GROWING THE COMMONS TOP DOWN AND BOTTOM UP: FROM VISION TO REALITY

Transcription

1 GROWING THE COMMONS TOP DOWN AND BOTTOM UP: FROM VISION TO REALITY 1

2 QUICK Reference The All-Win Principle Since all people and nature are part of an integrated whole, the well being of all people and nature are essential to us all. Basic Characteristics of the Commons According to Elinor Ostrom, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 2009, a commons minimally consists of: 1) Commons Goods: those fruits of nature and society that everyone needs to survive and thrive. These include our atmosphere, oceans and forests, biodiversity, all species of life, natural systems, and minerals; our food, water, energy, art, cultural, technology, healthcare and spiritual resources; and, also, a free news media, and the trade and finance systems we use. 2) Commoners: Groups of people who share the resources (users, producers, managers, providers). 3) Commoning : inclusive, participatory and transparent forms of decision making as well as rules governing access to, and benefit from, these commons resources. Decisions are made by those directly responsible for the resource (according to the principle of subsidiarity). A commons has boundaries specifying community membership and the extent of the resource; and, value created through the preservation or production coming from these commons goods and resources. There is the recognition that the Earth is a living system of interconnected components on which all life depends. (UN Resolution 65/164 on Harmony with Nature.) This enables commons members to deal with problems that are interconnected. This includes food, water, energy and climate change, for instance. Participants in the commons listed and discussed in this booklet support and complement one another where their actions and activities follow in practice the "all-win principle." 2

3 Table of Contents QUICK REFERENCE The All-Win Principle and Basic Characteristics of the Commons 2 Introduction - Dr. Lisinka Ulatowska 5 PART I. ABOUT THE COMMONS 9 Our Global and Local Commons. The New Narrative for Justice, Peace, Environmental Security and Shared Prosperity for All (Five articles by Mary Beth Steisslinger) Recognizing our Commons A Commons History: North America Commons Trusts, e.g. Climate 4. Economics for the Commons The Dawning of Commons Trusts 21 Examples of Different Types of Commons 22 Regional Examples of Commons Preservation, Management 28 Measures Commoners are Taking to Empower Both the Public and Private Sectors 31 PART II. GROWING THE GLOBAL COMMONS - THE FORMATION OF COMMONS ACTION FOR THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE COMMONS CLUSTER 35 The All-Win Principle and the Global Commons 36 We Are All both Global Citizens and Global Commoners 39 Commons Action for the United Nations 42 The Commons Cluster 43 Measures Commoners Are Taking to Counter the Dangers Inherent in a Debt-Based Economy 46 PART III. GROWING AN ALL-WIN, COMMONS-BASED, GLOBAL COMMUNITY AND ECONOMY USING A TOP-DOWN APPROACH 49 Measures to Shift to an All-Win, Sustainable, Commons-Based Economy at 50 All Levels The Earth Condominium Project 57 A Green Tax Policy Approach to Financing Local-to-Global Public Goods 59 (Alanna Hartzog) Measures to Finance the Shift to a Commons-Based Economy 63 3

4 PART IV. GROWING AN ALL-WIN, COMMONS-BASED, GLOBAL COMMUNITY AND ECONOMY USING A BOTTOM-UP APPROACH 67 Helping to Foster a Local-to-Global Commons-Based Economy 68 The Commons Movement At and Around the United Nations, Commons Abundance Network and the Instant Response Network 75 PART V. ACTIONS WE CAN TAKE AS GLOBAL COMMONERS 78 We Have Powerful Tools to Build the Future We Want and NEED! 79 Fifty Ways to Spark a Commons Revolution (Jay Walljasper) 80 PART VI. A COMMONS-BASED, SELF-FINANCING WORLD MARSHALL PLAN WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY INCOME FOR ALL PEOPLE AND A MARSHALL PLAN FOR THE EARTH 83 A Commons-Based, Self-Financing World Marshall Plan with a Supplementary Income for All People and a Marshall Plan for the Earth 84 APPENDIX I Internet Links and Other Resources on the Commons 89 A Partial List of Ecovillages 98 APPENDIX II Social Charters and Commons Trusts 110 APPENDIX III Glossary of Terms (Mary Beth Steisslinger) 117 4

