What makes a common pool resource uncommon? Vicuña management and the re invigoration of indigenous communities

LICHTENSTEIN, G.

Nairobi

Congreso; XIX Biennial IASC Conference: The commons we want, between historical legacies and future collective actions; 2023

International Association for the Study of the Commons, Universidad de Nairobi, Centre for Integrated Training and Research in ASAL Development CETRAD, the University of Bern (Institute of Social Anthropology ISA, Centre for Development and Environment

Local people´ s perceptions, beliefs and views on wildlife change over time. However, in the case of vicuñas, they were highly regarded by local herders since the early development of pastoralism and are still considered “the herds of the Gods” by most local Andean communities. While significant literature on traditional commons deals with fisheries, forests, water management, irrigation and animal husbandry, wildlife use has not been as widely explored. Although vicuñas can be considered an “uncommon” common pool resource (CPR), they do exhibit the two principal characteristics of CPRs: (a) exclusion or the control of access of potential users is difficult; and (b) each user is capable of subtracting from the welfare of all others. Both characteristics shape the history of vicuña use and conservation. According to Nayak and Berkes ( 2011), ‘ commonisation ’ refers to a process through which a resource gets converted into a jointly used resource under commons institutions that deal with excludability and subtractability, and “ decommonisation ” refers to a process through which a jointly used resource under commons institutions loses these essential characteristics. In this presentation we provide a historical background on the decommonisation processes that led vicuñas to their near extinction following the Spanish Conquest in the Andean Region. We then present their recent commonisation processes, as well as their environmental and socio-political impacts. The question of what makes an uncommon common pool resource is further explored as well as the uniqueness of this model which turned it into one of the rare success stories in international conservation.