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Journal Article Common Challenges: Policy, Theory and Voice(2007) Currie-Alder, Bruce"Berge and Prakash reflect on the role of IASC in light of the inclusion of commons research in other fora and increasing diversity in the IASC membership. Both of these trends are to be rejoiced yet force us to ponder the Associations future directions. Two decades of IASC have seen the commons transformed from a tragedy into an opportunity, from a rogue line of research into accepted practice. Given this success, one IASCs conferences as part of these projects. This creates interest, diversity and breadth of participation at conferences, but it also means there is a substantial 'floating' membership and turnover in participation from one conference to the next option is to simply disband IASC and allow its members to gravitate to other fora. Yet while the idea of the commons has gained currency elsewhere, the Association lies at the intersection of research and practice. To build on this position over the next two decades, IASC must understand how commons research is used, link practice back into theory, and strengthen the voices of Southern members."Journal Article Agriculture Wrapped with Social Networks, Data Mining and Mobile Computing to Boost up Crop Productivity(2010) Akkanini, Haritha; Junapudi, Vasavi"'The backbone of Indian economy' –agriculture which is known for its multifunctional success in generating employment, livelihood, food, nutritional and ecological security is facing several problems in improving the crop productivity. As we had good expertise in the field of agriculture the crucial information is not reaching the farmer community in a timely manner. In this paper we made an effort to find a way out to bridge the gap in the broadcast of information so that timely decisions can be taken for a better farming. We are trying to propose a system which provides advisory services as a decision support to farmers on crop related issues using the mobile services. In addition to these, the effort is being made to familiarize this information through a social network where a human being is a resource to influence others instead of mass media. Initially the proposed system is designed to collect the climatic data and it will be passed to the mobiles of all farmers through messages. There is a coordinator for each region to provide suggestions periodically. At the end of cropping, the coordinator will collect the information like• Had the farmer utilized the climatic information• Type of soils• Type of seeds• Pesticides used• Yield information, etcwill be maintained in a database. Applying data mining techniques the results are analyzed. In each location identifying a person, who utilized the services and achieved the higher productivity. He will act as a motivator/educator to other farmers. Through him we will educate/motivate other farmers about to consider and follow the climate alert message information as valuable as mass media."Journal Article Pirates or Saviours of the Coast?(2009) Mwangura, Andrew"The issue of sea piracy off the coast of Somalia cannot be viewed in the simplistic terms of a law-and-order problem."Journal Article Knowledge for Commons Management: A Commons for the Commons(2005) Wilson, Douglas C."Knowledge about a commons is a public good that has to be created and shared by the commoners so that they have the information then need to make and enforce operational rules and manage conflicts. On many commons people do different kinds of activities and the knowledge that results is also different. When these different experiences are mixed with different interests coming to an agreement on how to proceed can be very difficult. A fishery is a commons where developing a shared picture of what is happening to the fish is one of the toughest aspects of participatory management. For the past seven years most of my work has involved using tools from the sociologies of science and knowledge to try to understand this problem. I have learned that it brings to diverse groups similar kinds of difficulty and pain."Journal Article The Cost of Dividing the Commons: Overlapping Property Systems in Tonle Sap, Cambodia(2015) Thol, Dina; Sato, Jin"This paper examines the political implications of dividing the commons through the case study of private fishing lots in the Tonle Sap Great Lake of Cambodia. The de facto private property in Tonle Sap lasted for over 100 years until the government abolished the system completely in March 2012. Unlike conventional studies of the commons which assume away the question of divisibility as too costly to be realistic, we argue that divided management occurs even when the cost is very high. This 'cost' is not merely economic, but also political. Our case study illustrates how this political cost is channeled through a network of influential people to maintain the resource system and how a private property on the commons can be demolished, also for political reasons."Journal Article A Holistic View of Global Croplands and Their Water Use for Ensuring Global Food Security in the 21st Century Through Advanced Remote Sensing and Non-Remote Sensing Approaches(2010) Thenkabail, Prasad"This paper presents an exhaustive review of global croplands and their water use, for the end of last millennium, mapped using remote sensing and non-remote sensing approaches by world’s leading researchers on the subject. A comparison at country scale of global cropland area estimated by these studies had a high R2-value of 0.89–0.94. The global cropland area estimates amongst different studies are quite close and range between 1.47–1.53 billion