5 INTRODUCTION On Dec. 14, 2009, a group of about 25 people came together, united in the recognition that a vital popular movement was emerging from the shadows of the economic, environmental and social crises of the world at that time a movement that was providing much needed answers. They were strengthened by their belief in the work of the late Dr. Elinor Ostrom who had put a name to this movement and just that year received the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences. She called it the commons. Commons refer to communities and/or networks of stakeholders ( commoners ) -- whether individuals, groups of governments or the UN -- when they steward and produce resources they need to survive and prosper in such a way that all stakeholders benefit. They do this through open, inclusive forms of decision making referred to as commoning. Commons include such things as village commons -- grazing grounds traditionally shared by all villagers equally; Wikipedia -- which generates information and keeps it up to date with the help of and for the benefit of all who participate; the Norwegian Government Pension Fund which uses monies gained from the sale of oil to provide a pension for all Norwegians; and treaties which provide for governance of outer space, Antarctica, and the seabed that were developed by the UN so that these resources would benefit humanity as a whole. Many commons are intentional. Others come into being naturally. The Internet, for example, is re-created every moment by all who use it, and all reap the outcomes whether good or bad even though most contributors are unconscious of their global impact. So, too, our world is a commons. All of us contribute to the quality of life globally through the actions we take or neglect to take. All of us reap the outcomes. And that makes all of us global commoners whether we are conscious of this or not. Commons that have been created intentionally have three characteristics that can help us come to grips with today s crises: Commoners steward the resources entrusted to them with care since they themselves and future generations depend on them. They therefore tend to have a positive influence on those aspects of the natural and/or social environment in their care. Because all commoners in intentional commons are seen to be integral to the well being of the commons community itself, the community takes good care of its members and they tend to be happier and more fulfilled. They thus contribute to well-integrated, harmonious societies; and Because all commoners are both owner/operators and beneficiaries of the resources they steward or produce, commons often thrive economically even when other businesses are struggling to survive. Commons therefore tend to benefit the economy worldwide at all levels because of their inherent prosperous nature. 5

6 The all-win principle states that since all people and nature are part of an integrated whole, the well being of all people and nature are essential to us all. All-win commons focus both on their own well-being and on the well-being of all people and nature. Without actually aiming to do so, such all-win commons automatically reinforce one another s positive impact and form a strong foundation for a global community and economy that works for all. It was these four aspects of the commons that intrigued those meeting in December They envisaged the potential impact commoners working together worldwide could have on today s global crises if they subscribed to the all-win principle and their experience could be used by the United Nations. Of great importance is the fact that the United Nations is the forum where all Governments of the world meet to come to grips with issues that no one country can deal with by itself because of the restriction of national boundaries and jurisdictions. The UN also brings together about Civil Society Organizations and some 4000 businesses (through the Global Compact) and is just now also beginning to reach out to people worldwide. Connecting the commons movement to the United Nations would give the UN an ear to the world. The four conveners of the meeting had long experience working with global change. They were: James Quilligan, an advisor to the Brandt and other international Commissions and an economic advisor to Heads of State; Dr. Monica Sharma, former Director of Leadership and Capacity Development at the United Nations, OHRLLS, with 22 years of experience in various UN Agencies and 60 governments; and currently an International Expert; Practitioner on Leadership for sustainable and equitable change; and one of the founders of the United Global Shift Workshops. Dr. Nancy Roof, a long-term Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) representative at the UN; Co-founder of the Value Caucus and Co-Founder of the Spiritual Caucus at the UN (both of which are in Consultative Status with ECOSOC); founder and chief editor of Kosmos Journal; and, Dr. Lisinka Ulatowska, who has been associated with the UN since 1969; Cofounder and Chair of the NGO Task Force on Financing during the UN s Earth Summit process. (Soon after she was to become the coordinator of the initiative that was to be called Commons Action for the United Nations.) At the UN, Ulatowska had become familiar with the UN s structure and its decisionmaking processes. She had come to see Heads of State and Government and other world leaders as people with similar challenges. Like other people, they had hopes and fears. She found that many were driven by a deep yearning to contribute to a world where all people and nature could thrive. 6

7 Ulatowska envisioned a world in which ordinary people could think along with Governments at all levels on matters of mutual importance. She saw a parallel between how people could potentially collaborate with Governments at all levels on matters of mutual concern like the way the cells of the human body work together with one another within the governance systems that help the human body to remain vital. To her the initiative that was born out of the meeting that day had the potential of helping humanity take its next evolutionary step. Humanity could become a harmonious integrated system in which each person could achieve his or her own well being. Growing the Commons Top-Down and Bottom-Up is a relevant process for anyone interested in becoming a more knowledgeable and effective global commoner -- whether working top-down via the United Nations, bottom-up with a variety of commons, or as a global commoner within the context of his or her own life. It could be said that this booklet encompasses Dr. Ulatowska's vision, but it is important to recognize that it consists primarily of excerpts and articles that have been written by friends and colleagues in the commons movement. These writings show how the processes envisaged at the meeting in December 2009 have developed, reinforced one another and edged toward the vision shared there by all. Part I deals with the commons, its characteristics and potential. It has several pages of examples and explains how a commons sector would empower both governments and business. Part II focuses on the founding and development of Commons Action for the United Nations and the Major Group Commons Cluster that grew out of it. It emphasizes how important the all-win principle is to those commons they work with; the fact that all people are global commoners, and measures commoners are taking and can take to counter the dangers inherent in a debt-based economy. Part III outlines a number of measures that can be taken by the United Nations and Governments to shift to a commons-based, local-to-global economy and how this can be financed, including through green taxes. It also outlines how the oceans and climate can be legally elevated to become the Common Heritage of Mankind with the help of the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and how its stewardship could be financed by all to the degree it is used by individual people. Part IV builds on the work outlined in Part Two. It shows the initiatives that are now being taken to grow the commons movement from within and how many mechanisms are in place to realize the vision which inspired this booklet, including the Commons Abundance Network (CAN) and the Instant Response Network. Part V is an open invitation to all who wish to join in the activities described in this booklet; and, more importantly, actions we can take within the context of our own lives as outlined by Jay Walljasper, a luminary of the commons movement. It describes the Instant Response Network that Commons Action and the Commons Cluster are building 7

