Commons

Presented by:
Amado G. Bugayong III
2006 – 46553
What are the Commons?

 the Romans divided properties into three

types :
– res privitae – possessed by an individual or a family
– res publicae – possessed by the public
– res communes – consisted of things used by all
Res Communes

 pertainto the things common to ALL

 Extra patrimoiium or something incapable of
being possessed
 “Shared by all, owned by none”
Two Categories of the Commons

 Cultural Commons  Natural/ Environmental

– Shared by all humanity, Commons
not just the inventors or – Shared by the entire
owners world, not just humans
Two Categories of the Commons

 Nature is the basis of all of life and human

culture has had a profound effect on the
natural world.
The Human Resources and the Commons

 We continuously try to obtain resources from the

environment to meet our needs and wants.
 Some resources are not readily available to us and we
put great effort and knowledge of finding, extracting, and
converting them into several products. All of our methods
are constantly being improved over the years
solar energy atmosphere grasslands surface
water
fertile soil forests petroleum iron

groundwater wild animals etc.

The Human Resources and the Commons

 Some of our resources are renewable

– e.g. sun (perpetual resource), forests, grasslands,
wild animals, fresh water, fresh air and fertile soil
 Thetime it takes for them to replenish may
take a few hours to several decades.
The Human Resources and the Commons

 Some of our resources are renewable

– e.g. sun (perpetual resource), forests, grasslands,
wild animals, fresh water, fresh air and fertile soil
 Thetime it takes for them to replenish may
take a few hours to several decades.
The Human Resources and the Commons

 Some of our resources are non-renewable (they

exist in a fixed amount)
– e.g. fossil fuels, coal, copper, aluminum
 Exhaustible because we are extracting & using them
at a much faster rate than they are formed.
 The time it takes for them to replenish may take over
hundreds of millions to billions of years.
Environmental Degradation

 Sustainable yield
– Definition: highest rate at which a potentially
renewable resource can be used w/o reducing its
available supply throughout the world or in a
particular area.
 Environmental degradation occurs when we
take too much and go beyond a resource’s
sustainable yield
Environmental Degradation

 Examples:
– urbanization of productive land
– excessive topsoil erosion
– pollution
– deforestation (temporary or permanent removal of large
expanses of forest for agricultural or other uses)
– groundwater depletion
– overgrazing of grasslands by livestock
– reduction in the earth’s form of wildlife (biodiversity) by
elimination of habitats and species
Environmental Degradation

 Itcan be observed that there is an

interconnection between these resources
and whatever happens to one may affect the
others as well.
Tragedy of the Commons
Tragedy of the Commons

 oneof the major causes of environmental

degradation is the overuse of common
property or free-access resources. No one
owns these resources, and they are readily
available to users to little or no charge.
Tragedy of the Commons

 In 1968, biologist Garrett Hardin (1915 -

2003) wrote an essay regarding the
degradation of renewable free-access
resources & called it “The Tragedy of the
Commons.”
 “If I do not use this resource, someone else
will. The little bit I use or pollute is not
enough to matter, and such resources are
renewable.”
Tragedy of the Commons

 isa type of social trap, often, economic, that

involves a conflict over finite resources
between individual interests and the common
good
 Overexploitation dooms the resource!
Tragedy of the Commons

 We are able to satisfy this generation needs

and wants because of overexploitation. But
we obtain far more than we can sustain.
 How will the future generations meet their
needs?
Tragedy of the Commons

 The relation between the human population

growth and the Earth’s environmental
resources.
 There are numerous Resource-Population
problems that occur in different biological
systems.
Tragedy of the Commons

 Hardin’s example:
– a pasture being share by several herders
Some Potential and Actual
Tragedies
Uncontrolled Human Population

 The world’s human population is projected to

increase from 6.5 to 8-9 billion or more
between 2005 an 2050 with growth occurring
especially rapidly in developing countries
such as China
Uncontrolled Human Population

 Itis said that 2 things may happen if the rate

of increase in the world population:

1) death rate may increase because of declining

health and environmental conditions in some
areas
Uncontrolled Human Population

2) resource use and environmental harm may intensify

as more consumers increase their large ecological
footprint in developed countries and in some
developing countries undergoing rapid economic
growth.

