So, what we need to do is:
Define: what is a commons?
List examples of communal systems we've been a part of, and think about which ones worked and which didn't.
Look at why some communal systems involving resource management work and why others don't.
10 comments:
Hey people!
So sorry I just got home. I will post my comments by monday evening so you all will have some time to look through and comment! Also i hae included some extra questions from our collaboration blog and here goes!
1)Identify the challenges that will confront the global community, nations, and communities, in sustainable managing resources, and
2)Integrate the different viewpoints of students from NUS and ANU in your response.
Optional:
O1)What is the significance of Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons to contemporary resource management issues in South East Asia?
O2)What are some of the different views on what needs to be done to manage resources successfully?
O3) Could Singapore or SE Asian resource management policies be "successfully" applied to Australia? Why/why not? What do ANU students think about this?
O4) What could SE Asia learn from Australia with respect to resource management?
O5) What are some of the global implications of the tragedy of the commons to environmental sustainability?
Yup hope we all will have fun doing this and have a lively discussion!
Regards,
Andy
1. Berkes et al (1989) sums up commons as a class of resources for which exclusion is difficult and the joint use involves subtractability such that the use of resources by one would diminish the chance of exploitation by another user. This almost always results in potential divergence between individual and collective rationality. I feel that it is this divergence that makes resource management a complex and often contested issue.
I’ve got a question: must commons be of a natural resource?
2. I was brainstorming for examples of communal system in resource management in Singapore and frankly, I cant think of any example because Singapore, unlike Australia, has no natural resources. Singapore is a city-state that is very much state-driven I would say. Most of the available resources such as land and water are managed by the state.
I am sure Chris and the other Australian friends will agree with me that one popular example of a communal system in Australia is the landcare programme. Landcare is a voluntary community movement aim at improving natural resource management practices. Landcare operates largely in rural Australia, involving 40% of farmers, who manage 60% of land and 70% of the nation’s diverted water. Landcare empowers the local farmers by involving farmers in resource management of the rural land. It is a way for the state to shift responsibility for land degradation to the community level. The success of the program is that as farmers assume ownership of the land, there is greater community effort to reduce land degradation. The plan although ideal is not really successful in managing land degradation and environmental crisis. One reason for failure is the commitment of farmers to balance individual and collective rationality.
This leads me to wonder what can be done to help individuals see the big picture of resource management. I mean humans are afterall pretty much driven by self-interest.
Comments:
Hardin’s model of The Tragedy of Commons failed to consider the communal property rights regime. I believe the underlying assumption was that communities lack self-determination to manage their own resources. This is especially true in Southeast Asia, where rural communities are poorly educated and hence do not take initiative to manage resources as a whole.
An example of tragedy in Southeast Asia would be the widespread deforestation especially in Indonesia and The Philippines. Deforestation and forest burning have not only increased carbon emission but also greatly reduce the number of primary forests left in the world.
While the Feeny et al (1990) provided examples to show regulation within communities are possible but how long can the regulation last? How long can the community exclude others especially in the face of globalization? The more prevailing forces of private or state control I feel can easily cause the communal system to break down.
1. A fairly comprehensive definition of a commons is given in the article (and again above by Doris), so for now I won’t go into depth on that. Does anyone think the definition given there needs to be revised in any way?
I think the question about whether a commons need be natural or not is a good one. Given that the most important aspects of commons appear to be ones not limited to natural resources, conceptually I don't see why a commons couldn't relate to an artificial resource or even something more abstract, and one of the examples I'll outline below is in agreement with that line of reasoning.
2. Communal systems:
Again, as Doris has already said, the obvious resource management system in Australia would be Landcare. I think that in theory it is an excellent method to improve the state of natural resources, though in practice it appears less than ideal. One reason given for this was a lack of coordination between the desires or benefits of the collective and those of individuals. I would add that the education and mindset of farmers is also crucial. It seems that surprising few of Australia's farmers are aware of the state of Australia's soil (possibly the poorest in minerals in the world) or if they are they disregard the fact and overwork the land (returning to individual benefit outweighing the community). It's also apparent that the vast majority of farmers in Australia still operate with a European model of climate and farming, assuming a steady change of seasons from 'planting' to 'harvest', where the fact is that, excluding the tropical regions of the continent, the seasonal changes are far less regular than a four part yearly cycle, and a more pragmatic and flexible method of farming is required for sustainable production. The choice of crops grown is also an ill thought out one. Does anyone else think it odd that the driest inhabited continent grows rice for export to South East Asia?
With regard to resource management in Singapore, I was wondering if you could tell us a bit more. Is there a private sector involved with managing any resources, or is it entirely state run?
