ABSTRACT

This chapter is about how households manage their commons. I use the term production zones in this context because it gives us a concrete and direct understanding of how environmental variation in mountain ecosystems is handled by the local population. The chapter describes the importance of village-based management of resources, giving a vivid picture of how collective aspects directly impinge on household autonomy in terms of decisions about where and how productive activities such as planting, irrigating, or grazing should be allowed to take place.