Definition: Ecological footprint -the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to
supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of the
wastes from such resource use; it measures the average environmental impact of
populations in different countries and areas)
Water pollution and Water Crisis

 The major aspects of the water crisis are overall

scarcity of usable water and water pollution
e.g. the shrinking of the Aral Sea
 Water crisis have several principal manifestations:
a) inadequate access to safe drinking water
b) groundwater over drafting
c) overuse and water pollution harming biodiversity
d) regional conflicts caused by scarce water resources.
 The manifestations of the water crisis have become
one of the leading causes of disease and deaths
Water pollution and Water Crisis

 Solution:
– water management and water distribution
companies
 Pros:
 Cons:

– Desalinization of sea water

 Pros:
 Cons:
Deforestation

 The conversion of forested areas to non-

forest and for use such as arable land,
pasture, urban use, logged area, or
wasteland.
– e.g. Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
 Resultsto reduced or no biodiversity
 Has been shaping climate and geography
Deforestation

 Human activities have reduced the earth’s forest

cover by 20% - 50 %.
 Unless significant measures are taken, it is said that
by 2030 there will only be 10% remaining and
another 10% in a degraded condition
 Solutions:
– Reforestation
– Forest plantations
– Buying the forest lands before lumber companies can buy it
Energy Resources

 It is estimated that we can deplete the

present supply of nonrenewable resources in
hundreds to thousands of years.
 If we can no longer find these nonrenewable
resources then we have several choices: try
to find more, recycle or reuse, waste less,
use less, try to develop a substitute, or wait
millions of years for more to be produced.
Habitat Destruction

 Biologistsestimate that everyday 2 – 200

species become prematurely extinct primarily
because of human activities. As the human
population increases, natural biological
resources are continuously used up to
provide food and shelter.
e.g. the passenger pigeons
Habitat Destruction

 Itis said that evolution may at least take 5

million years but if do not allow natural
speciation and biodiversity to rebuild
because we can’t provide the different
species the correct habitat and time, then we
can only expect an extinction to occur.
Overfishing

 Fisheries are considered as the world’s third

major food-producing system. The world’s
commercial marine fishing industry is
dominated by industrial fishing fleets that use
global satellite positioning equipment, sonar,
huge nets, an long fishing lines, spotter
planes, and large factory ships that can
process and freeze their catches.
 Tragedy of the Grand Banks
Overfishing

 due to the recent advancements in technology and

methods, global fishing stocks have decline to critical
levels. A major international scientific study found
that one third of all fishing stocks have declined to
less than 10% of their maximum observed
abundance.
 Solutions:
– Privatization
– Fish farming
Modern Solutions

We are all guardians of Mother

Nature with an obligation to leave in
our passing a sustainable
environment that afford opportunities
for quality of life comparable to or
better than the legacy we discovered
on our arrival.
Modern Solutions

 Cultural commons may become an integral

part in the protection of the Natural commons
if used to provide a free and open medium of
disseminating data to humans regarding the
preservation of the natural resources.
Modern Solutions

 Ifwe are to find a solution, we must first be

able to define our global or communal
commons and be able to assign exclusive
authorities to determine how the resources
are to be used.
Modern Solutions

 The government should be able to control

those who are given the property rights to the
commons. The government should be
determining who has the right to use the
good/s, who has the right to earn income
from the good/s, and who has the right to
transfer the good/s to others.
Modern Solutions

 Humans, being the most intelligent and most

capable life forms in nature, should be able
to recognize the right of nature to exist. We
have passed laws protecting human rights
because we believe that humans have an
inherent right to exist. But being part of the
natural commons, we should also extend
these rights to the rest of the commons.
Modern Solutions

 Coming up with solutions to the tragedy of

the commons is one of the main problems
encountered by scientists.
 The most common solution, however, is
regulation by an authority.
e.g. a permit system may be implemented for
extractive economic purposes
 People need to cooperate to conserve!
Modern Solutions

 Conversion of the commons into private property

 “Enclosure of the Commons”
 Accordingly, it will give the new owner an incentive to
enforce its sustainability. Unfortunately, this solution
may not apply to all commons, such as the air and
global fish populations, because these may be
difficult or totally impossible to privatize.
– e.g. Atmosphere
Modern Solutions

 Anothersimple solution: implementing a

support system
Modern Solutions

 Dunbar’s number
– Dennis Fox experimented on human cooperative
behavior and have estimated that the upper limit
for a simple self contained, sustaining, well
functioning commons may be as low as 150
people.
– People are able to work in smaller groups.
e.g. the people of Coast Salish