collective action may be comprised in four groups: (1) resource system characteristics, (2) group characteristics, (3) institutional arrangement and (4) external environment. Based on this classification, table 5.3 summarises the key successful factors in Custodians of the Territory project.
Table 5.3 - Factors affecting collective action in ‘Custodians of the territory’ project
1) Resource system characteristics 2) Group characteristics
Lack of hydro-geological management
Lack landscape management due to abandonment of mountain areas
High risk of flooding, especially in urbanised areas of the plains
Social capital: trust and mutuality
Involvement of marginal and isolated farmers Participatory events: involvement of local community Interdependences local agency-farmers
3) Institutional arrangements 4) External environment
Simple rules
Different rural stakeholders involved Information/early warning system: IDRAMAP Co-production of knowledge: joint inspections
Payments for Environmental Services settled by Mountain Community
National and Regional legislation on multifunctional agriculture
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In the area involved the risk of hydro-geological disorders is very high, and farmers were aware that a lack of correct management of rivers and riverbanks could have important negative effects (such flooding and bad landscape) for their business. At the same time the single farmers were not able to implement individual solution to this problem, and a reduction of flooding risk was clearly the most important joint product of this collective action. At the same time also more immaterial joint outputs were produced, such as an increasing sense of community amongst the farmers of the same areas, an acknowledgment (even though not everywhere at the same level) by the local community of the important social and common functions carried out by the farmers. One of the responsible of the project well synthesised this innovation as follow:
The project was developed to contribute to the prevention of hydro–geological problems and increasing the resilience of flooding in the area through continuous monitoring and early intervention of local farmers. It's a completely different philosophy compared to the traditional PES, here the main issue is recognizing, developing and financing all those small preventing actions and the first maintenance works which local farmers carry out in those territories (INTERVIEW n. 5).
The approach adopted in this collective action was mainly developed by the local agency, which set a payment for environmental services aimed at providing flooding prevention, mainly through information and an early warning system based on local communities and local farmers, who can identify and tackle problems before the environmental disasters such a flooding take place. The information system also aimed at building social networks that could enhance the formal and informal exchanges amongst local institutions, advisors and farmers, with the main objective of increasing the efficiency of the environmental services provided.
Thus, the project, together with the provisions of the environmental public goods such as the ‘hydro-geological equilibrium’ and the ‘resilience to flooding’ has aimed at increasing the institutional and social capital through the provision of relational goods, which may be considered the real innovation of this initiative.
This set of objective was pursued by encouraging the direct involvement of farmers into the project, by selecting and training them not only on the basis of their technical capacity (ownership of machineries) but also on the basis of their location and on their knowledge of the territory. From this perspective, farmers interviewed have emphasized that they have strongly appreciated this approach and that they feel that it makes them feel the main actors and the management and maintenance of the area that they monitor.
This system, which aims at creating and spreading awareness among the local actors on the role that farmers may play in the delivering of important public goods, favoured
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the co-production of environmental services by the local agency, the advisory system and the local communities.
Figure 5.7 - The development of a new information/learning system
A: The hierarchical approach in place before
B: The information/learning system developed through the project
Thus, the co-production approach on PES emphasises the importance of negotiation amongst the different local stakeholders and, above all, the importance of joint learning processes and knowledge generation. The case study shows that also collective action led by local agencies may stimulate the formal and informal interaction amongst several rural stakeholders and that may facilitate the increase of social capital and institutional capital, by increasing the co-operation and coordination. Indeed, the payments and the support received by farmers are not only an economic incentive to deliver environmental services, but are structured as an incentive to actively participate in the environmental management of the territory, by increasing the relations and interdependences amongst farmers, local institutions, advisory system and local communities.
The representatives of the local institutions interviewed (local agency, provinces, municipalities) argued that an important strength of the project is its simplicity: both in terms of measure design and in terms of their implementation. Indeed, the management of this collective action is based on a daily relationship between the coordinator of the project, the technicians and the farmers. This strong collaboration has favoured the development of trust and willingness to cooperate and this facilitated the implementation of a very simple agreement without excessive regulation or
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bureaucratic tape. This simplicity was stressed especially in contrast to the RDP measures, which were described as ‘cumbersome and rigid’, since these measures usually required a deep knowledge of the administrative procedures that in many cases discourages their adoption by the farmers. On the opposite, the agreement experienced in the project shows how a direct relationship between a local authority and the farmers may facilitate the adhesion to the collective action, also by increasing their effectiveness.