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Abstract
The aim of this study is to better understand conditions under which a high degree of people's participation in common-pool natural resource management can be expected. Most studies of participation in community resource management focus on the individual attributes of participants and pay little attention to the significance of community characteristics. In this study, I argue that the emergence of participatory cooperation in resource management depends to some extent on the structural properties of the community in which cooperative activities are to be promoted.
To prove this proposition, I examine predictors for the differential degrees of participation in community resource management across 399 highland villages in Chiangmai province, Northern Thailand. This research uses the village survey data compiled by Thai officials from 1992 to 1995. Factor analysis and regression analyses are conducted to evaluate and compare the predictive strength of the attributes of individuals and the characteristics of each community with regard to the degree of villager participation in such natural resource management activities as re-plantation and irrigation construction.
The results indicate that the factors loaded with variables characterizing village organization, labeled structural differentiation, external support, and communal property, all of which denote village social structure, each has statistically significant and positive effects on the degree of participation. This finding is consistent with the stated proposition that the emergence of participatory cooperation depends on the structural properties of the community.
Among three factors loaded with individual attributes, only the factor labeled high social-status farmer has significant and positive effects on the degree of participation. This result suggests that farmers who have some previous experience in group activities and have more education are more likely to be participants in community resource management.
