Securing the Commons: What are the Commons and What are they Good For?

Abstract

"Over 1.6 billion people live in and actively use the 30% of the global land mass that is forest and close to 1 billion people the 40% land mass that is drylands. These areas, although often classified by national law as public lands, are in many places actively managed by their inhabitants, very often through common property arrangements. In addition to many forest and dryland areas, fisheries, pastures, irrigation systems, and the oceans are examples of commons. The commons may also include farmland that is seasonally left open for livestock grazing, as is widespread in situations where pastoral and cultivating communities interface in the Sahel region in Africa. Another example for commons on privately owned land are the seasonally flooded wetlands in the Mekong region of mainland Southeast Asia that are used for collective fishing and individual rice production at different times."