Digital Library of the Commons

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Common Property, Ethnicity, and Social Exploitation in the Ziz Valley, Southeast Morocco
(1995) Ilahiane, Hsain
"Contrary to much of the accumulated scholarship on indigenous resource management institutions in various parts of the developing world, this paper argues that common resources or property management in the small-scale irrigation communities of the Ziz Valley paints a complex historical situation where ethnicity, power, and religious ideology are employed to exploit the lower social classes. One of the essential claims of this paper is that sustainable and robust long enduring common property institutions can also exist in conflict-ridden and exploitation based communities and that just rules or the concept of law as understood in the West can not be applied to understand some components of common property management in the developing world."
Management of Drinking Water in Arid Region: Community Action in Rural Rajasthan
(1995) Menaria, Rajendra
"Community management of natural resources has been an essential part of life pattern in arid region of Rajasthan. Scattered population in small hamlets, dhanles and majras renders it difficult for the Government to provide drinking water in every locality. The village community has successfully managed to survive and cope with scanty, erratic rainfall and low ground water table. However, the recent trend of increasing population pressure and depleting common property resources necessitates active involvement and cooperation between local community and the Government. In isolation it will not be able to survive because of population pressure and resource depletion. In the desert region, drinking of water is available through rainfall (average annual rainfall being as low as 5 mm) or through ground water resources. The rain water is stored and conserved in common ponds and reservoirs. These are maintained by the villagers, each family contributes in pre-monsoon cleaning and repairing tasks of water channels, ponds and reservoirs. This water is sufficient for two, three months in post-monsoon season. For the remaining months, villagers depend on village wells for drinking water. Such wells are very few and far between. In recent years, management of water from such sources has been done by the village community. Water supply schemes have not been launched in such remote villages. The village community renovate, repair and maintain such wells by group participation. As water table has gone deeper, water cannot be manually drawn. Thus, the village elders have given a contract to Diesel Pump owner, who operates the pump daily for specified hours. Families take water from the pump side tank. Animals also drink from a separate point. Each family contributes water charges proportionally to pay the contractor. The initiative to manage own water supply by villagers and readiness to share the cost must be extended to Government operated water supply schemes so as to make the same viable and sustainable."
Decision-making Processes in the Management of Coastal Commons: Case Studies from the Caribbean
(1995) Thebaud, Olivier; Renard, Yves
"The paper focuses on Coastal Zone Management issues in the small Caribbean islands of Martinique and Saint-Lucia, and underlines the importance of understanding decision-making processes in the implementation of collective measures to regulate the access to and use of coastal resources. The two islands appear to face similar problems linked to the increase and diversification of the demand for these resources. Multiple activities, particularly tourism and leisure activities, have developed in recent years, both on land and at sea, together with growing urbanization and the concentration of communication infrastructures in the sea shore. Despite new and strengthened public regulations, there appears to be an increase in the number of conflictual situations, and a growing need for more efficient collective management of the coastal areas. "Reference is made to a study led in Martinique in 1993 under an IFREMER (Institut Francais de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer) research programme concerning coastal conflicts analysis, and to the work done by CANARI (Caribbean Natural Resources Institute) in both the analysis of conflicts and the provision of assistance in the definition of a regional management program for the district of Soufriere in Saint-Lucia. In the case of Martinique, the study showed that effective management of coastal areas as public property on the island did not result of integrated decision making, more or less efficiently implemented through a single decision-maker's actions, but rather of simultaneous interactions between different actors involved in coastal use. This has led to situations of free access and conflicts, which are managed through locally devised, collective regulation systems, following general public land management principles. The case of Soufriere, where a specific institutions integrating local activities into a collective regulation system was created, gives an illustration of the negotiation process and problems encountered in the tackling the establishment of practical rules of access to and use of coastal resources."
Managing Common Groundwater Resources: The Case of the Netherlands
(1995) Glasbergen, Pieter; Verbeeten, Tanja
"This article explores the loss of biodiversity in terms of human interventions. We highlight how this process is related to human activities that affect the water table. At the same tune, we suggest ways to approach this problem and perhaps to solve it. "We perceive the problem as one of 'common pool resources' (CPR). This perspective seems appropriate, since groundwater can be classified as a renewable common natural resource. In view of its limited capacity for regeneration, groundwater is a natural resource for which the exploitation should be regulated. "The capacity for regeneration of this resource has been stretched to its limits for decades. The natural recharge of groundwater in the Netherlands is smaller than the amount used. This does not pose an immediate problem to the active interests such as the water supply companies, industry, and agriculture. For these users, the shortage is not acute. "We are dealing with a special CPR problem. It is special hi the sense that exploitation of this resource is considered detrimental to the passive interests. In other words, the problem lies in the negative impact on nature. "In order to preserve and restore biodiversity, a policy has been formulated with reference to the CPR groundwater. Groundwater is considered to be a scarce commodity because of its critical role in conservation. Recognition of this passive, immaterial interest prompts the active interests to adapt their behavior."
Current Forest and Water Policies in India: Some Facts and Appraisal
(1995) Sengupta, Nirmal
"By now common property relations are considered not only viable, but also a desirable form of property for natural resource management. This has led to many development efforts. The emerging common property institutions are far different from the traditional local formations and have wider economic}, even global relevance's. Newer issues have come up, in the area of control and ownership, in mode of participation, in fairness criteria in distribution etc. On the one hand there is the question of perpetuating the traditional rights. On the other, there is the possibility of more widespread distribution of the benefits of common property resources and of improving the quality of rural life over a wider area. The choice is not merely ethical but also of management ; the suitable alternative forms must be viable and sustainable, probably also productively efficient."