And is Singapore self sufficient for fresh water and food? If not, from where/how are they imported?
On a more local level of community, and as a model of a working communal system I want to mention a festival held every Easter in Canberra.
Every year in Canberra the National Folk Festival is held. I think it’s interesting because it’s run almost entirely by volunteers. The stages are set up, sound systems managed, garbage disposed etcetera, all by volunteers. They receive free entry to the festival for this, but what strikes me is that it would be very easy for the volunteers to avoid any of the work, as there aren’t any strict measures to ensure they do the work they are assigned, and little or no consequences for not doing it. Despite this the festival always runs smoothly. Presumably this is because volunteers are people who, firstly want to be at the festival, and secondly want it to run effectively. Therefore they do the work they’re given because they realize that the festival will only run effectively if the volunteers do what they need to.
Here it seems the key to success is that the participants: 1) have a reason to want the system to work
and: 2) realize that it is their responsibility to ensure that it does work, and understand the consequences of not participating in it.
I think that this second trait is what is often missing from community management systems.
However, this isn't a very good model for the broader discussion, as the festival only runs for four days. Would the volunteer system endure longer than that? It also doesn't deal directly with the management of a resource (unless we call music and fun resources).
Concerning the questions Andy put up:
1)Challenges that will affect global community, nations and local community in sustainably managing resources:
On the global scale we have growing population. I don’t there could be a greater challenge than that for the world given that the resources of the Earth are finite. As well as that there is the increasing pollution of the oceans and atmosphere.
I think an interesting dimension of national sustainability is the global market. As an example, Australia exports an enormous amount of the wheat it grows (around 17million tons per annum). Obviously this generates a lot of money, but there is increasing question as to whether growing such a large excess of wheat is sustainable in Australia’s environment. To complicate the matter it’s suggested that if Australia were to stop it’s exports at this point in time it would leave a gap in the market potentially leading to the malnutrition or even starvation of populations in other nations.
I've got some more to post concerning the other questions, but I'm in a bit of a hurry at the moment. I'll try to get the rest of it up by tomorrow. Until then, let me know what you think.
1)Hello, well I have nothing to add on to the definition given by doris, however I would agree that the commons here being talked about would be more in relation to natural resources but definitely not totally. Natural resources are the basis of what everything else we use are made up of, however it is also crucial to assess non-natural resources which I believe also face the same problems as natural resources.
2) On whether Singapore has communal resources I think it could be air. Not in terms of how much but the quality that we get. For example lower-class housing estates are near industrial estates while higher class estates will be further. Hence people with money could be excluding those without money through residential location, resulting in the latter having to inhale air of poorer quality. I am not sure if this could be considered as communal resources though.
3) Questions posed by Chris
In terms of resource management, it is not entirely state-run but undoubtedly the state plays a huge role in resource management. However in terms of provision of resources I would believe it is state-run. Our water and electricity is supplied by the state, our usage of land is also planned by the state and this is a key factor in affecting other forms of resources supplied by non-governmental actors such as agricultural products on agricultural lands, which is not on a high agenda of our planning board.
This would lead to the next question that chris is asking on whether Singapore is self-sufficient for fresh water and food. In terms of food we are not self-sufficient due to our land use composition (highly-urbanized with most natural spaces not used for food production but more for leisure.) While in terms of water, we are on our way to achieving self-sufficiency through various measures; Firstly is the presence of reservoirs on our island, the production of Newater (drinking and industrial usage water that is being processed using sewage water) as well as educating Singaporeans on the prudent use of water. For now, we have been getting water piped from neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, notably Malaysia. In terms of food, Singapore has just started rearing fish species that go on sale in Singapore as food, other than that, agricultural farms help relieve the high food pressure that Singapore faced but most of our food is imported from all around the world through roads (from nearby Malaysia; pork, chickens, ducks, vegetables), air ( beef and chicken from Brazil, fruits from around southeast asia and asia, potatoes from usa and Holland etc) and from shipping.
Yup, I will try to add on in terms of resources management and ability to transfer management policies between Singapore and Australia at a later time. Do add on if you have any extra questions or information!
Hey guys. I apologize that I only got to post only now. I just got back from a four-day trip (Friday to Monday) to Taman Negara (National Park) of Malaysia. On to my comments:
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COMMUNAL SYSTEMS
Based on the definition above given by Doris, I think a system of roads is a communal resource. One person's road use would diminish some other person's driving convenience. The Singapore government has implemented a fee-based system to manage the system so that people would avoid certain areas during peak hours.