8 to provide the grassroots worldwide with a direct channel to the UN and all Governments; and the Commons Abundance Network that enables commons groups and networks to reinforce one another. These structures can be seen as engines that grow and connect the commons from inside the movement. They aim at empowering commons from local through global levels by helping them learn from one another, network, plan and act together and eventually integrate with other parts of society so that together they can take the next evolutionary step envisioned at that founding meeting in December Part VI describes the vision of the late Pieter Kooistra for a commons-based, selffinancing World Marshal Plan which aims to provide a basic income for every woman man and child and a Marshall Plan for the Earth. Appendix I contains Internet Links and Other Resources to help connect the reader to the larger commons movement. Appendix II has articles on Commons Trusts and Social Charters by James Quilligan whose work probes into the recesses of the most diverse human experience to show the plethora of commons as these grow and flourish. Appendix III provides a glossary of terms related to the commons movement compiled by Mary Beth Steisslinger. This booklet does not attempt to give an account of the wealth of creativity or the brilliant works and initiatives that inspire the commons movement of today. It focuses mainly on information that helps to show how the vision discussed in December 2009 can become reality. It is Dr. Ulatowska s hope that others will be inspired by the vision expressed here and will join those dedicated women, men and children who are contributing in their own ways to a world centred on the well being of all people and nature. March

9 PART I. ABOUT THE COMMONS 9

10 Our Global and Local Commons: The New Narrative for Justice, Peace, Environmental Security and Shared Prosperity for All Mary Beth Steisslinger ( What are the Commons? Our Shared Wealth Recognizing our Commons "The commons are the web of life", says Vandana Shiva. Actually, the commons are the webs of life in natural, social, cultural and digital spheres. When we talk about commons we talk about quality of life, about our future and the future of our children. Some of the groundbreaking theorizing on the commons has been done by Elinor Ostrom [Nobel Prize in Economics, 2009]. She and her colleagues insist, that there is no "master inventory" or single definition of commons. Each commons is the product of unique historical circumstances, local culture, economical and ecological conditions and so on. What we can do instead is examine what all commons have in common. What has the defense of biodiversity in common with the struggle for free softand hardware? Why is the struggle for access to knowledge and culture the same struggle as for access to water and against climate change? The commons allow us to unify in thinking what is separated in our mind but belongs together. Wolfgang Sachs says in his simple but strong message: "When we talk about the commons, we talk about 'a hidden secret of prosperity'." Commons are everywhere; the problem is they are often invisible and may then get lost or forgotten. The real "tragedy of the commons" (referring to the famous metaphor coined by G. Hardin) is that we only think of the indispensable value of the commons when it's about to vanish. (Silke Helfrich, from her speech, World Commons Forum, 9/29-30/09, Salzburg, Germany) These Core Ideas Underpin the Shift to a Commons-Based Society: (Helfrich, Ibid) All commons share a function: All are essential to us. Natural Commons - necessary for survival - forests, oceans, watersheds, fisheries, agriculture, soil, seeds Social Commons - ensure social cohesion - health & education systems, labor relations, neighborhoods 10

11 Culture/Knowledge Commons - required for self-directed passion - ethnicity, sacredness, art, info access All commons have architecture and are based on three generic building blocks: First building block of a common architecture: Common Pool Resources [or Common Goods] CPR is the first fundamental element of a commons architecture. Example: biodiversity, water, our genetic code, [the atmosphere, etc.] Underlying principle: All of us have the same right to use these resources. Second building block: The Community, the group of people who share a common pool resource (eg., the atmosphere, where the group is all of humankind, a watershed, where multiple communities depend upon the environmental services provided by the natural systems of the watershed, and a local fishery that a community depends upon for economic survival) Third building block: A set of self-ordained rules. The community trusts each other to abide by agreed-upon rules or individuals face specific consequences set by users. A commons-based society will be based on rules that automatically maintain and recreate the commons. Public, Private and Common Goods private goods are produced and sold by businesses to consumers public goods are regulated by governments for their citizens common goods are preserved or produced for the use of everyone 11

