Digital Library of the Commons

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Comparing Forest Commons in Norway and Sweden Part I: What is to be Compared
(1996) Berge, Erling
"The paper will outline the history and legal foundation of a property rights regime to natural resources in Norway called 'Bygde Commons.' It will be contrasted with a different system of 'State Commons' and with the system in Sweden."
Decentralization and REDD+ in Brazil
(2011) Toni, Fabiano
"Recent discussions on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, plus conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) have raised optimism about reducing carbon emissions and deforestation in tropical countries. If approved under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), REDD+ mechanisms may generate a substantial influx of financial resources to developing countries. Some authors argue that this money could reverse the ongoing process of decentralization of forest policies that has spread through a large number of developing countries in the past two decades. Central states will be accountable for REDD+ money, and may be compelled to control and keep a significant share of REDD+ funds. Supporters of decentralization argue that centralized implementation of REDD+ will be ineffective and inefficient. In this paper, I examine the relation between subnational governments and REDD+ in Brazil. Data show that some state governments in the Brazilian Amazon have played a key role in creating protected areas (PAs) after 2003, which helped decrease deforestation rates. Governors have different stimuli for creating PAs. Some respond to the needs of their political constituency; others have expectations to boost the forest sector so as to increase fiscal revenues. Governors also have led the discussion on REDD+ in Brazil since 2008. Considering their interests and political power, REDD+ is unlikely to curb decentralization in Brazil."
Handmade Paper Value-Chain of Nepal: Prospects and Challenges in Growth, Distributional Equity and Conservation
(2006) Subedi, Bhishma P.; Binayee, Surya; Gyawali, Sushil
"This study examines the access of the actors along the value-chain of handmade paper markets in Nepal. The access has been found to be influenced not only by the existing policy provisions and implementation practices but also other factors including community structure, institutions, technology, finance, markets, knowledge and social relations. The industry has the potential to link thousands of rural poor into a remunerative value-chain providing economic incentives for sustainable harvesting, good governance and equity. The analysis of the growth and dynamics of this industry and existence of various innovative business practices shows a huge potential to improve the access of rural poor to Lokta resource, markets, technology, knowledge and finance, and in turn increase their productivity and income. Specific recommendations are made to improve policy and natural resources management and distributional equity, reduce poverty and promote good governance, while maintaining the growth of the industry."
Plantations in the Sahel
(1981) Keita, J. D.
"The Sahel is threatened with a medium-term ecological crisis that stems mainly from bad agricultural and pastoral practices. Faced with this crisis - which includes serious shortages of fuelwood for household needs - foresters have reacted by establishing plantations of exotic species of trees for fuelwood needs. These plantations are designed to be set up and maintained with machinery for clearing land and working the soil. Machinery will have to be imported and the machines in turn will require imported fuel, all to be paid for with scarce foreign exchange. The question is, will not Sahelian forestry consume too much energy for the sake of creating energy? It is not a simple question to answer. Its answer, which this article attempts to give, may also be useful beyond the Sahel, anywhere in the world where similar ecological, economic and human factors exist in combination."
The Ginseng Commons of West Virginia
(2010) Bollier, David
"Folklife and landscape in southern West Virginia."
Geographical Factors and Efficiency of Institutional Forms in Forest Utilization
(1989) Agrawal, Arun
From Introduction: "In this paper, I will attempt to provide a theoretical justification for the proposition that collective management of forest resources by villagers in certain ecological environments under certain management objectives will be more efficient than private or government management and control of these resources.After all, at the heart of the debate on whether villagers can collectively protect their forest resources is the question of efficient management of these resources. I will use stylized facts from secondary sources to construct the ecological environment that I am interested in investigating. While this particular imaginary situation may not exist in reality, it will describe significant and relevant characteristics of large areas in the Middle Himalayas. Although existing case studies describe these features, usually in detail, they often fail to appreciate the manner in which these features mesh together."
The Commons Dilemma: A Quantitative Review
(1990) Hine, Donald W.
