Decentralized Management of Common Property

To broach the subject of common property, we visited the site of the Magnifica Commuta di Fiemme, in Cavalese. The Magnifica Commuta di Fiemme, or MCF for short, is a a group of 11 villages that manage a forest communally. This particular institution is centralized with an 11 person council made up of one representative from each village. This council makes decisions about the the rules and regulations for the property, how the forest will be maintained, and how the profits will be spent. Each resident of the city (as defined by birth or 20 years of residence) gets a dividend of the profit each year. Profit also goes to benefit the community through such things as funding for scholarships and community events. Though the forests are community owned and the profit from the property go to the community, the community does not actively participate in each step of decision making, but rather elects representatives to make decisions for them. 

In contrast with this centralized and formal method of common property government, our article discusses a much more informal, decentralized method exercised in communal properties found in the Alps by a community called the Carte di Regola. This community does not have a central governing body controlling the property management decisions including whether to harvest a given resource and how to spend the profit. Instead, each agent who shares ownership is expected to manage their own harvesting decisions. Policy determines a maximum harvest, and the individual agents are expected to adhere to the guidelines determined. 

In order to ensure that the agents do respect the policies established and refrain from over-harvesting, each agent is allowed to inspect other agents at their own cost to determine whether or not they are breaking policy. If an agent is found to be over-harvesting, he or she is fined, and a portion of that fine goes as a reward to the agent who funded the inspection. The article makes note that some agents are spiteful, while others are altruistic. Spiteful agents enjoy harming others (eek!), while altruistic agents enjoy when others are happy or gain utility. The presence of such spiteful agents means that many will choose to inspect other agents, even when it costs them more than they gain from the sanctions. Ultimately, the system used by the Carte di Regola successfully channels a generally conceived as bad aspect of human nature (spitefulness) for good by using them to monitor the resource utilization, and ensure that the resource is being properly used. This method allows for a surprisingly efficient method of limiting the use of the common property without a central managing body. 

We got to experience the location of the Carte di Regola yesterday as we explored the Allps! Most of the group set their sites on downhill skiing, but four or five us decided it would be fun to try cross-country. We were shuffled from one bus stop to another by hotel receptionist, guide, and bus drivers, and we missed at least 2 or 3 buses that might have taken us where we wanted to go, before we gave up and decided to take the mountain by foot. We rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain where we magically found our group, and had lunch. We sat around the ski lodge drinking cappucinos and playing Heads Up for a good hour and a half before heading back down the gondola. It was definitely not the cross country adventure we had planned, but it was a pretty great day nevertheless!