Common Countryside Management Based on Contracts: A Case Study

Abstract

"The paper analyzes the implementation of contracts between stockbreeders and the Ministry of Agriculture in order to lead livestock farming towards the protection of forest against fire in the Mediterranean area. The contracts are on individual basis and relate to precise land parcels of the farms. At the farm level contract deals with individual land mobilisation. Most of the time it develops property rights rather than ownership. Through this process the farmer also leaves the individual dimension of his farm for a social service. The environmental concerns that are taken into account through contracts make the appropriation of the countryside more complex. Two social groups had been traditionally involved in its management (the owners and the tenants). Now a third actor is brought into play: the one that decides how the countryside must be managed. This issue is not specific of our case study. This new body has to link together the individual contracts, in order to organize a common management of the environment and therefore to comply efficiently with the social demand. The link between private and common property leads to the study of countryside management. Contracts promote individual purchase of means of production. This is a way to have sustainable farms. The tool also can be alternatively used in the maintenance of rural areas. The contracts thus entitle the society to control the farmer's way of production. His decision of using the productive factors is then no more personnal, but has also to deal with collective concerns. Countryside management moves from an individual process (private concern of keeping the productive factors) to a collective one (maintaining the integrity of common resources). The public asset (the protection of countryside's qualities as a final service) is added to the private good (the plot as a means of production)."