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Open-Field Farms and Pasture Commons (1793-1815)
(Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd, 1912) Prothero, R. E.
"It might perhaps be supposed that in 1793 the agricultural defects of the ancient system of open arable fields and common pasture had been remedied by experience; that open-field farmers had shared in the general progress of farming; that time alone was needed to raise them to the higher level of an improved standard; that, therefore, enclosures had ceased to be an economic necessity. In 1773, an important Act of Parliament had been passed, which attempted to help open-field farmers in adapting their inconvenient system of occupation to the improved practices of recent agriculture. Three-fourths of the partners in village-farms were empowered, with the consent of the landowner and the tithe owner, to appoint field-reeves, and through them to regulate and improve the cultivation of the open arable fields. But any arrangement made under these powers was only to last six years, and, partly for this reason, the Act seems to have been from the first almost a dead letter. At Hunmanby, on the wolds of the East Riding of Yorkshire, the provisions of the Act were certainly put in force, and it is possible that it was also applied at Wilburton in Cambridgeshire. With these exceptions, little, if any, use seems to have been made of a well-intentioned piece of legislation."
Trouble Case Investigation of a Problem in Nigerien Rural Modernization: Forest Conservation
(University of California Press, 1973) Thomson, James T.; Charlick, R.
"This paper assesses the trouble case methodology as a research tool in the study of Nigerien rural modernization processes. As a vehicle to illustrate the methodology, I take the government forest conservation program, a critical if somewhat neglected component of the overall Nigerien rural modernization effort. "The paper comprises three parts: history of the forestry problem and attempts to solve it (sections I and II); theoretical framework, including a public goods analysis of the problem, a model of legal relationships, and a description of the trouble case methodology (sections III-V); and data and conclusions, consisting of forestry trouble cases, estimates of the effectiveness of current attempts to solve the problem and of other possible approaches, and an assessment of the merits of the trouble case methodology in this type of study (sections VI-VIII). "It is argued here that the Nigerian forest, from the viewpoint of most users, is an unregulated common property. In the absence of regulation it will be destroyed, with disastrous consequences for the environment and the local human ecologies. Regulation is thus a necessary condition for Nigeriens to sustain mutually productive relationship with each other concerning their forest resources. But current enforcement procedures, rendered ineffective by corruption and rule manipulation, fail to curb the developing negative dynamic in which users have little incentive to reorganize their demand patterns and no incentive to generate new supplies as existing ones are exhausted. A tragedy is therefore in the making."
Ethical Implications of Carrying Capacity
(W. H. Freeman, 1977) Hardin, Garrett; Baden, John
From p. 112: "The carrying capacity of a particular area is defined as the maximum number of a species that can be supported indefinitely by a particular habitat, allowing for seasonal and random changes, without degradation of the environment and without diminishing carrying capacity in the future. There is some redundancy in this definition, but redundancy is better than inadequacy. Using deer as an example, the true carrying capacity of a region must allow for the fact that food is harder to get in winter than in summer and scarcer in drought years than in 'normal years.' If too many head of deer are allowed in the pasture they may overgraze it to such an extent that the ground is laid bare, producing soil erosion followed by less plant growth in subsequent years. Always, by eating the grasses that appeal to them, herbivores selectively favor the weed grasses that are not appealing, thus tending to diminish the carrying capacity for themselves and for their progeny in subsequent years."
Public Choice Analysis of Institutional Constraints on Firewood Production Strategies in the West African Sahel
(Resources for the Future, Inc, 1979) Thomson, James T.; Russell, C. S.; Nicholson, Norman
"This essay presents a public choice policy analysis of firewood production possibilities in the West African Sahel, the arid southern fringe of the Sahara Desert."
Relative Significance of the Physical Environment and the 1978 Land Use Decree on Agriculture in Nigeria: The Small Holders' Plight
(ORSTOM, 1979) Ojo, O.
"The promulgation of the Land Use Decree in 1978 is probably the most important step ever taken in transforming Nigeria's agriculture. Its aim is to revolutionise the customary land system considered as a threat to agricultural development. We examine in turn : the main concepts which, in the various régions of Nigeria and other tropical African countries alike, govern traditional land tenure; the problems set by the old system; the relations between land system and environment; the conséquences of the 1978 Decree for small holders."
Firewood Survey: Theory and Methodology
(Agency for International Development, Bureau for Africa, Office of Development Resources, 1980) Thomson, James T.; French, D.; Larson, P.
"This document presents a framework for a survey of firewood problems in Africa. Using survey data, host countries and A.I.D. Missions should be able to more effectively identify and design appropriate projects to either increase firewood supplies or reduce firewood demand. "The document contains two parts. The first, an overview of firewood problems in Africa, lays a theoretical basis for the second part, a recommended survey package consisting of four questionnaires and two inventory instruments for use in host countries. "The overview presents an analysis of African firewood problems, focusing especially on institutional constraints and problems which may discourage production of adequate firewood supplies. It addresses as well two approaches to reducing fuelwood demand: switching to alternative fuels and improving combustion efficiencies in charcoal-making and cooking. "The survey package contains two groups of instruments which are designed to reveal official and individual producers' and consumers' perceptions of firewood situations - do problems exist? where? why? how serious are they? - and the feasibility of various solutions. Group I focuses on rural aspects of firewood problems and includes interviews of forestry officials, rural producer-consumers of wood, and charcoal makers. Group 2, which focuses on urban firewood problems, consists of an urban consumer questionnaire and an alternative fuels price form."
Aka-Farmer Relations in the Northwest Congo Basin
(Cambridge University, 1982) Bahuchet, Serge; Guillaume, Henri; Lee, Richard; Leacock, Eleanor
"For a variety of reasons, research carried out in central and southern Africa has long ignored the problem of contacts between the Later Stone Age populations of hunter-gatherers and the Iron Age peoples who brought techniques of food production, pottery-making and metallurgy. Recent archaeological research in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe and more sophisticated methods of dating have begun to provide us with evidence on the antiquity of these contacts, dating in some cases to at least the beginning of the Christian era. The Co-existence of these two modes of existence has consisted not merely in a juxtaposition, but also has involved long-term exchange relations without technological assimilation. The antiquity and persistence of these relations compel us to perceive these foraging societies in a new light. Long assumed to have been on the fringe of history, these societies now appear to have been in contact, yet have nevertheless remained distinct. If some of them enable us to observe ancient forms of social and economic organization, they are by no means fossils of a prehistoric state, magically preserved. It is highly likely that centuries of proximity and contacts have had profound influences on both sides. From this viewpoint, it is clear that we must rely heavily on the findings of archdeology, linguistics and human biology for further insight. The case of the Aka Pygmies illustrates the extent of these contacts. It appears that the western equatorial forest fringe, where the Aka live, was penetrated by Savannah people as early as 2400-500 B.C. This colonization, which took the form of local and progressive migrations rather than a single massive move, was carried out by people, perhaps already Bantu, who made stone tools and pottery, and probably had techniques of food production."
