Village commons, livelihoods and governance: An assessment of karnataka's experience

Abstract

Over the past several decades, researchers have argued that common property land resources (CPLRs) are important because of the high dependence of rural households on them, the particularly high dependence of the poor among them. CPLRs act as sources of fuelwood and fodder and other products that are critical to rural livelihoods and as safety nets during times of agricultural stress. Moreover, they also are sources of other environmental services to the local and global economy. Some of the pioneering studies on CPLR dependence and effects of CPLR loss have come from Jodha's work across several states in India (Jodha 1990 , 1987 , 1986 ). These have been followed by more studies at state or regional scales (Iyengar 1989 ; Nadkarni 1990 ; Beck and Nesmith 2001 ; Beck and Ghosh 2000 ) and more recently again at the national scale using data from the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) (Chopra and Dasgupta 2008 ; Menon and Vadivelu 2006 ). Most of these studies focus on the question of economic dependence, within the framework of poverty alleviation, arguing that if CPLRs turn out to be economically important for the poor, then they should be maintained as such.