But if we limit our definition to systems that require degrades over time but naturally heals itself, a system of roads could be excluded.
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POOR EDUCATION
Honestly, I was offended the the term "poorly educated" as it is just downright so elitist. I think the more politically correct term is "lacking awareness". And I think, it is the educated people who are exploiting the environment more. They may not be doing it directly but it is their development of technology that allows a greater exploitation of the environment. It is these "poorly educated" communities that provide us with the food that we eat, the energy that we consume and the clothes that the "educated" people wear. And even if people do have the awareness, people still continue on doing what they are doing as it is unviable (like Chris' Australian wheat exampe) to just stop or their greed is stopping them from doing so.
The deforestation of forests are mainly done by corporations and not by individual communities. Some communities try to stop the invasion of these external entities but most of them are unsuccessful as the governments intervene most of the time in behalf of the corporations. In some communities, the locals get hired to the logging and some are just forced to do so by their circumstances.
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FUTURE THINKING
Your example of the National Folk Festival is an interesting topic. Yes, you are so right to question whether the volunteers could last for more than four days.
As I've mentioned earlier, the aspect of time is usually ignored by people: resources need time to replenish and people need resources continuously. It is this lack of awareness of future generations that does most communities in.
Interesting points raised concerning air and roads. I think it's a good idea to limit our definition and discussion to things that stabilize or replenish over time.
I think air is a great example of a commons. What could be more difficult to regulate the use of? And while it's hard to imagine one person could restrict another's access to air by 'using too much' there are certainly ways that someone's actions can degrade the quality of air others receive. I think this is especially interesting from a global perspective, if we were to consider the proportions of air pollution produced by each country of the world.
This also got me thinking about rivers (especially the Murray Darling, here on the East coast) where communities upstream affect those further down, not just through how much water they take from the river, but through how much they add to it. So I would say that overuse of a common resource is not the only way one can subtract from another's access, misuse can also be very destructive to a communal resource.
On terminology:
You're right Wayne, 'lacking awareness' is a more politically correct term, though personally I don't feel that to say someone is 'poorly educated' is necessarily a value statement, nor does it imply that someone's educational condition is the result of their own actions (though it does seem to imply a hierarchy where traditional school-based teaching is of a higher value than other methods). At any rate, not wanting to get too off topic, maybe that's a discussion best had another time.
I'll have some more, maybe looking toward deciding on some conclusions, this afternoon.
Just as a final note, I think we ought to address the topics of whether any Australian resource management systems are viable in South East Asia, or S.E Asian ones applicable to Australia.
I won't speak for Australian methods being used in SE Asia, as I don't feel I've enough knowledge of the problems concerning resource management in SE Asia to know what management systems would be helpful. However, I was surprised to hear about some of the measures taken in Singapore regarding use of water, especially Newater.
In some areas in Australia sewage is recycled for use as non-potable water, in fire fighting and sometimes irrigation, among a few other roles, but even this is not a very common practice in Australia, and nowhere is reclaimed water used for drinking. The methods for educating Australians in using water sparingly also leave a lot to be desired. It seems Australia could learn a great deal from Singapore in prudent use of water as a resource.
Well, I hope you all got something out of the discussion. I'm not sure what happened to David. I haven't seen or heard from him all week, but hopefully he'll be around for our next topic.
I think perhaps we'd have been better off with a little more time to expand on the debate (my fault for not getting the blog together sooner), but hopefully we'll get it all sorted next time.
And even though my response is due in tomorrow, I'd love to hear any more comments you guys have on this, as it's been very interesting so far. I'll check back on the blog in a few hours, so let me know if you have any last minute questions regarding Australia.
Cheers, Chris
Hello Chris!
So sorry for not getting back to you as we are caught up in the mad rush to submit all our essays, projects and presentations. However, we got to move on to the second topic on campus sustainability. I suggest we start now to prevent everything from snowballing again but would need you to start a new posting on this!
Many thanks for your help!
Attached are the questions for this week.
There are two goals that need to be accomplished for this weeks collaboration:
To share your ecological footprint (http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp)with your fellow collaborators, and discuss your reactions to each others footprint (be honest but no need to be brutally honest - keep discussions amicable. If you don't feel comfortable sharing your footprint, just give an indication, or range of what it might be.)
To create your second collaboration entry in your learning portfolio on campus sustainability, which addresses the following questions:
What are the 'main' challenges to effective governance on sustainability?
What are some ways to effectively change behaviour towards being more sustainable? Are these measures appropriate at the global, nation, or local scale?
Hey sorry, the link given is broken. This is the new link!
http://www.earthday.net/footprint/flash.html
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