Logo

Synopsis Common property resources (CPRs) not merely comprise a substantial proportion of natural resource endowment, but the survival of over-whelming majority of people, particularly most vulnerable sections of rural poor, is also very intimately tied with them in most developing, countries including India. Ironically, notwithstanding, their importance for the survival of local communities and for sustainability of environment, CPRs are being very rapidly depleted, which is jeopardizing already limited sources of livelihood of local communities and exacerbating the environmental hazards. Thus saving these resources from further depletion and regeneration of degraded CPRs are most formidable challenge before the developing world. This work is an attempt in the direction of facing up this challenge. Its principal aim is to understand the problems faced by the CPRs and local communities depended on them better and to suggest certain sustainable measures for the mitigation of these problems. The book brings out the broader orders of status and use of CPRs and problems faced by them in different regions of India by synthesising the available literature and by analysing the secondary data. Based on primary data collected from sample villages in four ecological regions of Haryana, this study provides in detail the quantitative, operational, ownership, occupancy and environmental status of CPRs, problems faced by them as well as their causes and consequences. The book also evaluates the contributions of these resources to the household economies of rural communities, examines the status of prevailing management systems of common property resources and suggests the effective institutional arrangements for the sustainable development and management of CPRs. The book will be welcomed by academicians, policy analysts, activists and people at large.