Negotiated Domains: Evolving Boundaries, Communities and Policy Spaces

Abstract

"This paper deals with the imperatives of social ecological interaction seen through CPR lens. It specifically looks at the process and factors that characterize the dynamics of the above interactions, with particular reference to the changing status and governance of CPRs at the landscape level. The sociological interactions have been developed over the years based on the communities' historical understanding of the larger landscapes, resource availability and dependence on the resources for sustenance. The communities adapt to their needs and create a variety of operational boundaries and property regimes through negotiations across habitations based on access to resources and the availability of certain specific resources but are rarely based on the artificially created administrative boundaries. This paper attempts to discuss a framework of 'negotiated domains' to explain the existence of informal boundaries across property regimes and mutually accepted rules that have developed through historical negotiations between communities across generations. Neither it is easy to explain the wide range of ecosystem interactions in terms of property theory nor is it possible to legalize the multiple boundaries, as an enforceable claim to the benefits but it is essential for such informal spaces to be acknowledged and supported by society through law, custom or convention. The sustainability of the resource depends on the socially constructed norms, rules and entitlement regimes that define the access to the resources and not only property rights that provides enforceable claim to use of or benefit from the resource."