Babu, Subhash Chandra. 1998. "Common Property Resource Management in Haryana State, India: Analysis of the Impact of Participation in the Management of Common Property Resources and the Relative Effectiveness of Common Property Regimes." Presented at "Crossing Boundaries", the seventh annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 10-14.

Abstract

"Common lands in Haryana State, India have suffered severe degradation, continuous erosion and are becoming transformed to open access regimes due to increasing population pressure. This has resulted in environmental damage on a wide scale and reduced welfare of the inhabitants of the region. Realising the enormity of the problem and the critical need to initiate action for greening the common lands, the government and the people came together to establish a participatory planning and development process at the village level.

"The purpose of this research is to examine the effectiveness of participation in managing common property resources. The results of the case study, show that clear benefits may be derived from common property regimes, are used to examine institutional development at the village level. A composite resource condition index is developed in order to measure the success of the village institutions. The mechanisms and processes involved in assisting local people to establish common property regimes are also discussed. A mathematical programming model incorporating household dynamics and their interactions with both common property resources and private property resources is developed and scoping studies are conducted to analyze the impact of participation in the management of common property resources and the relative effectiveness of common property regimes."