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["Johnson Nkuuhe" <<address removed>>]

Hello All,

I have seen the tragedy of the Commons" in real life.  I worked in Zimbabwe
for 10 years, and I saw how unproductive and degraded communal lands were.
They were held and used in common.

Of course Zimbabwe is not the best example because you had a colonial system
that had deprived the majority of people use of the best lands.  These
people were forced to live on unproductive lands, called communal lands.
But even there, those pieces under individual care were more productive than
communally held lands.

I have also seen this in Uganda.  In areas where land is held communally,
problems of low productivity of the land soon emerge.  Lands in individual
hands are productive for much longer, because the owners care much more.

Johnson Nkuuhe

-----------------

-----Original Message-----
From: <address removed>
[mailto:<address removed> Behalf Of Dick
Tinsley
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 2:10 PM
To: <address removed>
Subject: Communal Lands - "The Tradgy of the Commons"

A couple days ago someone mentioned communal lands with a specific interest
in communal grazing lands and seeking some discussion on the issue.

It is a good and important issue.  However, it is more a sociological issue
than technical issue.  That is because the most productive forage grasses
and legumes are indigenous to the tropics and thus most developing countries
with communal grazing lands.  Thus the carrying capacity of these lands
could be greatly increased.

It really gets tied up in what is often called the "tragedy of the commons".
That is when each individual acting as the individual entrepreneur maximizes
their returns to the resource by crowding as many animal on the area as they
can.  The animals naturally are in poor conditions and if maintained like
that in the US and I assume UK and EU would result in fines and possible
incarceration.  Also, the land continually deteriorates as the vegetation
shifts to the less palatable species and what remains is grazed down to the
root so it can be easily eroded.  However, from the individual farmer's
perspective it make the best economic sense and use of the resource.

The "tragedy of the commons" applies not only to grazing lands but to any
communal resource including communal forest and community reforestation
projects.

I am not certain what you can do about because it basic human nature and
under the circumstance good economics.

Dick Tinsley


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