The political ecology of conservation in the American West

Property Rights and The Commons

A Paper Written by ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968

States that people acting in a rational way will try to maximize their gain. This leads to misuse of resources that are shared by all.

Tragedy of the Commons

Garrett Hardin

The Example Hardin used: Cattle grazers on a shared field.Each has one cow, the field can support this

numberEach farmer wants to get more profit and feels

that if they add one cow the field will still be able to support the grazing.

The problem: All the farmers think like this, and soon there are double the number of cattle on the field, and it is overgrazed. Thus, the shared field is ruined because there was no agreement between the grazers.

What does this mean?

Aside from cattle grazing, this social phenomena has implications in:

Shared forest useFishery useC02 pollution (the atmosphere is a shared

resource)Pollution of streams and lakes Etc…

Applications

Privatize the resource Government ownership and regulation Community ownership and regulation

What to do about the tragedy?

The problems with federal land ownership.

These different ideas of nature and what resources should/ should not be used for are the root of many conflicts about natural resources.

The study of these different ideas, and how they impact political decisions is called political ecology

1.) Differing ideas of nature.

Two (of many) differing views:Nature as a

livelihood: People who often work and live in rural areas in jobs that require resource extraction.

Nature as a getaway:Often wealthier people who live in urban environments and go to nature to get away from the city.

2.) Differing ideas of GovernmentJeffersonian:

Government should have a limited role in society. Big government is inherently corrupt. Advocate for states rights.

Hamiltonian: Government should have a strong central authority, those who are educated should be in charge. Belief in expert regulators.

A Case Study in the West

A new state park that would cover 2% of the county land. Including mountains and valleys. It blocks off ranchers access to a stream, but it also allows enough habitat for an endangered species of bird to live.

A conflict in Northern California

Have had family homesteads in this area since the 1880’s

Livelihood involves using natural resources, such as water and land, to raise cattle

Do not have a lot of moneySee City dwellers as not doing real workOn a more fundamental level, See nature as

something to be USED responsibly.

The Ranchers

Feel they have earned the opportunity to live in and experience the beautiful countryside

Coming to the area with increasing frequency (changing the population make up)

See Nature in a more romantic light – as something to be preserved for its beauty

The Wealthy City Dwellers

The City Dwellers have someone with their interests in mind run for office

The Ranchers have someone with their interests in mind run for office

Split the class in two, each side represents either the city dwellers (newly moved to this area) or the ranchers.Each group picks a representativeHave a debate – who should win the election, why?What should be done about making a state park in

the county?

County Board Elections

Was compromise made? Or did the land rights go all to one group?

In reality often one group (the one with more money behind them) gets entire land rights and makes the other group very mad.

This resulted on a national level in the Sagebrush Rebellion in the 1980’s. This was a group of well organized ranchers in the west who were vehemently opposed to government regulation (and ownership of land) and helped get Reagan into office.

What were the results?