Social movements as key actors in governing the commons: Evidence from community-based resource management cases across the world

• Published in: Global environmental change 2018-11, Vol.53, p.114-126
• Main Authors: Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio, García-López, Gustavo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Autonomy; Common lands; Communities; Community; Community based natural resource management; Companies; Democratization; Economic development; Economics; Environmental justice; Environmental justice movements; Global economy; Globalization; Government regulations; Identity; Institutional design principles; Local knowledge; Local management; Marginality; Meta-analysis; Natural resource management; Natural resources; Political economy; Political economy threats; Politics; Promotion; Public administration; Qualitative analysis; Regulation; Resource management; Robustness; Social activism; Social movements; Sustainable development; Threats; Vulnerability
• ISSN: 0959-3780; 1872-9495
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.09.005

The international research on the benefits of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) regimes for sustainable development has raised concerns about the vulnerability of said regimes to globalization, shortsighted government regulations, marginalization, and other global political economy threats. This paper addresses the question of whether and how social movements contribute to the organization and robustness of CBNRM in the advent of those threats. To accomplish this, we carry out a qualitative meta-analysis of 81 cases worldwide. Our evidence shows that one of the most important effects of movements on CBNRM is the promotion and defense of community use and management rights against certain government decisions or actions by global corporations. We also find that movements can generate positive effects beyond the reaction to specific threats. Those effects include the democratization of communities’ collective choice processes, the reinvigoration of identity ties and local ecological knowledge, the promotion of economic development and autonomy, and the creation of nested user organizations. Exploring such potentially longer-term effects is a promising next step towards further connecting the social movement and CBNRM scholarships and better understanding the robustness of local management regimes in the context of global change. •Social Movements contribute to key CBNRM institutions through different pathways.•They decrease the vulnerability of communities to use and management right violations.•Other positive impacts include strengthened collective choice, identity, local ecological knowledge, economic autonomy and scaling-up.