12 Core Idea of the Commons: Sharing resources and innovating together Helfrich says new ideas are urgently needed for the 21st Century and Contribution to the commons can occur in many ways by focusing radically on: Decentralized production using new levels of networking with digital tools Cooperation at local and global levels Diversity of resources, communities, designs and rules Relationality (corresponds to I need others and others need me. ) All contributions to the commons are valid. Everyone can take commons into possession, as long as they don t them take away from others, nor from future generations! (Helfrich, Ibid) How do people arrive at the commons? What are the triggers that lead to the naming of a resource a commons? They all have a sense of sharing and joint ownership. Six common entry-points are: A. the need to protect a shared resource from enclosure, privatization, or commodification; B. the observation or action of peer-production and mass collaboration primarily in electronic media; C. evidence of new types of tragedies of the commons; D. the desire to build civic education and commons-like thinking; E. identification of new or evolving types of commons within traditional commons; and, F. rediscovery of the commons. (Charlotte Hess, hess@indiana.edu, Mapping the New Commons, 6/19/08) A Commons History: North America Realizing our Sovereignty: The first step in reclaiming the Commons Sovereignty is power vested by people in a leader or government through a social contract agreed on between them. [In North America], the native communities also had sovereignty, but in a form different than the Europeans. About 1090 AD -- more than a hundred years before the signing of the Magna Carta in England -- the native peoples of eastern North America ended their previous conflicts and united as a single nation through an oral agreement called the Great Law of Peace. Over the next five centuries, they developed a unique kind of federalism to promote peace and social harmony among their tribes. Decisions were made by tribal 12

13 representatives assembling together under a Great Tree of Peace. There they discussed the common interests and values of all the native communities -- thus maintaining the sovereignty of their people within the larger context of national sovereignty, promoting peace and harmony within the whole. By the time that the first colonists arrived in the 17th century, the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederation -- the Iroquois, the Onandaga, Cayuga, Mohawk, Seneca and Oneida -- had created an efficient government that was ruling equitably across a wide geographic area. Historical records indicate that many representatives of the Iroquois, drawing upon their own experience of intra-tribal government, advised the colonists to unite as a single people in defiance of the British. Some scholars even say that the Iroquois model of 'states within a state' had a direct impact on the transformation of the Thirteen Colonies into a political union and the development of the Constitution of the United States of America. Both the Indian and United States governments included historically unique features like the commitment to life, liberty and happiness; political representation; the concept of public service of leaders to their people; political debate; checks and balances; government through reason and consent, not coercion; religious tolerance rather than a state-based church; and equal rights before the law. In their ceremonial images, the Native Americans often used the symbol of a Tree beneath an Eagle, which carries a clutch of arrows in its talons, to represent the strength and protection of the people through unified government. Subsequently, during their period of rebellion against the British, several of the colonies adopted a nearly identical symbol of an Eagle atop a Tree to depict their own united purpose in establishing a free and independent nation. After gaining independence from Great Britain, however, the new American government retained the image of an Eagle with a Latin slogan 'E pluribus unum' ('Out of Many One') in its official symbolism (as still portrayed on the backside of the American dollar bill), but eliminated the Tree upon which the Eagle was formerly perched. The excision of the Tree from this symbol reveals a key difference between the Native and Colonial American forms of government. From its beginning, the United States was more interested in projecting the modern image of a warrior power with strong social control (the Eagle) than in depicting the agrarian roots and branches of a peaceful, representative democracy (the Tree). The 18th century American colonists, like their European forebears, were developing national sovereignty as a top-down concept, in which the role of the state was to champion and protect property more through commercial rights and enforcement than through individual or human rights. For the Native Americans, sovereignty had been an expression of representative democracy; but for the Colonial Americans, sovereignty and representative democracy were already becoming a rationalization for class domination and popular control. (James 13

14 Quilligan, Economist and Policy Analyst, G6 Billion Interfaith Service, 9/20/09 prior to Pittsburgh G-20) It would be interesting to see where the USA would be today if we had maintained the full symbolism of the tree with it's connotations for a natural sovereignty rooted in the commons, maintained by representative democracy for the whole. Since then, we have lost sovereignty over many of our commons as privatization and degradation of commons continues to expand. Recent Historical Motivations for the Formation of a Commons Movement: During the past few centuries, as physical space became increasingly quantified and commercialized, our mental categories for resources and goods were gradually oriented to that new social and economic system. The Commons were devalued and shrouded through: private enclosure of property and legal enforcement commons production was commodified into private goods and accumulated wealth domination by and dependence on the private and public sectors ( There is a reason why so many diverse and unrelated people around the world are showing a keen interest in the commons: market enclosures are [still] growing and intensifying. Much of this stems from the normal logic of neoliberalism, a particular kind of capitalism that took root in the 1980s with the ascension of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Over the past generation, neoliberalism has steadily expanded to become the default worldview governing economics, public policy and human aspiration. It is a system that seeks privatization, deregulation, strict limits on government social programs, state action to protect capital, and debt-servitude for developing countries. After decades of enclosures, the various resistance efforts initiated by commoners are starting to coalesce. People are starting to self-identify themselves as commoners with a stake in the resources that neoliberal markets seek to appropriate. And so there is a gathering resistance to the neoliberal project. Commoners are now more able to name the problem as a feature of the neoliberal worldview and economics. (David Bollier, OnTheCommons.org, "Neoliberalism as the Catalyst for a New Commons Movement", Crottorf, Germany, 7/21/09) "Neoliberalism is directly intent on destroying the commons," said George Caffentzis (University of Southern Maine), noting that it combines sophisticated human intelligence with great brutality in its primary mission - "the totalization of the commodity form." In pursuit of this mission, neoliberal capitalism asserts its domination of nature and crushes social relations that would impede its ordering principles. (See 14

