This book queries the state and effect of the global decentralization movement through the study of natural resource decentralizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Jesse C. Ribot is a Senior Associate in the Institutions and Governance Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI). He currently directs WRI's Africa Decentralization and Environment Initiative. He has conducted research on environmental justice, social vulnerability in the face of climate change, the social structure of resource access, and the effects of rural-urban resource markets on local livelihoods. Ribot has also worked on local environmental governance issues with the World Bank, the United Nations Capital Development Fund, the Dutch Government and USAID, and has advised governments across Africa.
Anne M. Larson is a Research Associate of the Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia, and the Nitlapán Institute for Research and Development of the Central American University in Managua, Nicaragua. She has published articles in World Development and Public Administration and Development, as well as a book on local forest management in Nicaragua in Spanish, and worked extensively on the recently-published book Municipal Forest Management in Latin America (ed. Ferroukhi, 2003).

1. Democratic Decentralization through a Natural Resource Lens: Countering central resistance, fostering local demand Anne M. Larson and Jesse C. Ribot 2. Between Micro-Politics and Administrative Imperatives: Decentralization and the watershed mission in Madhya Pradesh, India Amita Baviskar 3. Decentralisation When Land and Resource Rights are Deeply Contested: A case study of the Mkambati eco-tourism project on the wild coast of South Africa Ben Cousins and Tembele Kepe 4. Formal Decentralization and the Imperative of Decentralization 'From Below': A case study of natural resource management in Nicaragua Anne Larson 5. Democratic Decentralization and Traditional Authority: Dilemmas of land administration in rural South Africa Lungisile Ntsebeza 6. What Lies Behind Decentralization?: Forest, powers and actors in lowland Bolivia Pablo Pacheco 7. Closer to People and Trees: Will decentralization work for the people and the forests of Indonesia? Ida Aju Pradnja Resosudarmo 8. Decentralization, Rural Livelihoods, and Pasture-land Management in Post-Socialist Mongolia Robin Mearns 9. Decentralization and Accountability in Forest Management: Case from Yunnan, southwest China Jianchu Xu and Jesse Ribot 10. Social and Organizational Roots of Ecological Uncertainties in Cameroon's Forest Management Decentralization Model René Oyono 11. User Committees: A potentially damaging second wave of decentralization? James Manor 12. Decentralising Water Resource Management in Brazil Christian Brannstrom 13. Decentralizing Natural Resource Management: A recipe for sustainability and equity? Wicky Meynen and Martin Doornbos