The Commons: Tragedy or Comedy?

Outline

•  What is the “tragedy of the commons?”

•  Poker and Prisoner Dilemmas

Put on your cow hats everyone!!

“Tragedy of the Commons”?

•  ARTICLE: 1968 by Garrett Hardin.

•  CONCEPT: shared resource in which users benefit from personal use, leading to unbridled freedom to use resources and ultimately to resource destruction.

•  Result? Tragedy

Tragedy of the Commons

•  A CLASSIC EXAMPLE: cows on shared pasture.

•  Other examples of commons?

• Air

• Water

• Highways

• ???

Costanza’s Poker Game•  Robert Costanza: ���

tragedy of the commons as a “collective social trap.” Edney and Harper (1978) study using poker chips to study resource use.

•  Each player can each take between 1 and 3 chips a turn. Each round, the pot is replenished in proportion to the amount of chips left. If there were 5 players and 15 chips, how many chips would you take?

Those with a long-term perspective will take fewer, end up with less: ���

so much for future generations!!

Hardin’s Suggestion: ���Mutual Coercion, Mutually Agreed Upon

•  A regulation accepted by the majority of those affected and imposed upon all involved. Speed limits–  Traffic Laws–  Air??–  Water??

Comedy of the Commons

In real-life communal zones, multiple institutions and practices create a basis for creative and constructive resource use. ���Use that not only protects what exists, but creates new resource forms and functions

Mexican Communal Property

Land Access depends upon Communal Labor Participation in Cargos (administration) and Tequios (collective labor activities)

Institutions:•  Communal Goods

Commission (adjudication)

•  Community Assembly (legislation

Community Life is Collectively Organized:Households and Cooperatives

Getting some cattle‘We asked for a bull to improve our stock, but the [development agency official] said, ���

���“The cows here are the size of a dog, you need some real cows.” ���

���…we had to accept a whole package of a bull and four milk cows [Holsteins]….’

‘It took us three days to walk the cows over the mountains to the village...they arrived the worse for wear’.

Cows and ConnectionsWhat Happened?i.  No Place for

Cows: need to be in communal Pasture

ii.  Tried to Set up Feed-lot, but inadequate preparation

iii.  No Time for Cows

iv.  Cows dispersedv.  Jaguar Solution

Getting Grass: ���how many hours does it take to consume the 20+ kilos of grass sufficient to allow cows to

produce a minimum 25 liters of milk? •  bite size => ranges

from .20 to 2.5 g DM/bite ･

•  eating rate => 50 to 65 bites/minute ･

•  time spent eating => 2 hours to 10 hours/day

Skim Milk Daily Energy Requirement for Dairy Cows in Santa Cruz, Mexico. Activity Energy Cost (Mcal) ME for maintaining a mature lactating cow: 16.28 MCal Horizontal locomotion through trail: .768 MCal Vertical Climbing: 4.95 Mcal Grazing (8 hrs): 2.64 Mcal (2.2 kJ/kg.hr, according to Graham 1985, 96) Total Daily ME Requirement: 24.63 Mcal

•  movement adds about 50% of additional energy cost •  milk requires calories, extension research indicates

approximately .58 Mcal/liter. even assuming sub-par production of 25 liters adds an additional 14.5 Mcals

Punchline

•  Based on field observations in Santa Cruz, the dry matter per bite is likely to be at the low end (.28 grams DM per bite); thus, even assuming that high cows consume at a higher bite rate, that gives a rate of only 1.1 kilos/hour. Cattle would need to be in the field over 18 hours to consume enough grass to produce milk!

They give us funds and don’t follow up on projects . . . this money is the poison of the people.

We receive the project and begin to work, but without organization… ���

Problems arise: machines break, we need a veterinarian; there are no resources, and no

end to this.

People start to fight: ‘you broke it, you fix it’, ‘no, it’s your fault’… and like this, everything goes badly. Some complain to the village authorities, fighting among themselves.

— La Luz Co-op member, ���Oaxaca City, July 2004

Jaguar Solution:Farmer’s darkly ironic view!

"The last three cows were eaten by a leopardo [Panthera onca], but I think that there is still a torrito (bull calf) around."���

"[Panthers] just eat the [cow’s] tongues and go off, I guess they mean to come back and finish eating them later, but they slaughter the bunch at once." (Co-op members in conversation, Santa Cruz, May 2006)

Solution to Problem?Farmers set up a conservation reserve with ‘camera traps’, infrared cameras that detect jaguars and take photos of them.They currently receive funding from the Mexican Government and international donors to conserve jaguars and provide ecotourism. Funny? Tragic? Certainly a happy ‘comedic’ ending (except for the cows of course…)

CAUTION: ���Road to Perdition Paved with Good Intentions

FIN

Common property: a how-to guide

What is common property?1. A set of resources that are:

a) Collectively ownedb) Collectively managed

2. Examples:a) Common lands for farming, forestry and grazingb) Fishery resourcesc) Rivers and streams? Watersheds?d) CO2?

Common-pool resources: items that may be drawn upon by any member of a group

Realpolitick of Common Property:

1. Ownership is linked to participatory management: communities exclude members who do not participate

2. Rewards: ability to use the resources

3. Responsibilities: Participatory use4. Sanctions: malfeasants punished

Realpolitick of common property

Village Assembly

VillageSchool

T

Tequio/Cargo Structure of Communal Labor

InfrastructureDevelopment

RuralStore

Cargo-holderstypicallyassigned tosubgroups

Secretaria–in charge of projecthandles village-governmentliasons, draws up tequio lists,manages project operations

Treasurer–Handles monetary transactionsconnected with project

Vocal–Advises tequio participants oftequios, registers tequio participantsand supervises production tasks

FoodProvision

Transport and placepowerline posts

Clear powerline slash

Tequio participant listse.g., powerline tequio

RegisteredTequioWorkday

Comunero(tequero)assignedto task

MajorVillageGovernanceAreas

Cargo/TequioLaborProcess

S e l e c t e dProjectSubgroups

Communal Goods(Bienes Comunales)

CowsMulesCommon PasturePine ForestBorders

School Coffee PlotTeacher AssistanceGroundskeepingMaintenance

Administration Food Transport

Powerlineroadwaybuilding construction

Realpolitick of community property in the context of global environmental management