Gender Relations, Rural Transformation and Technological Change
(ORSTOM, 1985) Evans, Alison
"This paper takes as its starting point evidence of the negative and contradictory effects of technological packages on women's autonomy and status. Just how serious these negative effects are, in quantitative terms, and why women and men should accept this bleak situation, is not completely clear in the existing literature. This paper argues for an extended research approach looking at technological change as a product of social and political relations. Technology is a central component of current food self-sufficiency strategies, and women are primary contributors to food production points to the policy relevance of this type of research."
Institutional Adminstrative, and Management Aspects of Land Tenure in Zambia
(UNU Press, 1986) Banda, C.T.A.
"It is patently obvious that the system of tenure in the State land areas has overwhelming advantages in that it provides an indefeasible title, a negotiable title, and a title that can be pledged to raise capital as well as provides for the succession of title. Certain restrictions on tenure are imposed by laws enacted by the Government. Such restrictions are in the national interest rather than in any local interest, and they may always be readily ascertained. It is desirable, in the interest of both the individual and the country, that these advantages be extended to the tenure of reserve lands and trust lands. At the same time, it must be recognized that rural people are generally conservative in thought and changes might, therefore, have to be gradual so that confidence is not undermined."
Multiorganizational Arrangements and Coordination: An Application of Institutional Analysis
(Walter de Gruyter, 1986) Ostrom, Elinor; Kaufmann, F. X.; Majone, G.; Ostrom, Vincent
"Two linked action situations are examined in this chapter using the method of Institutional analysis previously described in Chapter 22. The first arena is the one in which public officials are elected. The most influential model of this arena was developed by Anthony Downs. The second arena is the one in which elected officials bargain with the heads of administrative agencies (sponsors) over the amount of the budget to be allocated and the amount and type of goods or services to be produced. William Niskanen developed an important model of this process. The central question addressed in this chapter is how multiple organizations, competing according to sets of rules, tend to enhance the responsiveness of public officials and bureau chiefs to the preferences of the citizens they serve in both of these arenas. Empirical evidence supporting the proposition that competition among potential producers of a public good will enhance performance is presented related to the provision of solid waste removal services in American cities."
Tropical Land Clearing for Sustainable Agriculture: The SMN Concept
(IBSRAM, 1987) Latham, Marc
"The goal was to establish a Soil Management Network on Tropical Land Clearing for Sustainable Agriculture. During this workshop three aspects were considered: 1. Definition of the problem and its limits. Choice of land to be cleared, clearing methodology, post-clearing management, and rehabilitation of degraded lands were the major points discussed. A multidisciplinary approach was used, with representatives from soil science, agronomy, civil engineering, sacioeconomics, and other areas. A realistic research agenda considered both experimental and time imperatives. 2. Form of the network. I t was decided that the networKs struc- ture and organization must be sufjíciently coherent to retain the advantages of a network and suficiently flexible to take into account local priorities."
Nitrogen Fixation in Tropical Agriculture and Forestry
(Oxford University, 1987) Dreyfus, Bernard; Diem, Hoang Gia; Freire, J.; Keya, S. O.; Dommergues, Yvon
"Nitrogen compounds comprise from 40 to 50 percent of the dry matter of protoplasm, the living substance of plant cells. For this reason, nitrogen is required in large quantities by growing plants and is indeed the key to soil fertility. Non-nitrogen-fixing plants, for example cereals, obtain all the nitrogen they need from the soil. In Senegalese conditions this uptake was estimated to be as follows: 79-132 kg N ha/crop for pearl millet; 74-84 kg N ha/crop for rice; 134 kg N hdcrop for sorghum; and 121-139 kg N ha/crop for maize. Nitrogen-fixing plants, essentially legumes, take a part of the nitrogen they require from the atmosphere, the other part being provided by the soil."
Rural Women, Their Conditions of Work and Struggle to Organise
(ORSTOM, 1987) Ahmad, Zubieda
"In her paper, Zubeida Ahmad has attempted to establish a link between women's predominant role in food and agricultural production, the tasks women are generally called upon to perform, the constraints under which they operate and their need to form solidarity groups for family survival and generating income-earning activities. In this struggle for family/local food self-sufficiency, women's rights in land (or lack of them), which in turn provides an access to credit, improved inputs, technical knowledge, is considered of basic importance."
Institutional Arrangements and the Commons Dilemma
(ICS Press, 1988) Ostrom, Elinor; Ostrom, Vincent; Feeny, David; Picht, Hartmut
"Would reasonable humans, trying to order their own long-term relationships in a productive manner, structure a situation in such a perverse way? Reasonable humans may, of course, structure situations in this manner when they wish to prevent the participants in a situation from cooperating with one another. Some cooperation among participants may lead to harms externalized on others, as in criminal conspiracies or economic cartels. Cooperation is not an unambiguous good in all situations (see Ullmann-Margalit, 1977). Is the only 'choice' available to rational human beings a 'choice' within the constraints of an externally imposed structure? Once we accept this limited view of choice, we are doomed to accept the imposition of structure by external authorities as the only way out of perverse situations such as the Commons Dilemma. I do not accept such a limited view of choice; I now turn from this critique to a more positive approach to the study of Commons Dilemmas. "In the next section I will briefly describe four commons situations that have not resulted in tragedy. If we arc to understand how individuals can escape from tragedy, we need to study 'success stories' carefully. These stories are particularly interesting because none of them relies on central control or market mechanisms as its primary mode of management. Empirical cases provide the grist for further theoretical development. Once I have presented these four cases, then, I will turn to several substantive and methodological lessons to be learned from analysis of them."
Impact of Soil Fauna on the Properties of Soils in the Humid Tropics
(Soil Science Society of America, 1992) Lavelle, P.; Blanchart, E.; Martin, A.; Spain, A.V.; Martin, S.
