Still sleepless in Cheltenham - more notes from the Commons Conference

Day 2 of the 12th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons was as busy and stimulating as the first. In the morning I followed a panel session organised by Fikret Berkes, which brought together a series of case studies and overview papers dealing with community based enterprises. Berkes’ own paper analysed the management of several community enterprises in terms of their the organisational structures and relationships. Factors affecting the resilience of these bodies in the face of turbulence and change were discussed, for instance the idea that having redudancy (more linkages than are seemingly necessary) provides these enterprises with a ‘plan B’ and a degree of resilience.

Many of the case studies presented in this panel picked up the theme of how indigenous enterprises were grappling with social sustainability issues in striving for a balance between enterprise viability, equity and community values. A recurring theme in the case studies was the challenge in balancing individual entrepreneurship with communal benefits. By comparing cases from the indigenous north and south, some very interesting parallels could be explored. The willingess to look across some of these boundaries for new insights is a feature of many sessions at this event and is, I think, a quite innovative and potentially fertile aspect of some recent commons research. But maybe there are limits too? It would be interesting to get some comments on this point.

REDD got a caning at the RRI policy forum in the afternoon, where two new reports were presented by Augusta Molnar and William Sunderlin: Seeing People Through the Trees and From Exclusion to Ownership? Both reports raise concerns about whether strategies to address climate change (biofuels and REDD in particular) will in fact become the last land grab that further disenfranchises and impoverishes rural communities. My own ’side discussions’ on REDD have highlighted that apart from these risks, caution is also needed with the simplistic assumptions about the drivers of forest loss and degradation, as well as about forest governance, pervading the REDD bandwagon. Though at this stage, I personally am interested in critical engagement and analysis of the opportunities and risks rather than abandonment. Views on this would also be welcome.