The Role of Women in Common Property Resource Management: Experiences from India

Abstract

"This paper attempts to analyse the contemporary perspectives and experiences of women in the management of land based common property resources , consisting of wastelands, privately and communally owned, as well as government owned degraded forest lands. A common properly resource can be defined as a source of goods for income generation as well as subsistence for individual households, but one that is not subject to the ownership of any one individual. This characteristic separates such resources from those that are individually owned and exploited. CPRs as such resources have come to be known, stand to lose their unique characteristic if their use and exploitation are controlled by any individual or group, to the detriment of other individuals/groups, that may have had traditional access to these, and those that depend on such resources for their survival."