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The importance of common resources for poor rural people

Common resources and property, such as access to shared land, are important to many rural livelihoods. However, many people’s access to common resources is under threat from outside interests and insecure legal rights.

Common resources are those that people access, use and manage collectively. They can help people to meet their everyday basic needs and provide a ‘safety net’ – a source of food or income – during difficult times. They can also generate some regular income from small-scale commercial use. For example, in Akok village, Cameroon, cash crops such as cucumber and cocoa are grown alongside traditional products, such as cassava and plantain, on common forest lands.

To assess the status of common resources across the world, researchers from the International Land Coalition (ILC) and the CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) compared 41 case studies of common property from 20 countries. The studies show that people use and manage common resources in several ways.

Customary law and practices are an important basis for regulating access and management to a resource. Group identities define who is included and excluded from using a resource. In some cases, external projects have helped to secure people’s access to common resources. Most of these are conservation projects in protected areas, with involvement from international organisations.

Secure tenure is necessary for sustainable and fair resource management. However, this is often threatened by outsiders, such as migrants, investors and state agencies, who have competing interests. The research shows:

In most places, there is no legal support for customary rights. This can lead to conflict if other people claim the rights to use a resource, or if state laws allocate such rights to others.
Outside investment in industries such as mining or tourism brings revenue to governments but often means communal rights are lost.
Women and lower caste community members are often excluded from using common resources when elite local groups ignore laws to meet their own interests.
Even where common property rights are legally recognised, it is difficult for rural people to register these because legal processes are expensive and complex.
Governments can create laws and support projects to recognise common property rights, but even where these exist they are often not enforced.

Despite these many challenges, the research also highlighted more encouraging case studies that identified some ways to protect poor people’s access to common resources:

Collective action and organisation, often supported by non-governmental organisations, is the most common response to pressures and threats. The role of community action in advocating for the recognition of common resources in laws and policies is increasingly important.
In most places studied, there is currently a lack of laws recognising common property rights, but reforms are underway in an increasing number of countries.
Empowering customary authorities, through the decentralisation of power, has improved rights and reduced conflict in some countries. However, traditional authorities require further support to exercise this power accountably and settle conflicts.

Source(s):
‘Securing Common Property Regimes in a Globalizing World. Synthesis of 41 Case Studies on Common Property Regimes from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America’, International Land Coalition: Rome, by Andrew Fuys, Esther Mwangi and Stephan Dohrn, 2007 Full document.
You can also order a CD-Rom which includes all the case studies.

Funded by: CAPRi is funded by the Governments of Norway and Italy, and the World Bank. The ILC receives funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the European Commission; the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); the International Development Research Centre (IDRC); the Government of the Netherlands; the Belgian Survival Fund and the World Bank.

id21 Research Highlight: 1 February 2008

Further Information:
Stephan Dohrn
CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights
c/o IFPRI, 2033 K St, NW
Washington, DC, 20006
USA

Tel: +1 202 8625600
Contact the contributor: s.dohrn@cgiar.org

CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights, USA

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