Digital Library of the Commons

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 196

Government Intervention into Saami Reindeer-Management in Norway: Has it Prevented or Provoked 'Tragedy of the Commons'?
(1995) Berg, Bard A.
"In this paper I have nevertheless chosen to follow Otar Brox's recommendation: To apply the CPT as a constructed, analytical tool (while always having the problem mentioned above in the back of my mind). The test of this tool must obviously be whether it can be used a) to detect and explain important empirical differences, or b) to construct viable practical solutions to real problems of a 'commons'. "Being a Saami, working for a Saami research institute, I might be expected to use the CPT to advocate Saami reindeer-management interests. I do not consider my scientific findings 'objective' (in a Weberian sense), and I accept that my reasons for doing research in this particular field, my choice of methods, interview objects etc. to a large extent depends on the fact that I am a Saami, and wish to do research that gains my people."
Review of Five Student Papers
(1995) Low, Bobbi S.
Papers reviewed include: (1) Dulcey L. Simpkins, Land Trusts: Common Pool Resources Face A Capitalist Context; (2) Melinda L. Graham, The Farmers Market Of Ann Arbor, Michigan: A Contemporary Urban Common Property Regime; (3) Christopher E. Morrow and Rebecca Watts Hull, Cofyal: The Rise And Fall Of An Indigenous Forestry Cooperative; (4) Mary Mitsos, The Breakdown Of The Commons And The Loss Of Saami Culture; (5) William D. Leach, Applying Common Property Theory To Suburban Resource Systems.
Reindeer Economics and Their Transformations
(1995) Sara, Anders
"In my introduction I intend to present a very short explanation of the reindeer economics in view of historical states, the undergoing changes in the past, today's situation and maybe as a reinvention process.My discussion intends to bring into focus issues related to 'reinventing the commons' in 'Saami' perspective. The headline notation and inverted commas reflects the idea that something is getting lost simultaneously within the ongoing modernization process."
Herding the Coastal Commons; Or How to Manage Cod as Livestock
(1995) Aarset, Bernt
"During the last 20 years explicit management of marine fish stocks has become ubiquitous for fisheries nations across the world. Fisheries management is concerned with the transformation of scientific advice on optimum sustainable yield into functional policy through direct control of harvesting intensity and pattern. Stock enhancement is a logical extension of this idea. Here one tries to increase the output of a given stock by supplementing reared juveniles when natural recruitment is low, or by channeling more of the energy flow through desired species. In this paper I will discuss institutional and organizational problems that must be solved if the enhancement is going to be transformed from an interesting idea to practical reality."
Optimality, Sub-optimality, Nirvana, and Transaction Costs Foraging on the Commons
(1995) Feeny, David
Published as Feeny, David, "Sub-Optimality and Transaction Costs on the Commons," in Edna Tusak Loehman and D. Marc Kilgour (eds.), Designing Institutions for Environmental and Resource Management (Cheltenham, Edward Elgar Publishing, Ltd., 1998), 124-141. "Much of the literature on the management of common-property resources is focused directly or indirectly on enhancing the evidential basis for the formulation of policy. Therefore the assessment of the effects of a variety of factors, including institutional arrangements, on outcomes associated with the exploitation of common-property resources is a common theme. "But how do we measure outcomes? How do we know how well we are doing? A number of relevant categories of outcome measures have been proposed or used in literature. Prominent among these are measures of economic efficiency, equity, and sustainability (see for instance Berkes, Feeny, McCay, and Acheson 1989; Feeny, Berkes, McCay, and Acheson 1990; Feeny 1992; Norgaard 1992; Oakerson 1992; Ostrom 1992; Ostrom, Gardner, and Walker 1994; Rothenberg). Each of these categories includes a diversity of measures and indicators. "A large number of challenging issues arise in selecting outcome measures including the choice of viewpoint from which to assess outcomes, time horizon, choice of normative system, measurement properties of the indicators selected (including reliability, reproducibility, validity, and responsiveness), and practical implementability of the indicators. For the most part, I will ignore these difficult issues. "To simplify the analysis, without implying any lack of legitimacy to alternative viewpoints (or special legitimacy to the viewpoint selected), I am going to assume an anthropocentric viewpoint. An outcome that matters is human welfare. I am assuming that a fundamental objective in managing common-property resources is to enhance the welfare of human beings [[florin]] both current and future generations. "Again without implying any lack of legitimacy for equity and sustainability as measures of outcome, I will focus my attention on the use of economic efficiency as an indicator of outcome."
