Communities depend on the shared resources of the commons for their autonomy and even their identity. Under the guise of 'nation building', 'economic growth' and 'development', the commons are being ever more rapidly eroded . With them go the land, skills and traditions of the people they support. The 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio was thought to have tackled these problems, but the solutions proposed there simply handed more power to the agencies and forces causing the damage.
Power is the central issue - who holds it, how it is exercised and for whose benefit.
What communities need is not outside 'management', but control over their own resources and the scope to run their own affairs. Since it was first founded in 1970, The Ecologist has been actively involved in critiquing current environment and development policies through its journal and its associated campaigning work.