The landscapes of common Land: history and ecology in Norfolk and beyond

The contribution of the commons to the persistence of mountain grazing systems under the Common Agricultural Policy

Castor bean plants yield commercially important oilseeds with multiple uses; they are characterised by tolerance to drought and adaptation to marginal soils in arid and semi-arid regions. In northern Mexico, a large amount of arid land is categorised as “ejidos”: a system of mixed land ownership managed under a specific legal system, where land users have access to common or individual (parcelled) land. This work aimed to examine the suitability of castor bean cultivation on unused marginal land in ejido land. To determine the environmental suitability of the ejido lands of Coahuila, Mexico, we adapted a land Productivity Index (PI) from an existing method; it consisted of a set of biophysical indicators (edaphic factors, climate, and topography) adapted to castor bean cultivation. We then complemented this index with a “cultural component”, assessing the ethnobotanical knowledge of the people, their willingness to implement a new crop type, and the type and current use of the land. As a result, we found that 114,300 ha of ejido land (1.76% of the total) were very suitable for castor bean cultivation according to the Environmental-PI and that 808,524 ha of ejido land (12.4% of the total) was very suitable according to the Cultural-PI. We also hypothesised that the willingness of “ejidatarios” to cultivate castor beans was related to their degree of knowledge about the plant and the land available for its cultivation; however, their willingness was mostly related to differences in land tenure: “ejidatarios” who own parcelled land were more interested in obtaining benefits from the land through the implementation of novel crops, compared to those who only have access to common land. Highlights • In Mexico, the “ejido” is a unique land ownership and management system where users have access to common or individual (parcelled) land. • According to our Environmental Productivity Index, 114,300 ha of ejido land in Coahuila, México, were very suitable for castor bean cultivation. • This index was complemented with a “cultural component” gauging the people’s perception and willingness to introduce castor bean as a new crop. • 808,524 ha (12.4%) of ejido land were very suitable for castor bean cultivation according to the cultural component of our index. • Differences in land tenure most strongly influence the willingness of the ejido people to cultivate castor beans.

Castor bean plants yield commercially important oilseeds with multiple uses; they are characterised by tolerance to drought and adaptation to marginal soils in arid and semi-arid regions. In northern Mexico, a large amount of arid land is categorised as “ejidos”: a system of mixed land ownership managed under a specific legal system, where land users have access to common or individual (parcelled) land. This work aimed to examine the suitability of castor bean cultivation on unused marginal land in ejido land. To determine the environmental suitability of the ejido lands of Coahuila, Mexico, we adapted a land Productivity Index (PI) from an existing method; it consisted of a set of biophysical indicators (edaphic factors, climate, and topography) adapted to castor bean cultivation. We then complemented this index with a “cultural component”, assessing the ethnobotanical knowledge of the people, their willingness to implement a new crop type, and the type and current use of the land. As a result, we found that 114,300 ha of ejido land (1.76% of the total) were very suitable for castor bean cultivation according to the Environmental-PI and that 808,524 ha of ejido land (12.4% of the total) was very suitable according to the Cultural-PI. We also hypothesised that the willingness of “ejidatarios” to cultivate castor beans was related to their degree of knowledge about the plant and the land available for its cultivation; however, their willingness was mostly related to differences in land tenure: “ejidatarios” who own parcelled land were more interested in obtaining benefits from the land through the implementation of novel crops, compared to those who only have access to common land. Highlights • In Mexico, the “ejido” is a unique land ownership and management system where users have access to common or individual (parcelled) land. • According to our Environmental Productivity Index, 114,300 ha of ejido land in Coahuila, México, were very suitable for castor bean cultivation. • This index was complemented with a “cultural component” gauging the people’s perception and willingness to introduce castor bean as a new crop. • 808,524 ha (12.4%) of ejido land were very suitable for castor bean cultivation according to the cultural component of our index. • Differences in land tenure most strongly influence the willingness of the ejido people to cultivate castor beans.