"The sustainability of soil fertility in agricultural systems of the humid tropics has recently become a major issue as a consequence of continued land degradation and the critical need to provide more food. For socioeconomic, pedological, and ecological reasons, the development of sustainable high-input agriculture has proven to be slow and difficult and much effort needs to be directed towards the improvement of productivity in low-input agriculture."
Ecological Complexity
(Norton, 1992) Myers, N.
"However hard it is for me to visualize the scale of biological richness in a tropical forest, I find it far more difficult to imagine the complexity of interactions between plants and animals, and between them and their physical environs. After all, if there are l,000 species within one particular square kilometer of forest, their relationships with each other--their comings and goings, their incessant encounters with associates and enemies--certainly number tens of thousands of interactions, probably hundreds of thousands, possibly many more. I sometimes speculate that, given our scant understanding to date, I likely fail to recognize the very scale of a forest's complex functioning. In other words, I have little idea of how massively complex it is. "Thus it is the complexity of a tropical forest that excites me when I stand amid those stately trunks and their convoluted vegetation abuzz with creatures of myriad forms. Whereas it would take me many moons to identify and document the main species (certainly not all of the species--I would need the rest of my life for that) within l00 meters of where I stand, it would take me many times longer to trace even a portion of their interrelationships, their energy flows, their distinctive roles in the phenomenon that makes up a tropical forest. What I see is probably surpassed in complexity by only one other living entity on Earth--that which is between my ears. Yet how far short is my gray matter from gaining even an intuitive sense of the full intricacy of the scene before me."
Strategies for Stabilization Constant Catch or Constant Fishing Effort?
(University of Alaska, 1992) Hannesson, Rögnvaldur; Kruse, G.
"Most fisheries are subject to substantial fluctuations in catches and fishing activity. There are obvious arguments for stabilization. Typically catches and fishing activity cannot be stabilized simultaneously. This paper considers the economic desirability of stabilizing catches versus fishing effort. The case when fishing mortality is proportional to effort is analyzed in some detail and it is shown that a stable effort is more profitable than stable catches, unless the price of fish depends on the catch volume. This is illustrated by quasi-empirical examples taken from two stocks of Atlantic cod."
Dynamics of the Coastal Zone in the High Islands of Oceania: Management Implications and Options
(Institute of Pacific Studies, 1993) David, Gilbert; Waddel, E.; Nunn, P.D.
"This article focuses on the relationships between the human and the physical parameters of the coastal zone. The first part is concerned with defining the boundaries, terrestrial and maritime, of the coastal zone. The second part deals with its dynamics. It first discusses the overall dynamics of the relationships between the foreshore and both the land and marine environments adjacent to it. It then proceeds to explain the internal dynamics of the coastal environment itself, distinguishing between the land component, the marine component, and the interface between the two. The third and final part concerns the preservation of the coastal zone and its place in the sustainable development of high islands. Following a brief overview of the dangers that threaten this fragile environment, it stresses its economic and human potential, and discusses problems raised by the pricing of the coastal zone."
Hunting and the Quest for Power: The James Bay Cree and Whitemen in the 20th Century
(McCelland & Stewart, 1995) Feit, Harvey A.; Morrison, R.B.; Wilson, Carl
"This chapter has been called 'Hunting and the Quest for Power' because it is about different quests for power and how they have interacted in the recent history of the James Bay region of northern Quebec. The key terms of this title are ambiguous; hunting means different things to the Cree than it does for other Canadians, and so, too, with power. The quest for power is a metaphor the Cree might use for the life of a hunter; it is also a metaphor Euro- Canadians might use for the goals of both northern developers and government bureaucracies. ... "When the Cree began their opposition to the James Bay hydroelectric scheme in 1972, they asked if I would present some of the results of my research to the courts and then use them in the negotiations. It was an unexpected happenstance that my study proved to be of some use to the Cree, and one for which I was thankful. I served as an adviser to the Cree organizations during the negotiation and implementation of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, regularly from 1973 through 1978, and on an occasional basis thereafter. This took me into a new set of interests in the relationship of the Cree to the government and toward a deeper interest in Cree history. The results of some of these experiences are described in the latter parts of this chapter."
Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: Conservation Status and Management Issues
(Springer-Verlag, 1995) Doumenge, Charles; Gilmour, Don; Pérez, Manuel Ruiz; Blockhus, Jill; Hamilton, L. S.; Juvik, J. O.; Scatena, F. N.
"In this paper, we will refer to tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) in a topographic sense, as cloud forests lying on wetter mountainsides, ridges and saddles, whether in montane or submontane floristic zones. They can be defined as tropical montane or submontane forests characterized by persistent clouds or fogs, sometimes with small trees, often with abundant mosses, ferns, lichens, or flowering plants in trees and on soil surface."
International Networks of a Trading Diaspora: The Mourides of Senegal Abroad
(ORSTOM, 1995) Ebin, Victoria
"This paper explores questions of identity among Senegalese immigrants who belong to the Islamic brotherhood known as the Mourides. Within the past two decades, these Sufis have abandoned an agricultural way of life in the rural regions of Senegal to enter the world of international trade. Throughout the brotherhood's expansion from the countryside to urban employment and now to international migration, the Mourides have maintained a strong identity and highly centralized organization which has extended to new communities outside Senegal and continues to attract converts, both Senegalese and non-Senegalese. This paper examines how throughout major relocations in place and in occupational focus, the Mourides have retained their specific identity and world view and strong sense of community."
An Institutional Analysis of Local Level Common Pool Woodstock Governance and Management: Implications for Environmental Policy
(JAI Press, 1996) Thomson, James T.; Brinkerhoff, D.W.
"This chapter uses the Institutional Design and Analysis (IAD) framework to examine a policy problem concerning governance and management of common pool woodstocks in Mali's Fifth Region. The fall of the Malien Second Republic in 1991 posed, among many other issues, the problem of who should take responsibility for controlling access to and use of the country's woodstocks. The essay assesses one solution to that problem now being evolved by a group of thirteen communities south of the Niger River's Inner Delta."
From Natural History to History of Nature: Redefining the Environmental History of India
(Editions de I'Orstom, 1996) Sangwan, S.; Roland, Waast; Yvon, C.; Bonneuil, C.
