Local Government and Natural Resource Management in Madhya Pradesh, India: A Critical Institutional Analysis

This paper investigates the factors that influence the involvement of local government in natural resource management in a decentralized institutional context. Institutions, regulating resource use patterns and practices are indicated to be decisive for the success or failure of resource management initiatives, and decentralization is considered a promising institutional arrangement in this regard. In this context, it is significant that India adopted decentralization through the 73 rd Constitutional Amendment Act, devolving resource management functions to the local government. However, there is limited work on how local government engages with devolved functions and what factors influence its resource management interventions. Consequently, we investigate the factors that influence the involvement of local government in natural resource management across three village councils in India. Taking a critical realist approach, we find that although multiple factors exert their influence, institutional force and actors’ rational incentives serve as key causal factors explaining local government’s involvement with resource management.