The purpose of this study is to identify the nature of forest management in common lands. In post-war Japan, a significant expansion in the area of conifer plantations has taken place and today these account for half of Japan's total forest area. However, many of the plantations now suffer from complete or partial neglect, which leads not only to their commercial devaluation, but also to environmental degradation. Common lands share a similar problem.Villagers previously used common lands as a source of green manure, charcoal and firewood. At the same time, they planted timber trees for harvesting and sale when they needed money. Plantations were especially expanded during the 1950s and 60s when the demand for green manure, charcoal and firewood diminished and timber could be sold at a high price. In addition, in order to promote timber plantations in common lands, in 1966 the Japanese government established an Act for the Modernization of Common Lands. This Act aimed to make common lands more productive by disbanding their pre-modern and obscure ownership system and by introducing a clear and modern system. As a result of the implementation of the Act, the common lands have usually been divided among villagers or transferred to forest producer cooperatives (seisan-shinrinkumiai) whose members are usually the same villagers with former access rights to them. However, even now, more than one million hectares of common lands remain unmodernized.In this paper, I first undertake an overview of forest management practices in the forest producer cooperatives in Kyoto Prefecture. Then I examine the cases of cooperatives in Ujitawara and Wazuka Municipalities and investigate their forest management in detail in order to identify key influencing factors. For comparative purposes, I have also investigated the forest management of seven villages in Wazuka Municipality which leave their common lands unmodernized.The conclusions are as follows.Today, villagers cannot adequately tend common lands only through collective work which is carried out a few times a year. For adequate tending, cooperatives and villages must hire skilled forestry laborers who can properly thin or prune trees. Most cooperatives in Kyoto Prefecture, however, have insufficient funds to hire them and cannot help but neglect their forest.Nevertheless, there are some cooperatives and villages which have special income such as compensation for land uses under power transmission lines or profits from land sales for residential areas, factories, and so on. Some of these cooperatives allocate much of their income to forest tending.The forest management of cooperatives and villages is often influenced by the particular histories of plantation forestry in a region. Active cooperatives tend to be in regions where plantation forestry has been traditionally practiced and where many villagers are interested in forestry.Villagers' management of common lands has been influenced by their modernization in the following ways: some villages that were prosperous and had long traditions of plantation forestry have come to be more modernized in forest management through the establishment of cooperatives. On the other hand, many poorer villages which established cooperatives only for the clarification of property rights are experiencing difficulty with increased expenditure including corporation taxes, which might lead to further neglect of their forests.

The article will discuss the general issues related to common land - the term applied in the Common Lands Act of 29 June 1963 and its legal nature. In addition, an attempt will be made to answer the question about an entity that should be disclosed in the second section of the land and mortgage register in the case of real property being a part of the common land. Currently, land and mortgage registers may be established for common land. The question is whether it should be the common land itself or natural and legal persons entitled to hold shares therein, or maybe a company established to manage and develop such a common land. It seems that the legislator itself has been unable to deal with this issue. There are no legal acts where it would indicate directly or indirectly an entity that should be disclosed in the second section of the land and mortgage register as an owner (co-owner).

The statutory authority pertaining to management of common lands lies with the state legislatures and administrations, which enact and effect laws pertaining to the subject of land including common lands. Hence, Haryana State has adopted ‘The Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act 1961.' The Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Rules 1964 (for Haryana) provides an account of comprehensive details of various kinds of provisions necessary for regulating and managing the common lands in the state. Some relevant provisions to this effect are also made there in the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act-1994. It is concluded that there is complete control of the State Government in managing the village common lands of the state. The State Government possesses all requisite executive and administrative powers for the said purpose. The executive authority vested in officials from secretariat to village levels enables the Government for effective management of shamlat land related affairs in the state. The Gram Panchayat is entrusted with the significant responsibility to perform all kinds of functions relating to the utilization, protection and preservation of these lands. But inspite of an effective constitutional arrangement, it is found that a large area of common land in the state has remained unutilized mainly because of the absence of resources and innovative ideas in this regard. Therefore, there is an urgent need to evolve a policy measure for improving the potentiality of common lands to earn more income for the village panchayts in the state.

