Changing and partially successful local institutions for harvest of thatch palm leaves

Abstract

In some cases, users of common-pool resources (CPR) successfully govern and manage these for collective benefit but in other cases they fail to do so. When evaluating the success of local institutions for CPR management, however, researchers have not always clearly distinguished between success in terms of compliance and endurance, and success in terms of the socio-economic and environmental outcomes of the management. This study focused on the governance and management of wayuri palms (Pholidostachys synanthera robusta), whose leaves are harvested for roof thatch, in Ecuadorian Amazonia. Combining ethnographic methods with field botanic inventory, it was shown that although local institutions regulating leaf harvest had existed for longer than living memory, and the degree of compliance was high, they did not prevent exhaustion of the resource base, only delayed it.