EXAMPLES OF IMPLEMENTING THE COMMONS APPROACH: Best Practices and Success Stories
Here are some examples of Commons Processes underway that are working to formalize peoples shared rights and responsibilitie as stakeholders for various commons.
+ Local commons projects underway:
- Community Bill of Rights (USA) - The model Community Bill of Rights template is derived from ongoing national and global work by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) such as Ecuador adding Rights for Nature to its Constitution, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stripping drilling corporations of corporate constitutional “rights,” such as corporate “personhood” and Spokane’s Community Bill of Rights initiative
- Designed Deliberative Democracy (USA, China) - A group of citizens are scientifically selected to reflect the general population. They are polled once on the major decisions they'll be facing. Then they are given a briefing on those issues, prepared by experts with conflicting views. Then they meet in small groups and come up with questions for the experts — issues they want further clarified. Then they meet together in plenary session to listen to the experts' response and have a more general discussion. The process of small meetings and plenary is repeated once more. A final poll is taken, and the budget priorities of the assembly are made known and adopted by the local government. It takes three days to do this. (Fishkin, Stanford Univ)
- Participatory Budgeting (Brasil) - Participatory budgeting is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, and a type of participatory democracy, in which citizens decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget. Participatory budgeting allows people to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them power to make decisions about how money is spent. Since its emergence in 1989 in Porto Alegre, participatory budgeting has spread to hundreds of Latin American cities, and dozens of cities in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. More than 1,200 municipalities are estimated to have initiated participatory budgeting to improve services such as water, sewer, health, energy, food security and eduation
- Food Commons/ Food Sovereingty (Brasil) - The third largest City in Brasil, Belo Horizonte, became the first city in the world to eliminate hunger. In 1993, with a metro population of over 5 million, BH started a series of innovations based on its citizens having the "right to food". These include, for example, creating farmers' markets in the town to enable direct sales, and regularly surveying current market prices and posting the results across the city, and providing large cafeterias in each district providing healthy local meals at low subsidized cost. The city's process of participatory budgeting was linked with these innovations, as a result of which the infant mortality rate was reduced by 50% in a decade. There is also evidence that these programs have helped support a higher quality of life for the local farmers partnering with the city, and that this may also be having positive effects on biodiversity in the Atlantic Rainforest around the city. The city's development of these policies garnered the first "Future Policy Award" in 2009.
- Community Managed Forests (Mexico, Guatemala, Indonesia and India) - The destruction of forests is responsible for almost one-fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions; that's more than all global transportation combined. Part of the challenge in addressing this issue is that these spaces are often seen as pristine, empty places devoid of people and commerce. In reality, the world's forests are not only home to hundreds of millions of people, but they also are a key source of these people's livelihoods. For these individuals (many of whom are indigenous, tribal peoples), forests are a source of food, energy, medicine, housing and income. The Mexican model has shown that giving communities the ability to own and manage the forests where they live provides perhaps the greatest incentive imaginable to protect and preserve the forests. Mexico's experience in promoting environmental protection and economic development by expanding community rights to forests is a model that other countries can and must follow. Good examples of community managed forests also exist in Gutemala, Indonesia, India and other paces, but a danger is that unless they have full support from government, they are in danger of being wiped out by deals between government and business interests. Community forests groups are encouraged to network and cooperate, join forces with other civil society groups to make their plight known and attain recognition from government to secure their future (CIFOR)
- Community Managed Water Systems (Bolivia, Palestine, Italy, Spain) - Spain and Italy have had success for centuries with community managed water and irrigation systems. These traditional systems have proven to be remarkably variable and efficient in their functional design, and well supported by local and regional governance structures (need citation from Robin Temple). This level of stability and sustainability exemplifies the merits of commons design principles for subsidiarity in decison-making, local control, exclusion of unentitled parties, and legal recognition and support from higher level authorites when needed. Bolivia, Palestine and other developing countries are working to develop such systems after failed policies with strictly private and/or government run systems. Considering the July 2010 United Nations Resolution recognizing the access to clean water and sanitation as a human right, "The Charter of Solidarity for the Access to Water" is a good step towards seeing water as a common good, where all legitimate stakeholders can particpate in deliberative democratic processes for design, improvement and management of water and sanitation services.
- Transition Towns (UK) - Also known as Transition Network or Transition Movement, TT is a grassroots network of communities that are working to build resilience in response to peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability. Transition Towns are founded in part upon the principles of Permaculture, based originally on Bill Mollison’s seminal Permaculture, a Designers Manual,1988. An essential aspect of transition in many places, is that the outer work of transition needs to be matched by inner transition. That is, in order to move down the energy descent pathways effectively, we need to rebuild our relations with our selves, with each other and with the "natural" worlds. Small working groups and group collaborations with government, business and other communities and organizations is the halmark of Transition success.
