Module: Governance and the Commons Lead: Lakehead University

Objectives:

Students will be able to understand the problem of the commons and approaches to governance of the commons.

Students will understand what is meant by multi-scale governance.

Students will learn a working definition of stewardship and understand collaborative governance from some key perspectives, case studies, and guidelines.

Students will place in context monitoring of the commons, using the examples of the Model/Community Forest and the Environmental Assessment process.

Background

Good collaborative governance is ensured by implementing the following guidelines:

Ensure ecosystem health and integrity.
Assert community rights and leadership, identifying and working through value differences to reach a mutually satisfactory set of goals based on agreed values and underlying principles.
Recognize Aboriginal rights and title.
Create and commit to new ways of working together, including merging stewardship and co-management approaches that enshrine the principles of precautionary management and adjacency.
Determine the appropriate scales for different parts of the planning and management process.
Set realistic timelines.
Practise adaptive management, which includes identifying and learning to work with and around real constraints at any level of the process.
Make capacity building an integral part of the planning process.
Integrate local and scientific knowledge, including existing information in the process, and strive to fill critical knowledge gaps.
Recognize and incorporate multiple values and uses.

Lecture

http://moodle.lakeheadu.ca/common/SUSTR_on_Governance/SUSTR_on_Governance.html

Readings:

Bray, D.B. Merino Pérez, L., Negreros-Castillo, P., Segura-Warnholtz, G., Torres-Rojo, J.M. & Vester, H.F.M. (2003). Mexico’s Community-managed forests as a global model for sustainable landscapes. Conservation Biology. 17: 672–677.

Dietz, T., Ostrom, E. & Stern, P.C. (2003). The struggle to govern the commons. Science. 302: 1907-1912.

Hardin, G. (1968). Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162: 1243-1248.

References:

Bovaird, T. & Loffler, E. (eds.), 2003. Public Management and Governance. London, UK: Routledge.

Falk, W.W., Schulman, M.D. & Tickamyer, A.R. (eds.), 2003. Communities of Work: Rural Restructuring in Local and Global Contexts. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

Merino-Pérez, L., Gerez-Fernández, P. & Madrid-Zubirán, 2000. Políticas, instituciones comunitarias y uso de los recursos comunes en México. In Sociedad, derecho y medio ambiente: Primer informe del programa de investigación sobre aplicación y cumplimiento de la legislaciôn ambiental en México, ed. M. Bañuelos, 57-143. Mexico City: CONACYT, SEP; Casa Abierta al Tiempo, UNAM, SEMARNAP, PROFEPA.

Warren, W.A. (2005). Hierarchy theory in sociology, ecology, and resource management: A conceptual model for natural resource or environmental sociology and socioecological systems. Society and Natural Resources. 18: 447-466.

Discussion questions:

1. Identify a resource that you use daily (e.g., water). Describe its local, regional and global governance. In what ways might governance of this resource improve?

2. How does your answer to the first question change for a seasonally accessed resource you use (e.g., a wildlife species)? For a less often accessed resource (e.g. wood for personal home construction)?

3. How do you foresee a greater role for ENGOs in future models of governance of commons?

Vocabulary:

Adaptive management - gerencia adaptiva

Entitlement by adjacency - garantía de acceso a los beneficios comunales y proximales

Commons - patrimonio común

Community forest – bosque comunitario

Environmental assessment – proceso por preparar una declaración del impacto ambiental

Environmental Non-Government Organization (ENGO) - organización ambiental

Stewardship - administración ambiental

Faculty contacts: Dr Peggy Smith, pasmith@lakeheadu.ca

Dr Brian McLaren, bmclaren@lakeheadu.ca