"The two observations, one from a metropolitan savant and the other from a colonial 'devotee' of nature confirm that ecological discourse at the centre and colonial periphery descended at a particular historical juncture. They also reiterates that the discourse had its roots in the broad domain of natural history. History of ecology (ecological ideas), as it stands now, is burdened with metropolitan bias with practically no discussion on its agenda in the colonial peripheries. One most concrete example being the (de)construction of natural history tradition on the Indian periphery. While a few consider it as simply a favourite 'mind-relaxing' exercise for men cut-off from home surroundings,o thers read as plain statistical surveys ('stampcollecting') without any reference even to the pressing demands of colonial state. A major shift came with professional historians joining the debate. Making 'colonialism' as the ultimate boundary of a scientific discourse on the periphery, the 'second wave' of scholarship links the data gathering exercise with the 'changing ideologies' of imperialism."
Conceptualizing Sustainability
(Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University and Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Tribhuvan University, 1997) Dixon, John M.; Varughese, George; Sharma, Prem N.; Shivakoti, Ganesh P.
"Despite the recent success in expanding global food supply--today's population of 5.8 billion have, on average, 15 percent more food per capita than the global population of 4 billion had two decades ago)--shamefully, more than 800 million are still chronically hungry, mostly living in rural areas. Moreover, reports of civil unrest caused by shortages of food or high prices are all too frequent. Thus, the International Commission on Peace and Food in their report Uncommon Opportunities note that 'food has become a symbol of our collective human endeavor to create a better world for all'. Food production depends ultimately on sound and productive natural resource systems. The per capita availability of land and water for agriculture is limited and declining as a consequence of increasing population, degradation and redirection of land and water to domestic and industrial uses. Moreover, significant environmental costs have been associated with the past successful agricultural growth, such as salinization, soil erosion, lowering water tables, and loss of biodiversity."
Water Rights in the State of Nature: The Dynamic Emergence of Common Expectations in an Indonesian Settlement
(Vistaar and Intermediate Technology Publications, 1997) Vermillion, Douglas L.; Bruns, Bryan; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth
"This study examines how a socially recognized and predictable pattern of water rights and allocation emerged from a process of trial and error with water allocation and negotiations in a resettlement area in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Balinese farmers in two newly developed irrigation systems recognized that the traditional rule of water allocation that divides water proportionately to area served was a simplistic first approximation. "Through inter-personal exchanges a set of socially-recognized criteria emerged to justify certain farmers in taking more than proportional amounts of water, 'borrowing water,' in response to diversity among fields in soils, access to secondary water supplies, distance from the headworks and other factors. A decision tree model uses field observations of water distribution over two seasons to assess criteria used for modifying distribution. Such criteria constituted a second approximation for more equitable water allocation among farmers."
Negotiating Access and Rights: A Case Study of Disputes over Rights to an Irrigation Water Source in Nepal
(Draft, 1997) Pradhan, Rajendra; Pradhan, Ujjwal; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Bruns, Bryan
"Nepal has a long history of irrigation but until the middle of this century direct involvement of the Nepalese state in irrigation management and development was limited except when it benefitted the ruling elite. Although the state did construct or finance the construction or repairs of irrigation systems and managed or supervised the management of some systems, its main contribution to irrigation development was by means of laws and regulations which encouraged and sometimes forced local elites and ordinary farmers, usually tenants, to construct and operate irrigation systems. Legal tradition and weak administration made it possible and necessary for the irrigators to construct and manage their irrigation systems with little interference from state agencies."
Common-Pool Resources and Institutions: Toward a Revised Theory (Draft)
(Workshop Working Paper Series no. W97-18, 1997) Ostrom, Elinor
"Common-pool resources are systems that generate finite quantities of resource units so that one person's use subtracts from the quantity of resource units available to others. Irrigation systems are among the most important type of common-pool resource. Most common-pool resources are sufficiently large that multiple actors can simultaneously use the resource system and efforts to exclude potential beneficiaries are costly. When the resource units (e.g., water) are highly valued and many actors benefit from appropriating(harvesting) them for consumption, exchange, or as a factor in a production process, the appropriations made by one individual are likely to create negative externalities for others."
Recent Trends in the Spatial Structure of Wind Forcing and SST in the California Current System
(Editions de L’Orstom, 1998) Schwing, Franklin; Parrish, Richard; Mendelssohn, Roy; Durand, Marie-Helen; Cury, Philippe; Mendelssohn, Roy; Roy, C.; Bakun, Andrew; Pauly, Daniel
"State-space statistical models are applied to long time series of monthly COADS northward wind stress and sea surface temperature (SST) from the California Current System (CCS) for the period 1946-1990. The models estimate a nonparametric and non-linear trend, a non-stationary and nondeterministic seasonal signal, and an autoregressive (AR) term. They are also applied to long SST time series from selected coastal sites for comparison to the COADS series. SST shows decadal-scale periods of warm and cool anomalies that extend through the entire CCS. Wind stress anomalies are less extensive latitudinally and generally uncorrelated with SST, suggesting that decadal-scale SST variations in the CCS are controlled by fluctuations in the basin- to global-scale pressure and wind fields, rather than local wind forcing. The CCS can be divided into three distinct geographical regions, which are similar to the system's biological regions. The non-hern region of the CCS (42-48"N) features a transition from strongly equatorward to poleward stress with distance north. The mean stress north of 44"N is poleward and has become increasingly poleward over time. This region features spatially uniform SST that has cooled over time. Winds south of 42"N are equatorward and can be described in terms of a central and southern region. The central region (34-42"N) exhibits the strongest wind stress in the CCS; equatorward stress has increased over time more than in the northern and southern regions. This region features the greatest interannual to decadal variation in stress and SST as well. Stress in the southern region (22-34ON) has become increasingly equatorward over time in a relatively monotonic pattern. Mean SST decreases consistently with increasing latitude in the central and southern regions. SST off California warms rapidly in response to ENS0 events as well as the 1976 regime shift, but much more slon~lya t other latitudes. mi l e SST along the entire Coast has warmed during the past several decades, offshore SST has cooled north of 36"N. This long-term cooling in the northern CCS is linked to large-scale cool anomalies in the central north Pacific rather than changes in local wind forcing. A different complex of processes is responsible for the long-term coastal warming tendency. It also appears that distinct combinations of windforced advection, mixing and direct heating lead to significantly different regional responses of the coastal ocean to climate change, which in turn may have substantial consequences for marine populations in eastern boundary current ecosystems."
Italy
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Navone, Paolo; Shepherd, Gill; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, D.; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"Italy has the biggest range of types of forest of any country in Europe, from the Alpine forests of the north through the mainly deciduous forested hills and plains of Central Italy to the sub-tropical Mediterranean conditions of the south. One fifth of the country is mountainous, 60% hilly and only 20% consists of lowland plains."
