title: Informal institutional responses to government interventions: lessons from Madhupur National Park, Bangladesh.
abstract: Madhupur National Park is renowned for severe resource ownership conflicts between ethnic communities and government authorities in Bangladesh. In this study, we applied the Institutional Analysis and Development framework to identify: (i) past and present informal institutional structures within the ethnic Garo community for land resource management; (ii) the origin of the land ownership dispute; (iii) interaction mechanisms between formal and informal institutions; and (iv) change in land management authority and informal governance structures. We identify that the informal institutions of the traditional community have undergone radical change due to government interventions with implications for the regulation of land use, informal institutional functions, and joint-decision-making. Importantly, the government's persistent denial of the role of existing informal institutions is widening the gap between government and community actors, and driving land ownership conflicts in a cyclic way with associated natural resource degradation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, 21,111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, H9X 3V9, Canada, hm.rahman@mail.mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: H M Tuihedur
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.forename: Swapan Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sarker
authors.forename: Gordon M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Hickey
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mohasinul Haque
authors.forename: Niamjit
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Das
mesh_terms: D001459:Bangladesh; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods*; D005006:Ethnicity; D065928:Forests; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D010067:Ownership; D011050:Policy Making; D011057:Politics; D012927:Social Control, Informal / Q000379:methods