Open Access, Open Systems: Pastoral Management of Common-Pool Resources in the Chad Basin
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Open Access, Open Systems: Pastoral Management of Common-Pool Resources in the Chad Basin Mark Moritz & Paul Scholte & Ian M. Hamilton & Saïdou Kari
Published online: 5 February 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract The discussion about the impact of pastoralists on ecosystems has been profoundly shaped by Hardin’s tragedy of the commons that held pastoralists responsible for overgrazing the range. Research has shown that grazing ecosystems are much more complex and dynamic than was previously assumed and that they can be managed adaptively as commons. However, proponents and critics of Hardin’s thesis continue to argue that open access to common-pool resources inevitably leads to a tragedy of the commons. A longitudinal study that we conducted of pastoral mobility and primary production in the Logone floodplain in the Far North Region of Cameroon suggest that open access does not have to lead to a tragedy of the commons. We argue that this pastoral system is best conceptualized as an open system, in which a combination of individual decision-making and coM. Moritz (*) Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, 174 W 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1106, USA e-mail: [email protected] P. Scholte c/o Nieuwe Teertuinen 12C, Amsterdam, LV 1013, Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] I. M. Hamilton Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University, 390 Aronoff Laboratory, 318 W. 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA e-mail: [email protected] S. Kari Centre d’Appui a la Recherche et au Pastoralisme (CARPA), BP 383, Maroua, Cameroon e-mail: [email protected]
ordination of movements leads to an ideal-free type of distribution of mobile pastoralists. We explain how this selforganizing system of open access works and its implications for theories of management of common-pool resources and our understanding of pastoral systems. Keywords Open access . Common-pool resources . Pastoral systems . Chad Basin
Introduction The discussion about the impact of pastoralists on ecosystems has been profoundly shaped by Hardin’s (1968) tragedy of the commons hypothesis that held pastoralists responsible for overgrazing the range. Hardin’s argument focused on how population growth, in particular the freedom to breed, threatens our planet. Hardin gave an example of shepherds who keep their privately owned herds on pastures that are held in commons. He argued that it is in the economic interest of each individual herder to increase the size of the herd because they can gain all the benefits of additional animals while sharing the costs of using the pastures with other herders. When all herders follow this strategy, Hardin argued, it will inevitably lead to degradation, i.e., a tragedy of the commons. Hardin’s thesis has been challenged by political scientists and anthropologists (Feeny et al. 1990; McCay and Acheson 1987; Ostrom 1990; Ostrom et al. 2002). One of the main critiques has been that he confused commons with open access or
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