Common pool resource governance in strong-government context: A case study of caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The common pool resource (CPR) theory has inspired the recognition of community self-governance in natural resource management. However, many CPR literature treated government as an external variable to community, without sufficiently considering the close interaction between the two, especially in strong-government context. In this paper, we applied two case villages on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China with different governance systems for caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis), a CPR with lucrative values, to study the effects of the different government interventions on the local social conditions and rangeland ecosystem. One village interacted with facilitative local government that helped to develop a pro-community self-governance institution, while the other faced a forceful government that substituted the community self-governance. Furthermore, we explored the underlying mechanism from the view of the congruence between the government actions to achieve administrative objectives and the community demands for self-governance. We found that the better outcomes occurred in the village with the facilitative government involvement, because the government actions were congruent with the community demands. The model with facilitative government involvement presents a possible approach, when CPR appropriator boundary became semi-opened to outsiders, by which the community self-governance institution could function well with government help in institution design, monitoring and sanction. Our findings enrich the applications of CPR governance theory, particularly in the aspect that how government-community interacts to develop a self-governance institution in strong-government context.

Automated summary

This study conducted research in two villages on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China and found that the village with interactive and supportive government involvement achieved better outcomes compared to the village with forceful government intervention. This highlights the importance of congruence between government actions and community demands in developing self-governance institutions for natural resource management.