land Article A New Life for Forest Resources: The Commons as a Driver for Economic Sustainable Development—A Case Study from Galicia María Bastida 1,* , Alberto Vaquero García 2 and Miguel Á.Vázquez Taín 3 1 Department of Business Organization and Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences, Campus of Santiago de Compostela, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15704 Santiago de Compostela, Spain 2 Department of Applied Economics, Faculty of Business Sciences and Tourism, Campus of Ourense, University of Vigo, 32004 Ourense, Spain;
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[email protected] Abstract: Communal forests are a unique land tenure system and comprise a singular legal category in Galicia. Their persistence over time demonstrates that this community-owned resource has overcome the “tragedy of the commons”, showing their capability to successfully develop self- governing institutions. However, communal forests have rarely been studied through the lens of economics. This minimizes the opportunity to explore to what extent communities of communal forests might be a driving force of general well-being, citizen empowerment, equity, employment, and local development. In this paper, we focus on this gap and address the opportunities. We detail this special ownership structure that allows residents of rural areas to exploit the forest as if they were a single owner. Moreover, we highlight the potential of communal forests to exploit local resources Citation: Bastida, M.; Vaquero far beyond extractive processes, enabling the generation of greater added value to the economy while García, A.; Vázquez Taín, M.Á.