15 "Promissory Notes: From Crisis to Commons," a 2009 essay by the Midnight Notes Collective and Friends) The difficulty in writing about [the] commons is its seemingly limitless diversity. Commons can be a revolutionary movement in Mexico, the second enclosure movement (Boyle 2003b, Evans 2005), smart mobs (Rheingold 2002), increasingly vocal neighborhood associations, online peer production (Benkler 2004), or new types of markets (Barnes 2006). The rise of new commons signals alarmed reactions to increasing commodification, privatization, and corporatization, untamed globalization, and unresponsive governments. The new commons "movement" is charged with electrical currents beckoning citizens of the world to develop new forms of self-governance, collaboration, and collective action. An online naturalist, writing about "American Commons," urges readers: Don't trust anyone who wants to take something that we all share and profit from equally and give it to someone else to profit from exclusively. Our parks, waterways, and aquifers, our North American flora and fauna, our fresh water and fresh air (at least what's left of it) represent our shared natural heritage. (Charlotte Hess, hess@indiana.edu, Mapping the New Commons, 6/19/08) Commons Trusts, eg. Climate How Can the Commons Movement Solve the Climate Crisis? The power and promise of the commons movement is in its ability to balance the relationship between government and the market sector. Neither of our existing property regimes - private nor public - have a mandate to guarantee long-term protection and use of these critical commons resources and thus ensure the common capital of the planet. Our imperiled commons require the creation of new institutions to ensure this balance, empowering government to fulfill it's role in serving the will of the people to maintain their commons for security, prosperity and the needs of future generations. The vacuum in commons protection is clearly seen in the burgeoning climate crisis. Since the people want to ensure the safest, most equitable measures for a safe climate, we need atmosphere commons institutions that are independent of political maneuvering and the continual push for market profits. Co-Governance: Until the modern era of enclosure and commodification, communities had always made up their own rules for creating and maintaining local resources. Unlike the world's public/gov and private/corporate sectors, commoners have broad experience in the supervision and sustenance of living systems to ensure equitable ways of sharing their uses and benefits. 15

16 This knowledge is now being rediscovered. People across the world are returning to the transparent stewardship of their local commons, becoming involved as providers as well as recipients of resources, goods and services. Co-Governance involves the principle of subsidiarity, taking decisions at the lowest possible level of authority and creating new checks and balances on the overall decision-making activities of the state. Co- Governance entails developing non-centralized rules and institutions pertaining to the questions of access, control, use and distribution of the wealth generated on a commons. (James Quilligan, Kosmos Journal, Fall/Winter 2009). eg. A Sky Trust allows for cogovernance of the atmosphere for climate safety, moderating political and business biases in the equation for global climate stability. (See Commons Trust Diagram [3.1] Kosmos, Ibid and The Power of Peer Production/Co-Production: "Commons-based peer governance and production will tend to prevail over closed, proprietary business systems companies that open up their organizations will out-compete and out-cooperate closed companies in the marketplace." (Michel Bauwens of the Peer to Peer Foundation, P2P.org, Bangkok, Thailand). Some emerging forms of co-production include resource-based economies, bartering, gift- economies, free shops + exchanges, complementary currencies, fair trade markets + unions, producer cooperatives, entrepreneurial networks, scientific + academic commons, internet modalities such as open source software, open e-media, creative commons copyrights etc. (James Quilligan, Ibid). eg. A Sky Trust for the atmosphere would include the creation of a complementary currency. Everyone on Earth would have an equal claim and thus get an equal share. (Cap and Share, Feasta, 2008) New Commons Institutions: Society is in need of a complete paradigm shift in economics and the political structures that support our current bi- polar system of militaristic governments developing and protecting markets for unlimited neoliberal-style growth. This is the Tragedy of the Commons (Dawning of Commons Trusts, Diagram, Kosmos Journal, Fall/Winter 2009). None-the-less, many leading progressive thinkers still insist that tweaking the current model will somehow solve our multiple crises. The most creative communities of visionaries are moving beyond this stalemate; their ideas will inspire humanity to find the "hidden secret of our prosperity, the Commons" (Wolfgang Sachs). "As global citizens, regardless of national obligations, we have a responsibility to engage in areas of community and transborder action where the state and private sectors have little jurisdiction, authority or experience." (Quilligan, Ibid). eg. Climate Crisis: The great cooperative opportunity for developing shared prosperity thru the atmosphere commons. Social Charters: Commons rights arm the sovereignty of human beings over their means of sustenance and well-being. They empower us with a moral authority and social legitimacy to make decisions and create agreements on the sharing of resources that ensure our rights to survival and security. Commons rights provide an important basis for creating covenants and institutions that are not state-managed to negotiate the protection 16

