Heterogeneity, commons and privatisation: Agrarian institutional change in Goa

Abstract

In the debate on common property resource management, asset redistribution and privatization of commons have emerged as contentious issues. This chapter uses a case study in Goa, India, to examine whether tenure security and asset redistribution can lead to environmentally sustainable outcomes. It concludes that when public policy involves institutional transition (private purchase of communidade lands), there may be trade-offs involved between equity and sustainability. Institutional change can affect social networks by triggering exit of agents who previously managed land. Due to lack of a prior history of cooperation among the new resource owners, the new equilibrium may shift to a non-cooperative regime that might endanger embankment maintenance and be unsustainable in the long run.