Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2000). However, natural resources are subjected to various types of threats
according to their causes (human-made vs. natural) and ef ect (irreversible
vs. reversible). The threat of irreversible loss of natural resources is con-
sidered to be a particular problem since it is associated with extinction of
endemic and endangered species. Whether the threats to natural resources
are caused by community members or outsiders also inl uences the appro-
priate governance mechanisms: using the instruments of social control
by communities or user groups is usually more ef ective in dealing with
threats caused by insiders than with those caused by outsiders (Meinzen-
Dick and Knox, 1999).
The last attribute of transaction, frequency, also has implications
for the extensiveness of governance investment. Frequent transactions
justify an investment in governance because the cost can be amortized
across many transactions and is therefore more likely to be recovered
while infrequent transactions are more likely to be controlled by ad hoc
arrangements put in place if and when the need arises (Drennan, 2000).
In the case of natural resource management, one can distinguish frequent
day-to-day management decisions and less frequent strategic decisions, for
example, on the establishment of protected areas. Most activities carried
out to implement management decisions are frequent, ranging from daily
to seasonal (Birner and Wittmer, 2000), which implies high transaction
costs of management.
Birner and Wittmer (2000) discussed 'public relevance' as an additional
attribute of transaction, which inl uences the necessity of public sector
involvement in commons management. Public sector engagement or inter-
vention is required to deal with various aspects of externalities that arise
while using common goods. From the outset, we have seen that negative
externalities occur due to the public nature of environmental goods that
af ect the interest of society at large, especially concerning environmental
protection. So, public relevance is an equally important attribute of trans-
actions in the issue of intergenerational equity. For example, formulation
of biodiversity policy needs to pay adequate attention to how the inter-
ests of future generations are taken into account while making current
conservation/resource utilization decisions.
Fenoaltea (1984) considered 'care- or ef ort-intensity' as another key
attribute of transaction. Ef ort-intensive transactions are easier to monitor
and typically relate to production activities (for example, seedling produc-
tion, plantation, felling trees and so on) in natural resource management,
while care-intensive transactions are dii cult to measure because they
leave ample room for shirking and even sabotage (Fenoaltea, 1984), which
are characteristic of protection activities. The monitoring problem of care-
intensive activities is aggravated if the outcome of a transaction is dii cult
