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Collective action in agrobiodiversity management: gendered rules of reputation, trust and reciprocity in Kerala, India
Author(s) -
Padmanabhan Martina Aruna
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.1429
Subject(s) - misappropriation , reputation , collective action , reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , business , bureaucracy , corporate governance , institution , agricultural biodiversity , property rights , economics , public relations , political science , sociology , agriculture , finance , microeconomics , law , social science , geography , archaeology , politics
Rising opportunity costs for continuing to grow and conserve traditional plant varieties has led to an erosion of agrobiodiversity. This study compares two institutions of collective biodiversity management in Kerala, India. The traditional mechanisms of a scheduled tribe, the Kurichyas, are contrasted with the new institution of the People's Biodiversity Register (PBR) under the local form of governance, the panchayat. Collective action is analysed for the core variables of reputation, trust and reciprocity. In the tribal institutions, traditional seed exchange rests on reputation and gender complementarities, which are eroded by a diminishing degree of trust and dissolving property rights for women and weakened by failing norms of reciprocity. The new institution of PBR threatens tribal women's reputations and their knowledge by reducing it to a bureaucratic register, the disembodiment of knowledge into information reduces trust and unpredictable returns diminish reciprocity. A massive public investment in strengthening women's capabilities for a transformation from conservers and users to advocates, managers and decision‐makers regarding biodiversity might halt the loss. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.