Ownership Transformations in Polish Agriculture
(1995) Korzycka-Iwanow, Malgorzata
From Introduction: "During the period of communist regime, Polish agriculture retained domination of private ownership of land, whereby 3/4 of total arable land remained in private hands. The remainder was used mostly by State-owned farms and, to a lesser extent, by agricultural cooperatives. "The regional structure of farmland ownership in Poland is quite diversified. There exist regions with extreme comminution of farms and those where large, State-owned farms dominate. Structural transformations in farms depend mainly on the overall growth of the economy and, in particularly, on the ability of people employed so-far in agriculture, to undertake employment in other sectors. "Polish intervening policy includes, besides actions bearing market type features, also those ventures which intend to improve agrarian structure. The key to structural changes taking place is found in the widely taken economic environment; however, current macroeconomic conditions to not stimulate changes in this respect."
Who Should Have a Voice in Management of Local Marine Resources? Some Comments on the Common Property Debates and the Decision of Co-Management Institutions for North Norwegian Fjord Fisheries
(1995) Eythorsson, Einar
"Formalized self-management of the cod-fisheries in Lofoten was established by law in 1897, along with some local regulations in the North-Norwegian fjords. In 1959, the fjord regulations were delegated to the regional branches of the Fishers Union. "Today, it is no longer self-evident that local management should be an exclusive domain of the Fisheries Department and the Fishers Union. Traditional fjord fishing, which used to be the main component of the economical adaptation of coast-sami communities, is in decline. At the same time, the discourse on local management is changing, partly as a result of modernization processes in rural communities, growth of aquaculture and recreational fishing. Salmon farming, and domestication of marine species demands appropriation of common sea-space. Moreoever, ethnic mobilization among the Coast Sami has changed the agenda, as the Sami Parliament claims native rights on behalf of Sami fjord fishers. "The scientific discourse is also changing, as the Fisheries Research Institute in Tromso has made research on fjord ecosystems a priority. Marine biologists have come to believe that cod and haddock in these areas belong to local spawning stocks, which could be managed separately. Environmental conservation is becoming an issue in local fisheries management. A task force has forwarded a conservation plan for marine areas, in order to protect vital biotopes in fjord-ecosystems. Management is thus becoming increasingly complex, with new lines of conflict and disparate interest-groups. The challenge is how to integrate the concerns of conservation, ethnopoltics, aquaculture, recreation, and commercial fishing. However, lessons from existing management practices should be useful in a process of designing a new co-management system for the fjords."
Te Tiriti/Treaty, Power and the Fish: The Dynamics of Dispossession
(1995) Dawson, Richard
"This paper gives one interpretation of the politico-economic evolution of the fisheries in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The focus is on the Crown's failure to give effect to its guarantee to Iwi (ribes) of 'te tino rangatiratanga [...] o ratau toanga katoa' (the highest chieftainship of prized possessions) and 'full exclusive and undisturbed possession' of their fisheries promised in Te Tiriti/Treaty. Section 1 outlines the way in which the Maori and Pakeha parties to the contests are perceived and identified. Section 2 states how the contests may be framed, albeit with some difficulty, in Euro-centric politico-economic terms of rights and property. Section 3 fives a broad outline of the significance of fish in traditional Iwi life. Section 4 presents a sequence of events preceding Te Tiriti/Treaty so as to illuminate the circumstances and various possible reasons, motivations, and intentions, which led to Te Tiriti/Treaty. Section 5 examines aspects of the two texts of Te Tiriti/Treaty and the process whereby signatures were sought. Section 6 provides an account of various post-Te Tiriti/TReaty power contests up until the mid-to-late 1860s. Finally, Section 7 looks at the evolving status of Te Tiriti/Treaty fishing rights."
The Alaska Community Development Program
(1995) Ginter, Jay J. C.
