the role of property rights in natural resource management, good ...

engaging in timber harvests beyond defined levels. Nevertheless, one normally expects that where privateproperty exists, most strands in the property rights bundle are controlled by a natural or legal person.FIGURE 1. TYPICAL WESTERN PROPERTY RIGHTS MODELPrivate rights to land and natural resources are usuallyrestricted in specific ways based on governmentregulations.Uses of publicly held land and natural resources are specifiedby government policies and may be freely enjoyed, availablefor a fee, or completely restricted depending on the nature ofthe use.Designating land and natural resources as “public property” is generally justified in environmental terms suchas creating forest reserves or powers of eminent domain exercised to create public infrastructure facilities,parks, watershed governance and management areas. In other cases, lands are by default public because noindividual or group has been assigned rights to them. In public property contexts, one would reasonablyexpect a higher degree of government control and definition regarding publicly available use rights than is thecase where property is held privately. In the case of publicly held (government-controlled) natural resources,sets of use rights—from tree felling, to pasturing livestock, to park visitation, to water consumption—areusually defined by the government and distributed to the public on a fee or non-fee basis. Most oftengovernments grant use rights to individuals and corporations for specified time periods. Governmentstemporarily transfer use rights through permits and leases.As the discussion moves toward a context of natural resources in non-Western rural settings, the concept andreality of common property and open access renewable natural resources becomes more important.Distribution of property rights to renewable natural resources is often much more complex in non-Westernthan in Western countries. In contrast to the relatively concentrated bundles prevalent in the Western contexts,in non-Western countries the strands of a bundle may be spread across a dizzying array of individuals andgroups, as well economic operators and state agencies. Often one can observe multiple claims to the samestrand within the property rights bundle (see Figure 2). Multiple claims may arise within or across propertyrights systems classified as either legally recognized (formal) or recognized under customary law (informal).6 ROLE OF PROPERTY RIGHTS IN NRM: GOOD GOVERNANCE AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE RURAL POOR