the role of property rights in natural resource management, good ...

espective resources is manageable, and different uses interfere little with each other, the various claimedrights can endure for extended periods. Sometimes such systems were reinforced by a prohibition on fencebuildingaround agricultural parcels that were used seasonally by transhumant herders (see Figure 4). But ascompetition for the resource intensifies, circumstances may favor reinforcement or extension of rights heldby one group and the weakening or disappearance of rights held by a competing group. Compared totranshumant pastoralists, farmers enjoy the advantage of occupying the same area year round. A developmentsuch as intensification of agriculture over time, or simply heightened demand and competition for land, canfavor use rights holders who continuously occupy, or are in close proximity to, a resource that hascustomarily been shared on a seasonal basis.FIGURE 4. CHANGE OF RIGHTS OVER TIMESimilarly, Figure 5 illustrates how the designation of a forest reserve by the government can change propertyrights at the local level. Here, initial customary rights of settled agriculturalists to cultivation and collection ofnon-timber forest products (NTFPs), and pastoralist rights to seasonal foraging of livestock and water use arealtered as the government grants timber concessions to an urban entrepreneur. In this illustration, while therights of the settled farmer are retained and recognized in the statutory system, pastoralist seasonal rights arenot, possibly due to lack presence of the pastoralists at the time customary rights were recorded by the state.FIGURE 5. STATE FORESTS: COMPETING INTERESTSROLE OF PROPERTY RIGHTS IN NRM: GOOD GOVERNANCE AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE RURAL POOR 11