Communal Forest Management: The Honduran Resin Tappers

Natural resource tenure and economic feasibility of resource-based activities are two of the most important issues in the current debate around environmental degradation and rural poverty. While many analyses have blamed the ‘tragedy of the commons’ and government mismanagement for environmental destruction, this paper provides a case study of resin tapping in Honduras which formulates the hypotheses that common property regimes can be successful and that economic liberalization policies may be detrimental to community-level resource schemes. Over half of the 6000 farmer-resin tappers in Honduras are organized into forty-six co-operatives that market the tree sap, wood and other forest products. These activities combine the twin goals of community-based forest preservation and income generation. Established legally in 1974, the tapping groups have expanded to include a variety of organizational and technical arrangements. The two co-operatives of Villa Santa and San Juan de Ojojona demonstrate contrasting histories, ecological endowments and economic outcomes. Currently the Honduran resin tappers are facing problems over their access to forest resources, the fluctuating profitability of extractive activities and the stability of the co-operative organization. These three issues are relevant to a variety of community-based environmental activities, and the lessons of the Honduran experience can be applied to analyse the processes of environmental degradation and community response elsewhere in the Third World.     

Reviews

Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini , Houchang E. Chehabi, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990, xiv + 342 pp.

Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition , Michael M. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990, xxxvi + 564 pp., cloth $49.75, paper $23.50.

Gnoseologiia sufizma , A. Mukhammedkhodzhaev, Dushanbe: Donish, 1990, 112 pp., 1.50 rubles.

Liberal Nationalism in Iran: The Failure of a Movement , Sussan Siavoshi, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990, 196 pp., bibliography and index to p. 214, $24.50.

The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact , ed. John L. Esposito, Miami: Florida International University Press, 1990, viii + 346 pp.

Iran and the World: Continuity in a Revolutionary Decade , Shireen T. Hunter, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990, pp. 254, $35.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Miniature Painting in Ottoman Baghdad , Rachel Milstein, Islamic Art and Architecture No. 5., Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda publishers, 1990, 132 pp., 16 color plates, b & w illus., drawings, index, bibliography, no price listed.

The Great Mosque of Isfahan , Oleg Grabar, London: I. B. Tauris and Company Ltd., 1990, 156 pp., £24.95.

The State, Bureaucracy, and Revolution in Iran: Agrarian Reform and Politics , Ali Farazmand, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1989, 289 pp., $41.85.

Acta Iranica: Encyclopédie permanente des études iraniennes 30, Iranica Varia: Papers In Honor of Professor Ehsan Yarshater , ed. D. Amin, M. Kashef, and A. S. Shahbazi, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990, xxxii + 291 pp., with maps and photographs.

Women of Deh Koh: Lives in an Iranian Village , Erika Friedl, Washington and London: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1989, 237 pp., no bibliography or index.

Le Discours populaire de la révolution iranienne (2 volumes), Paul Vieille and Farhad Khosrokhavar, Paris: Contemporanéité, 1990, 275 pp.

Iranian Drama, an Anthology , trans. from Persian, comp. and ed. M. R. Ghanoonparvar and John Green, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1989, xxix + 302 pp., $24.95.

Labor Transfer and Economic Development: Theoretical Perspectives and Case Studies from Iran , Hassan Hakimian, Herefordshire, England: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990, pp. xii + 206, $60.00.

Iranian Jewry During the Afghan Invasion: The Kitab‐i Sar Guzasht of Babai b. Farhad — Text Edition and Commentary , Vera B. Moreen, Freiburger Islamstudien, Band XIV, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990, x + 178 pp.

Persian Literature , ed. Ehsan Yarshater, Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, no. 3, New York: The Persian Heritage Foundation; Bibliotheca Persica, 1988, xi + 562 pp.

Oil, State and Industrialization in Iran , Massoud Karshenas, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. xviii + 308.

On Islam and Shi'ism , Ahmad Kasravi, trans. M. R. Ghanoonparvar, intro. and ed. M. A. Jazayery, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1990, paper $14.95.

Neither East Nor West: Iran, the Soviet Union, and the United States , ed. Nikki R. Keddie and Mark J. Gasiorowski, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990, ix + 295 pp.     

TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN MANUFACTURING FURTHER EVIDENCE FROM THE STATES*

In this paper, we first develop a measure of total factor productivity (TFP) growth and summarize a source-of-growth analysis for the manufacturing sector of 48 states. As have others, we find little association between TFP growth differentials and output growth differentials for census regions. At the staterather than the regional level, however, we find a positive association between TFP growth and output growth. We use cross-sectional data to estimate the determinants of the variation in TFP growth. Two results emerge that are important for regional policy and for understanding national productivity trends. First, state investments in education and in transportation infrastructure may affect TFP growth. Second, energy price increases in the early 1970s had no differential effects on productivity growth across states. We also explore the determinants of manufacturing output growth and find that TFP growth, demand growth, wage growth, wage levels, and state corporate income tax rates are significant.