Environmental Entitlements: An Outline Framework for Analysis, and a Mongolian Case Study

Abstract

The uses and management o f renewable natural resources (RNRs), and their consequences fo r sustainability, are mediated in intended and unintended ways by institutional arrangements. This paper highlights some pitfalls in the existing literature on povertyenvironment linkages in developing countries, and offers an alternative analytical approach based on the notion o f 'environmental entitlements'. This more socially articulated approach examines the determinants o f effective legitimate command over RNRs, including the rules and institutions that control access, according to the distinctive positions o f particular groups o f people. The approach is illustrated with reference to the case o f pastoral ecosystems under economic transition in Mongolia, and specifically to the community-based management o f common grazing land. Three key themes are drawn out, which are of relevance fo r the management o f RNRs in other developing economies undergoing structural reform: (a) the problem o f 'institutional scarcity’ in the face o f new transaction costs; (b) the distinction between the roles o f governance and government in RNR management; and (c) the importance of locally evolved, community-based institutions in managing environments at disequilibrium. Key words : — entitlements analysis — institutions — environment and poverty — marginal environments — political ecology — non-equilibrium ecology — governance — transitional economies — collective action — transaction costs