Resilience of communal water management in La Gomera (Canary Islands): discussing with Hardin and Ostrom

Abstract

ABSTRACT We analyse the main keys of the traditional agroecosystem of the palm grove (Phoenix canariensis) in irrigated terraces in Valle de Arriba in the municipality of Valle Gran Rey (La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain). Here, irrigation water is not only associated with the land but is also being managed as a communal resource by the inhabitants. The change in the economic model from agriculture to tourism is putting the survival of this traditional agrarian system at risk (agricultural exit, population ageing and economic touristification). The need for preservation is then suggested, but the question that leads us to a re-edition of the so-called “Tragedy of the Commons” arises again: What actors should carry out this preservation? Private agents or the State, as suggested by Hardin, or the rural community, as maintained by Ostrom? We conclude that for the case studied of La Gomera, the rural community has kept managing the communal water resource but at the expense of the secular class struggles won by the farming community against the privatisation of water by private agents and/or the State.