Socio-Economic and Political Determinants of Institutional Bricolage in Forest Resource Appropriation: Mixed Methods Insights from Lowland and Mountain Landscapes of Nepal

Abstract

Critical Institutionalist literature shows that institutional bricolage explains how actors creatively blend or modify formal and informal institutions across resource settings. Using this lens, scholars identify key institutional processes: aggregation, alteration, articulation, and erosion. However, their determinants, particularly in community forests (CF), remain underexplored. This study examines how socio-economic and political attributes of actors drive bricolage in Nepal’s lowland and mountainous landscapes. Based on a survey (n = 342), focus group discussions (n = 38), and key informant interviews (n = 61), ANOVA and logistic regression reveal that social networks, well-being, knowledge, and power significantly shape bricolage processes. In subsistence-oriented mountains, these drive aggregation in timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) use, while in commerce-driven lowlands, powerful actors use incentives and dominant information to steer alteration for timber. Marginalized groups rely on traditional knowledge to foster aggregation and articulation in fuelwood and NTFPs. The study advances critical institutionalist theory and urges policies that account for geographical variations within CF governance.