Digital Library of the Commons

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Conceptualizing Large Scale Common Pool Resources through the SES Framework: Resource and Institutional Dynamics in the Rhine Watershed
(2013) Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio; Fleischman, Forrest; Perez Ibarra, Irene; Thiel, Andreas; van Laerhoven, Frank
"In this paper we develop a case study of water governance in the Rhine River to examine the relevance of Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory for two contexts that have not been extensively tested before: large scale trans-boundary water management, and pollution problems."
Governance of Groundwater Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs in Gauteng, South Africa: An Institutional Analysis
(2013) Beckh, Charlotte
"The governance of groundwater ecosystem services and trade-offs is still poorly understood. The highly urbanized South African province Gauteng currently faces problems of groundwater over-abstraction and pollution. Population growth, economic development and climate change impacts contribute to an increasing risk of crisis. Groundwater trade-offs between diverse user sectors with conflicting resources interests are apparent. The South African National Water Act makes sophisticated provisions for ecosystem services and trade-offs that are not always effective in practice. The paper thus asks the question: How are groundwater ecosystem service trade-offs governed in practice in Gauteng? The paper offers answers to this question through a review of relevant literature and the qualitative analysis of 41 interviews conducted with experts from the government, science, and society. The results confirm that formal institutions are frequently ineffective, and applied and enforced in a biased manner, prioritizing socio-economic development over environmental sustainability. The analysis of informal institutions and their interplay with formal ones unveils deep-seated reasons for the ineffectiveness of current groundwater governance. Four informal institutions in terms of socially shared expectations have been identified that compete with formal institutions. In contrast, networks from the informal realm enhance the effectiveness of formal institutions and governance. While self-regulation and networking need to be fostered, governance through a hierarchical command-and-control approach is preferred and market mechanisms are generally met with suspicion by civil society. The paper argues that a holistic approach and political will is needed for translating existing formal institutions into social practice while unlocking the potential of civil society. Mainstreaming the concept of ecosystem services and related trade-offs into the groundwater governance discourse and practice, as well as the consideration of informal institutions, can lead to improved decision-making and more effective and sustainable groundwater governance."
The Kabu-ido System: Innovations in an Indigenous Groundwater Management Institution
(2013) Endo, Takahiro
"The purpose of this paper is to describe the function of the 'Kabu-ido', which was a groundwater management system that was used in the Tokai region of Japan from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. The implications of Kabu-ido for the commons study will also be discussed. The southern part of the Noubi Plain in the Tokai region of Japan is a low lying area that is composed of a large delta that is subjected to severe flooding. The local residents in this region developed a unique system to manage the problem of flooding that became known as the ring-levee (Waju in Japanese). However, they sometimes faced severe water shortage in years when there was low precipitation. To address these occasional water shortages, irrigation by artesian wells was expanded rapidly in the ring-levee area from the early to mid-19th century. Although the development of artesian well systems greatly stabilized the water supply within the ring-levees, it led to the accumulation of drainage water in the lower part of the area. Consequently, Kabu-ido was developed to address the conflicts related to drainage within the ring-levee systems. Kabu-ido was established as early as the 1850s and it remained in use until around 1905 to solve drainage problems and provide a method for regulating uncoordinated groundwater pumping. In Japanese 'Kabu' means 'privilege to do a business' and 'ido' means 'well': thus 'Kabu-ido' can be interpreted as meaning 'privileged well' or 'the special right to dig wells'. Accordingly, a study of Kabu-ido and their development can provide useful lessons for current groundwater management systems. Although previous studies have clarified Kabu-ido, they have only focused on the history and have not considered the institutional aspects of this practice. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate Kabu-ido from the point of view of the commons study."
Synergy Effects of Investment of Farmers and Governments on Irrigation Commons for Sustainable Management
(2013) Yamaoka, Kazumi
"In Japan, a narrow islands country which has achieved high level of industrialization, a 400,000km-long paddy irrigation and drainage canal network exists just like as sophisticated arteries and veins in our body. And that amazingly it is still managed collectively by farmers throughout almost the whole of its length, and it still waters some twenty million rice paddy plots every spring, making more than two million ha of artificial wetland appear. We can also observe similar scenes all over the Asian monsoon region with various economic development stages. Why has this practice been maintained across our generations? What type of economy underpins it? No research has been done to answer these questions. This paper seeks to feature substantial debate on the question of water for food and the environment in the Asian monsoon region by proposing a spontaneous and collective management on social overhead capitals and discussing what form good governance over it should take. It consists of two main bodies and a conclusion. Part 1 presents overview of the characteristics of ecosystems and economy in multi-functioned irrigated paddy rice agriculture in the Asian monsoon region. Part 2 discusses the socio-economic mechanism of a sustainable management for irrigation and policy implications for designing it across the Asian monsoon region. It stresses the importance of good governance. The case studies and policy analysis on public works projects leads to highlight the importance of social capital in achieving good governance and discover the synergistic effects. Finally this paper concludes and recommends that we need a policy renaissance to appreciate and support the management of irrigated paddy rice agriculture collectively run by farmers in the Asian monsoon region for cumulative experience of governance and persistent build-up of social capital, for implementing an optimal policy on water for food and ecosystems in this region."
