Designing local institutions for cooperative pest management to underpin market access: the case of industry-driven fruit fly area-wide management

Abstract

Area-wide management of mobile pests offers advantages overuncoordinated farm-by-farm efforts through increased effectiveness of pestcontrol and by reducing the need for pesticides. The literature about area-wide pestmanagement focuses predominantly on the technical aspects of these programs,but tends to neglect the importance of social and institutional aspects. In thisarticle the eight design principles for robust common-pool resource institutionsare applied to industry-driven area-wide pest management. Three case studiesare compared to gain insight about the social and institutional aspects that affectthe success of these undertakings. These cases are focused on Queensland FruitFly control to underpin market access. Growers face a particular challenge togain support from town residents, as backyard fruit trees can be pest breedingspots. The paper illustrates that social aspects – such as heterogeneous incentives,social capital and the ratio between town residents and main beneficiary growers– influence the ease of which the design principles can be applied. Market accessopportunities impact the ratio of cost and benefits to different participants. Thepaper concludes that disconnecting the technical aspects of successful programsfrom the social and institutional aspects in which they are embedded can createunrealistic expectations in socially different regions that intend to replicate theseprograms.