Whither La Plata? Assessing the State of Transboundary Water Resource Cooperation in the Basin

In many ways, current treaty arrangements for cooperation over shared water resources among Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - the five riparian states in South America's La Plata basin - have been relatively successful. These arrangements, mostly bilateral and trilateral partia...

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Main Authors: Gilman, P., Pochat, V., Dinar, A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5234
id okr-10986-5234
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-52342021-04-23T14:02:21Z Whither La Plata? Assessing the State of Transboundary Water Resource Cooperation in the Basin Gilman, P. Pochat, V. Dinar, A. In many ways, current treaty arrangements for cooperation over shared water resources among Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - the five riparian states in South America's La Plata basin - have been relatively successful. These arrangements, mostly bilateral and trilateral partial coalition agreements and institutions that operate under the aegis of the 1969 La Plata River Treaty, have led to significant economic gains from the treaty arrangements for all five riparian states. But these economic gains have also generated significant externalities - particularly, severe environmental degradation - suggesting that alternate cooperative arrangements may be more optimal. Current work suggests that grand coalitions following principles of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) may provide the most efficient means of distributing the benefits and costs of water resource cooperation equitably across riparian states. Using a theoretical framework developed by Just and Netanyahu (1998), we find that the arrangement of partial coalitions that exists in the La Plata Basin is preferable to a grand coalition because of its higher degree of stability. Finally, given the ways in which these partial coalitions are beginning to incorporate IWRM techniques, gaining experience and international recognition, we consider whether it is likely that partial coalitions will lead to a grand coalition in the foreseeable future. 2012-03-30T07:31:55Z 2012-03-30T07:31:55Z 2008 Journal Article Natural Resources Forum 0165-0203 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5234 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article Argentina Bolivia Brazil Paraguay Uruguay
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language EN
geographic_facet Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Paraguay
Uruguay
relation http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description In many ways, current treaty arrangements for cooperation over shared water resources among Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - the five riparian states in South America's La Plata basin - have been relatively successful. These arrangements, mostly bilateral and trilateral partial coalition agreements and institutions that operate under the aegis of the 1969 La Plata River Treaty, have led to significant economic gains from the treaty arrangements for all five riparian states. But these economic gains have also generated significant externalities - particularly, severe environmental degradation - suggesting that alternate cooperative arrangements may be more optimal. Current work suggests that grand coalitions following principles of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) may provide the most efficient means of distributing the benefits and costs of water resource cooperation equitably across riparian states. Using a theoretical framework developed by Just and Netanyahu (1998), we find that the arrangement of partial coalitions that exists in the La Plata Basin is preferable to a grand coalition because of its higher degree of stability. Finally, given the ways in which these partial coalitions are beginning to incorporate IWRM techniques, gaining experience and international recognition, we consider whether it is likely that partial coalitions will lead to a grand coalition in the foreseeable future.
format Journal Article
author Gilman, P.
Pochat, V.
Dinar, A.
spellingShingle Gilman, P.
Pochat, V.
Dinar, A.
Whither La Plata? Assessing the State of Transboundary Water Resource Cooperation in the Basin
author_facet Gilman, P.
Pochat, V.
Dinar, A.
author_sort Gilman, P.
title Whither La Plata? Assessing the State of Transboundary Water Resource Cooperation in the Basin
title_short Whither La Plata? Assessing the State of Transboundary Water Resource Cooperation in the Basin
title_full Whither La Plata? Assessing the State of Transboundary Water Resource Cooperation in the Basin
title_fullStr Whither La Plata? Assessing the State of Transboundary Water Resource Cooperation in the Basin
title_full_unstemmed Whither La Plata? Assessing the State of Transboundary Water Resource Cooperation in the Basin
title_sort whither la plata? assessing the state of transboundary water resource cooperation in the basin
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5234
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