Do Voluntary Commons Associations Deliver Sustainable Grazing Outcomes? An Empirical Study of England

Environ Resource Econ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-018-0249-5 Do Voluntary Commons Associations Deliver Sustainable Grazing Outcomes? An Empirical Study of England Shaun Larcom1 · Terry van Gevelt2 Accepted: 3 April 2018 © The Author(s) 2018 Abstract In 1965, the Commons Registration Act came into force in England and Wales. The Act led to the removal of the capacity of commoners to regulate the intensity of grazing via traditional legal means. From this policy shock a number of voluntary commons associations were formed. These voluntary groups relied on their members to agree upon how the commons should be managed. Using two-stage least squares regression analysis we find that commons governed by these associations are much more likely to produce sustainable grazing outcomes. These results are robust to the existence of a variety of controls, including overlapping institutional frameworks. Importantly, they highlight the ability of voluntary environmental organisations to deliver sustainable environmental outcomes. Keywords Commons · Environmental governance · Voluntary agreements · Non-state institutions 1 Introduction Some of England’s most ecologically valuable natural environments are situated within common lands. While various waves of enclosure has reduced their extent, up until relatively recently, those that did remain were regulated by a set of stable institutions with ancient origins; with rights and duties falling on owners and rights holders and enforced through common law and the manorial court system. The rights system governing the commons had multiple aims, including economic output, equitable access, and community harmony and B Terry van Gevelt Shaun Larcom 1 Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, 19 Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EP, UK 2 Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Hong Kong, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, Pokfulam Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong 123 S. Larcom, T. van Gevelt environmental sustainability (see Rodgers 2010; Winchester and Straughton 2010; Rodgers et al. 2011; Hodge 2016). However, in 1965 the commons of England and Wales suffered a policy shock in the form of the Commons Registration Act 1965 that led to circumstances similar to Hardin’s (1968) classic allegory of the Tragedy of the Commons. Specifically, it led to a situation where the sum of individual grazing rights were often far in excess of the carrying capacity of the common land, but there was no formal legal mechanism to restrict access to rights holders. In addition, some areas of land were no longer grazed due to difficulties in building and maintaining infrastructure such as fencing and cattle grids, leading to biodiversity loss and weed infestation (Natural England 2009a). Within the institutional vacuum generated by the Commons Registration Act 1965, a number of commons associations were formed, often from the remnants of the pre-existing manorial institutions. 1 These voluntary groups were set up by commons rights holders themselves. They had no state authority and relied on their members to agree upon how the common should be managed. Only with unanimous agreement were they able to enter into legally binding agreements or guarantees (Defra 2017). The policy shock generated by the Commons Registration Act 1965 provides an opportunity to test whether the voluntary commons associations that were formed in its wake were able to deliver sustainable grazing outcomes. We consider the results to be important to both the literature evaluating the effectiveness of voluntary associations and agreements to deliver improved environmental outcomes and to the commons literature. Starting with the empirical and experimental literature on voluntary associations and agreements, results concerning their effectiveness in delivering improved environmental organisations appear inconclusive (Kotchen 2013; Schleich et al. 2016; Gallier et al. 2017; Kesternich et al. 2017). This is partly driven by the fact that many voluntary environmental organisations have multiple objectives. For instance, as noted by Baland and Platteau (1998) and Tachibana and Adhikari (2009), community values such as identity may be placed above sustainable resource management goals. 2 Indeed, while collective action is often necessary, it is not sufficient in itself for generating sustainable environmental outcomes. Another reason for the mixed results relates to significant empirical challenges, including the need to obtain accurate data on environmental performance and to address issues associated with selection 1 See Bailey (2010) and Rodgers et al. (2011) for insights into the functioning of manorial courts, local custom, and other institutions predating the Commons Registration Act 1965. Manor courts were local meetings, called by the lord of the manor and presided over by his steward. Those holding land were required to attend and decisions were taken by a jury that comprised of tenants of the manor. Deliberations were grounded in the concept of ‘the custom of the manor’, which varied from place to place and normally governed tenure, transfers of land, and litigations between rights holders. Many manorial courts were already non-functional by the late nineteenth century, however local custom often continued in various forms. For example, in some cases, parish councils assumed responsibility for commons within their boundaries. In other cases, land owners and commoners established governance mechanisms, such as stintholder management committees. Rodgers et al. (2011: 20) note that ‘[l]ocal custom continued to interact with formal law until the capture of property rights in a fixed and static form as a result of the Commons Registration Act 1965.’ They also note that voluntary commons associations proliferated in the late twentieth century in response to the Commons Registration Act 1965 and to coordinate involvement in agri-environmental schemes. 2 For instance, some organisations may be primarily symbolic, more focused on building identity or cementing a link with the natural resource in question, rather than natural resource management itself. 123 Do Voluntary Commons Associations Deliver Sustainable Grazing… bias that are likely to loom large in the formation of voluntary environmental associations (Rustagi et al. 2010; Kotchen 2013). 3 Currently, much of commons literature employs case-study methodology (Poteete and Ostrom 2008). While the case-study method is undoubtedly rich in its insights and allows for the nuances of place- and time-specific processes to be uncovered, the data derived from case studies are not always suitable for hypothesis testing and are limited in their external validity (van Laerhoven 2010). Larger N-studies that allow for quantitative analysis are therefore highlighted as a means to complement the insights from case-studies and contribute to the commons literature (e.g. van Laerhoven 2010; Coleman 2011). Th (...truncated)