engleski

Exercising Solidarity at Croatian Common-Pool Resource: The Case of Gajna Pastoral Community

Well known Garett Hardin’ explanation of “tragedy of the commons”, related in fact to an overpopulation problem, takes place on a common pasture and refers to a situation happening when one of pasture users decides to bring to the pasture one more animal, thus increasing his own gain. And while this individual gains more benefits, the effects of overgrazing would be shared by all herdsmen (Hardin 1968:1244). If every herdsman comes to the same idea (opportunistic, not rational!) - benefits of sharing the commons would be lost, and the tragedy of the commons inevitable. However, Elinor Ostrom pointed out the simplistic approach taken related to the described situation and stressed that there have been always many different settings of the commons or the common- pool resources (hereafter CPRs), with different problems and therefore different solutions (Ostrom 1990: 14). Based on various global examples she showed that actors dealing with CPRs have been encountering various appropriation and provision problems, and therefore had to move across different arenas in order to overcome them (Ostrom 1990: 45). Some have been successful, some not and reasons for each case triggered Ostroms’ curiosity. There are not many examples of still existing CPRs in Croatia, and this is especially true about the common pastures. However, it seems that one case - the Gajna common pasture in Slavonian village of Oprisavci - still functions under the, what Ostrom calls, internal operational and collective-choice rules of the Pastoral community – the veteran cooperative “Eko-Gajna” (hereafter the Gajna pastoral community) and the Brod Ecological Society NGO. However, while strong sense of an internal group solidarity seems to be quite important for the successful managing of the Gajna common pasture, its main problem remains the external one. It is related to, what Ostrom calls, constitutional – choice rules, in this particular case to the national legislation concerning the fact that a land next to a water body belongs to the state-owned company Hrvatske vode. The Gajna actors have always been negotiating and defending their case at different levels (from local to national) in order to safeguard the common pasture they have been using and having created an added value – the ecologically significant landscape. Its maintenance is inextricably connected to activities of grazing the pasture organized by the Gajna pastoral community. In this paper I will analyze the role of an inter-group solidarity as a base for such success (however, always on a verge of a disaster) of the Gajna pastoral community that has managed to create and maintain, reap and show benefits of the commons in this particular case.

Solidarity economy, common-pool resources, Gajna, commons, pastoral community

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