Fundos de Pasto: Community governance of common resources in north-east Brazil

Abstract

This chapter examines the social management of ‘nature’ and the commons using Ostrom’s theorisation of common resourse management. It examines Brazil’s Fundos do Pasto, communally managed pastureland, and, using Ostrom’s approach, shows how better environmental outcomes are achieved using solidarity-based pasture management approaches. This is contrasted with the approach of those who, misreading Hardin, argue that private ownership is the only way to avoid a tragedy of the (unmanaged) commons.