Commons, customary law and formalization of land tenure

Common properties refers to those lands which by tradition rural communities own collectively. They usually embrace lands like forests, woodlands, pastures and rangelands, which are not logically owned on an individual or family basis. And yet it is because these lands are collectively owned which has made them so vulnerable to losses. Expansion of towns and cultivation, including by community members, have been sources of the reduced area of commons now available to communities. However, the greatest losses have incurred by the hand of governments. Because they tend to follow imported European systems of land ownership which are individual-centric, it has been easy for governments to regard communal lands as unowned lands, or ‘public lands’, and even to be made the private property of the state. The high value of communal lands has been the main incentive. Many commons have accordingly been designated as forest and wildlife reserves or sold or leased by governments to private sector interests for mining, logging, ranching, or agribusiness exports. This represents mass dispossession. However, more than land rights have been lost; communities have also lost their rightful share in the revenues which mining, logging, ranching or farming by government or investors earn from their traditional lands. Generally, the loss of commons is most serious for poorer families. Often their share in the commons is their only real potential capital asset. This is quite aside from the many ways in which commons support the daily livelihood of up to three billion rural families around the world.