DG V, DG VI and DG XVI [Directorates General V, VI, and XVI]
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Brown, David; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, David; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"Structural Funds are available as non-reimbursable grants, on the basis of co-financing ('part-financing') with the relevant Member States. The level of co-financing depends on the objective of the programme, and is up to a maximum of between 50 and 85%. There are five sets of priority objectives: Objective 1: Structural adjustment of regions whose development is lagging behind Objective 2: Economic conversion of areas seriously affected by industrial decline Objective 3: Combatting long-term unemployment and facilitating integration into working life of young people and those threatened with exclusion from the labour market Objective 4: Preventive measures to combat unemployment associated with industrial change Objective 5a: Structural adaptation of agriculture and fisheries Objective 5b: Economic diversification of vulnerable rural areas The relevance of the Structural Funds in the present context relates to the few overseas territories of the Member States located in the tropics. The main ones are the four overseas Departements of France, Martinique, Guadeloupe, ReÂunion and Guyane, all of which have the same legal status as any other French departements."
Luxembourg
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Glaesener, Vincent; Schreckenberg, K.; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, D.; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"While many countries are reducing their aid budgets, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has made considerable efforts in the ®eld of development co-operation and, in terms of its GNP, is on the way to becoming one of the prime donors in the world. With an aim of devoting 0.7% of GNP to development aid by the year 2000, Luxembourg will, in 15 years, have moved from being a country with a minor aid programme to being proportionately one of the world's major donors."
DG VIII [Directorate General VIII]
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Stoneman, Catherine; Brown, David; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, David; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"As the Directorate-General responsible for Development Co-operation with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, DG VIII occupies an unusual position with regard to development aid. Not only does it control `budgetary allocations' voted by the European Parliament to the respective development-related budget lines, but it also has access to the so-called `nonbudgetary funds' in the form of the periodic pledges which are made directly by the Member States to the European Development Fund. Unlike the budget lines, the EDF does not form part of the EC Budget and is thus outside direct Parliamentary control. Unusually, therefore, DG VIII action is conditioned not only by Commission-wide influences such as the Maastricht Treaty, but also by the bilateral and extra-budgetary financing arrangements associated with the multi-annual Lome Conventions. DG VIII's geographical mandate reflects the history of the European Union and the colonial history of several of its Member States."
Denmark
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Kerkhof, Paul; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, D.; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"Denmark was covered by forests and the human population density was low until early medieval times. From the tenth century onwards the population grew and an increasing proportion of the land was cleared of forest, a process temporarily interrupted during the Black Death. The population density of 20 people per square kilometre in the thirteenth century had doubled by the middle of the nineteenth. Norway and Southern Sweden were part of Denmark for much of this time, and although population densities there were much lower, the trends were similar."
Ireland
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Tuite, Philomena; Brown, David; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, David; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"The history of Ireland is reflected in the history of its forests. The rural idyll which characterises external perceptions of Ireland belies a land which is one of the most deforested in Europe, and whose deforestation has been, to a significant extent, a manifestly political phenomenon. Ireland, never itself a colonial power, was long a colony of another European nation (Britain). This dependent status, and the injustices and hardships which accompanied it (most notably the Great Famine of 1845-9), have had their influence on Irish attitudes to humanitarian aid. They have contributed to the solidarity which many Irish people feel with the developing world, a solidarity underwritten by Ireland's long history of missionary work and its prominent role in international peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs."
Common Elements of EC Tropical Forestry Aid
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Brown, David; Richards, Michael; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, David; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"European Community (EC) aid to tropical forestry, like all forms of EC development assistance, is strongly influenced by the structure of the European Union and by its political and financial procedures. Before discussing the manner in which tropical forestry aid is managed within the various Directorates-General, we need to review the structure and procedures of the Union and consider the ways in which these features affect the definition and administration of aid policy. The centre of power in the EU is the Council of the European Union. This consists of representatives of the European Member States and the Commission, the actual attendance varying according to the issue under debate. The highest-level body is the Council of the Heads of Government which meets twice yearly and formally approves the policies of the Union. The Council also meets periodically at Ministerial level. For example, the General Affairs Council deals with external affairs and is attended by the Foreign Ministers of the Member States, while Eco®n is attended by the Ministers of Finance."
Institutional Analysis
(International Development Research Centre, 1998) Pomeroy, Robert S.
"Institutional analysis is the identification of various resource users, stakeholders and organizations involved in community-based coastal resource management (CBCRM). It also involves an examination of the institutional arrangements, the set of rights and rules for CBCRM in a community. An institutional analysis is usually conducted early in the CBCRM process during the planning phase. The level of detail can range from a simple description of the existing coastal resource management system to a very detailed analysis of the management system in terms of equity, efficiency and sustainability."
The Lack of Institutional Supply: Why a Strong Local Community in Western Ecuador Fails to Protect its Forest
(Indiana University, International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) Research Program, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC), Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, 1998) Becker, C. Dustin; Gibson, Clark C.
"Given the disappointing results of natural resource conservation policy in developing countries over the last three decades, scholars and practitioners have shifted their focus away from state-centered policies towards solutions at the local level. While these authors offer different lists of the conditions believed necessary for successful resource management by local people, most analyses include three fundamental requirements. First, individuals from local communities must highly value a natural resource to have the incentive to manage it sustainably. Second, property rights must be devolved to those individuals who use the resource to allow them to benefit from its management. Third, these individuals at the local level must also have the ability to create microinstitutions to regulate the use of the resource. Although various scholars and practitioners may add other conditions they see as important, most agree that some form of these three 'locals' valuation, ownership, and institutions are central to successful natural resource management."
Explaining Deforestation: The Role of Local Institutions
(Indiana University, International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) Research Program, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC) and Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, 1998) Gibson, Clark C.; McKean, Margaret A.; Ostrom, Elinor
"Governments, citizens, and scientists are increasingly concerned about the role of forests in global environmental change. Evidence is mounting from multiple studies that humans at an aggregate level are exploiting forests at unsustainable rates in tropical regions. While some deforestation can be attributed to rational and sustainable transfers of land to agricultural and other valuable uses, unplanned deforestation can generate significant negative externalities: loss of biodiversity, elevated risk of erosion, floods and lowered water tables, and increased release of carbon into the atmosphere associated with global climate change. More importantly, deforestation can decrease the welfare of forest users by eliminating habitat for game species, altering local climates and watersheds, and destroying critical stocks of fuel, fodder, food, and building materials."
