Conflict, Cooperation and Collective Action Land use, water rights and water scarcity in Manupali watershed, Southern Philippines

Water is essential to human survival. It is also indispensable to livelihoods and most forms of economic production. However, access, allocation and use of water can create conflict. While conflicts at the national and international levels vary from policies affecting water management to transboundary issues, water access dominates conflicts at the local level, which are often direct and can spill over into wider-scale violence. In many cases, political, socio-economic and cultural factors determine the complexity of these water conflicts. Resolving water conflict can be complicated and take a lot of time. Hence, some water users opt for simple compromises to settle disputes between them through collective action and cooperative agreements.