Mobility of Common-Pool Resources and Privatization of Land Tenure in the Argentine Semi-Arid Chaco

Abstract

During the last few decades there has been a strong tendency towards privatisation of land tenure to increase protection and sustainable use of natural resources. We assess this approach in the context of land privatisation in a dry region of the Argentine Chaco where low income peasants depend on multiple common-pool resources (CPRs) to survive and where most recently privatisation of land tenure has also included large absentee landowners. We hypothesise that the results of such policies depend in part on the mobility of the resources in question, and compare the harvesting practices of CPRs of varied mobility before and after the conversion of land to private property to assess the effects of privatisation. We found that privatisation by low income peasants increased control of access to stationary and low mobility CPRs but highly mobile species continued being used as open access and over-exploited. In contrast, the later privatisation of land by large absentee landowners is likely to pose serious threats to the conservation of the ecosystem in general, and to the ability of low income peasants to maintain their livelihoods in this region.