There was strong support for irrigation water pricing as an indicator of water shortage and opportunity cost in conceiving the development. The purpose of the paper is to assess the willingness to pay (WTP) for irrigation supply improvements and to investigate factors that affect it. Data was collected among 90 farmers in the North of Tunisia interviewed face to face. Contingent valuation technique was adopted. A qualitative dependent variable model (logit) was used. Empirical results showed that water users might accept moderate increase of water prices in order to get better water supply service. The average WTP was of 245 millimes (0.08 US$). Comparing to actual practiced price of 150 millimes/m3 the farmers accept to pay on average 63.3% more than the price currently paid. The willingness to pay is strongly affectedby agricultural training and education level of farmers. It is proved too that corruption and free riding behaviour reduce significantly the farmers’ willingness to pay for groundwater.

We used a socio-institutional approach to characterize rural organizations in forest-based communities in North West Tunisia. This approach builds on the imperatives of a social system, the conservation of rural capital, and the role of social capital. The resulting model was used to characterize rural organizations based on key socio-institutional attributes. The paper used a Participatory Rural Appraisal (focus groups mainly) to conduct in-depth analysis in nine forest communities. Results reveal the following : 1) in Development Committees there is a strong belief in state intervention and moderate natural capital appropriation, weak conflict management, weak capacity to sanction, and low trust in the organization; 2) in active Agricultural Development Groups there exists a strong potential for conflict management, trust in the organization, and natural capital appropriation, but a lower level of degradation responsibility and capacity to sanction; and 3) in the Inactive Agricultural Development Groups there is the strongest perception of state intervention and overall weak performances in terms of conflict management, trust in organization, and degradation responsibility. These features indicate the organization’s attributes for sustainable local development and specifically for common forest resources management.

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