France
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Bedel, Jean; Brown, David; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, David; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"The pattern of forest ownership, like agricultural land ownership in general, has been significantly influenced by the egalitarian ideology of the French Revolution. The principle of equal inheritance of all heirs was enshrined in the Code NapoleÂon of 1804 which still forms the basis of French civil law. One result of this has been a tendency to fragmentation of land holdings. Today, more than 70% of the total forest area is under private ownership, and 25% of this is in small ownerships(less than 4 ha).2 Only 12% of forests are under state ownership, while 18% are owned by collectivite publiques (local government authorities3). The forests of France are notably diverse in species type; 89 tree species are found, 61% of them broadleaf, especially oak (Quercus spp.) and beech (Fagus spp.), with the remaining 39% conifers, particularly pine (Pinus spp.), or (Abies spp.) and spruce (Picea spp.). Coppice woodlands still cover almost one half of the forest area. The fragmented nature of many of the forest holdings poses some difficulties for the operation of the processing industries, which tend to be concentrated near the ports, far from many small producers, and the economics of small-scale management in France are a subject of debate among forestry professionals. France is the leading producer of hardwoods in Europe, while in production of conifers it is surpassed only by the Scandinavian countries and Germany. In addition to timber, France's forests provide a range of other products and services, including a number of important and distinctive non-timber products (various fruits and nuts; cork from the cork oak [Quercus suber]; mushrooms and truf¯es; etc). The French are renowned for their love of hunting; revenue from the issue of hunting permits for government forests alone brought in more than FF 170 m. in 1992."
UK [United Kingdom]
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Hussey, Susie; Gordon, James; Shepherd, Gill; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, David; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"The future of UK forestry development assistance appears to be fairly secure. The position within the natural resources sector is a convenient one for collaboration with other sectors, particularly agriculture, and does not affect the level of funding available to forestry. This depends on priorities set within Country Strategy Papers, where forestry is well represented. Although public concern for tropical rainforests may no longer appear as great as it was, 80% of all letters received by the Department are still from schoolchildren asking questions about this issue."
Netherlands
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Lette, Henk; Linden, Bert van der; Brown, David; Shepherd, Gill; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"In the country which is now known as the Netherlands, the human influence on the landscape has long been intense. It was not always so. The two most westerly provinces of the Netherlands derive their name from their once heavily wooded character (wood is 'holt' in old Dutch, hence `holt-land' - Holland). However, records show that even by the time of Charlemagne (742-814) most of the natural forest had been lost. By the thirteenth century, shortage of forest resources was severe, particularly in the north."
Belgium
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Veron, Philippe; Federspiel, Michèle; Shepherd, Gill; Brown, D.; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"Two thousand years ago, most of Belgium was covered by natural forest. The main formations were the oak and birch woods which covered la Campine, the Atlantic oak forests of Central Belgium, and the hornbeam, oak and beech forests of Upper Belgium. First the Gauls cleared patches of forest to practise cultivation and animal husbandry, then the Romans built roads through the forests and made it more accessible."
Financial Transfers to Sustain Cooperative International Optimality in Stock Pollutant Abatement
(Edward Elgar, 1998) Germain, Marc; Toint, Philippe; Tulkens, Henry; Faucheux, S.; Gowdy, J.; Nicolai, I.
"It is well known that the transnational character of many environmental problems (for example, greenhouse gas emissions, acid rain, pollution of international waters) requires cooperation among the countries involved if a social optimum is to be achieved. The issues raised thereby have often been addressed, in the economic literature, using concepts borrowed from cooperative game theory."
Europe: An Overview
(Overseas Development Institute, 1998) Shepherd, Gill; Brown, D.; Richards, Michael; Schreckenberg, K.
"This book provides an overview of the ways in which Europe offers support to tropical forests through aid and research. Each of the Member States' current programmes is examined, along with those of the various Directorates-General (DGs) in the European Commission which support tropical forestry. It is called a Sourcebook because it will probably be used more as a work of reference than as a book to read from start to finish. Its intended audience is threefold. Above all, its authors hope that it will be of value to the developing countries with which the European Union (EU) works. The book should make it simpler to understand the way in which aid to forestry is organised from country to country and within the Commission; it will indicate each donor's target countries for the funding of tropical forestry, and will suggest the particular interests of each."
Population and Forest Dynamics in the Hills of Nepal: Institutional Remedies by Rural Communities
(Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, 1999) Varughese, George
"Projections of massive declines in Himalayan forest cover and dire predictions for the future of forests in Nepal initiated worldwide concern in the 1970s. Initially, the source of the problem was seen as domestic fuelwood use compounded by rapid population growth. Then expansion of agriculture, commercial logging, and tourism were blamed. However, the actual rates of deforestation, as well as its causes and consequences, remain very much in question. Studies indicate that while there is degradation from overharvesting in the hills, the total loss of forest cover has been relatively small. Others argue that losses have even been reversed in both forest area and tree density. Still others contend that while forest area is not decreasing in the hills, the quality of existing forests is suspect."
Colonial Influences on Property, Community, and Land Use in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh
(Duke University, 2000) Baker, J. Mark; Agrawal, Arun; Sivaramakrishnan, Kumbakonam G.
"British rale in the western Himalayan hill state of Kangra, which began in 1846, represented both continuities with, and disjunctures from, precolonial notions of sovereignty, property, and rule. Early colonial administrators, like their predecessors the Katoch rajas, were attuned to the importance of symbolic representations of state power. The early British revenue assessments in Kangra were also modeled after those of the prior Sikh government. However, the first land settlement of Kangra in 1850 facilitated changes in the control, use, and area of agricultural and forest lands in Kangra. These changes resulted from three interrelated processes. First, during the inherently contentious process of recording rights to land, settlement officers in this hill region applied models of property rights and the village community that had developed on the plains and that were informed by European notions of private property and agricultural development. The result was the creation of new 'traditions' of land use and control. Second, Revenue Department officials emphasized the notion of property as a transferable economic resource that was allocated to individual property owners, in contrast to precolonial conceptions of property as an instrument for securing political legitimacy by distributing 'interests' in property among different groups. Third, the Revenue and Forest Departments' use of land ownership as the sole criteria for assigning rights to forests and uncultivated areas increased local inequities; landless and nonagricultural groups were disenfranchised from resources to which they had previously possessed usufructuary rights of access and use."