+ Regional commons projects underway:
- WANA Forum Charter (West Asia, North Africa) - Building on the Forum’s objectives in advancing social cohesion, improving the region’s ability to recover and reconstruct in the aftermath of conflict, advocating sustainable environmental and green economy solutions, as well as its desire to mitigate against a history of imported political and economic ideologies, the WANA Social Charter lays out the vision for regional cooperation. Their Social Charter describes directives to Achieve equal opportunity as a means to help people realise their basic human needs; Foster citizenship and good governance; Create opportunities for prosperity and sustainable development; Commit to the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom in the education of future generations and investment in the region’s human capital; Promote processes of inclusion that harness our diversity more effectively; Respect our human and natural environments as stewards of the Earth. The WANA Social Charter aims for collaboratively co-managing common-pool resources to secure livelihoods, working for the development, implementation and management of himas* in the region, in accordance with national laws and international treaties. *Himas are protected area systems involving the sustainable use and sharing of natural resources by and for local communities.
- Great Lakes Commons Trust (Canada and USA) - "Our Great Lakes Commons: A People’s Plan to Protect the Great Lakes Forever" is intended to serve as a call to understanding and a call to action on an exciting new proposal to designate the Great Lakes and its tributary waters as a lived Commons, to be shared, protected, carefully managed and enjoyed by all who live around them. The Great Lakes Basin Commons would be protected by a legal and political framework based on a further development of the Public Trust Doctrine. Participatory input on a Great Lakes Charter is underway in communities and tribal bodies surrounding the Lakes to work towrds new forms of co-governance and co-management for these shared commons and reverse the damage, depletion and misuse of these waters that is placing the great Lakes Basin and it's residents at risk. The goal is to create a Great Lakes Commons Trust that is accountable to local comunities. A GLCT will monitor and manage the lakes sustainably, placing the health and well-being of the ecosystem and human communities first, improving and restoring the lake's biological systems and guarding against abuses and enclosures of this shared resource.
- Alaska Permanent Fund (USA) - Everyone in Alaska earns non-labor income — dividends to equity owners of Alaska's shared oil common wealth. The Alaska Permanent Fund uses revenue from state oil leases to invest in stocks, bonds and similar assets, and from those investments pays equal dividends to every resident. Since 1980, these dividends have ranged from $1,000 to $2,000 per year per person, including children (meaning that they’ve reached up to $8,000 per year for households of four). It’s therefore no accident that, compared to other states in the USA, Alaska has the third highest median income and the second highest income equality. Similar funds for the the best management of natural gas, timber, broadcast spectrum and other social and natural resources, arguably the collective wealth of the people, are being proposed in other states. Some citizens in Alaska want a portion of the Alaska Permanent Fund, worth $38 Billion in 2011, to be invested locally for renewable energy projects to prepare for when the oil runs out or becomes too ecologically damaging to use. The point being that the citizens must debate how best to use their common wealth to serve current and future generations.
+ Global commons projects underway:
- Earth Climate Commons Trust
- A diverse group of citizens, acting on behalf of the whole human family and all life on Earth, are working to establish an independent Earth Climate Commons Trust (ECCT). Acting on independent climate science, this global trust would set an annually reducing cap on the total amount of fossil fuels that can be introduced into the global economy and issues permits up to the amount of the cap, available for purchase by fuel companies for full market value. The proceeds of sale are paid to or applied for the benefit of all adult citizens in the world in equal shares, via a network of national and local citizen's climate trusts. Nation-state governments collaborate with the Trust by banning the introduction of the fuels into their territory without an ECCT permit. So long as not all state governments have agreed to collaborate, the ECCT limits the total number of permits issued in the same proportion as the use of fossil fuels in the countries participating bears to total global use. Delivery mechanisms of the programme: the cap will be directly effective to achieve the required reductions in emissions. A network of national and local citizen's climate trusts will manage the distribution of the proceeds of sale of permits. A global climate commons charter to guide the use of these moneys, including the investment for rapid transition to renewable energy sources, will be developed by an inclusive process with a view to its adoption by the United Nations (FEASTA).
- Reclaiming Money Creation as a Commons
- The debt-based monetary system that creates unsustainable growth patterns can be eliminated, and nationally, a systematic and verifiable credit value for money can be determined to allow the creation of viable local economies and stable international trade on an equitable playing field. This would require the development of an international sustainability index administered by a Global Monetary Trust, and partnered with National Monetary Trusts around the world, to verify national sustainability rates and track the resilience of our global biosphere.
