Government Management of Village Commons: Comparing Two Forest Policies

摘要

When monitoring or enforcement is difficult, governments may find it impossible to manage village village forest commons directly. Village-level institution might be better able to manage these commons, yet villagers' management objectives may not coincide with those of the state. This article considers the effects of two different government policies on the local management of village commons. One policy tool attempts to induce villagers to conserve forest commons by giving them a share of the timber harvest. We investigate the the question of whet6her or not this scheme Joint Forest Management (JFM) is preferred either by the villagers or the government to a simple benchmark policy, under which the government harvests at random.