Join me at indigenous protest at Peru Embassy tomorrow!

SI A LA VIDA! NO A LA MINA!



Peruvians in London will be picketing the embassy in support of the people of Cajamarca Peru confronting the Yanacocha gold mine. The people are protesting 20 years of environmental damage by the mine owned by Newmont and Buenaventura. Through the Conga Project, the mineowners want to expand operations that would affect 4 lagoons at the head of the valley, contaminating the water supply for cultivators and cattle rearers throughout the province.







Local communities demand that their right to prior consultation is repected, and that independent Environmental Impact Assessments are carried out and evaluated.







Solidaridad con el pueblo de Cajamarca! Conga no Va! Agua sí, oro no! No a la militarización de Cajamarca!



Alto a los abusos de Yanacocha! No a la destrucción del medio ambiente! Defensa de la Pachamama!







Embassy of Peru, Sloane Street SW1 (nearest tube Knightsbridge, very near Colombian Embassy)



1pm – 4pm Friday 1 June

Julian Dobson on the commons

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/julian-dobson/a-future-for-our-green-spaces_b_1531296.html

You would also expect to find well maintained parks, relaxing open spaces and places where you can take children to play, go for a run or just sit in the sun. You would assume that a city which takes care of itself also takes care of its green spaces.

You might be surprised to find that most towns and cities have no obligation whatever to care for their green spaces. Local councils have no legal duty to preserve local ecosystems, keep parks and gardens open or preserve public access. No surprise then that green spaces are easy targets for spending cuts.

There is even fewer safeguards for green space that is in private hands. A study by the London Wildlife Trust in 2010 found that nearly a quarter of the capital's green spaces were private gardens - and while they are rich in wildlife and a vital ecological resource, more than one third of this garden space has already been paved or tarmacked over.

There is a better way, and it's one many of us can find on our doorsteps. The idea that publicly accessible green spaces are a shared benefit, to be enjoyed and cared for, is an ancient one. It is captured in the concept of the commons, areas of land on which local residents enjoyed particular rights and privileges.

The remaining historic commons in England and Wales are now covered by legislation, the Commons Act 2006, that protects public access and reaffirms the responsibilities of stewardship and maintenance. What is significant about the commons is not who owns the land - many are privately owned - but the continuing right of public enjoyment and duty of care. They provide a model for flexible partnerships of public, private and voluntary interests working for everyone's good.
A report published this week to mark the 30th anniversary of the community and environmental charity Groundwork argues that this model of the commons should be applied to all publicly accessible parks and green spaces, enshrining in perpetuity their role and value as public goods, as well as the responsibilities of care that accompany public rights and privileges.
Wanstead Flats in east London, on the border between Newham and Redbridge, is typical of Britain's commons. On a Saturday you might find football teams playing in organised amateur leagues; kids learning to ride bikes or feeding ducks on the pond; dog walkers, runners, cyclists and model aircraft enthusiasts. In the past you might even find someone exercising their traditional right to graze cattle.

There are more than 7,000 commons in England, covering nearly 400,000 hectares - 3% of the country's land. Contrary to popular folklore, they are not everybody's property. Many are privately owned: Wanstead Flats, for example, is part of Epping Forest, owned by the City of London Corporation. 

Despite names that often suggest poor quality land of low value - Wormwood Scrubs, Roadside Waste, Nether Mire - these commons are hugely important. Nearly half England's common land lies within national parks, 30% within areas of outstanding natural beauty, and one fifth of them are within sites of special scientific interest. More than one tenth of England's scheduled ancient monuments are on common land.

The commons are vestiges of much larger areas that were historically open to all for foraging, grazing and recreation. Although these open spaces are no longer required for subsistence, they are recognised as public goods that provide benefits to all of us.
Far from being a historical anomaly, the commons have been a rallying point for civic pride and involvement and are seen as prized local assets. They have also been centres of protest and politics: Blackheath was the setting for Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt of 1381, while Putney Heath hosted the famousPutney Debates during the English Civil War in 1647.

How does one define entitlement to enjoy the commons?

Blogging has died a little with the advent of facebook and twitter.  I am also very focussed on writing about the commons.

I have written a first draft of my book on the environmental history of the commons and currently waiting feedback from the publishers (MIT) and am know very deeply into a new book on Elinor Ostrom's work.

My Green Party collegue and friend Andrea Claire-Smith http://www.greenparty.org.uk/individual/291 wrote this in response to the first chapter of my book on the environmental history of the commons, which I think puts forward some interesting questions.

The issue that I kept returning to was how does one define entitlement to enjoy the commons? If one believes that the only boundary with legitimacy is the eggshell thin layer of atmosphere that surrounds this planet, then I would have the right  to move to the rainforest and inhabit the same territory as the people currently living there. If I was ripping up that forest, then it seems reasonable for them to object, but what if I promised to follow their established ways for living in that area? It seems that agreement to follow the lifestyle of people already successfully living in balance with the land would be a good criterion for receiving usufruct rights.
Then I thought of the public services that we have in the UK as a commons. How should it work if someone from outside of the UK wants usufruct rights for that commons? Should there be a criterion that they have to meet to enjoy these public services? Of course, there are numerous criteria but should they exist at all? If they should, what should they be?
I would not like to make a distinction between someone joining this society from another country to someone joining it because they were born here. If there is a criterion for the former, than it should be applied in the latter case too. But the problem with criteria is making sure they are fair and able to adapt to the diverse circumstances in which people find themselves.

Then there is entitlement on a group scale with the cases of either geographically overlapping groups using the same commons or as in the example you give from Thompson of different communities of interest using the commons for conflicting purposes. Both the entitlement of the individual and that of the group are touched on in many of the examples that you give and I wondered if you had plans to discuss in a later chapter how these can be arbitrated?
I had two further examples of commons. The commons system in New Forest which appears to integrate different uses of the forest successfully (maybe it doesn’t and that’s why you haven’t mentioned it! ) and the electricity system.

I was thinking of the electric grid as a commons. In this case the suppliers of electricity to the grid in the UK have not worked together to provide the public good of reliability of electricity supply because investing in generating capacity that is only occasionally used will benefit competitor’s customers as well as your own. It is a market failure and power shortfalls are not too far away. DECC proposed a strategic reserve – a small fleet of powers stations – that would only be brought into use when power cuts threatened. However, they have were persuaded to go for another type of market – a capacity market. The details of which are as yet undecided. This is not a failure of the commons though – just evolution of its management. The CEGB managed the grid pretty successful. I think electricity grid are example of successful commons where co-operation over the use of a resource – the ability to generate electricity -  is more efficient than individuals or groups operating without the benefits of connection.