People’s Commons’ Register: Involving Local Communities in Managing Common Pool Resources

Abstract

Communities across the world interact with common pool resources in distinct ways, including for economic as well as social and cultural purposes. The involvement of local communities in the conservation and management of these resources requires recognising and building upon their customary de facto governance arrangements. However, the absence of a comprehensive database around the customary governance arrangements hinders their recognition, also weakens these arrangements and the institutions around them. The absence of such a database weakens the trust of external stakeholders in these customary arrangements and in local communities’ abilities to act for sustainable management of resources. In an attempt to address this issue, this research was carried out for preparing such a database to record the customary governance arrangements around the common pool resources, namely the People’s Commons’ Register (PCR). This participatory action research was conducted at three locations in the central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. This paper shares the methodology evolved as an outcome of the research. It also highlights some key insights into the complex relationships of different stakeholders around the common pool resources. The creation of a database such as PCR is an essential first step in creating awareness and collectivising local communities for the conservation and management of the common pool resources. PCR aims to become a people’s document by enabling them to access opportunities to secure their rights to use, protect, manage and establish claims on their resources.