Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Local Institutions in Natural Resource Management

This project addresses the role and effectiveness of institutions in the mitigation of conflicts over natural resources, particularly resources that are important to people who raise livestock in arid regions. In these settings, access to water and pastureland can be contentious, and local institutions that have been designed to mitigate conflict must increasingly accommodate new challenges. This project examines the extent to which individuals regard different institutions as helpful for managing natural resources. The project enhances the education and training of an early-career social scientist while building capacity for future collaborative research on natural resource management. This doctoral dissertation project uses a multi-sited research design to examine how trust in local institutions varies based on resource availability and, concomitantly, how this trust affects cooperative or conflictual attitudes among resource users. While leveraging a household survey among four different groups of livestock owners, which is further supplemented by focus group discussions with community members, the study collects primary data on resource use, conflict patterns, cooperation between and within the groups, and strategies for resolution. By sampling in multiple communities, this project examines a range of ecological contexts, providing a clearer picture of the role of institutions in shaping behavior and social outcomes in increasingly challenging environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.