"In December 1992, about 20 fishing vessels harvested nearly 98,000 metric tons of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) from the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) area off Alaska, USA. This relatively small and short-duration fishery was unique amongst other commercial marine fisheries off Alaska in that it occurred during a time when the normal open-access fishery for pollock was closed. Fishing for pollock in the Bering Sea was prohibited since mid-September that year. Why were these vessels given special privileges to harvest the United States' (US') public resource of pollock, and who were the beneficiaries? "These questions would be a mystery to a person unfamiliar with recent US federal fisheries management policy off Alaska. To many Alaskans, and especially to those who live on the west or Bering Sea coast of Alaska, however, the answers are clear. The vessels harvesting pollock in the Bering Sea in December 1992, were the first to fish under the new Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program for pollock. "In brief, the regulations implementing the CDQ program establish a CDQ reserve from 7.5 percent of the annual total allowable catch (TAG) of pollock. The CDQ reserve is allocated to community organizations that have an approved Community Development Plan. Each community organization may harvest its allocation itself or may contract with a non-CDQ firm for harvesting services. Although CDQ fishing must be done in compliance with all applicable state and federal regulations, CDQ fishing may occur after the open access quota has been caught and that fishery is closed. This gives the CDQ organizations the potential of supplying the market with pollock products, for example, pollock roe, when supplies may be low and values high. A CDQ organization is responsible for managing its own fishing operations in accordance with its community development plan and must not exceed its CDQ allocation. Revenues from CDQ fishing operations are used by a CDQ organization to pay for its operational costs and to achieve the goals of its development plan. The State of Alaska and the National Marine Fisheries Service administer the CDQ program. "This is the CDQ program in a nutshell. The most interesting part of the CDQ story is not yet told, however. The social, economic, and biological effects of the CDQ program are just now being investigated by others (Pete, 1995; DCRA, 1995, Lind and Terry, 1995). To what extent are the CDQ organizations achieving their respective development objectives? Should CDQ allocations be stopped when development objectives are attained? Are CDQ fisheries less costly to manage than open access fisheries? Systematic answers to these questions are beyond the scope of this paper, unfortunately, but further research may indicate whether CDQ-like management systems are viable fisheries management tools. My perspective today is limited to that of a government fisheries manager, responsible in part for the administration of the program. I will describe more fully the CDQ pollock fishery, the CDQ organizations, and our experience with the CDQ program to date. I will conclude with my own unscientific views of the benefits and costs of the program and potential for future expansion of CDQ allocations."
Fisheries Management in Post-Communist Poland: Prospects of User-Group Participation
(1995) Marciniak, Boguslaw; Jentoft, Svein
**Paper was subsequently published as "Burning Bridges? Polish Fisheries Co-operatives in Times of Transition" in Maritime Anthropological Studies (MAST), 4(2):72-86. "In the wake of the transition from communism to capitalism, the structure of the Polish fishing industry radically changed. The heavy-weight state fisheries sector is dismantled and privatized. Privatization also left the co-operative sector isolated and vulnerable. Without government support and with their confederative institutions abolished, their role as co-manager was severely limited relative to the situation that prevailed under communist rule. The small scale private sector, while obtaining more freedom under the new regime, still suffers from minimal fish-quotas and lack of government assistance. "To become influential in fisheries management Polish fishermen are in need of collective organizations that can broker their concerns and interests vis-a-vis government, and they have experiences from traditional institutions to draw upon. In some communities along the Baltic coast, the traditional (pre World War II) forms of co-management institutions - the so-called 'maschoperias' - still exists. What are the prospects of revitalization of these traditional management institutions now that the state sector has vanished and the co-operative sector is near to collapsing? What conditions, external as well as internal to their communities, may enhance the role 'maschoperias' in Polish fisheries management? The data presented in this paper is gathered from fishing communities and 'maschoperias' in Kashubian region of Baltic Poland."

Filters

Settings

Sort By

Results per page

Search Results