Institutional factors in natural resource management in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa - Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa - page 237

Physical attributes
of the resources

Attributes of the
community

Institutional
arrangements

Action situation

Incentives

Outcomes

Figure 10.3. Framework for institutional analysis (Adapted from Smajgl et al ., 2003 and Ostrom, 2003: 46).

and monitoring to influence the contingent behaviour of individuals (Nilsson, 2001). The
IAD framework is used to measure institutions and their effects on individual's incentives
and their resultant behaviour. The IAD framework is also used to analyse various situations
individuals face in decision-making (Smajgl et al., 2003). The IAD framework is divided
into the following:

Physical attributes of the resources

The physical attributes of the resource refers to the structure of land itself. That is, its
vegetative cover, size, carrying capacity and quality (ICLARM, 1996). Thus, physical
attributes of the resource includes the area's geographical and hydraulic conditions wherein
the size of the resource system and number of resource users are crucial (Wendel, 2004).

Attributes of the community

It involves key attributes of the individuals. That is, attributes of resource users and
differences between farmers in terms of how they cooperate and whether they have similar
or heterogeneous interest. It also involves people's cultural, social and political aspects
that influence their behaviour, and how these affect the ability to solve common problems
(Wendel, 2004). Attributes of the community also involve issues such as how many people
are involved in the utilization of resources and whether they work together in terms of how
to use the resource (Nilsson, 2001).

Dependency, trust and differences between resource users in terms of racial and cultural
backgrounds are important aspects of the collective action. This is because it is believed
that if resource users depend on the resources for generating income, they are likely to
contribute to collective activities. However, Tang (1992), cited by Wendel (2004), argued