Common Poet Reoucemnaemn
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PROCEEDLNGSt TV k CONFRENC COMMON POET REOUCEMNAEMN Not --. Ob i .- ... PROCEEDINGS of the CONFERENCE on COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCE MANAGEMENT April 21-26, 1985 Prepared by Panel on Common Property Resource Management Board on Science and Technology for International Development Office of International Affairs National Research Council Washington, D.C., 1986 National Academy Press NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report wa; approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are dri.:n from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their spe'ial competences and with regard for appropriate balance. This report hA-ibeen reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's pur poses of furthering knowledge and of advising the federal government. The Council operates in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy under the authority of its congressional charter of 1863, which establishes the Academy as a private, nonprofit, self-governing membership corporation. The Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in the conduct of their services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. It is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. The National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine were established in 1964 and 1970, respectively, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences. These proceedings have been pLepared by the Board on Science and Technology for International Development, Office of International Affairs, National Research Ceouncil, funded by the Agency for International Development under Grant No. DAN-5433-6-5-55-4059-O0/R, the Ford Foundation under Grants No. 8550436 and 8550436A, and the World Wildlife Fund under Grant No. 6043/R. Copies available from: Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418 USA ISBN 0-309-04258-5 Library of Congress Catalog t rd No. 86-636-60 Second Printing, July 1987 i1 Panel on Common Property Resource Management DANIEL W. BROMLEY, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Chairman DAVID H. FEENY, Department of Economics and Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada JERE L. GILLES, Department of Rural Sociology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, U.S.A. WILLIAM T. GLADSTONE, Southern and International Forestry Research, Weyerhaeuser Company, Hot Springs, Arkansas, U.S.A. BARBARA J. LAUSCHE, World Wildlife Fund, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. MARGARET A. McKEAN, Department of Political Science, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A. RONALD J. CAKERSON, Advisory Commission on Intergovern mental Relations, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. ELINOR OSTROM, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomin4 ton, Indiana, U.S.A. PAULINE E. PETERS, Department of Anthropology and Institute for inteinatic al Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. C. FORD RUNGE, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A. JAMES T. THOMSON, Associates in Rural Development, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF JEFFREY A. GRITZNER, Senior Program Officer F. R. RUSKIN, Editor IRENE MARTINEZ, Program Assistant iii FOREWORD M. S. Swaminathan People dependent upon renewable natural resources have evolved ways of managing them properly. When they have failed to do so, the people, the resources, or both have disappeared. Communities have developed such institution alized forms of control as irrigation councils in southern Asia, forest-cutting controls in Nepal, wildlife utiliza tion taboos and regulations in the Congo Basin, the hema system of pasture protection in Arabia, fishermen's indi genous associations in western and southern Asia, and land use mana.'ement for conservation in Zimbabwe. When practiced at the community level, this common property resource management has often been successful, or the resources would have vanished long since. In many places, these systems, or remnants of them, still exist. In others, the management systems are more recent but have been adapted from traditional practices of other cultures and have survived modernization. Examples of this sort are the Zanjera irrigation system in the Philippines and the Islamic practices relating to land use and water rights in West Africa. The papers in this volume, brought together as a result of an in-depth process of expert consultation and debate by the National Research Council, show an encouraging trend among academic people for this rediscovery of very old resource management practices and institutions existing among many communities. Even more than that, they show us as planners and development professionals that In many places these institutions are still alive. This is a hopeful sign, given the inability of many private and state level resource management systems to come to grips with the need for long-term sustainability of resource use issues. Restoring to the community the responsibility that was originally its own may be our only hope for the future v protection of our soil, water, fisheries, pastures, forests, and wildlife. M. S. Swaminathan Director General International Rice Research Institute and President International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources vi PREFACE Economic well-being throughout the world is directly related to the management and productivity of environmen tal systems. As indigenous social systems are transformed, economic emphases altered, and land-use patterns modified, human adaptations and regulatory mechanisms that earlier maintained the balance between man and his environment break down, and use of renewable resources can no longer be prudently asserted. However, drawing on the adaptations of the past, as well as on contemporary scientific insight, management systems can be improved so that the resources basic to the availability of food, fuel, fodder, and shelter can be restored and exploited on a sustainable basis. The note of urgency regarding issues of common property resource management emerged from a series of Jtudies and associated deliberations conducted by the National Research Council's Advisory Committee on the Sahel. The Council's Conference on Common Property Resource Management was undertaken to assess systematically differing institutional arrangements for the effective conservation and utilization of jointly managed resources. The members of the Panel on Common Property Resource Management, recognizing the global dimensions of the current environmental emergency, selected case studies drawn from four continents and a broad range of cultural and environmental settings. It is hoped that the background papers, case studies, and conclusions of the conference will contrDute substantively to efforts to rehabilitate and manage the soils, water resources, forests, rangelands, agricultural lands, and other jointly held resources that constitute the global commons. The contributions of several individuals made the conference a reality. Financial support was provided by the National Research Council, the United States Agency vii for International Development, the Ford Foundation, and the World Wildlife Fund. The members of the panel were active in all phases of this effort. They contributed to the con ceptualization of the conference, to the difficult task of selecting participants so as to provide appropriate geo graphical and topical balance, to the convening of pre conference seminars to assist with the preparation of appropriately structured case studies, to the organization of the conference itself, and to the technical editing of the case studies. Many panel members also presented papers that appear in this volume. Emery Castle of Oregon State University, Adelaide Cromwell Gulliver of Boston University, and Robert Repetto of the World Resources Institute provided valuable criticisms and suggestions on various drafts of the proceedings. Many other individuals contributed to this effort as well. Particular recognition must be given to Irene Martinez, whose concern, skills, and energy contributed significantly to the success of the conference and the preparation of the conference proceedings. Michael G. C. McDonald Dow frequently interrupted his own work to assist with the common property program. Other staff members who contributed to the program include Ann Harrington, who served as conference expeditor, and Hertha Hanu and Barbara ones, who assisted with the preparation and reproduction of conference documents. The enormous task of editing the proceedings volume fell to F. R. Ruskin, in collaboration with Patti Lowery. The final production of the proceedings was facilitated by the commitment and efforts of Susan Piarulli,