17 and sustenance of resources and ensure that the mutual interests of all stakeholders are directly represented. Creating a social charter requires the support and involvement of people across a region or community of interest who depend on specific common goods for their livelihood and welfare. A social charter can be developed for a single commons or for overlapping commons. A social charter should include a summary of traditional or emerging claims to legitimacy; a declaration of the rights and entitlements of users and producers; a code of ethics; elaboration of common values and standards; a statement of benefits; a notice of claims to reparations or re-territorialization of boundaries; and a practical framework for cooperation. Citizens who create a social charter thus ensure that administrative power is decentralized in order to maintain community access to, and sovereignty over, their own commons. Through the assertion of people's inherent rights to a commons, the role of the state would become much more balanced between enabling the corporate sector and enabling citizens. (James Quilligan, Global Commons Feature, Kosmos Journal, Fall/ Winter 2009). eg. A Community of Interest with representation from across the globe can develop a Social Charter for a Global Sky Trust (envisioning atmosphere commons subsidiaries in each country) to help overcome the current lack of effective governmental climate leadership. Commons Trusts: While social charters ensure a broad political foundation for the cogovernance and co-production of common property regimes, they do not make them operational. Commons trusts establish the specific legal conditions for people to help each other manage and produce what each of them needs. Commons trusts are institutions usually involving both physical and financial assets, which preserve and manage resources inherited from past generations on behalf of present and future generations. Broadly speaking, the creation of local commons trusts worldwide entails four significant changes: government shifts its primary emphasis from issuing corporate charters and licensing the private sector to approving social charters and open licenses for resource preservation and cultural and social production through commons trusts commons trusts exercise a fiduciary duty to preserve natural, genetic and material commons but can decide to rent a proportion of these resource rights to businesses businesses may rent the rights to extract and produce a resource from a commons trust, creating profits and positive externalities through innovation, competitive products and services, and adjustment of the market to the actual costs of resources this rent will stabilize the principal of commons reserves to maintain the diversity and sustainability of the overall economy, and additionally decrease market volatility. The primary obligation of trust managers is to keep the value created through the commons within the commons to the extent possible, so that the community can hold 17

18 in reserve the larger portion of its natural, genetic, and material stock for the benefit of people and species yet unborn, while generating cultural, social and intellectual capital for current generations. (Quilligan, Ibid). eg. A Global Sky Trust, along with local subsidiaries, could facilitate such changes, addressing the climate crisis and resulting inequities through a scientific, multi-cultural and ethics-based governing body. Sky Trust Shares would have the multiple affect of helping to off-set increasing fuel prices, providing critical income for the world's poorest and reduce reliance on fossil fuels thru investment in sustainable decentralized energy systems (Cap and Share, Feasta, 2008) Economics for the Commons Co-Creating Shared Prosperity: Mutltilateral Systems and the Commons Reserve The Current Economic Model Creates Devastation of our Commons Systems: Under the present economic system, money is created by national governments and private banks through loans. To maintain the supply of money needed to repay both the interest and principal on these loans, banks must continually find new credit applicants to create su_cient demand for more loans to service existing loans. Hence, banks are continually pushing credit, driving corporations to borrow more to produce, and citizens to borrow more to consume. This is our global dilemma. The demand for perpetual economic growth, devastating to our planet, has caused human society to spend not only the interest but significant portions of our natural resource capital. If we do not reverse this situation, if bank-driven overproduction and over consumption continue to generate speculation and hoarding of physical and financial assets, loan defaults and job losses, hunger and poverty, and carbon emissions and climate change-soon the planet will not only have diminishing returns from the interest on its commons resources, but the principal itself will be gone. We are past due for a transformation to sustainable economics. The following developments are needed: Commons Reserve Currency: Since the money system and individual purchasing power are social commons, there is a way to both stabilize and democratize money. The world community could create a form of monetary reference -belonging and accountable to everyone- that is not dependent on the economic or political decisions of a single state or the monetary nationalism of currency-issuing states. Global commons representatives could collaborate to produce an international currency, backed by a new kind of reserve asset, to provide a stable and usable exchange credit for business, trade and other social transactions. This new system would generate a broad measure of common wealth and well-being that is not based on productivity, profit or interest, but on the perpetual vitality and 18

