Tenure, livelihoods and sustainable development — common property issues in rangelands

Abstract

The users of communal ecosystems aim to maintain and enhance a complex suite of livelihood strategies and assets, and have evolved adaptive and flexible management systems and institutions. Project managers and policy makers are seldom aware of this, and often transplant inflexible economic and institutional models to communal areas. In this session, we ask the questions: • How do the adaptive management systems in communal ecosystems differ from conventional management systems characterising freehold land? • Are conventional economic models, organisations and institutions appropriate to manage communal ecosystems? • What are the implications for government and donor policy?