[The way the commons are produced and managed (by collective participation) makes them different from both private goods (produced by individuals for themselves or the market) and public goods (produced and/or managed by public authorities). To protect the viability and integrity of the commons, we need to develop a commons oriented sector of the economy that would at the same time complement and counterweight, and work in partnership with the corporate and the public/state sectors, and give a social status and voice to the commons.
We must embed a sense of the commons, common sense and a commons approach in local and national sustainable strategies, and make sure the recognized indigenous governments and organizations living in critical ecosystems such as mountains, islands, tropical rain forests, deserts, and polar and temperate regions of the globe are included in the process.
There is no question here of militating against private property or the role of the state -which can be seen as a commons itself-. Rather it is to establish provision for the monitoring and 'sanctuarization' of commons through institutions that confer rights and responsibilities to communities over resources they create or on which they depend in orderto ensure security and continuity of access , and the conditions for the development of thriving economies around the commons.
Trends & Existing initiatives:
New forms of cooperatively or mutually governed organizations to steward the commons at various levels, new forms of cooperative business organizations.]
- Link to Examples §9 of Table of Content on the right hand column. <<MBS, please dispatch the examples if relevant, add trends and existing initiatives>>
- Commons rights provide an important basis for creating covenants, charters and institutions that are not state-managed --but these rights are recognized and upheld by the state-- to negotiate the protection and sustenance of resources and ensure that the mutual interests of all stakeholders are directly represented. The role of the state would become much more balanced between enabling the corporate sector and enabling citizens.
- Commons Trusts are institutions usually involving both physical and financial assets, with a sustainability mandate to preserve and manage resources inherited from past generations on behalf of present and future generations. The creation of local commons trusts worldwide entails four significant changes:
- government shifts its primary emphasis from issuing corporate charters and licensing the private sector to approving social charters and open licenses for resource preservation and cultural and social production through commons trusts
- commons trusts exercise a fiduciary duty to preserve natural, genetic and material commons but can decide to rent a proportion of these resource rights to businesses
- businesses may rent the rights to extract and produce a resource from a commons trust, creating profits and positive externalities through innovation, competitive products and services, and adjustment of the market to the actual costs of resources
- this rent will stabilize the principal of commons reserves to maintain the diversity and sustainability of the overall economy, and additionally decrease market volatility
References:
Dynamics at work:
- Civic-based commons governance provides a check and balance to the corporate drive for profit and undue influence on government, in particular when exploitation and enclosure for the pursuit of profit impinges on the rights or livelihoods of the users of the commons or the viability of the common. The most obvious examples are the air we breathe or the human or natural genome, the internet is another. This ensures that the people who have a long-term stake in the preservation of these resources (natural, physical, intellectual, social, cultural; from local to global) would protect them while enabling the development of a flourishing commons-based economy around them.
Who?: Local, regional and global communities and stakeholders -the People, local and regional governments and institutions, facilitator organizations, Investors, UN, governments, NGO's, other global institutions and existing commons governance bodies.
Detailed Action Items: [Expand more?]
- Establish a High Level Panel on the Commons as an observatory and policy recommending institution.
- Build on Ostrom's work. Develop and promote research on the commons and commons governance.
- Reinforce the development and protection of commons via The Commons Abundance Network, as point of coalescence for both core commons and initiatives which are not commons themselves but are supporting the stewardship of the commons in a way or another.
- Lobby governments and institutions at all levels to adopt and support a commons approach to sustainable development
- Develop participatory processes of decision making (see Cooperation & Integration)
- Devising more practical means of enforcement for laws, treaties, and agreements at all levels by making them confirmations of common needs.
- Linking and embedding the commons in existing systems such as the international commons of Outer Space, Antarctica and the Law of the Sea.