Governing the Commons in

South Asia :
Implications of the work by Elinor Ostrom
on resource governance in the region
 Outline
• Elinor Ostrom:
– Scholar
– Nobel co-laureate for economics in 2009

• Importance of the Contribution

– Context,
– Key concepts
– Importance

• Relevance and key implications

• Implications for resource management in South Asia

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Elinor Ostrom : Scholar

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 Elinor Ostrom : Scholar (contd..)
• Born in 07, August 1933

• Ph. D in Political science from University of California, Los Angeles

(UCLA) in 1965

• Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science of Indiana University

( served the faculty of IU since 1966)

• Founding Director of Center for Institutional Diversity, Arizona State

University

• Past President of American Political Science Association

• Several awards for academic excellence often with the distinction of

being the first women to receive them
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 Elinor Ostrom : Scholar (contd..)
• Areas of Research Interest
Broad fields: Economic governance, Organization theory,
Theory of institutions, Public choice theory

Focus areas: Common property resources, Collective action,

Community management of resources, Diversity of
Institutions

Objects of study: Watersheds, Fisheries, Irrigation Systems,

Forests, Grazing Lands

• Undertook field studies in number of developing countries in

Asia and Africa

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 Nobel Co-laureate for Economics 2009

• First women to be
honored with the
Nobel Prize for
Economics - 2009

“for her analysis of

economic
governance,
especially
the commons”

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 Nobel Co-laureate for Economics 2009 (cont..)

• Challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is

poorly managed and should be either regulated by central
authorities or privatized

• Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks,

pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, concluded
that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than
predicted by standard theories

• Provided evidence that common property can be successfully

managed by user associations

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Importance of the Contribution

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 Context of the Contribution

• Issue of property rights has long been debated over political

ideologies:
– Private property (capitalist view) vs. state/collective property
(Marxist view)

• Strongly influenced the competing camps of development

thinkers

• Collapse of Soviet bloc symbolized the triumph of private

property

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 Context of the Contribution (cont..)
• Common property resources were largely overlooked in
the debate

• Viewed as:
– Inherently inefficient
– Vulnerable and declining
– Backward

• ‘Tragedy of Commons’ – Hardin, 1969

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 Context of the Contribution (cont..)

• CPR School of Thought : Ostrom is one among other pioneers

• Among other pioneers: Robert Wade, Narpat Jodha, Jean Marie

Baland, Jean Philip Platteau, Pranab Bardhan, Daniel Bromley,
Arun Agrawal

• Major Research Questions Addressed:

– Why collective action is effective and sustainable in certain
local resources where it failed in others
– What factors ensure effective, sustainable cooperation of
local communities for managing commons?

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Context of the Contribution (cont..)
Common Property Resources

 ‘Tragedy of Commons’- Hardin

 Every bodies property. Nobodies
property

Regulatory Approach (state property) Private Property

 Widely implemented  High theoretical appeal

 Applications in fisheries, forestry, land,  Limited scope for practical
water application
 Limited success

Community Based Management

Systems
Co-Management
 Based on the observations in
Sharing of responsibility traditional systems - Ostrom (1991)
between State agencies and and others
community users  Invoke a legitimacy for non-privately
managed resources

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 Key Concepts
Institutions

• Govern the relationships and interactions among

individuals

• Could be formal, informal or customary

• Include laws, rules, norms, customs, hierarchies,

monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms

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 Key Concepts (cont..)
Property Rights
• A Social Institution

• Governed by broad operational rules

Rules on Access : Defines the individuals/groups who

are entitled to the flow of benefits from a resource

Rules on Use/Conservation : Set the limits to the flow

of benefits from the resource

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 Key Concepts (cont…)

• Broad regimes of property rights

– Private property

– State owned property (public property)

– Common property

– Open access

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 Key Concepts (cont…)
• Common Property Resources (CPR)
A resource where operational rules are defined with respect to
an identified group of community

• For successful management of CPR, appropriate

institutional mechanisms for ‘collective action’ are
necessary

• Numerous examples world over for successful

institutional arrangements for collective action

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 Key Concepts (cont…)

Collective Action

Action taken by a group ( either directly or on

its behalf through an organization) in pursuit
of members’ perceived shared interests

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 Key Concepts (cont…)

Co-Management

Sharing the responsibility and authority of

managing resources among government
agencies and local community through co-
operative arrangements

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 Importance of the Contribution
• Dialogue on CPR brought the depth, objectivity and
relevance to the problem of property rights debated over
political ideologies

• Recognized the legitimacy of rights and aspirations of

millions who have depended on CPR for centuries

• Idea was keenly taken by policy planners, resource

managers, community leaders, development workers etc.
rather than by political activists

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 Importance of the Contribution (cont..)
• Emphasized the ecological/environmental basis of human
property relationships

– Advocated the ‘sustainable development’ rather than ‘growth’

– Highlighted the importance of
• Natural capital &
• Social capital for development.

• Opened up the avenue for practical solutions

– Community–based natural resource management

– Co-management arrangements
– Community participation in resource management

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Relevance and Key Implications

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 Relevance and Key Implications
• Commons are widespread
Global commons : Oceans, Atmosphere, Tropical bio-diversity
Local commons: Grazing lands, Watersheds, Irrigation systems, Fisheries,
Forests

• Large masses are still dependent on commons:

• Food security
• livelihoods and income
• Social equity and welfare
• Poverty alleviation
• Conservation of resources

• Managing commons are fundamentally important

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 Relevance and Key Implications
• CPR systems are facing the greatest test of their
survival
– Rapid increase in population
– Commercialization of rural economies
– Modernization of technology
– Transformation of traditional living patterns

• New demands over CPR

– Invention of new uses over traditional CPR
– Market, policy or technology driven changes

• Challenge: Collapse or adapt?

