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| Common Property Rights: From Swiss Grazing to Global Environmental Change - The grazing areas "Alps" of Switzerland: The Community Alps |
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Reference |
| Stevenson, Glenn G.: " Common Property Rights: From Swiss Grazing to Global Environmental Change.", paper presented at the 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 Community Alps. |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| This type of institution can be found in various parts of the Swiss alpine highlands. The institution is concurrent. |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| SOCIAL BOUNDARIES: Residency in the community/township is normally required for using the Alp. More stringent requirements can be applied, e.g. demanding that anscestors also came from the community/township.
SPATIAL BOUNDARIES: The institution covers grazing Alps belonging to a community/township. |
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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. |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| The animals grazing the alps must be wintered on hay harvested from within the township. In this way, the number of grazing animals is limited. If this rule is insufficient in order to assure the grazing capacity of the alp, further allocation rules can be applied. Further limitation of grazing animals and distribution of grazing can be done in several ways: Equal division among members; division among applicants in the ratio available capacity to total demand; division based on landownership in the valley; priority systems between township citizens/residents and none residents and finally allocation by rotation or lot. |
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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 |
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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. 220396 |
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