French forest communes and sustainable development in mountain areas

The various forms of common property ownership are well represented historically and geographically in the mountain regions of Europe. Given the severe environmental conditions, common property regimes, resource management practices and cultural patterns are important, with interaction between them very marked in these regions. Social anthropological research has examined and provided evidence to show the vital role of cultural mechanisms, such as forms of ownership and their transfer, in creating a balance or imbalance between resources, local communities, population growth and mountain economies. Mountain regions, with their fragile, complex ecosystems, require their inhabitants to be adaptable and to develop sustainable cultural patterns and traditions, they too as fragile as they are complex. Despite the collapse of many common property systems, owing to the decisions taken by centralized authorities throughout this century, examples from 1 000 years of successful sustainable mountain development point up the pertinence of such systems. The importance of common property regimes for the sustainable development of forest resources was dealt with in a special issue of Unasylva which examined the theoretical arguments and provided practical examples (FAO, 1995). The points put forward showed that "there are circumstances where common property regimes are the most appropriate form of forest management - a self-reliant, participatory approach that provides sustainable benefits and ensures resource conservation". The analysis proposed by FAO will now be examined, using the example of the French forest communes, in order to obtain a better understanding of the potential for and implications of active participation by local players -especially upland inhabitants and their representatives - in achieving the sustainable development objectives set out in the Rio Earth Summit's Agenda 21. Unasylva - No. 195 - Moving Mountains Vol. 49 1998/4 An international journal of forestry and forest industries FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations