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| Common Property Rights: From Swiss Grazing to Global Environmental Change - The grazing areas "Alps" of Switzerland: The Korporations |
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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. Often these institutions have worked for hundreds of years. 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 have been set up for managing the resource. In this record we will describe the concept of Korporation Alps. Korporations are ancient institutions which have survived since the period between the tenth and thirteenth century, when villagers claimed rights to many alps at a time. In the inner cantons (regions) of the country, the Korporations still function as umbrella organizations owning many alps. |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| Similar institutions 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 |
| SOCIAL BOUNDARIES: The "Korporation" is a corporate body of citizens. Normally they will be members of families with certain surnames derived from the old citizens of the district in which the cooperative was founded. Use of "Korporation" Alps is limited to members of these families. Userights can also be limited to residents of a certain district.
SPATIAL BOUNDARIES: Use-rights are given to the Alp\Alps owned by the Korporation. |
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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 |
| Further regulation of the number of animal units in the Alp is done by demanding the user to posses "Hut-rights", which are issued by the Korporation Administration. A Hut-right will allow the holder to build an alp stall or use an existing on, and to stock the commons with a certain number of animal units. If the system of hut-rights is not used, grazing rights can be limited to animals which are wintered in the district. |
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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. 220396 |
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