Property Rights in a Canadian Mountain Watershed: A Case Study from the Columbia River Valley, British Columbia

Abstract

"In the summer of 1995, an interdisciplinary team investigated property rights and biophysical aspects of sustainability in and around the village of Nakusp, B.C., in the Canadian Cordillera. A temporal review of land use was used to bring together historical trends of resource exploitation, overlapping property rights and evolving pressures for land use change. Community interviews, site observations and an extensive literature review were supported by analysis of satellite imagery, air photos, and biogeophysical resource maps within a Geographic Information System. Due to the history and culture of resource exploitation in the area, rights and 'rules' of land use, defined and practiced locally in the watersheds of the Columbia River valley, basically fall under state property and private property regimes. Although Canadian resource exploitation is highly articulated in law, it was found that there is an undertone of public participation at all levels. Strictly speaking community-level institutions are weak and poorly defined and the only local common property institution concerned mushroom gathering in the forest. At the regional scale, however, 'common-property'-like structures are evolving as a result of extensive public participation and stakeholder consultation concerned with future land use regulations. In comparison with the Kullu Valley mountain forest commons, the Nakusp area has an evolving strength in regional commons institutions. The comparison raises the question, 'Are local and regional institutions for the commons complementary or competitive?'"