Private and Common Property Rights
(Edward Elgar, 2000) Ostrom, Elinor
"The relative advantages of private property and common property for the efficiency, equity, and sustainability of natural resource use patterns have been debated in legal and economic literatures for several centuries. The debate has been clouded by a troika of confusions that relate to the difference between (1) common property and open-access regimes, (2) common-pool resources and common property regimes, and (3) a resource system and the flow of resource units. A property right is an enforceable authority to undertake particular actions in specific domains. The rights of access, withdrawal, management, exclusion and alienation can be separately assigned to different individuals as well as being viewed as a cumulative scale moving from the minimal right of access through possessing full ownership rights. All of these rights may be held by single individuals or by collectivities. Some attributes of common-pool resources are conducive to the use of communal proprietorship or ownership and others are conducive to individual rights to withdrawal, management, exclusion and alienation. Many of the lessons learned from the operation of communal property regimes related to natural resource systems are theoretically relevant to the understanding of a wide diversity of property regimes that are extensively used in modern societies."
Intellectual Property: General Theories
(Edward Elgar, 2000) Menell, Peter S.; Bouckaert, B.; de Geest, G.
"This chapter surveys and synthesizes the deepening and widening theoretical landscape of intellectual property. Not surprisingly, the principal philosophical theory applied to the protection of utilitarian works - that is, technological inventions - has been utilitarianism. Utilitarian theorists generally endorse the creation of intellectual property rights as an appropriate means to foster innovation. Non-utilitarian theorists emphasize creators' moral rights to control their work. Many of these scholars draw upon multiple philosophical strands in constructing their analyses."
Population et Environnement
(CEPED, 2000) Gubry, Patrick
"Les populations humaines vivent dans divers milieux écologiques, imposés par la nature, dont les différents paramètres forment leur environnement. Le fonctionnement de la population et de son environnement constituent un écosystème. Les relations entre la population et l'environnement sont réciproques. La population modifie son environnement pour le rendre plus favorable à la vie humaine, voire même pour rendre la vie possible et assurer la survie d'une population en augmentation. Cependant, au fur et à mesure que l'environnement devient artificiel, des inconvénients croissants apparaissent pour les conditions de vie du moment, mais surtout des interrogations se font jour quant aux possibilités de maintenir les nouveaux rapports entre l'homme et son environnement sur une longue période, c'est-à-dire d'assurer un (( développement durable D. Dans ce contexte, il faut examiner aussi bien l'influence de l'environnement (naturel) ou (< transformé D) sur l'homme que l'influence de l'homme sur l'environnement. Dans un espace aussi t< humanisé )) que l'est le Viêt&m, l'environnement a déjà été très largement transformé par les activités humaines, surtout dans les zones de fortes densités bien sûr, mais pas uniquement, loin s'en faut. Ce n'est cependant que toùt récemment que les chercheurs en sciences sociales ont posé explicitement la question population-environnement de manière globale."
Enabling Policy Frameworks for Successful Community Based Resource Management Initiatives
(East-West Center and Regional Community Forestry Training Center, 2001) Suryanata, Krisnawati; Dolcemascolo, Glenn; Fisher, Robert; Fox, Jefferson; Suryanata, Krisnawati; Dolcemascolo, Glenn; Fisher, Robert; Fox, Jefferson
"The workshop is the ninth in a series on 'Community-Based Management of Forestlands'. Since 1986, the Ford Foundation and the East-West Center have attempted to document the changes taking place in the management of Asia's forests as national governments collaborate with local communities and civil society to design win-win land management scenarios. The workshops have engaged key actors in dialogue and debate over new policies and practices. These brief sabbaticals provided an opportunity for forestry practitioners to assess and anticipate these changes within their countries, and to compare their experience with other national efforts. The writing workshops are also an important venue for busy practitioners to the take time to reflect upon and document their experience for wider analysis and sharing. The 2001 writing workshop brought together fifteen participants from eight countries. These people have all been involved in promoting collaborative approaches to environmental management. Though emphasis is generally on forestland management, this year's workshop was expanded to include irrigation management (papers by Pangare, Parajuli and Tan KimYong) because of the long history of institutional development in the management of irrigation resources. In all cases, participants are operating within a policy framework that espouses varying degrees of decentralization. Although decentralization holds the promise of administrative efficiency and more equitable distribution of benefits (Cheema and Rondinelli 1983), many decentralization efforts have neither empowered local communities nor improved forest management. Agrawal and Ribot (1999) have argued that, in order to realize many of the lauded benefits of decentralization, powers need to be transferred to lower level actors who are both elected and downwardly accountable. Empirical analyses of the lines of accountability are key to our understanding of the nature of decentralization and community-based resource management initiatives. Equally important is an examination of the conditions that facilitate downward accountability such as policy environments and local socio-political institutions."
Changing Gender Relationships and Forest Use: A Case Study from Komassi, Cameroon
(Resources for the Future, 2001) Brown, Katrina Myrvang; Lapuyade, Sandrine; Colfer, Carol J. Pierce; Byron, Yvonne
"Economic and environmental pressures affect access to and use of forest resources, and these dynamics affect men and women quite differently over time. Women are especially dependent on nontimber forest products (NTFPs), but the role of these products has changed markedly. All forest products harvested are now commercially traded in much of Cameroon, compared with only a decade ago, when few products had commercial value. Whereas men have been able to diversify their livelihood strategies, women have less room to maneuver and increasingly rely on diminishing forest resources. This situation has profound impacts on the way women and men perceive change as well as on the current and future management of forest resources."
Practising 'Patrimony' and 'Biodiversity': The Articulation of Diverse Local, National and International Perspectives in Guinea, West Africa
(IRD, 2002) Fairhead, James; Leach, Melissa; Cormier-Salem, Marie Christine; Juhé-Beaulaton, D.; Boutrais, Jean; Roussel, B.
"Our main focus in this paper is on the ideas concerning 'biodiversity' and its conservation which circulate in international organizations, and on how these relate to the national and local settings which may reproduce or rework them. These 'external' ideas are in no way homogeneous, but comprise an array of diverse perspectives, associated with different institutions and scientific traditions, which treat biodiversity in very different ways. Each of these perspectives on biodiversity constructs patrimony rather differently. In particular, each (a) focuses on different spaces, species and products, (b) holds different views of local knowledge and practice, and (c) offers different types of impetus to territorialisation."
Can the Internet Rescue Democracy? Toward an On-Line Commons
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2002) Levine, Peter; Hayduk, R.; Mattson, K.
