Implications of trends in Access, Benefits and Status of Common Lands in Karnataka

Abstract

"We define Common Property Land Resources (CPLRs) as all common land resources to which the public or some communities have de facto access to, irrespective of the rights of exclusion, management or alienation. The wider academic literature contains debates about the usefulness of CPLRs, with advocates pointing to CPLRs as social safety nets, and critics favouring privatisation and individual land grant as being more efficient, especially in light of increasing developmental pressures and consequent markets for land. How the the problem is framed (CPLRs for what?) and how institutional arrangements are taken into account in evaluating economic outcomes of current and alternative models of CPLR governance will critically influence the outcome of this debate. We examine this debate in the context of Karnataka state in India. There is enormous diversity and complexity in tenure regimes under the broad category of CPLRs, and wide variation in their spatial distribution. Temporally, one sees consistent declines in certain CPLRs due to state giveaways, and some evidence for declining CPLR dependence as well, although this is sometimes a consequence of privatization. Nevertheless, there is ample evidence of The historical endowment of CPLRs varies geographically and temporally, they generate significant use and non-use values at local and global scales. We then look at the drivers of change in CPLR area and condition, as well as the ecological and distributional impacts of these changes, using a clear normative framework. When we examine these debates in the context of Karnataka’s CPLRs, we find an undiminished need to have well-managed rural CPLRs. The paper then looks at the governance reforms that may be necessary to manage and prevent conversion of CPLRs as well as to revive stakeholder interest."