Institutional Design, Public Participation, and their Consequences for Watershed Governance
(2013) Ohno, Tomohiko
"Given the focus on the management of local resources, it is challenging for studies of the commons to deal with complex issues in watershed governance on a larger scale. Recently, attention has been given to the importance of multilevel environmental governance. However, there is still no clarity on the kinds of institutional arrangements and public participation desirable for sustainable watershed governance. In this study, based on the previously developed institutional analysis theory on the commons and environmental governance, we construct a framework for analyzing the relationship between institutional design and public participation in river basin planning and these factors impacts on this type of planning. This study examines the management of Japans Watershed Committees, which were established by the amendment of the River Law in 1997. In Japan, rivers governance had traditionally been highly state-centered, especially after World War II. Because of such technocratic governance, residents along rivers experienced alienation. This caused serious conflicts between residents and bureaucrats over river development projects such as dam construction, and local communities and the environment were both adversely affected. To cope with this situation, a new public participation procedure was introduced in the River Law of 1997. Based on this amendment, several Watershed Committees were established during the planning process for each river. Here, we analyze the Watershed Committees quantitatively, based on the institutional analysis theory mentioned above. First, we construct a dataset describing the institutional design of the Watershed Committees, types of public participation, and established river plans for 109 Class-A rivers. This dataset is then used for multiple-regression analysis to explore the relationship between institutional design, public participation, and planning consequences. This analysis thus helps identify some of the implications of institutional design and public participation for the purposes of developing more sustainable watershed governance."
Privatization of Commons: Impacts on Traditional Users of Provisioning and Cultural Ecosystem Services
(2013) Unnikrishnan, Hita; Nagendra, Harini
"The city of Bangalore, India, is well known for its extensive network of lakes, traditionally managed as commons. Although owned by plural state authorities, often with overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities, they still are accessed by a variety of communities who influence their access and management, thus forming operational commons. Today, many of these lakes have been lost or degraded due to the pressures of urbanization. In recent years, an experiment with decentralizing management of lakes to private stakeholders was carried out through Public Private Partnership (PPP) models. This change in management meant state led reclamation of commons through restricted access to ecosystem services. Though widely critiqued by civil society and legal machinery, it continues to be operational in three lakes. Using these lakes to understand the impact of privatization on ecosystem use in urban commons, this paper evaluates differences in land and resource use, by comparing the three privatized (converted commons) with adjacent, non-privatized lakes (managed as community commons). We contrast land use patterns seen within a hundred meter radius around each lake. We then map the provisioning and cultural uses of these lake ecosystems that are managed using different institutional approaches. The perceptions of users regarding the services provided by each category of lake ecosystems have also been evaluated. Our results indicate that lakes constituting operational commons support greater diversity of traditional livelihoods and non-commercial uses compared to privatized lakes. Greater pressures of urbanization with pronounced inequities in housing distribution were observed along the privatized lakes. This study indicates the possible negative implications of privatization in impacting the diversity of traditional ecosystem services provided by commons in this inland city. It also suggests that privatization appears an incomplete solution, one with potential to exacerbate existing inequities in social access to urban ecological services in the global South."
High Use Value Common Resource for Equity and Sustainability: The Experience of Groundwater Regulation and Management from Andhra Pradesh, India
(2013) Chandrappagari, Suvarna
"Groundwater has the attributes of extremely high use value common resource with feasibility for private access. In India, groundwater is treated as de facto private property since land and water rights are linked as per Indian Easements Act of 1882, hence often resulting in over exploitation and inequity in its access. The Andhra Pradesh (AP) state with about 900 mm average annual rain fall and 85% of the area underlain by hard rock formations has 143 over-exploited and critical ground water assessment units out of 1229 as per 2008-2009 assessment for groundwater estimation. Groundwater irrigated area crossed 50 per cent of the total irrigated area. Competitive drilling of bore wells at closer spacing led to well interference, failure of functional wells, lowered yields and groundwater over-extraction. Moreover, social equity issues in accessing and utilizing groundwater water became a major concern for the state. The paper discusses the ground water situation in India with special reference to Andhra Pradesh, existing and proposed legal provisions, policy issues, possibility for collective action, experience of implementing various participatory groundwater management practices by the state and NGOs with special focus on comprehensive land development programme with focus on equity issues, and the outcomes arising out of the experience. Information available with the state government, third party evaluation studies and other sources of literature are used for analyzing the relevant details. The paper concludes that as long as water rights are linked to land, sharing and networking of wells through coordinated participatory groundwater management by combining social and formal regulations besides building capacities of farmers is the best option to achieve equity. The paper strongly recommends for revisiting the legal systems also keeping the sustainability and long term implications in view."
