Reciprocity, common pool resource management, and the social organization of labor in swidden agriculture

Agricultural labor exchange, in which farmers form cooperative groups to assist one another with seasonal tasks, is a well studied form of cooperation. However, its role in managing common pool resources (CPRs) has received less attention. We examine how land use decisions and group affiliations structure labor exchange in a swidden agricultural forest commons. Using a Bayesian latent network model, we estimate how kinship, shared church affiliation, village of residence, and the use of communal forest for cattle pasture shape reported labor ties among farmers. Our results show that while labor exchange networks are strongly organized around kin, church, and village affiliations, farmers who use communal forest for cattle pasture are named less frequently as preferred labor partners. We discuss whether this pattern reflects a process of social sanctioning and propose that labor exchange may act as a decentralized governance mechanism for managing CPRs in swidden landscapes.