This paper looks at scalar politics, power struggles, and institutional emergence in Daw Lar Lake in Karen state, Myanmar. It brings to light tensions between centralized and decentralized approaches in the country's natural resource governance, and how these are manifested in the current legal stalemate with regard to the formal management status of the lake. Building on earlier research on legal pluralism and critical institutionalism, we look at: 1) how the current legal stalemate with regard to the formal management status of the lake is rooted in ongoing bureaucratic struggles between different government agencies; 2) local communities' strategies to develop and implement their own vision of lake governance through the formation of the Daw Lar Lake Interim Committee; and 3) the extent to which the Interim Committee is able to mediate diverse and often competing local uses and claims to natural resources at (inter) village level, which are based on a mix of customary and ‘official’ legal entitlements and normative orderings. From a policy perspective, we highlight the need to identify pathways for collective action among and across different groups of resource users, as the latter will be crucial in addressing ongoing resource competition, managing cross-sectoral livelihood impacts and ensuring sustainable lake management.

本文着眼于缅甸克伦邦道拉尔湖的标量政治、权力斗争和制度出现。它揭示了该国自然资源治理中集中和分散方法之间的紧张关系，以及这些在目前关于湖泊正式管理地位的法律僵局中的表现。在早期对法律多元化和批判制度主义的研究的基础上，我们着眼于：1）目前关于湖泊正式管理地位的法律僵局如何植根于不同政府机构之间正在进行的官僚斗争；2) 当地社区通过成立道拉尔湖临时委员会来制定和实施他们自己的湖泊治理愿景的战略；和 3) 临时委员会在多大程度上能够在（跨）村一级调解当地对自然资源的多样化和经常相互竞争的使用和要求，这是基于习惯和“官方”法律权利和规范命令的混合。从政策的角度来看，我们强调需要确定不同资源用户群体之间的集体行动途径，因为后者对于解决持续的资源竞争、管理跨部门生计影响和确保可持续的湖泊管理至关重要。