Local Democracy: Institutional Choice and Recognition in Natural Resource Management

Erbaugh, J.T., Chang, C.H., Masuda, Y.J., Ribot, J. 2024. “Communication and Deliberation for Environmental Governance,” Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 49. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-environ-112321-082450.

Ece, Melis, James Murombedzi, Jesse Ribot. 2022. “Disempowering Democracy: Local Representation in Community and Carbon Forestry in Africa.” Ch. 24, pp. 397-416 in Janette Bulkan, John Palmer, Anne M. Larson and Mary Hobley (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Community Forestry. London: Earthscan from Routledge.

Ribot, Jesse. 2021. “Representation, citizenship and the public domain: choice and recognition in natural resource decentralization.” Ch. 27, pp. 503-521 in Crawford Young and Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai (eds.) Research Handbook on Democracy and Development. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Milgroom, Jessica and Jesse Ribot. 2019. “Children of another land: social disarticulation, access to natural resources and the reconfiguration of authority in post resettlement,” Conservation and Society. Vol 33(3). Online Version.

Lund, Jens Friis, Rebecca Rutt and Jesse Ribot. 2018. “Trends in research on forestry decentralization policies,” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. Vol. 32, pp. 17-22

Ribot, Jesse. 2017. The Business of Sustainable Development, An African Forest Tale (an Ode to the Lorax). Publication in search of publisher.

Ece, Melis, James Murombedzi and Jesse Ribot (eds.). 2017. “Disempowering Democracy: Local Representation in Community and Carbon Forestry in Africa,” Conservation and Society. 15(4): 357-370. Special Issue on Rights, Representation and REDD+. This is a collection of seven articles from seven researchers in the five-year thirteen-country thirty-five case study comparative research program the Responsive Forest Governance Initiative (RFGI). More details under RESEARCH/RFGI tabs.

Faye, Papa and Jesse Ribot. 2017. “Causes for Adaptation: Access to Forests, Markets and Representation in Eastern Senegal” Sustainability. Vol. 9, No. 311. Pp. 20.

Faye, Papa, Tobias Haller and Jesse Ribot. 2017. “Shaping Rules and Practice for More Justice. Local Conventions and Local Resistance in Eastern Senegal” Human Ecology. Online publication 25 July.

Ribot, Jesse. 2017. ‘Choose Democracy: Guidance for Democratizing through Natural Resource Management Interventions,’ a Responsive Forest Governance Initiative (RFGI) policy brief of the Swedish International Center for Local Democracy (ICLD) with CODESRIA, IUCN and University of Illinois [Also available in French 2018 as ‘Choisir la démocratie : la gestion des ressources naturelles pour les décideurs, bailleurs de fonds, et agents de terrain’].

Agrawal, Arun and Jesse Ribot. 2014. “Are Ostrom’s Design Principles Sufficient for Design?” Policy Matters. Issue 19. Pp. 111-7.

Ribot, Jesse. 2014. “Farce of the Commons: Humor, Irony, and Subordination through a Camera’s Lens.” Research Report no. 2, International Center for Local Democracy (ICLD), Visby, Sweden.

Ribot, Jesse. 2013. “Choice, Recognition and the Democracy Effects of Decentralization” Ch. 4, Pp. 93-120 in Joakim Öjendal and Anki Dellnäs (eds.) The imperative of good local governance: Challenges for the next decade of decentralization. Tokyo: UNU Press.

Agrawal, Arun and J. Ribot. 2012. “Assessing the Effectiveness of Democratic Accountability Mechanisms in Local Governance” Report commissioned for USAID by Management Systems International (MSI) Project No. 380000.12–500–03–11.

Murombedzi, James and Jesse Ribot. 2012. “Occupy Nature: Representation as the Basis of Emancipatory Environmentalism,” Vivre Autrement: La magazine des autres mondes possibles. ENDA 23 June 2012.

Ribot, Jesse. 2012. “Choix, Reconnaissance et Effets de la Décentralisation sur la Ribot, J. 2012. “Choix, Reconnaissance et Effets de la Décentralisation sur la Démocratie.” CODESRIA RFGI working paper series. [Translation and reprinting of 2011 Visby working paper below.]

Ribot, Jesse and Anne Larson. 2012. Reducing REDD risks: Affirmative policy on an uneven playing field. International Journal of the Commons Vol. 6, No. 2.

Poteete, Amy and Jesse Ribot. 2011. ‘Repertoires of Domination: Decentralization as Process in Botswana and Senegal’ World Development Vol. 39, No. 3.

Ribot, Jesse 2011. ‘Seeing REDD for Local Democracy: A Call for Democracy Standards’ Common Voices, Vol. 3, January 2011, pp. 14-16.

Ribot, Jesse. 2011. ‘Participation Without Representation: Chiefs, Councils and Forestry Law in the West African Sahel’, in Andrea Cornwall (ed.) The Participation Reader. London: Zed Books. Reprinted from 1996. Cultural Survival Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 1.