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Implications for resource
management in South Asia

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 CPR : Situation in South Asia
• SA houses nearly a quarter of world population

• High incidence of poverty among large masses of primary

producers

• Heavy dependence natural resources with common

ownership
– Grazing lands (livestock)
– Arable dry lands (rain-fed shifting agriculture)
– Village tanks/ponds (irrigation, freshwater fish)
– Watersheds/groundwater aquifers (water supply)
– Coastal fisheries
– Local forests (fuel wood, food, medicines, timber, pasture)
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 CPR in South Asia: Examples
• India : Commons in dry regions (Jodha, 1986 and 2008)
– CPRs could cover up to 25% of village resources
– On average 17%-23% household income comes from local CPRS
– Share could be even higher in poorer households with limited
private assets
– Near total dependence over certain products (e.g. fuel wood)

• Village Republics (Wade, 1988)

– Village councils play a major role in collective action
– Better cooperation in areas with high scarcity

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 CPR in South Asia: Examples
• Sri Lanka : Village tanks
– Over 15,000 small village tanks in dry zone: Almost a tank per
village
– Common property resource
• Irrigation is the major purpose
• Other multiple uses: domestic water, freshwater fish, grazing
– Majority are seasonal (rain fed)
• 4 – 10 months water per year
– Farmer Organizations : Decision making responsibility

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 CPR in South Asia: Examples (cont..)
• Nepal : Village forests

– Subsistence farmers rely heavily on local forests for livelihood

needs
• Fuel wood, fodder and grass, leaf litter, timber, NTFP

– Distribution of income from forests unequal among households:

Dependence of poor households is high

– CFUG- Community Forestry User Groups

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 CPR in South Asia: Examples
• Bangladesh : Haor eco systesms
– Bowl shape low-lying lands goes under water during rainy season
– Unique eco-system with conjunctives uses of wetland, cropland
and fallow land
– Rainy season: water bodies for fisheries
– Dry season: rice, livestock and fish
– Numerous eco-systems services
– Complex system of ownership rights: Community managed, state
owned (de-facto commons)

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 Change in CPR: Village Tanks in SL
• Major forces of transformation

Long Term
– Growth of population: intensifies both land & water scarcity
– Growth of market opportunities : (forward market contracts, infrastructure and
market centers, middlemen)
• Enhance the opportunity for cash crop cultivation
Technological innovations: (micro-irrigation; labor saving machinery;
chemical inputs)
• Enhance the option for production intensification

Short run

– Government incentives: (Input subsidies and price supports)

• Re-defining the incentive structure

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 Change in CPR (cont..)

• Response to the Land scarcity:

– Fragmentation of paddy units; usually private ownership

• Productivity effects
• Income effect
• Expanding the paddy area: Akkarawela; Conversion of supportive water
storage units (‘Wew kotu’) ?

– Encroachment of state owned highland areas

• Practically all forest lands have been cleared unless declared as reserves
• Decline of shifting agriculture: permanent farm lands
• Subsistence to commercial

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 Change in CPR (cont..)
Response to the Water scarcity:

– Intensification of highland rain-fed agriculture during Maha

• Contract farming option; very popular for maize, soy
• High input intensive farming of hybrid varieties
• Large mono-crop cultivations in nearly all available lands

– Highland cash crop farming under agro-wells

• Usually in Yala. (In some areas, from January)
• High cost of water supply. Only cash crops are grown
• High disease incidence and price uncertainty

– Expansion of market opportunities and technological innovations

highly facilitate this trend
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 Implications for Managing Commons
• Resource management policies in South Asian countries has
generally been biased towards command & control
approaches

• Resources are mostly owned and managed by the

governments: Sometimes influenced by colonial policies

• Resulted in degradation of resources

– Poor governance
– Neglect of community rights and welfare
– Resource use conflicts
– Physical degradation of resources

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Implications for Managing Commons (cont..)
• Influence of community management school, however, fast
being felt in policy circles

• Significant attempts to incorporate new ideas:

– Attempts to accommodate community needs
– Recognizing community rights for resources
– Facilitating collective action in existing commons
– Community participation in resource management
– State-Community partnerships: Co-management

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Implications for Managing Commons (cont..)
• Some examples
– Forest resources:
• Community Forestry in Nepal
• Joint Forest Management in India
• Community Forestry in Sri Lanka

– Fisheries:
• Co-management in selected coastal and inland fisheries in Sri
Lanka
• Co-management of fisheries in Bangladesh

– Irrigation:
• Irrigation management transfer in Sri Lanka
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Implications for Managing Commons (cont..)
• Insights from CPR school has been incorporated in many
areas of resource management policies and activities

• Despite traditional bias to command & control approach,

slow yet steady progress could be observed in favor of
community interests

• Even the donor community has welcome the trend and

facilitated the process

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Implications for Managing Commons (cont..)
• So far exposure and influence is restricted to ‘classical’
commons

• There are other potential areas to be explored.

– Joint adaptation to climate change

– Common rights for intellectual property
• Open Source/Shareware
• Indigenous knowledge

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Thank You

www.ips.lk

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