"The digital divide is obviously an important issue, but I want to go beyond it in this chapter. Even if all citizens could use the Internet from home, computer networks would still not improve our democracy by giving citizens more or better control over decisions traditionally made by governments. However, the Internet does have a different kind of democratic potential if we handle it right. In this chapter, I first criticize the main assumptions of the standard optimistic view, and then offer an alternative."
Managing Commons Across Levels of Organization
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Carlsson, Lars; Berge, Erling
"Co-management has proven effective for sustainable management of natural resources. However, contemporary research indicates that in many cases local communities of resource users have develop sophisticated systems of collaboration, not only with the State but also with numerous other actors. These experiences also show that the State is no unity meaning that a community can establish different types of relations with different units of 'the State.' In this article the concept co-management network is launched as a way to label, and thereby to get a better understanding of these webs of collaborative agreements. It is conjectured that co-management networks normally are developed over significant periods of time, that they in essence nurture cross-scale institutional linkages, and that these characteristics enhance capacity building for better natural resources management. Finally, it is suggested that more research, which would explicitly employ the idea of co-management networks should be conducted."
Forest Finns vs. Swedish Commons
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Wedin, Maud; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"The Savolax expansion 1400-1500; Svidden cultivation as a general; Svidden cultivation made by forest Finns; spruce forest, slash- and burn, forest rye; Svidden 'culture': Access to land more important than ownership, using large areas; Extended expansion to Scandinavia, first Sweden, later Norway and even the colony New Sweden. Also migration east and southwards (religion). Reasons for migration (push-): Civil war, war against Russia, deterioration of climate, overpopulation, taxation (noble people who were granted land as reward for instance Ruovesi and Rautalampi) (and pull) the search for new svidden areas. Two choices: change the way to support themselves or migrate. The state asked for new settlements, gave about six years of freedom from taxation."
The Commons in Navarra: Urbasa-Andia-Limitaciones
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Oses, Nuria; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"As the common land in Navarra is so extended and diverse, in the following, I will put my attention in one of these common land: Urbasa and Andia, which have been till recently, state commons. I will analyse who are the actors entitled to appropriate, what are the goods the actors appropriate, how do the actors go about appropriating and what are the actors allowed to do with the good appropriated. I will also analyse the effect that the exploitation of Urbasa and Andia has had on the landscape of these territory."
Commons for Whom? On New Coastal Commons on North Norwegian Coasts
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sandberg, Audun; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"There are dramatic events taking place on North-Norwegian Coasts during this period. On the surface this appears as a surprising shift in the opinion of the coastal population in crucial questions. One such fundamental question in coastal areas has been the issue of Norwegian membership in the European Union, where the opinion is tilting from opposition tied to fishing rights for wild fish towards support tied to marketing access for farmed fish. But underneath this there are other long term processes that might enable us to explain why the once crucial issue of local resource control now seems to be of less importance than it was in 1972 and even as late as 1994. This paper is an initial attempt to outline what is going on in a typical resource-dependent region when the fundamental institutional relations are changed. In doing so, it does not utilize contemporary concepts like privatisation, individualization, re-feudalisation, or other ideologically based constructs as explanatory factors. Rather it is using basic property rights as useful representations of an important analytical link between the biophysical world and the social world. By tracing the effects of different designs of property rights on both natural stocks of fish and on coastal ecosystems, and on social systems like coastal communities, firms, corporations and political parties, we might come nearer to possible explanations of seemingly surprising events. "The fundamental assumption here is that the attempts at a more 'rational' resource management for wild marine fish have had unintended consequences. Over the years this benevolent political gesture has become much like a Trojan horse for coastal communities. Hidden inside precious gift that modern resource management regimes were to the coastal population, there are three dangerous soldiers: one is the soldier of increased social rigidity that rises from increased ecological uncertainty, the second is the soldier of inefficiency and lack of innovation that results from the accumulation of inequality, and the third soldier is the danger of unsustainable use of coastal ecosystems and ecosystem services."
Ancient Lands Cast Long Shadows: The Case for Reconnection with English Commons for Sustainable Management and Use
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Humphries, Andrew; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This paper attempts to bring into context historical and contemporary aspects of the institutional framework of English commons with particular reference to the upland grazing areas of the North and West which are of particular significance for sheep grazing. The context for a system based on ancient customary practice in the 21st century will be addressed together with proposals for modernising legislation based on statute. The contemporary response of commoners will be outlined with particular reference to Cumbria which embraces 30% of the English common land area. The principle characteristics discussed are relevant to England and Wales. Scotland has a different history and legal framework."
Norwegian Commons: History, Status and Challenges
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sevatdal, Hans; Grimstad, Sidsel; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This paper will look at the Norwegian Commons with the following focus: How these ancient institutions have evolved during the last 200 years; The interests of the different stakeholders and the ensuing conflicts up to the present; How the institutions managing the commons have adapted to the changes in the Norwegian society from agrarian towards an industrialised and more urbanised country. By investigating the history and the privatisation and formalisation processes the commons have undergone, we are able to see how the institution has been able to adapt to changing economic and political environments. It illustrates the tension that has been and still is between the central power and the local community concerning the state commons. These tensions are however only one aspect of conflicts relating to the commons; at times there were equally high tensions between different local communities and also between various stakeholders within local communities. But maybe the most important is that it shows that the institution of the commons has persisted for nearly a thousand years, and that it may exist side by side with 'ordinary' private and public ownership of land. It can also adapt and modernise into becoming an important voice of the local community in local and central politics. It has also been a goal of this research to provide documentation of one example (of many) of the thriving existence of common property ownership in modern western countries, showing that this ownership form is not an 'archaic' or outdated form that only exists in poorer developing countries. Furthermore the report shows that the commons have not been a stagnant form of ownership, but has changed and still changes according to the tendencies particularly in the rural/agricultural sector. It discusses some of the modern time challenges for the commons in society."
The Institutional Geography of Early Modern Swedish Commons: The Case of Grimstens Hundred in Central Sweden
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Jansson, Ulf; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"In the debate on commons over the last 30 years the starting point has often been Hardin's seminal paper The Tragedy of the commons from 1968. This view has been challenged over the years, mainly within the discussion that can be labeled common-pool resources (CPR). This discussion has however focused very little on the geography of the commons. A growing and interesting discussion on institutional geography partly connected to actor-network theory engage both the geography and the social organisations. This paper is an attempt to bring the historical geography of the commons in Sweden into this discussion."

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