Ribot, Jesse. 2011. “Comment on ‘The Realities of Participatory Forest Management: Case Study Analyses from Tanzania, Mozambique, Laos and Vietnam’,” P. 193-195 in Irmeli Mustalahti (ed.) Footprints in Forests: Effects and Impacts of Finnish Forestry Assistance. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland.

Ribot, Jesse. 2011. “Choice, Recognition and the Democracy Effects of Decentralization” Working Paper no. 5, International Center for Local Democracy, Visby, Sweden.

Ribot, Jesse and Anne M. Larson. 2011. ‘Reducing REDD Risks: Affirmative Policy on an Uneven Playing Field’, In T. Sikor & J. Stahl (eds.) 2011. Forests and People: Property, Governance, and Human Rights. London: Earthscan.

Larson, Anne M. and Jesse Ribot. 2010. “Lessons from Forestry Decentralisation,” Ch. 14, pp. 175-190 in Arild Angelsen (ed.) Realising REDD+: National strategy and policy options. Bogor: Cifor. http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/Knowledge/Publications/Detail?pid=2871. Also available in French.

Ribot, Jesse. 2010. ‘Authority over Forests: Recentralizing Benefits in Senegal’s Forestry Decentralization’ In Thomas Sikor and Christian Lund (eds.) Politics of Possession. Property, Authority, and Access to Natural Resources. London, Wiley-Blackwell. (First published in Development and Change. Vol. 40, No. 1. 2009)

Ribot, Jesse, Ashwini Chhatre, and Tomila V. Lankina. 2010. ‘Decentralization, Authority and Local Democracy’, in Ed Connerley, Kent Eaton and Paul Smoke (eds.) Making Decentralization Work: Democracy, Development and Security. Lynne Rienner Publishers. (Published earlier as ‘The Politics of Choice and Recognition in Democratic Decentralization’ in Conservation and Society, 2008, see above.)

Ribot, Jesse, Thorsten Treue and Jens Friis Lund. 2010. ‘Democratic decentralization in sub-Saharan Africa: Its contribution to forest management, livelihoods, and enfranchisement’ (A Review of the Literature), Environmental Conservation 37(01):35 - 44. [First published as a Working Paper with the Development Research Group, The World Bank.]

Sikor, Thomas, Johannes Stahl, Thomas Enters, Jesse Ribot, Neera Singh, William D. Sunderlin, and Lini Wollenberg. 2010. REDD-plus, forest people’s rights and nested climate governance. Global Environmental Change. Vol. 20, No.3.

Xu, Xiuli, Ting Zuo, Tianlai Gou, Gubo Qi, Ribot, J. 2010. "Access Matters: The Little Man with the Big Stone: A commodity chain analysis on the case of Chinese fir in P County, Hunan Province, China" China Policy Institute, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, The University of Nottingham, Discussion Paper 62.

Ribot, Jesse. 2008. Building Local Democracy through Natural Resources Interventions: An Environmentalist’s Responsibility. A Policy Brief. Washington: World Resources Institute.

Ribot, Jesse, Ashwini Chhatre, and Tomila Lankina. 2008. ‘Institutional Choice and Recognition in the Formation and Consolidation of Local Democracy’. Representation, Equity and Environment Working Paper Series (formerly ‘Environmental Governance in Africa’ Working Paper Series) Paper No. 35, edited by Jesse Ribot and Peter Veit.

Ribot, Jesse, Ashwini Chhatre, and Tomila V. Lankina (eds). 2008. Special Issue on The Politics of Choice and Recognition in Democratic Decentralization. Conservation and Society. Vol. 6, No. 1. For the entire special issue, please see link. The PDF in this link is only the introduction.

Ribot, Jesse, Ashwini Chhatre, and Tomila V. Lankina (special issue eds.). 2008. Special Issue Introduction: ‘The Politics of Choice and Recognition in Democratic Decentralization’. Conservation and Society. Vol. 6, No. 1.

Larson, Anne, and Jesse Ribot. 2007. ‘The Poverty of Forestry Policy: Double Standards on and Uneven Playing Field’. Journal of Sustainability Science. Vol. 2, No. 2.

Ribot, Jesse. 2007. Representation, Citizenship and the Public Domain in Democratic Decentralization. Development. Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 43-49.

Ribot, Jesse. 2007. Dans L’Attente de la Démocratie: La politique des choix dans la décentralisation des ressources naturelles. World Resources Institute, Washington DC. [First published in English as: Ribot, J. 2004. Waiting for Democracy: The Politics of Choice in Natural Resource Decentralizations. Washington: World Resources Institute.

Ribot, Jesse. 2006. ‘Choose Democracy: Environmentalists’ Socio-political Responsibility’, Global Environmental Change. Vol. 16.

Ribot, Jesse and René Oyono (eds). 2006. Special issue on Implementing Progressive New Natural Resources Laws. Africa Development Vol. XXXI, No. 2.

Ribot, Jesse, Arun Agrawal and Anne M. Larson. 2006. ‘Recentralizing While Decentralizing: How National Governments Reappropriate Forest Resources’, World Development. Vol. 34, No. 11. Pp. 1864-86.