hectares. However, significant uncertainties exist in determining irrigated areas which, globally, consume nearly 80% of all human water use. The estimates show that the total water use by global croplands varies between 6,685 to 7,500 km3 yr−1 and of this around 4,586 km3 yr−1 is by rainfed croplands (green water use) and the rest by irrigated croplands (blue water use). Irrigated areas use about 2,099 km3 yr−1 (1,180 km3 yr−1 of blue water and the rest from rain that falls over irrigated croplands). However, 1.6 to 2.5 times the blue water required by irrigated croplands is actually withdrawn from reservoirs or pumping of ground water, suggesting an irrigation efficiency of only between 40–62 percent. The weaknesses, trends, and future directions to precisely estimate the global croplands are examined. Finally, the paper links global croplands and their water use to a paradigm for ensuring future food security."Journal Article Sustainable Nanotechnology: Through Green Methods and Life-Cycle Thinking(2010) Dhingra, Rajive; Naidu, Sasikumar; Upreti, Girish; Sawhney, Rapinder"Citing the myriad applications of nanotechnology, this paper emphasizes the need to conduct 'life cycle' based assessments as early in the new product development process as possible, for a better understanding of the potential environmental and human health consequences of nanomaterials over the entire life cycle of a nano-enabled product. The importance of this reasoning is further reinforced through an illustrative case study on automotive exterior body panels, which shows that the perceived environmental benefits of nano-based products in the Use stage may not adequately represent the complete picture, without examining the impacts in the other life cycle stages, particularly Materials Processing and Manufacturing. Nanomanufacturing methods often have associated environmental and human health impacts, which must be kept in perspective when evaluating nanoproducts for their 'greenness.' Incorporating life-cycle thinking for making informed decisions at the product design stage, combining life cycle and risk analysis, using sustainable manufacturing practices, and employing green chemistry alternatives are seen as possible solutions."Journal Article Exploring New Approaches to Community Governance(2008) Brunckhorst, David"'Commons' researchers, historical experience and literature have a lot to offer the considerable challenge of global resource management and environmental degradation. Researchers and policy makers not only need a more seamless dialogue and understanding, we also need to be willing to be bold and innovative in using the available knowledge to address community governance issues in operational and practical ways. In turn, these become 'learning laboratories' building new, practical knowledge and adaptive capacity. "This Commons Forum is, hopefully, a conversation piece aimed at stimulating thoughts and discussion. I must declare up front however, where I am coming from -- my biases. As a landscape ecologist interested in resource governance issues and therefore society, community and collaborative mechanisms, I am interested in innovation and knowledge building towards 'integrative' resource governance that build resilience and sustainability capacity within and across landscapes and regions."Journal Article Participatory Assessment of the Toliara Bay Reef Fishery, Southwest Madagascar(2011) Brenier, Ambroise; Ferraris, Jocelyne; Mahafina, Jamal"In order to ensure the sustainable management of reef fisheries, it is necessary to obtain data about the effects of these fisheries on both fish resources and the ecosystems that sustain them. Ecosystem-based surveys provide this information, but are difficult to implement because of technical, financial and human resources requirements. In this regard participatory assessment methods have the potential to increase the amount of data collected at low cost, while taking advantage of local traditional ecological knowledge. In order to investigate the reef fishery of Toliara Bay, southwest Madagascar, we used participatory fish survey and interview data collected on site. These methods included: (i) monitoring of catch landings during six months by wholesale fish merchants, (ii) household surveys of fishing catch and effort and fish consumption conducted by school children, and (iii) semi-structured interviews of reef users. One thousand five hundred and eighty six fishing trips were sampled between September 2006 and February 2007, 326 households were surveyed by trained school children in January 2007, and 70 reef users were interviewed in July/August 2006. Data collected by participants have been compiled and compared to reference values when available, allowing an assessment of the sustainability of the reef fishery. The results of this study confirm the unsustainable nature of resource exploitation and underline the need for rapid management responses in order to reverse this trend. It also highlights the great potential of participatory assessment methods for gathering large amounts of relevant information on the status and evolution of the ecosystem upon which the fishery depends, while promoting education and awareness about the protection and sustainable use of natural resources."Journal Article Fishing Villages and Community Tree Nurseries in Malawi(1994) Mills, Graham G."This article reports on the forestry' needs of the fishing villages around Lakes Chilwa and Chiuta, describing an attempt by' the Malawi-German Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MAGFAD) Project to address local environmental degradation through the development of community forestry nurseries between 1989 and 1992."