History of the Irrigation, the Constitution of Water Rights and the Role of the State and Peasants' Communities in Ecuadorean Andes
(1995) Ruf, Thierry; Gilot, Luc
"The subject of the paper is the constitution of water rights in the Ecuadorian Andes mountains, looking at all the history of water conflicts from colonial times to now, when the state begin to privatize the old systems of irrigation."
Local and External Support Services in Farmer-Managed Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Implications for Performance Enhancement
(1995) Shivakoti, Ganesh P.
"Farmer-Managed Irrigation Systems (FMIS) in Nepal are not restricted to small units. Irrigation systems may be less than one hectare while farmer-managed systems as large as 15,000 hectare sizes have been identified. There are a total of 16,700 FMIS in Nepal. During the past few years many agencies (both governmental and non-governmental) have started either providing a modest level of support services or are trying to coordinate with relevant agencies to make provision for providing essential services. The level and types of support services vary with the agencies involved. The paper examines different processes and intensities of interventions in providing support services to FMIS in Nepal. Systematic and comparative analysis of 18 FMIS under intervention programs of 15 different agencies were included to assess the impacts of intervention. The aim was to explore ways and means of assisting numerous FMIS, located in different parts of the country, in order to improve the performance of irrigated agriculture. The variables included in the analysis were: policy and institutional environment for support services, process of providing support services, cost sharing criteria, basis of resource mobilization and resulting changes in agricultural performance upon intervention. While some processes of interventions were found effective, the impacts of others were found either less effective or negative. Several issues pertaining to intervention process and irrigation performance pertaining to FMIS were identified. The paper draws on policy implications on providing institutional support for improvement of performance of FMIS in Nepal."
Coastal Resource Management: Institutions and Conflict Avoidance
(1995) Fingleton, Paul; MacCann, Sarah; Whelan, Brendan
"This study is investigating the potential for sustainable development of the coastal zone through sectoral integration. A fundamental part of this investigation involves the examination of policies and attitudes which govern the exploitation of the resource, from local to international levels. One case study examines these factors as they relate to one specific coastal area. The second looks at one specific species of fish, the Atlantic Salmon. "This fish has previously been exploited at every opportunity from its feeding grounds to the spawning rivers. Mounting pressures have in recent years caused many fisheries to cease to intercept these migratory fish. In Ireland the practice continues and it is now the Irish home drift net fishery which presents the biggest obstacle to returning fish. This fishery receives significant indirect funding from sources including the EC. Other less obvious factors which adversely affect the species such as water pollution and sedimentation arise as a result of land based developments in industry, agriculture and urban development -- often financially assisted by the EU. It is this kind of conflict which this study is identifying with the aim of finding means by which they may be resolved."
Transfer of Irrigation Management: An Experiment and an Assessment
(1995) Khouzam, Raouf F.
"Availability of adequate irrigation water at the right time is a main constraint on both vertical and horizontal agriculture expansion in Egypt. To rlax that constraint, the Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources (MPWWR) have adopted four main approaches to: structural works, enforced rationing, cost recovery, and management transfer. The first is the most expensive. Considerable funds are being allocated by both the Egyptian government and foreign donors to rehabilitate and improve the system and its management. The Irrigation Management System (IMS) is a notable example of such efforts. "In addition to the rehabilitation huge funds, the operation cost is in increase year after another; in 1974-76, it ranged from LE 45 to 54 million (Cuddihy, 1980). In 1990/91-1993/94, it increased from LE 254 to 807 million (MOF, n.d.). That burden has risen with the liberalization of the Egyptian economy. Irrigation water was used to be charged for implicitly through price and quantity controls of the agriculture sector. Currently, with the liberalization process controls have been lifted. Since then, water is truly provided free. Subsequently, the government financial burden has increased tremendously. "Management transfer (MT; the main theme of this paper) and cost-recovery (CR) are two approaches to followed to reduce MPWWR financial burden. MT merits qualify it as a powerful solution to many of the irrigation-related issues. Nonetheless, those merits should not delude decision makers. Inadequate planning or deficient design could turn out destructive to the whole agriculture region. It is, thus, imperative, in the light of the absence of a well documented body of knowledge on the subject matter, that specialists exchange experiences. "This paper analyses MT model that has been applied in an Egyptian region. Farmers attitudes towards the model are investigated and analyzed. Lessons are derived. Qualifications that minimize MT failure are proposed. The following two sections describe the study area and the applied model with farmers attitudes summarized in a text box. Based on farmers'attitudes and other literature. Section III introduces aspects to be considered in MT design."
Chaos on the Commons: Considering the Implications of Nonequilibrium Theory for Common Property Research
(1995) Morgan, Betty
"The rapidly emerging 'new science' of nonequilibrium systems theory may offer common property researchers and scholars an exciting alternative ontology from which to consider the development, behavior and efficacy of common property systems. Deriving from the dynamical holism of quantum physics, nonequilibrium theory engages the spontaneity, chaos, interrelatedness and interconnectedness of complex natural systems, such as common property regimes, and considers these system behaviors temporally. Viewing system evolution, or iteration, in this way permits researchers to assess the entire range of system behavior from episodes of equilibrium to episodes of chaotic or unpredictable behavior which suggest that the system is self-organizing and adapting to environmental stimuli. This study explores the connections between common property scholarship and the recent theoretical developments in nonequilibrium analysis. Using the Navaho Indian Irrigation Project as a case study, this paper explores the aspects of nonequilibrium theory which may be instructive in an expanded vision of common property research. Nonequilibrium theory holds that the behavior of all natural systems, of which human systems such as common property regimes are clearly a part, can be understood differently, and more completely when the tools and concepts of nonequilibrium theory are employed. After presenting the theoretical elements of nonequilibrium theory, the paper turns to an examination of the developmental history of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project from a nonequilibrium perspective. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of nonequilibrium theory for common property research scholarship."

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