Common Property as a Tool for Long Term Conservation: The Case of a Family Estate in Provence (France)

Abstract

"Presently, though some 85 % of the French territory formally belongs to millions of private owners (a tentative figure is 4 millions) land is submitted to dozens of regulations which strictly control actual uses and in certain cases the remaining right of the formal owner is to pay land taxes ?the ultimate stage of the property rights entropy!

"To a certain extent one can say that if the Revolution freed the land from feudal right, we are now in the situation of quasi regulatory nationalisation. This means that the situation could be compared with the one existing in ex communist countries, a mixed regime of de facto public property with a de jure private property regime.

"How can common property survive in such a setting? My point is that it appears as a natural necessity and the case study support this evidence.?