The international sustainability index would be comprised of a basket of comparable natural and social resource viability and investment indicators (for example: air and water quality indicators, forest cover, desertification rates, greenhouse gas emissions, education and healthcare indicators and investment rates, sustainable infrastructure development and maintenance etc.). Equity between countries at various levels of development would be designed into the system as the sustainability index measurements would look at the current situation in each state as a neutral starting point. From there, both the investment rates of each nation's monetary trust into systems and practices that benefit the health and well-being of human and natural communities and actual measurements to assess whether resource indicators are stable, improving or degrading, would determine whether the value of the credit of a country would rise or fall. Business, government and citizen interests would then be aligned with improving quality of life for communities and the maintenance of the natural systems that are needed to support national and international stability. (Global Commons Trust)
- Opportunities for additonal Global Commons Trusts -
A commons trust is a legal entity responsible for protecting a shared asset that is inherited from past generations, or is presently being created, on behalf of current and future generations. Because it is common property — held in trust and not owned by anyone — the commons are insulated from any claims by private individuals, business, government or other trusts. Commons exist on local, national, regional and global scales and can be operate by collaborating trusts on across scales. Here we consider some ideas for global scale tusts as the global commons can generate use or rental fees to finance multilateral programs and institutions. Such fees may be assessed on many transborder commons, including...
• foreign exchange transactions
• international trade
• international airline tickets
• maritime freight transport
• ocean fishing
• sea-bed mining
• offshore oil and gas
• international oil trading
• satellite parking spaces
• electromagnetic spectrum use
• internet
• information flows
• military spending and arms exports
• toxic wastes
• energy consumption
Such global trusts would monitor the use of each commons, collect the fees and place this money in Social Cohesion Funds for those locations in the world that have been challenged by disaster, resource exploitation, war etc. Resource Restorations Funds could also be created to bring to bear the best scientific practices, technologies and management techniques to reclaim and restore various local, regional and global commons, perhaps in-part thru providing employment for those whose ecosystems have been severely degraded. This can help to prepare local people to regain healthy commons, thus transitioning them into the sustainable co-management, co-production and protection via co-goverenance of such commons. To assure transparent management oversight of such trusts, an option might be to monitor and report on such trusts via the Trusteeship Council at the UN. (Global Commons Trust, School of Commoning, Commons Action for the United Nations)
Examples for finance commons
- Commons management caps the stock and rents the flow -- ensuring that commons are not diminished -- and prices are set through true costs to commons resources. Commons managment provides a basis of authentic value in sustainable resources, therefore enabling a non-debt monetary sytem based on measurable and consistent factors. (mbs)
- Commons-based money as credit would be tied to sustainability indices that measure health and well-being of human and natural communities, bioregionally. As sustainability increases in a bioregion, so then would the credit value increase, and vice-versa. A global sustainability average can thus be assessed. This will align goverment, business and community decision-making across scales with the best interests of society and natural systems.(Here we can connect with the Earth Condominium People who are using the global footprint a s a metric and Eric Rothenberg's URSULA Project.) 8mbs)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- Ten Guidelines for the Commons
- We are Co-creators with Nature and Society
- By Creating our Shared Environment, we Participate in our own Culture
- Thru Creative Cooperation, Resource Users become Producers of their own Resources
- Cooperation between Users and Producers is the Practice of Stewardship
- The Social and Political Expression of Stewardship is Trusteeship
- Trusteeship of the Commons Transforms Traditional Ownership Structures
- Co-produced and Co-governed Commons Generate New Sources of Value
- Commons Value is the basis of a Debt-Free/ interest-free Monetary System
- A Commons-Based Society results from Collective Intentions for Sustainability
- The Economics of the Commons is Replenishment.
Elinor Ostrom
- Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009 showing that the tragedy is of the “unmanaged” or unsuccessfully managed commons.
- Here are Ostrom's 8 Design Principles for Sustainably Managing Commons:
- Ostrom would say that commons management can work when a). communities manage commons, b.) when communities manage commons with government, and c.) when communities manage commons with government and private business interests. The key is that when commons are successful, many if not all of these design principles are in effect...
- Clearly defined boundaries (effective exclusion of unentitled parties);
- Rules regarding the use and provision of common resources are adapted to local conditions;
- Collective-choice arrangements allow most resource stakeholders to participate in decision-making processes;
- Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of or accountable to the stakeholders;
- here is a scale of graduated sanctions for resource stakeholders who violate community rules;
- The self-determination of the community is recognized by higher-level authorities;
- In the case of larger common-pool resources: organization in the form of multiple layers of nested enterprises, with small local CPRs at the base level.
