B. Campbell et al., Challenges to proponents of common property recource systems: Despairing voices from the social forests of Zimbabwe, WORLD DEV, 29(4), 2001, pp. 589-600
There is a fair degree of misplaced optimism about common property resource
(CPR) management. In investigating common property issues for woodlands in
communal areas in Zimbabwe, we are struck by the numerous case studies sho
wing a breakdown of local institutions for CPR management, and the lack of
any emerging alternative institutions for such management. There are a numb
er of contributing economic, social and ecological factors to this phenomen
on. We argue that the formal rule-based systems that form the cornerstones
of the proposed CPR systems are far removed from the current institutional
systems, rooted in norm-based controls. We suggest that advocacy of CPR sys
tems has to be tempered with critical analysis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science L
td. All rights reserved.