Conference:
Abstract: "Common property resources are an important natural resource of the rural communities in developing countries such as India. Unlike in the industrialised countries, in developing countries, common property resources continue to be a significant component of the land resources base for the rural communities. This is prominent in the semi-arid areas of Haryana. Contributions to the rural economy by the common property resources related to employment, income generation, food supply, water, fibre, fuelwood, fodder, grazing by the cattle and livestock. Other contributions of Common Property Resources include drainage, recharge of the groundwater, improvement of micro-climate and sustainability of the farming systems.
"Despite their significant contributions to the rural community common property resources have experienced severe degradation, continuous erosion and are becoming transformed into open access regimes due to increasing population pressure. Breakdown of the traditional common property resource management systems has not only caused environmental harm as they have been severely degraded under open access regimes, but also social harm since the poor can no longer depend on them. For many villages in southern Haryana this has increasingly turned out to be the common tragedy of environmental collapse and pauperisation of the already poor. Further conversion of common property resources into open access regimes is likely to be detrimental to development and environment.
"Southern Haryana consists of the oldest mountain range in India, the Aravallis. The Aravallis play a significant role in protecting the fertile Indo-Gangetic plains on their eastern side against invading sand drifts from the Thar desert. In the past, the Aravallis were covered by dense forests of anogeissus pendula and other species. These forests not only met the firewood, fodder and non-timber forest products but also helped in maintaining the delicate ecological balance of the ecosystem. In Haryana, large areas of land in the Aravalli hills are community owned and have been managed under open access systems. Increasing pressure from human and livestock numbers has taken a heavy toll of the vegetation leaving the Aravallis almost bare with concomitant adverse environmental effects. This has resulted in reduced welfare of the inhabitants of the region, particularly the women folk who have to travel long distances to collect firewood and fodder. Realizing the enormity of the problem and the critical need to initiate action for greening the Aravallis, the Haryana government and the people have come together to establish a participatory planning and development process at the village level. This included institution building, establishing use-rules and user obligations and providing for an effective mechanism at the village level.
"Where the participatory process has resulted in establishing the common property regime in place of an open access system reversal of environmental degradation has been recorded together with improvement in welfare of local people. Mechanism and processes involved in assisting local people to establish common property resource management will be discussed."