Commons

Lands that are controlled by owners but over which other people exercise rights of use or other rights are known as common land, or more colloquially, “the commons.” This type of relationship between humans and land was developed in England, though it is has been used throughout different parts of the world, including in the United States. Modern understanding of the commons derives largely from the influential 1968 essay by Garrett Hardin titled “The Tragedy of the Commons,” in which Hardin documents the potential threat to common land that exists when individuals act independently and in their own self-interest. [Page 79]However, evidence is available that demonstrates how the commons often are managed rather effectively, and thus possess a rather high conservation value.

Traditional rights to the commons in England and Wales were generally held by those who occupied the land at a certain point in time. However, common rights could be extended to more than simply pasture or land use. Common rights were also granted for the right to fish estuaries (piscary), the right to take sods of turf for medieval fueling purposes (turbary), the right to take sand and gravel (common in the soil), the right to turn out pigs to eat certain nuts (mast or pannage), and the right to take wood for the erection of the commoner's home (estovers). These common rights of use were a central part of the largely communal organization of medieval agriculture.

The rights of common use existed before the development of established law and were largely unregulated until the 15th century and the emergence of the enclosure movement, which irrevocably altered the common lands. This movement has been called “the revolution of the rich against the poor” by many historians, as it involved a series of political and legal acts that literally enclosed publicly used land. Enclosures typically involved the placement of hedges, ditches, or other barriers that limit the free movement of individuals and animals across the land. It placed the land under private control and forced peasants off the lands that they and their ancestors had used for subsistence for generations. Commentators have noted that the enclosure movement may have been the critical development that altered the relationship between humanity and the natural world, as it converted land from something people belong to into a commodity people possess and control for profit. By the 19th century, the enclosure movement was largely complete, even though common lands remained. These lands have since been largely neglected, as most commoners made the move to urban areas in the search for a better quality of life.

Today, references to the commons derive inspiration from the aforementioned Hardin essay on the tragedy of the commons. The general point that Hardin makes is that commonly used resources will eventually be overused and degraded by individuals seeking to rationally maximize their own gains from the resource (thus the “tragedy” of the commons). This problem is heightened by upward population pressures, which lead more and more users to deplete resources that are largely fixed or in balance. Hardin's essay has been incredibly influential in many circles and has drawn sharp rebukes from others. Maintaining or protecting the commons has taken on a broader context following Hardin, as it now is typically used to refer to the stock of natural resources that are generally seen as indispensable to the survival of humanity (food, water, energy resources). Significant theoretical and empirical efforts have emerged in recent years in response to this work, broadly held together under the umbrella of environmental resource management.

...