8 rules to avoid environmental disaster

An interesting point of view to understand culture is see it like social arrangements that allow us survive, adapt and live in a natural or social world. These sets are above of individuals, are contracts, set of rules, values, customs, limits that we enforce to ourself - consciously or not- to achieve some goals. Are institutions.

Sorry folks, but institutions aren't buildings. Instead of that, are a set of rules.

For example, marriage institution is a set of rules that limit sexual relationships, heritage, alliances between families or groups. It installs a kind of link and sets rules, that helps to avoid conflicts about reproduction right, and keeps some values (some societies is about love, in other childs, or family, status, whealt, etc).

There are political institutions, as democratic vote, or economic ones, as markets. All of them regulate our actions. How we behave, which strategies are available to reach our goals. There were people that thought there are as many institutions as social needs. While others thought that institutions were imposed and because of historical reasons... But How is this related to environment?  

The tragedy of the commons

In 1968, Garrette Hardin published in Science magazine an hypotetical situation: A common grassland (resource), which is used by several farmers to feed their animals. If those shepherds act from an individualistic and rational point of view to maximize their benefit, they will try to put on grassland as many animals as they can. If everybody act like that, soon the common resource will be plenty of animals and they will eat it all, leading to the dead of all animals. It will be different if the resource wasn't common, but divided among shepherds. Then, they will try to avoid over-exploitation, knowing beforehand that no one will use the resources they don't use.

This has been used as an argument to support pro-private-property-rights positions. But the same article said that is just one possible action and it is hard to take in major commons as air (and pollution) and oceans, that couldn't be divided. If we still pushing those commons the tragedy will become innevitable.

But commons are hypotetical, What occurs in real life?

The commons survive.

Some anthropologists researches have shown us that most of the communities with common resources have
several strategies to avoid its overexploitation. They use tabus that forbid fishing or rules that say when to move cattle to other lands to avoid overconsumption. However, many communities transform those rules when they start some commerce and market relationships. Markets encourage intensive exploitation of resources to exchange.

Palau (Micronesia), fishermen have strong norms to limit fishing

The nomad shedherds Bassin (Southern Iran) have rules and rutes very well stablished in order to take care of glasslands

However, in 1990, E. Ostrom (political scientist and Nobel Prize) compiled and compared many cases were communities were successful conserving their common resources. She described a set of institutions that help them make it. Those institutions were specifics rules that community impose and reproduce in next generations:

1. Clearly defined boundaries (effective exclusion of external un-entitled parties);
2. Rules regarding the appropriation and provision of common resources that are adapted to local conditions;
3. Collective-choice arrangements that allow most resource appropriators to participate in the decision-making process;
4. Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of or accountable to the appropriators;
5. A scale of graduated sanctions for resource appropriators who violate community rules;
6. Mechanisms of conflict resolution that are cheap and of easy access;
7. Self-determination of the community recognized by higher-level authorities; and
8. 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.

Commons become global

One kind of global institution created to stop global warming and protect our major common -our planet- is Kyoto protocol for climate change. It is an agreement in which every country commit to reduce their emission greenhouses gases. Its aim was reduce global emission on 5%. If the countries couldn't achieve their goals, they will be fined.

However, as Ostrom would say, there is no point if the protocol is not ratified by every country. Sadly USA didn't, despite to be the major greenhouse gases producer. And Canada, seeing they wouldn't achieve their goals for 2012, quit. And the tragedy becomes more real.

Sources:

G. Hardin "Thagedy of the commons", Science, 1968

R. E. Johannes "Words of lagoon: Fishing and marine lore in Palau distric of Micronesia", 1981

E. Ostrom "Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action", 1990

Ember y Ember: Sistemas económicos: ¿Lleva la propiedad comunal al desastre económico?, 2010

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