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How sustainable is participatory watershed development in India?
Author(s) -
Bouma Jetske,
Van Soest Daan,
Bulte Erwin
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.29
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1574-0862
pISSN - 0169-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-0862.2007.00173.x
Subject(s) - watershed , decentralization , soil conservation , watershed management , participatory planning , business , citizen journalism , sustainability , participatory development , environmental planning , sustainable development , environmental resource management , natural resource economics , economics , agriculture , geography , political science , ecology , archaeology , machine learning , computer science , law , market economy , biology
Watershed conservation is widely recognized as a major strategy for rural development throughout the developing world. In India, the apparent success of participatory approaches to watershed development resulted in a decentralization of project planning, implementation, and management to local communities at the village scale. We explore the effectiveness of this so‐called community‐based approach in achieving sustainable soil and water conservation in four semi‐arid regions in India, and analyze what factors explain project success. We confirm the result of earlier studies that participatory approaches are more effective in establishing soil and water conservation in the short run. However, our main result is that investments in community organization fail to ensure household commitment to maintenance in the longer term. Without better returns to investment in soil and water conservation and without local institutions to coordinate investment in the long run, the sustainability of participatory watershed management is seriously threatened.