Common land and ELMS: a need for policy innovation in England and Wales

This paper had been studied on three districts: Tsuka, Tokuyama-Mura, Gifu Prefecture; Shiramine and Kuwashima, Ishikawa Prefecture; Seto, Imajo-Cho, Fukui Prefecture. In these parts, the swidden cultivation and the afforestation are prevalent as the land use in the Chubu mountainous area.This study has the following three points.1) The transition of the land use on the mountain slopes.2) The system of the land use regulations in the mountainous areas.3) A rural community structure and the effects of the land use regulations.On survey, the mountain slpoes in these parts (except Tsuka) mainly had been used of the swidden cultivation, the silk culture and the charcoal-making. But these land use have been replaced by the afforestation after World War II. Such tendency is remarkable at Shiramine and Kuwashima.The land use regulations in the mountainous areas are strougly in evidence at Tsuka (2500ha) and Kuwashima (600ha) where are the common land. For instance, “Kabudai” (a common land use fee) is a principal regulation at Tsuka and “Issakuoroshi” (a common land on lease) at Kuwashima. The subject matter takes some different regulations in the land use types. After World War II, the afforestation was popular rapidly, and then the afforestation areas were made at Kuwashima. In the other hand, “Oyyasama” (a land-owing class) has restricted the land use as there is not the common land at Shiramine.Tsuka village community has non-hierarchical structure, Shiramine and Kuwashima have a hierarchical structure and also Kuwashima has kept a traditional community structure through the common land use.In this paper, it is suggested that.1) Tsuka The regulation of the forest land use are communal because of a large cmmon land and non-hierarchical village structure.2) Kuwashima Though it has the hierarchical rural structure, the common land use is based on the communal system.3) Shiramine The rural structure has an extream class system and a few landowners hold almost the forest land of the village and restrict those land use.4) Seto It is situated between Kuwashima's type and Shiramine's type as the above-mentioned.

The agriculture in the hot arid zone of Rajasthan, India is mainly subsistence farming and pasturelands dominate among different land use systems. These lands provide main support to the huge livestock population of the region. About 60% of the total area of Rajasthan is arid where livestock rearing plays pivotal role in the economy and livelihood of the people. In arid region, animal husbandry sector provides round the year employment with more than 50% of total house hold income as against national average of 22.5%. Common Pool Resources (CPRs) or “commons” are an important component of the agricultural production systems. The CPRs includes community pastures, community forests, government wastelands, common dumping and threshing grounds, river beds, watershed drainages, village ponds and rivers etc. In an estimate common pool comes to around 34.75% of the total geographical area of western Rajasthan. About half of this area is cultivable waste lands, 21% fallow lands (other than current fallow), 14% uncultivable waste lands, 11% permanent pastures and 7% is village forests. Common lands in arid Rajasthan were estimated to contribute 27.90% of dry fodder and 76.30% of green fodder requirement of the livestock in 1960 that decreased to 15.44% and 40.5%, respectively during 2012-13. Traditionally, a close link exists between crop, livestock and common grazing resources in the arid Rajasthan. This complex inter-relationship between CPRs, livestock and crops in arid land farming systems has contributed to the sustainability of dry land agriculture for generations. As the population of both animals and humans rises, there is a proportional increase in competition for food to feed the people that brings agriculture and livestock production into direct conflict. In the present article an attempt has been made to describe the extent and condition of common grazing lands, and examine the problems and prospects of these areas in changing agricultural scenario in hot arid zone of Rajasthan, India.Key words: Common pool resources, rangeland, orans, gauchars, productivity, management

Commons are often seen as existing in a specifically rural milieu but historically towns and cities in England, and elsewhere, were provided with common pasture lands. These were used primarily for grazing the draft animals of those townspeople engaged in trade, but they also provided pasture for farm animals in an economy where the rural and the urban were inextricably mixed and where, in many cases, towns had grown out of or been developed upon existing villages. Many towns and cities retain at least some of their commons: examples include historic cities such as Lincoln and York; great industrial cities such as Newcastle-upon-Tyne; small towns such as Hungerford and Stockbridge; places which have almost lost their urban status, such as Minchinhampton and Corfe; and conversely, places which gained urban status at a late stage, such as Brighton or Plumstead. The common lands attached to these places can therefore move from a rural to an urban milieu or vice versa.KeywordsUrban StatusCommon LandDraft AnimalUrban Open SpaceEnglish HeritageThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Common land is land with an ancient form of ownership. At one time it was economically important, but now its importance lies in the preservation of cultural landscapes and ecological balance. This article uses the geographic information system to analyze selected landscape indicators with respect to various types of agricultural land and determine whether and to what extent the assertion holds true that in Slovenia common agricultural land is preserved primarily in areas with poorer natural conditions for agriculture.

