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Natural Resource Governance

Studying how institutions, policies, and communities make decisions about shared natural resources to build sustainable, equitable systems.

Institutional Dynamics

Decisions that shape common-pool resources.

Natural resource governance lies at the intersection of environmental policy, community rights, and institutional performance. Effective governance is necessary to balance ecosystem health with socio-economic priorities. At the IHED Lab, our research examines formal laws, informal community norms, property rights, and multi-level decision-making processes across forests, water basins, and agricultural landscapes.

Institutions · Policy · Equity · Resources

Understanding decision-making from local to global scales.

Our governance research analyzes institutional design, policy frameworks, and stakeholder behavior across varied landscape contexts.
01 · COMMON-POOL RESOURCES

Community-Based Management

Examining local collective action, customary rights, and community institutions managing shared land, water, and forest resources.
02 · POLICY & REGULATION

Institutional Performance

Analyzing how public policies, legal frameworks, and regulatory mechanisms impact environmental sustainability and compliance.
03 · ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY

Procedural & Social Justice

Evaluating power structures, resource distribution, and marginalized group inclusion in resource decision-making.
04 · MULTI-LEVEL GOVERNANCE

Cross-Scale Interactions

Investigating how national environmental policies interact with regional implementation and community-level outcomes.
05 · CONFLICT & COOPERATION

Resource Trade-offs

Exploring institutional frameworks for resolving conflicts over competing land, water, and conservation priorities.
06 · ADAPTIVE GOVERNANCE

Resilience & Change

Studying how governance structures adapt to climate uncertainties, ecological shifts, and socioeconomic transformations.

Integrating social science with spatial & ecological data.

Analyzing governance requires multi-method frameworks that link institutional rules with ground-level environmental outcomes.
Institutional and policy analysis Qualitative field interviews & focus groups Comparative case study methods Spatial overlay of governance boundaries Social-ecological systems modeling
Core Questions

What drives successful resource governance?

Examining rule clarity, monitoring mechanisms, trust, and leadership styles that enable communities to sustainably manage shared resources.
Tracing regulatory changes to understand their impacts on resource rights, tenure security, and community livelihoods.
Identifying flexible institutional arrangements that enable timely responses to climate shocks, resource degradation, and economic shifts.
We analyze where formal legislation and traditional community practices align or conflict, identifying pathways for legal frameworks to better respect customary governance while ensuring sustainability.

Selected Research

Governance research in practice.

Forests & Forestry

Decentralized Forest Governance & Livelihoods

Examining how community forest user groups balance ecological conservation goals with local socio-economic livelihood needs.
Community Forestry · Policy · Tenure

Water & Watersheds

Institutional Dynamics in Transboundary Basins

Analyzing cross-jurisdictional water sharing institutions and local community participation in watershed protection.
Water Governance · Policy · Institutions

Protected Areas

Co-Management in Biodiversity Conservation

Evaluating collaborative governance models between state authorities and indigenous communities in managing national parks and protected buffer zones.
Co-Management · Conservation · Rights

Climate & Land Use

Governance of REDD+ & Carbon Offsets

Investigating how international carbon finance policies are translated into local land-use decisions and equity outcomes for rural landowners.
Climate Policy · Carbon Markets · Equity