19 continuous adaptation of local resources to support a good quality of life for all human beings. It would mean turning the present system of private credit-including banking and finance-into a commons utility thru conversion of debt to equity across all sectors of society. It would mean using our commons-based capital-cultural, social, intellectual, natural, genetic, and material-as collateral for a resource-based global reserve system. Under this new reserve system, commons assets would form the basis of a composite standard of value. For example, a Reserve Basket of Global Common Goods could include indicators for cultural resources such as indigenous wisdom, household work and the arts; social resources such as health, literacy, economic output and income distribution; intellectual resources such as scientific knowledge, intellectual property and information flows; natural resources such as air and water quality, ecosystem health and biological diversity; genetic resources such as living creatures, organs and seeds; and material resources such as gold, oil, water and the atmosphere. Co-credit: Rather than convert commons assets into a market value, these indicators would generate a unique index based on the sustainability of the global commons and the value that these common goods have for our natural and social quality of life and that of future generations. By continually measuring and averaging the indices of each resource in this basket, trustees of the commons reserve system could decide the proportion of those commons resources that should remain untapped as principal. At the same time, the commons reserve system would replace the present interest rate mechanism with a sustainability rate. This commons reserve currency would function through the creation of co-credit-a participatory unit of value used in trading, investment and decision-making. As co-credits are lost orgained in each transaction, the deficit or surplus would be accounted with reference to the sustainability rate-a real-time measure reflecting the capacity of the global commons to provide and sustain the well-being of present and future generations. At any given moment, if the sustainability rate is low, the co-credit is worth less relative to its value in an exchange, which may cause a buyer to spend less, and if the sustainability rate is higher, the co-credit will be worth more in the exchange, which may convince the buyer to spend more. Protection of Global Common Goods: So, through co-credit exchange among buyers and sellers, people would determine the value of their own production based on the capacity of the global commons to support the natural and social quality of life. Each use of a co-credit (whether the sustainability rate is low or high) is literally a vote for the longevity, regeneration and diversity of the planet's 19

20 common goods, enabling human civilization to protect its principal and withdraw from the commons a prudent portion of its resources. Since the commons reserve system guarantees a stable and lasting source of global capital, the development of co-credit exchange would eliminate the need for banks, financial institutions, governmentissued currency, and this crippling debt-based money system. The Challenge of Global Common Wealth: Transformation Required Endless economic growth is crashing against the limits of Earth's vital systems. In the coming years, the recovery of our besieged commons as a source of participative governance and non-monetized value will become critical as the private and public sectors search for a way out of the current global economic, energy and ecological crises. It's a challenging puzzle: (James Quilligan, Kosmos Journal, Fall/Winter 2009). we cannot end the financial crisis without a new monetary system we cannot create a new monetary system without creating long-term incentives for solving the ecological and energy crises we cannot create long-term incentives to solve the ecological crises without a low-carbon system of production and trade we cannot create a low-carbon system of production and trade without a new multilateral system of governance we cannot create a new multilateralism without a total redefinition of wealth 20

21 21

22 Examples of Different Types of Commons A brief list to show some different types of commons by Commons Action for the United Nations and the Commons Cluster Faced with escalating crises, where the public and private sectors have sought to work together while people were increasingly marginalized, people have started to work together in diverse forms of commons. These commons seem to be coming to grips with the pending crises by dealing with their root causes. In fact, a rudimentary form of a sustainable economy already exists worldwide. It consists of communities that are already living sustainably. Some are indigenous communities whose life in harmony with nature is rooted in wisdom developed over eons. Others are intentional communities which consist of people who realize that humanity can no longer continue on its unsustainable path and have set out to develop forms of living that are sustainable. In addition there are around one billion people who are members of cooperatives. These are businesses that avoid many of the pitfalls that have caused trouble for the business sector. An example: cooperative banks owned by the members of communities. These often enable these communities to function even in times of economic downturn and in war-torn areas. All the above examples have a few characteristics in commons They consist of people sharing resources in democratic ways for the benefit of their communities. The following list provides an impression of some diverse types of commons. Local Communities We will look first at commons that deal with our most basic needs. In the next section, we will show how other commons can support these communities so that they ultimately can become the building blocks of a commons-based global community. Commons are as old as humanity itself. In early times, family and tribal communities lived in harmony with nature and made communal decisions because each person played a vital role in the survival of the community. Today, indigenous communities which have largely maintained a commons approach continue to exist worldwide. The commons approach has more recently been applied by communities wishing to live in greater harmony with nature and other people. They also seek to develop ways of resolving the economic, social and environmental crises that exist. Here are just a few of the many varied examples. The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) founded in 1995 has helped to develop an estimated 1,000 ecovillages (500 self-identified). The Network s training program ( is helping many thousands of others to get started in countries 22