This paper explores the purpose, process, and legacy of commons registration, the result of which was the creation of the county registers routinely used by historians as an index to surviving commons. In so doing, this research attempts to assess the degree of continuity between what is recorded in the registers and historic common land. The study begins with a brief review of the history of common land with an emphasis on the legal and perceptual changes that have occurred since enclosure. From the mid-nineteenth century most people came to consider common land less an agricultural appurtenance and more as areas of open space to which everyone had common access. At the same time, legal definitions shifted away from using common rights to define common land and towards other criteria that encompassed open, neglected or uncommitted sites. As it was this category of land at which the Commons Registration Act was aimed, it is not surprising that the already loosening legal definitions relaxed still further, which, together with a registration procedure so streamlined that very little existed by way of a screen against unsuitable nominations, meant that any kind of land could conceivably become common. Norfolk's commons registers record the existence of 346 commons and 146 village greens, now the only land legally common in the county. A careful look reveals that this list includes many poor allotments (charity land usually dating from enclosure), public pits, traffic islands, and other open land of questionable origin. In fact, less than 25 per cent of Norfolk's registered common land would have satisfied that definition before 1965. Nevertheless, despite their being of limited value as a guide to the survival of historic commons, the registers do put forward a special variety of landscape set apart by the mere accident of registration. As such, statutory common land presents new challenges for both historians and conservationists.

Farmers in the Middle Hills of Nepal have a heavy dependence on tree products to sustain their agricultural systems. They manipulate tree cover on their privately-owned agricultural land--generally on terrace edges and on non-cultivated patches within the agricultural complex. Trees also occur on non-private (common) land surrounding villages, and these trees are also controlled by the farmers, even if the land is under the legal authority of the Forest Department. This paper examines changes in tree cover which are taking place on the various classes of land in a 14,000-ha catchment near Kathmandu. Comparisons were made using air photographs flown in 1972 and 1989. The area of each land-use category was deter- mined for eight sample sites and the percentage of tree crown cover was calculated for each category. The results indicated that there was no significant shift from common land (forest/grass) to agricultural land between the two dates. The percentage of tree crown cover on the major agricultural land-use category (upland terraces) and the common land showed a significant increase between 1972 and 1989. As these two categories make up 86 percent of the sample sites, there are strong indications that the overall landscape is undergoing a steady afforestation process at the hands of the farmers.

Negotiating Rights to Inhabit Common Lands for Housing in Two Cities of South India This paper presents a framework for understanding the everyday political dynamics of commoning initiated by residents to secure their claims to ‘common land’ in urbanising localities. This paper puts forward the proposition that a spatialised approach would serve to reveal the extent to which unique socio-political and geographical factors exert an influence upon the dynamics of collective actions (commoning). It examines the experience of households in two squatter settlements on the outskirts of two South Indian cities: Villupuram, a medium-sized town in the state of Tamil Nadu, and Bangalore, a large metropolis in the state of Karnataka. It demonstrates how common land could serve as a foundation for the inclusion of poor communities within the city. The two cases presented in this paper reflect a trend observed in Indian cities since the mid-1990s, whereby rural common lands in urbanised localities, previously allocated to poor households for housing, have been targeted for more profitable development, eventually justified by environmental arguments. Consequently, those in poverty are compelled to compete with more powerful actors in order to assert their right to the common land they occupy for the purpose of housing. The two case studies demonstrate the capacity of such communities to unite and engage in practical political actions to regularise their settlements and dwellings. We describe their engagement with multiple government institutions across the rural and urban continuum and illustrate the influence of contextual factors, including geographical and temporal factors, in shaping the unique and diverse trajectories of commoning.

Efforts have long been made in India to improve the management of major watersheds for ecological reasons - such as reducing the siltation of reservoirs. The management of micro-watersheds (of around 500 hectares) is a more recent focus of policy and has both ecology and livelihoods as its objectives. Experiments have shown that, in some areas, more than a doubling of resource productivity can be achieved by careful rehablitation. Many watersheds contain both private and common land. It is already clear from a number a efforts led by NGOs that, to be equitable and institutionally sustainable, the rehabilitation of both common and private lands needs action rooted in strong resource user-groups capable of taking decisions in a participatory way and resolving conflict. To build up groups in this way requires both time and skills, both of which have proved elusive in government projects and programmes. The key question addressed in this book is how far the approaches developed by NGOs can be adopted (or adapted) by the public sector and applied on a wide scale, for, without such approaches, neither the ecological nor the livelihood benefits of watershed rehabilitation will be achieved.