Common Resources and Public Lands in the Taming of the Kurobe River, 1920-1970
(2013) Dinmore, Eric G.
"The completion in 1963 of Japans 186-meter Kurobe No. 4 Dam served for many as occasion to celebrate the culmination of a decades-long process of taming the unruly Kurobe River of Toyama Prefecture for the greater public good. As mainstream accounts from this time of rapid economic growth construed it, the dam not only allowed electric utility companies to exploit the full hydroelectric potential of the Kurobe watershed, but it also promised a future of mass tourism in an alpine river valley that only mountaineers dared enter before the midtwentieth century. Today, Kurobe No. 4 is one of Japans largest energy projects and a tourist draw that lures one million visitors annually to the heart of Ch?bu Sangaku National Park. Behind this transformation of the Kurobe Valley into an "envirotechnical" system and popular destination lay a history of contending visions for water use that emerged after the areas earliest hydroelectric development in the 1920s. Debates revolved around fundamental questions relevant to studies of the commons: Whose, and what kind of, resource was the river? Who stood to benefit from the channeling of river water through dams toward national economic growth? Was the natural scenery of the upper Kurobe Valley a common cultural resource demanding state protection and the creation of national parkland? If so, how strict would such protection need to be? Finally, how would downstream valley residents, who used the river for irrigation, make their voice heard while outside interests maneuvered to dam it or cordon it off inside 'public' national parkland? This paper will provide some of the first research in English on these mid-century debates, and it will reveal the complex negotiations required as planners and developers attempted to harness the Kurobe and repurpose it to serve the modern nationstate."
Water Decline or Water Grab: Is Climate Change or Globalisation Drying Water Sources in Africa?
(2013) Rutten, Marcel
"Water is a basic need and an important catalyst for accelerating economic development in semi-arid areas. But an unseen emergency is continuing to unfold due to competition over water because of a deepening globalisation of agricultural production, changes in land tenure and population growth. The availability of water in semi-arid Kenya among Maasai pastoralists has been studied since the late 1980s. Initial success stories could be reported as a result of a mix of rapidly spreading water sources triggered by land tenure changes and a congruent effort to improve traditional water provision techniques, in particular shallow wells. Many Maasai pastoralists took up small scale cultivation which made them food secure and many left the ranks of the poor. In recent years these wells started drying. Several possible causes were studied including claims of climate change and competition from other water users. From 2005 onwards a growing number of shallow wells started to dry. Information of all boreholes and (nearly) dried shallow wells was recorded. The survey concluded that since the subdivision of group ranches (mid-1980s), land had become a commodity allowing new landowners to settle. In particular, the arrival of commercial agriculture resulted in the sinking of (too) many deep boreholes responsible for draining the aquifers. Indications are that the water table has fallen by over 50m in the last 10 years. This is an inconvenient truth for all stakeholders, but certainly the shallow well owners. Commercial (flower) farms own 32 boreholes causing the drying of some 100 wells by 2010. Lessons learned indicate that local communities face an uphill battle to safeguard water in an age of globalisation. Besides technological innovations decentralization of water governance is a first requisite to address these problems."
A Study of a Regeneration of Urban Commons Through the Nature Friendly River Management and 'Finding Home Place'
(2013) Kato, Masami; Takada, Tomoki; Umetsu, Kimio; Kuwako, Toshio
"The Nature Friendly River Management: NFRM is the present guideline of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan. It considers biota well growth environment a river originally has; conservation and creation of various natural landscapes; contemplation of the nature of the entire stream; and harmony with peoples lives, history and culture in the region. Some of the rivers in rural areas have been successfully restored by NFRM, and they help regenerate commons of the region. Zempuku-ji River, running through the central part of Tokyo, has been restored by NFRM, but restoration of the urban river seems not an easy challenge. Since urban rivers have been modified and yielded so much to man-made environments, people do not have many chances to closely feel and touch their local ecosystems. Although citizens participation is critically important process to build a consensus in order to lead a successful NFRM, not many people pay attention to urban rivers. This study focuses on two thoughts which use words Furusato or Home Place to share with various people. First, Ernest Callenbach, the author of ECOTOPIA, suggested that cities can be much more ecological and awareness of a sense of 'Home Place' is the first important step for city people to understand urban ecology. Second, Toshio Kuwako, a philosopher, proposes a method of 'Finding Home Place', a work shop in the field to lead participants to rediscover the historical and cultural values as well as problems of the region through it. A citizens group has been engaging to NFRM activities along Zempuku-ji River. There participate civil engineers, university professors and students, ecological and environmental activity groups and local community. This study examines NFRM in an urban river from two viewpoints of 'Home Place' to see whether their approaches are effective paths to regenerate urban commons."

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