Sustainable Commons Adaptations to Landscape Ecosystems in Switzerland (SCALES)

Presentation of the SCALES project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

SCALES deals with the continuities and ruptures of common-pool resource (CPR) management (pastures and forests) based on common property institutions in Switzerland, taking as point of reference international research on Swiss commons (Netting 1976) and its use by Elinor Ostrom’s work on robust institutions for the commons (Ostrom 1990). While Swiss commons are labeled as reasons for the sustainable maintenance of its cultural landscape ecosystems, the last two centuries show that local resource governance has been challenged by external political, economic and institutional changes, such as state building and globalization processes. Some of these adapted to changing institutional frameworks and play a major role in CPR use and management. The diversity among currently active common property institutions in Switzerland is noticeably high and gives rise to international interests in the Swiss Way of governing CPRs over different SCALES.

• PDF of the paper