Social Diversity, Intervention and Common Property Resources; Mossi Villages and Land Management (Burkina Faso)

Abstract

"The main issue of this paper is to disentangle the component 'community' with respect to common property regimes, with a slight reference to Boulding's 'comedy of the community' versus Hardin's 'tragedy of the commons.' This paper reflects in a preliminary way part of a larger research programme on the management of silvo-pastoral space in Burkina Faso (West Africa), in this case among the Mossi of the Central Plateau. Collective action pertinent to common property resources is strongly hampered by social diversity at the local level and power-based antagonisms. Interventions for the sake of a better management of the natural resources cannot circumvent these local tensions; on the contrary, many times an intervention evokes dormant social divisions and strengthens internal competition around benefits in the common pool."