Sustainability and Strategies for the Commons
- The Current Economy Creates Patterns Devastating to the Commons : The demand for perpetual economic growth has caused human society to spend not only the interest but significant portions of natural resource capital (ie water, forests, atmosphere, fossil fuels). <<Relates to pp Transition to a circular economy and stop growth of power abuse and toxic practices>>
- The power and promise of the commons movement is its ability to bring balance and cooperation between government, market and commons sectors. Neither of our existing property regimes — public nor private — have a mandate to guarantee long-term protection and use of critical commons resources and thus ensure the common capital of the planet. The dominant purpose now must be the long-term wellbeing of humanity and the planet as a whole, in accordance with existing UN agreements and the Earth Charter. <<Relates to pp A Commons based sector>>
- Ungoverned commons: A constant focus of every intentional commons is to learn from and be responsive to the many kinds of natural and unintentional commons in our environment, that are self-organizing, and so not governed by intentional commons policies. Just being observant one can notice how other cultures work, or businesses thrive, or the general way systems successfully respond to their limits to growth. It gives you insight into how to effectively engage with these unintentional commons and bring them into your commons world. <<Relates to pp Expand cooperation and learning>>
- This is the door to using biomimicry for nature’s material languages. One might notice the curiously simple commoning method of small family businesses, for example, and that it’s quite missing from larger financially managed businesses and investment models. To get their business going a family sacrifices all they can for growth, but only at first, and then when it’s no longer so profitable to keep adding to their own challenges, they sacrifice that instead, to use the profits to live better, educate their children and more fully join in their community, just by being ready to make the best use for their profits. <<Relates to pp Use finance to grow commons and Transition to circular economy>>
- Commons Governance is Co-Governance: Until the modern era of enclosure, commodification and globalization - the actual tragedy of the commons - communities had their own rules for creating and maintaining local resources. Commoners have broad experience in the supervision and sustenance of systems to ensure equitable ways of sharing their uses and benefits. With the help of progressive government, information and innovation, people across the world are returning to the transparent stewardship of their local commons, becoming involved as providers as well as recipients of resources, goods and services (Co-Governance is closely tied to Co-Production). <<This + the two following relates to pp A commons based sector and Expand cooperation to wider scales>>
- Co-Governance involves the principle of subsidiarity: taking decisions at the lowest possible level of authority, creating new checks, balances and efficiencies with decision-making activities of the state, including protecting commons from unfettered market forces. Producers must have close connection with Resource Users (Co-Production), for joint decision-making, essential for effective self-organization, local sustainability and cooperation across borders.
- This has been clarified by the work on Commons Co-Governance processes by Elinor Ostrom who won the Nobel Prize in 2009: Commons processes...
- 1. ... work towards resolving conflicts, setting rules for who benefits and who is excluded
- 2. ... develop synergy for local, regional and global collaboration and sharing
- 3. ... maintain ongoing assessments of local environments for strategic planning, and
- 4. ... create a dynamic common identity and thus shared responsibility for a resource
- Our imperiled commons require the creation of new commons structures and institutions to ensure sustainability, empowering government to fulfill it's role in serving the will of the people to maintain their commons for security, prosperity and the needs of future generations. Commons rights affirm the sovereignty of human beings over their means of sustenance and well-being. They empower us with a moral authority and social legitimacy to make decisions and create agreements on the sharing of resources that ensure our rights to survival and security.
The Changing Image of Man
- "Images of humankind that are dominant in a culture are of fundamental importance because they underlie the ways in which the society shapes its institutions, educates its young, and goes about whatever it perceives its business to be. Changes in these images are of particular concern at the present time because our industrial society may be on the threshold of a transformation as profound as that which came to Europe when the Medieval Age gave way to the rise of science and the Industrial Revolution."
They established the characteristics of the transition informing image needed to face the challenges ahead in their Changing Image of man survey:
- provide a holistic sense and perspective on life
- entail an ecological ethic
- entail a self-realization ethic
- be multileveled, multifaceted, and integrative
- lead to a balancing and coordinating of satisfactions along many dimensions
- be experiential, experimental and open-ended
EXISTING SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES AND THE COMMONS
<<This would list the initiatives underway and describe how they relate to the commons and how they could be forwarded by a commons approach. I made a summary paragraph for the short version:
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"There are clear opportunities making the commons approach as socio-economic paradigm relevant today.
The Rio Principles, Human Right conventions, elements of Agenda 21, as well as Local and National Sustainability Strategies and Processes and the developing Action Plans on Sustainable Consumption and Production (developed by whom?) as a means through which to plan and organize, already embody much of these principles and type processes.
Many of these efforts have achieved less impacts as they would have deserved mostly for being disconnected. Thinking in terms of commons can provide the guiding vision and operating principles needed for learning how to search for the matching parts as the solution, and the system itself will start putting them all together.
>
MBS to develop the long version: how all these initiatives tie into the Commons vision, principles and action plans, insisting in particular on the stakeholders we would like to work with?>>
The commons movement
UN Sustainability Programs, Rio+20 Agenda 21
SDGs, Targets and Indicators
Human rights conventions
National Sustainability programs
National and local tax and education policies