ABSTRACT
P roperty and ownership are formal expressions of the relationship between humans and the natural environment (Bromley 1991). Some economists would argue that the term property is a construct of the modern economy and that many people who live close to nature think of humans as “belonging to the land” or that the relationship is a divine one (e.g., Hanna and Jentoft 1996). In modern parlance, property consists of a bundle of rights. To properly analyze different forms of private or common property, the following typology is recommended (Ostrom and Schlager 1996)1:
1 right of access: the right to use or enjoy the property for direct utility; 2 right of withdrawal: the right to use the property productively for profit; 3 right of management: the right to set up and modify rules for the use of
a property; 4 right of exclusion: the right to exclude some users and set rules for access
to a property; and 5 right of alienation: the right to sell, lease, or inherit property with the
rights 1-4.