23 ranging from China and Japan to the Brazilian slums. In Brazil, ecovillages consist of at least 1,500 people, 50 percent of whom cannot read or write. These communities have developed housing with all the modern comforts. Their houses conserve energy and water and recycle all their waste. Decisions are made by all members of the community. Some work for the community while others work outside. Recently, the Government of Senegal agreed to use the ecovillage design to transform traditional villages into ecovillages. They have an Ecovillage Ministry that is working with this model to build sustainable communities where economy is just one aspect. In addition, the Global Ecovillage Network is now also working closely with the Transition Towns movement which has some 300 Transition Towns which are developing ways to live without oil. Other sustainable communities include the 1,800 villages of the Sarvodaya network in Sri Lanka and a growing number of green-focused co-housing communities, including: Geovillages, a project of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that encourages villages to become sustainable and to share best practices; The participatory local Agenda 21 sustainable community planning processes where interested stakeholders help to develop a plan for the community to become as sustainable as possible; Transition Towns, where community groups explore and implement ways of living without oil and oil-based products as a way of preparing themselves for a time when oil reserves will have become depleted. (transitionnetwork.org) These communities use a wide range of other resources. Food Production and Water Conservation Commons Permaculture is a form of agriculture based on an ecosystem approach. Foods are grown together in such a way that all plants and animals support one another. Plants form food and habitat for one another and for animals (chickens, for instance) and the waste generated by each species fertilizes the soil and/or provides food for other species. Vegetation can hold moisture and serve to conserve water supplies. The system keeps going as long as the food is harvested without disturbing nature s balance. Permaculture can be used on rooftops, on city lots and even in small gardens where food is grown vertically along walls, up tree trunks, and in multileveled barrels. It is suitable for all types of soils since the types of plants and animals used in a system will depend on what types of living things a specific type of environment can support. Decisions as to which types of food can be grown are ultimately determined by nature the type of soil, climate, etc. in a specific place. So people and nature can be seen as managing and making decisions together. 23

24 The Slow Food and the Community-Supported Agriculture movements are commons that are concerned with organic quality, both of the food itself and the land on which it is grown. There are thousands of successful commons groups for managing fisheries, forests and irrigation. Such groups have existed since humans first inhabited the planet. Other examples are the ejidos in Mexico where the government promotes the use of communal land shared by the people of the community. Also, there are the acequias in Spain, the Andes, northern Mexico, and the modern-day American Southwest communityoperated canals that carry snow runoff or river water to distant fields. Farmers Markets are commons organized by farmers. These can be used by communities to sell food not needed by their members. Profits from the sale of foods would be used to enhance food production as needed to finance other community needs. A small part could go to a global fund administered by the UN (possibly a Trusteeship Council) to support the global commons (earth, air and water quality outside of local or other jurisdictions). Funds could also be used to provide a basic income for all people. Community managed city/school gardens and food co-ops are further examples of commons activities involving food production and sharing. Such commons can make use of low-cost products that allow us to live comfortably without harming the environment, such as the honey provided by the honey bee. Like-minded individuals, innovators, farmers, scholars, academicians, policy makers, entrepreneurs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in more than seventy five countries over the last twenty years have documented more than one million ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge practices. While being careful to fully acknowledge and reimburse the source, they make this information available for others to use. An example is a fridge made of wood and cloth that uses the cooling characteristics of water to keep products cold in hot weather; or a solar oven made of cardboard and aluminum foil. Both are run on the free energy from the environment. ( Healthcare Doctors, nurses, and staff with the same or diverse specializations make collective decisions in a clinic setting in order to optimize working conditions and services for their patients. Education The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art 26 b, states that each human being has the right to an education for the full development of his/her personality. 24

25 A current phenomenon that appears to be growing rapidly sees colleges and communities providing excellent education both for their teachers and their students for free. All that is needed is access to the Internet. Harvard professors who would give seminars to just 20 students find that they can have thousands of students from countries all over the world when the students listen to or watch lectures and study in clusters using the Internet. OpenCourseWare, an online program operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), offers free lecture notes, exams and videos for more than 2,000 courses studied at the school ( Other examples include: More than 6,000 open publishers; Open Educational Resources, an initiative which provides teaching and learning materials online for everyone to use; Many millions of online texts, videos and musical works Open access to public speakers and use of academic journals. CSOs are closing the information technology divide by providing cheap computers where these are needed. They are also improving computer software and making it freely available using a variety of innovative licensing modalities. Students, faculty and staff of educational institutions can participate in a type of commons when they help to decide the running of the school together. For example, there is the approach designed by A.S. Neil and implemented first at Summerhill and then in many other schools including the 15 th Street School in New York City. At Union Graduate School/Union Institute and University, students helped to decide who could be accepted by the university. Two fellow students sat on each student s doctoral committee to ensure that the quality of work for which a doctorate was approved was up to the level they wanted for their university. When the university encountered financial difficulties all students were called together to discuss solutions. Information and Discussion Using the Internet, the world s largest digital commons, a person can freely access millions of web sites which provide virtually everything one wants to know about almost every topic. Literature, works of music and art, advice on health and legal matters and many, many more subjects are all available with the click of a mouse. The web site, Flickr, is a commons that makes photos available for free download while YouTube allows people to share their films worldwide. Free meeting and planning modalities exist via Skype, Gmail, WillYou.TypeWith.Me, Flashgroups, and the commons-based free software technologies which enable people to meet, share ideas and plan no matter where they live. 25