US-Kenya Dissertation Enhancement: Fragmenting the Commons: Property Rights Transitions in Maasai Pastoral Land

0004415Ostrom这项论文强化资助支持美国研究生Esther Mwangi女士，在印第安纳大学布卢明顿分校政治科学系教授Elinor Ostrom的指导下，对肯尼亚马赛牧民居住地区共有土地私有化运动中的潜在力量进行研究。在撒哈拉以南非洲的大部分地区，土地产权正从通常以土著制度为基础的社区权利转变为更正式和合法执行的个人权利。私有化使现代土地管理方法得以应用，并期望：1)土地生产力将提高；2)公共系统导致的环境退化将得到控制或减少。但是，将权利分配给一个单一的所有者剥夺了许多以前对该地区资源拥有习惯权利的个人的权利。此外，它可能导致确定土地使用权的制度高度政治化。马萨兰气候多样，环境恶劣，传统上马赛人依靠畜群的流动来最大限度地提高牲畜食物和水资源的可变性。但从20世纪60年代马塞兰的土地私有化运动开始，许多马塞人联合起来组建了集体牧场，其中许多牧场现在被分割成个人拥有的单位。他们活动范围的分散应该会增加马赛人对环境变化的脆弱性，那么他们为什么要选择一种与他们的生存策略和文化传统不一致的土地管理制度呢？Mwangi将进行研究，以确定：1)为什么马萨兰的产权正在从集体拥有的地块转变为个人拥有的单元；2)这种转变的环境后果是什么；3)这种转变是否代表了一种适合马赛人环境和社会文化条件的模式。她将分析特定行为者（如集体牧场成员、个体牧场所有者和政策制定者）的动机是如何被导向特定的产权制度的，以及他们用来使他们的偏好成为现实的体制机制。为了实现这一目标，她将对各种各样的人进行采访，并在肯尼亚国家档案馆和卡吉道地区档案馆进行档案研究。土地区域的环境健康可能是产权转换中的另一个重要考虑因素。Mwangi还假设，由于牲畜密度较高，个别单位的范围退化程度最大。为了验证这一假设，她将进行植被分析和收集降雨模式数据，以便对群体拥有和个人拥有的地块之间的范围条件和健康状况进行环境评估。项目成果应有助于建立马萨兰产权过渡理论，该理论考虑到发生过渡的政治、社会经济和环境条件。Patricia Kameri-Mbote博士和非洲技术研究中心的其他人将在这个项目上为Mwangi女士提供指导。研究结果将推动共同产权理论的发展，为土地管理政策提供有价值的信息，并增加对非洲牧区政治经济学的现有认识。这项资助还将支持优秀研究生在职业生涯的早期获得国际研究经验。本项目由国际项目司和社会经济科学司共同资助。

0004415OstromThis dissertation enhancement grant supports a US graduate student, Ms. Esther Mwangi, working under the guidance of Professor Elinor Ostrom, of the Department of Political Science at Indiana University at Bloomington, to conduct a study of the underlying forces in the movement to privatize commonly held land in areas inhabited by Maasai pastoralists in Kenya.The transformation of land property rights from communal rights, which are often based on indigenous systems, to more formal and legally enforced individual rights is occurring throughout much of Subsaharan Africa. Privatization enables modern methods of land management to be applied with the expectations that: 1) land productivity will increase; and 2) environmental degradation that resulted from the communal systems will be controlled or reduced. But assigning rights to a single holder disenfranchises many individuals who formerly had customary rights to the resources in that area. Furthermore, it can result in a highly politicized system for determining land access. Maasailand is a climatically diverse and often harsh environment, and the Maasai had traditionally relied on herd mobility to maximize the variability of the food and water resources for their livestock. But starting with the land privatization movement in Maasailand in the 1960's, many Maasai banded together to form group ranches, and many of these ranches are now being separated into individually owned units. The fragmentation of their range should increase the Maasai's vulnerability to environmental variability, so why are they choosing a land management system that is inconsistent with their survival strategies and cultural traditions? Mwangi will conduct studies to determine: 1) Why property rights in Maasailand are changing from group-owned parcels to individual units; 2) What the environmental consequences of this transition are; and 3) Whether this transition represents an appropriate model for the environmental and socio-cultural conditions of the Maasai. She will analyze how the incentives of particular actors (such as group ranch members, individual ranch owners, and policy makers) are oriented towards a particular property rights system, and the institutional mechanisms they use to make their preferences a reality. To accomplish this, she will conduct interviews with a variety of individuals, and carry out archival research at the Kenya National Archives and Kajidao District Archives. The environmental health of a land area may be another important consideration in the transformation of property rights. Mwangi also hypothesizes that the greatest amount of range degradation will occur in the individual units due to their higher concentrations of livestock. To test this hypothesis, she will conduct vegetation analyses and collect data on rainfall patterns in order to develop an environmental assessment of range conditions and health between group-held and individually-owned parcels of land. Project results should help establish a theory of property rights transitions for Maasailand which takes into account the mix of political, socio-economic, and environmental conditions under which transition occurs. Dr. Patricia Kameri-Mbote and others at the African Center for Technology Studies will provide guidance to Ms. Mwangi on this project.The results should advance the theory of common property rights, contribute valuable information about land management policy, and also increase the current knowledge about the political economy of pastoral Africa. This grant will also support an international research experience very early in the career of an outstanding graduate student. This project is being jointly funded by the Division of International Programs and the Division of Social and Economic Sciences.