In many lower-income countries, the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) involves significant opportunity costs for artisanal fishers, reflected in changes in how they allocate their labor…

Both Tanzania’s and Costa Rica’s beaches provide important nesting sites for endangered sea turtles. Poaching of eggs by local people for food or for sale presents a major threat to these species, as…

Climate change impacts threaten the actual and future achievements to provide safe water in many parts of the world. Drought events are expected to be more intense and prolonged in different areas of…

Marine turtles are a flagship species for conservation because of their ecological role in marine ecosystems as well as the existence value that humans attach to them. Despite the legal ban on turtle…

Small-scale fishing constitutes the main source of marine products and a central component of local livelihoods for poor families in coastal areas of Costa Rica. This country has been defining marine…

This paper analyses the underlying factors affecting people’s satisfaction with drinking water provided by community-based organizations in rural Costa Rica. These organizations provide water to more…

Empirical analysis of the factors that determine individual compliance with a locally devised set of rules for harvesting and selling marine turtle eggs, as well as for protecting the turtles and…

The paper discusses the application of Elinor Ostrom’s Social Ecological Systems (SES) framework, using as example a community organization in Costa Rica, which collectively extracts turtle eggs. The…

Why are some communities effective at providing safe drinking water, while others fail? In many rural communities around the world, villagers contest the policy prescription that all drinking water…

Understanding the reasons why some people are more prone to break the rules than others reveal some of the challenges that local people and policy makers must overcome in order to let local…