The robustness of indigenous common-property systems to frontier expansion: Institutional interplay in the Mosquitia Forest Corridor

Abstract

This article compares how indigenous residents in the Mosquitia Forest Corridor of Honduras and Nicaragua have responded to agricultural expansion in two distinct institutional environments: a reserve under public management and a reserve where the indigenous residents hold territorial rights. The article combines institutional analysis with ethnographically-based fieldwork to (1) identify whether the indigenous common-property systems in the Mosquitia remain robust when residents are confronted with privateproperty institutions and land markets introduced by colonists; and (2) examine the links between maintenance of the common-property systems and the broader institutional environment. The analysis pays particular attention to how the protected area policies in each reserve impact the transaction costs incurred in local rule-making and individual land use strategies in response to migrant farmers and ranchers. The findings suggest that the broader institutional environment, specifically the protected area policies and processes, significantly influence the transaction costs and risks involved in collective rule-making, and thereby impact the capacity of the indigenous residents to sustain their common-property systems.