9406722 KASPERSON Equity concerns play an important role in the formation of rule structures which govern environmental management institutions. Yet how equity considerations influence institutional development, and thus specific patterns of environmental and social outcomes, is a largely underdeveloped arena of research. This project will study how equity concerns enter into the structure and performance of an institutional format that has long been utilized for managing common-pool resources, namely common property resource management systems. The study will first examine how three types of equity conceptions (procedural, distributive, and redistributive) are embodied in the formation and operation of rule structures governing natural resource property regimes. Second, an analysis of how the resultant property regimes produce specific patterns of resource distribution and environmental change will be carried out. The research will involve an historical and comparative study of two different ethnic groups, the Yi (the minority group) and the Han (the majority) in a poor agrarian region located in the environmentally-degraded Liangshan Mountains situated in Sichuan Province, China. The methodology uses a diversity of methods focussed on the collection of primary qualitative and quantitative data through surveys, interviews, and the examination of village records and legal documents. This study will provide important new insights as to how cultural differences in the conception of equity enter into and shape institutional rules, producing differential effects on the environmental and social outcomes within the same mountain landscape. As a doctoral dissertation research enhancement award, this project will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. ***
