), pages 45-60, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:73:y:2015:i:c:p:72-84. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.