Some resource uses are complementary, others are competitive, most are somewhere between. Some groups of resource users are mutually exclusive, others are overlapping, most are somewhere between. While public and private property may have overlapping uses, issues of accommodating multiple uses and users are especially critical in the case of the commons. Common property regimes often perform multiple functions for a collective including allocation of multiple resources among multiple uses and users. Among these are the tangible goods such as inputs for production or consumption and intangible goods such as safeguarding against environmental risks or exploitation of economies of scale and scope.
Misrepresentations lead to misunderstandings and deficient policy prescriptions.
Recognizing the multiple uses and users of a resource reorients thinking about both efficiency and equity. Thus, a private forest monocropped for timber may not be as productive as a forest commons that provides timber, fodder, fruits, rattan, kindling, and medicinal plants. Our understanding of equity shifts when we take into account all the users of a resource. For example, it goes beyond looking at whether land or water is evenly distributed among farmers, to seeing how access to the resource is balanced between a much wider range of users who often differ by class, ethnicity, gender, and place of residence. The papers in this panel explore several dimensions of multiple-function common property regimes.