Inequalities, institutions, and forest commons

This paper contributes to a growing literature on the commons that examines the relationship between inequality and commons outcomes. Our analysis of evidence on forest commons outcomes in 228 cases from South Asia (India and Nepal), East Africa (Kenya and Uganda) and Latin America (Mexico and Bolivia) suggests that local governance and collective action matter in shaping how socioeconomic inequalities affect forest conditions. In particular, we find that both inter-group and intra-group economic inequalities have consistently negative effects on forest outcomes, but that effectively functioning local institutions for collective action dampen the negative effect of inter-group inequality on forest outcomes.

► Economic inequalities consistently have negative effects on forest commons outcomes.
► Strong collective action dampens negative effects of economic inequalities on forest outcomes.
► Strengthen local institutions and reduce economic inequalities to improve forest outcomes.