"Commons delimmas involve a conflict between individual and group interests with respect to the management of limited shared resources. Many of the most serious problems facing mankind (e.g. the greenhouse effect, the destruction of South American rainforests, ocean pollution etc.) can be recast in commons dilemma terms. Within psychology, the bulk of commons dilemma research has focused on identifying factors that increase cooperation among consumers (and hence resource management efficiency) of shared resources."
Maps, Metaphors, and Meanings: Boundary Struggles and Village Forest Use on Private and State Land in Malawi
(2000) Walker, Peter A.; Peters, Pauline E.
"Recent studies have begun to closely examine social and cultural perceptions of spatial relationships, with particular attention to contests over boundaries. Counter mapping has emerged as a technique to represent local claims, but this approach creates tension between efforts to empower social groups and recognition that Western cartographic methods may inadequately represent complex socio-spatial ideas among non-Western peoples. Specifically, whereas recent studies emphasize contests over the legitimacy or location of boundaries, this paper presents case studies from Malawi illustrating equally important non -territorial contests over the meanings , the de facto rules and practices of boundaries. Complex strategies, embedded in local history and culture, have emerged involving efforts to untie resource rights from territorial claims. These strategies, which effectively seek to create a kind of de facto commons for specific resources on private and state land, would be poorly represented or even obscured by mapping efforts focused on (re-)drawing linear boundaries. This suggests a need for critical examination of the use of mapping and map metaphors in social analysis and practice."
Inequalities in the Commons: Gender, Class and Caste in Common Property Regimes: A Case from Nepal
(1998) Nightingale, Andrea
"Common property regimes have been shown to help alleviate inequalities within communities by providing all members access to common pool resources. In addition, many common property regimes have managed specific resources over long periods of time without degrading the resource base. These two qualities have led to increasing recognition that common property regimes offer more sustainable alternatives compared to private property regimes. Environmental and social sustainablity are interconnected given that environmental costs must be eventually paid, and environmental destruction often has the greatest impact on the poorest segments of society. Common property regimes can promote the development of sustainable societies through resource sharing but the internal dynamics of these regimes must be examined. Common property regimes can be the site of gender, class and caste struggles. These struggles can lead to unequal power sharing in management decisions, even when all stake holders participate in the decision making process. The unequal nature of this process can lead to non-compliance. Both the scale and the ecological impact of non-compliance need further systematic investigation. The success of common property regimes may be related to their ability to tolerate some non-compliance but social and ecological limits to that flexibility exist. This paper presents a case study from northwestern Nepal to illustrate these issues and to ask questions that arise from the examples. Understanding these inequalities and how they structure both the common property regime and the management decisions made within the regime are critical if one is interested in promoting similar institutions in other parts of the world or for other common pool resources."
Perspectives of Effective and Sustainable Community-based Natural Resource Management: An Application of Q Methodology to Forest Projects
(2011) Gruber, James S.
"Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) has been recognised as an effective governance approach for sustainably managing commons or common-pool resources. Yet there is limited empirical research on answering the critical question: What are the principles and key characteristics that are needed to ensure long-term effective and sustainable CBNRM programmes? The research described here helps answer this question. For the first phase of this research, multiple perspectives from research teams were collected and organised into a matrix of 12 organisational principles and 60 key characteristics. These were then vetted using a large published collection of World Bank CBNRM case studies. The second phase of this research included site visits and the use of Q-sort methodology to understand the perspectives of a range of constituency groups associated with three successful forestry CBNRM sites. These sites are located in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania, Randolph, New Hampshire, and Ixtl?n de Ju?rez, Oaxaca, Mexico. The findings, based on conducting principle component multi-variable analysis of the sociological and organisational data, point to four unique perspectives of what is essential for effective governance of their common-pool resources. There were also a number of areas of consensus across all four sites. Some of these findings transcend cultural differences, while others are directly associated with specific local conditions and cultural characteristics."

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