(Statsallmenning/ Bygdeallmenning) in Norway. - UMB

Doshisha University University of Hyogo Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Endnotes
i See introduction on the company Statskog’s role.
ii A right “appendant” to an agricultural holding is inalienable and
established by prescription and not by any grant. It means in this case
that the rights of common, including the fraction of the ground, are
inalienably attached to a cadastral farm unit.
iii The Norwegian word “utvisning” means a physical demarcation of
the trees or the area where logging is allowed.
iv “Føderåd” – a provision made for a retiring farmer on handing over
the farm to his heir or successor. The previous farmer is still allowed to
live on the farm, but in another building than the main house.
v Benefits from a bygd commons go to the farm, to the house, etc; not
to the farmer or to any other person except as holder of the farm with
rights of common appendant.
vi “bygd” is translated as community. In Norwegian the word signifies
a particular type of rural community. In most cases it will refer to a
predominantly small-scale agricultural community with an identity tied
to landscape features.
“bygdeallmenninger” (singular bygdeallmenning) is here translated as
bygd commons. They are community-owned commons (as opposed to
state-owned) where farmers living in a “bygd” have certain use rights
(profits) tied to their cadastral farm units (rights of common
appendant) such as fishing, grazing, logging, etc. The rights of
common are held jointly by the commoners. By definition in a "bygd
commons" between 50 and 100 percent of the commoners hold the
land of the commons in common. This definition was introduced by
acts from 1857 and 1863. Even though the word “bygdeallmenning”
(bygd commons) was used for a long time before that, it is today
reasonable to say that bygd commons is nothing else than exactly what
the Act on bygd commons declares (see the Act on bygd commons).
Benefits from a bygd commons, like those from a stat commons, go to
the farm, to the house, etc; not to the farmer or to any other person
except as holder of a farm with rights of common appendant.
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