The strategy of the commons: history and property rights in central Sweden

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511541957.009

5 - The strategy of the commons: history and property rights in central Sweden

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2009

Edited by

Johan Colding and

Lars Carlsson: Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden
Fikret Berkes: Affiliation:
University of Manitoba, Canada
Johan Colding: Affiliation:
Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm
Carl Folke: Affiliation:
Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm

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Summary

Introduction

An understanding of the interdependencies between social and ecological systems in relation to the concept of resilience includes two basic dimensions, time and space (Holling, 1986; Holling, Gunderson, and Peterson, 1993). On a methodological level, the first has to do with the problem of what time frame should be used when analyzing the interplay between ecological and socio-economic systems. The contemporary debate about global warming is one example of this problem: should possible changes be assessed over years, centuries, or perhaps millennia? Because humans are social creatures, we have rather good historical records about the development of society. However, when it comes to the history of the interplay between social and ecological systems, the information is much scarcer. Uncertainties concerning the magnitude of deforestation in Africa exemplify this problem. No one really knows how much forest there was before colonization. There is a significant lack of forest data from that period (Gibson, McKean, and Ostrom, 1996). Moreover, even if such data were available, to what specific kind of behavior or decisions could observable changes be attributed?

The other problem, the space problem, is exemplified by findings from an ongoing research project dealing with the Russian forest sector. Along many important transportation lines in West Siberia and several other Russian forest regions, a systematic over-cut has been conducted (cf. Carlsson and Olsson, 1998; Carlsson et al. 1999). However, this local over-cutting has sometimes been ‘compensated for,’ and thereby also hidden in the statistics, by undercutting in other areas.

Type: Chapter
Information: Navigating Social-Ecological Systems
Building Resilience for Complexity and Change
, pp. 116 - 131

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511541957.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

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