Ribot, Jesse. 2005. ‘Décentralisation Démocratique des Ressources Naturelles: Choix Institutionnel et Transferts de Pouvoirs Discrétionnaires en Afrique Sub-Saharienne’, in Alain Bertrand, Pierre Montagne and Alain Karsenty, eds., L’Etat et les politiques forestières en Afrique francophone. Paris: Editions Karthala.

Ribot, Jesse. 2005. ‘Steering Community Driven Development? A Desk Study of NRM Choices’ draft report to the World Bank Natural Resources Thematic Group, 1 March. Made available as a WRI working paper in 2008

Ribot, Jesse 2005. ‘Choosing Representation: Institutions and Powers for Decentralized Natural Resource Management’, in Carol J. Pierce Colfer and Doris Capistrano, eds., The Politics of Decentralization: Forests, People and Power. London: Earthscan.

Ribot, Jesse and René Oyono. 2005. ‘The Politics of Decentralization’ in Ben Wisner, Camila Toulmin and Rutendo Chitiga eds., Toward a New Map of Africa, London: Earthscan Press.

Thiaw, Sagane and Jesse Ribot. 2005. ‘Insiders Out: Forest Access through Village Chiefs in Senegal’, in Sandra Evers, Marja Spierenburg,. and Harry Wels eds. Competing Jurisdictions. Settling Land Claims in Africa and Madagascar. The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers’.

Larson, Anne and Jesse Ribot. 2004. ‘Democratic Decentralization through a Natural Resource Lens: An Introduction’, guest editors’ introduction to a special issue of European Journal of Development Research. Vol. 16, No. 1.

Ribot, Jesse. 2004. Waiting for Democracy: The Politics of Choice in Natural Resource Decentralizations. Washington: World Resources Institute. [Published in French in 2007.]

Ribot, Jesse. 2003. ‘Democratic Decentralization of Natural Resources: Institutional Choice and Discretionary Power Transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Public Administration and Development. Vol. 23, No. 1.

Ribot, Jesse. 2003. ‘Transcending Tensions in Democratic Decentralization: Institutional Choice and Subsidiarity Principles’, Democracy Report, Vol. 9, No. 11.

Ribot, Jesse. 2002. "African Decentralization: Local Actors, Powers and Accountability", Democracy, Governance and Human Rights Paper No. 8. Geneva: UNRISD and IDRC. Pp. 32.

Ribot, Jesse. 2001. ‘Decentralization, Participation and Representation: Association and Indirect Rule in Sahelian Forestry’ in Pauline Peters, ed. Development Encounters: Sites of Participation and Knowledge. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Agrawal, Arun and Jesse Ribot. 1999. "Accountability in Decentralization: A Framework with South Asian and West African Cases", Journal of Developing Areas, Vol. 33.

Lippman, Harrold, Robert Charlick, Jesse Ribot and Robert Groelsema. 1999. ‘Democracy and Governance Cross Sectoral Linkages: Case Study of USAID/Guinea’, for USAID.

Ribot, Jesse. 1999. ‘Institutions, Governance and Natural Resource Management’, Framework Paper for World Resources Institute conference on Institutions and Governance in Natural Resource Management, February.

Ribot, Jesse. 1998. ‘United Nations Capital Development Fund: The Way Forward’, Chapter on future directions of UNCDF for 1998 Task Force on Participatory Eco-Development and Local Development Funds, 29 May 1998.

Ribot, Jesse. 1998. ‘A Political Economy of Cooperative Law Reform in Mali: The State is the Best Hen’, Report to Management Systems International and U.S. Agency for International Development/Mali.

Ribot, Jesse. 1998. ‘Participatory Eco-Development and Local Development Funds: Some Comments on Policies’, Meeting on Policy Development, UNCDF Task Force on Local Development Funds and Eco-Development, 11-12, May Murten, Switzerland.

Ribot, Jesse. 1996. ‘Participation Without Representation: Chiefs, Councils and Forestry Law in the West African Sahel’, Cultural Survival Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 40-4. (Reproduced as a signature piece in Encyclopedia Perseus Africana. New York: Perseus. And republished in “The Participation Reader” London: Zed Books. 2011.)

Ribot, Jesse. 1995. ‘Local Forest Access Control in Senegal: Toward Participatory Forestry Policies’, Forestry Sector Policy Report/Working Paper, Technical Division of The World Bank, January. (Also translated into French.)

Ribot, Jesse 1994. ‘Forestry Sector Policy Report: Niger’, Forestry Sector Policy Report, Africa Technical Division of The World Bank, In-house report, September.

Ribot, Jesse 1994. ‘Forestry Sector Policy Report: The Gambia’, Review of Policies in the Traditional Energy Sector, Africa Technical Division of The World Bank, In-house report, December.

Ribot, Jesse 1994. ‘Forestry Sector Policy Report: Burkina Faso’, Forestry Sector Policy Report, Africa Technical Division of The World Bank, September.