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| Common Property Rights: From Swiss Grazing to Global Environmental Change - The grazing areas "Alps" of Switzerland: The Share-right Alps |
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Reference |
| Stevenson, Glenn G.: " Common Property Rights: From Swiss Grazing to Global Environmental Change.", paper presented at First Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Duke University, Durham, USA, 1990. |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Large parts of Switzerland are covered by the Alps, a vast Mountain territory in central Europe. This record, and the two other records refering to Glenn G. Stevensons text, explains institutions set up for distributing userights and managing the grazing resources of pastures in the Alps. The grazing areas are seasonal alpine grasslands, in this record refered to as "Alps" (In local language "Alp" will refer strictly to the concept of an alpine grassland). In the winter they are covered by snow, which will melt during spring and summer. The Alps are part of a three level system; Village level fields, May-fields located at higher altitudes and finally the Alps at the top. In the spring, animals will first be driven to the village fields and gradually, as the snow melts and grass is grown, they will go on to the May-fields and finally the Alps. Village level fields and May-fields are normally private property. The Alps can be both private or common property, in which case rules has been set up for managing the resource. In this record we will describe the concept of Share-right Alps. |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| This type of institution can be found all over Switzerland. The institution is concurrent. |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| SPATIAL BOUNDARIES: The Alp to which share rights are issued.
SOCIAL BOUNDARIES: Holders of grazing rights. |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| Most common alps will have written regulations which can be altered by the current right holders. The regulations will cover protection of and investment in the common, the rights system, offices, maintenance of the alp, limitation of the grazing season and voting rules. An Alp-overseer will be apppointed to monitor that regulations are not violated, and often he will have authority to give fines. In the share-right system, the number of user rights issued for an Alp is determined by the group of users by experience. They can also change the number of animal units allowed pr. right (See below), to reduce or increase grazing pressure. |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| For share rights alps, users are required to posses grazing rights. Rights are perpetual; they do not expire annually or within any other given period. One right will allow the owner to graze one animal unit which normally equals one cow. Different animal types require different amounts of rights, depending on grazing requirements of the animal. A two year old heifer could requires two thirds of a right and a one year old heifer could require only half a right. Rights can be transfered by rental or sale - prices are usually decided by the market. The total number of rights is fixed, but if carrying capacity of the Alp changes, the number of rights required pr. animal unit can be altered |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Not reported. |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Not reported. |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| Not reported. |
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Other Features of Institution |
| Often communities sharing access to an Alp, in the form of share-right alps or other common property systems, will put up a collective operating structure. Users can employ alp personnel for herding and milking, so that they themselves can concentrate on running their farms in the villages and they can conduct dairy operation cooperatively: Milk will be sent off to the dairyfarm in one batch every day. Milk production of each individual owners cows will be measured at particular intervals during the summer, and at the end of the season, the total milkrevenue will be distributed among owners according to the average fractions of these measurements. |
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Purpose |
| Pasture Management. |
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Country |
| Switzerland. |
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Region |
| The Alps. |
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Date Of Publication |
| TroB 200396 |
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