Common Property Problem

We have spent the last few days adventuring around Fontecchio and the cities surrounding it. On our last day there, we went into two churches and learned about spots in them which are said to have healing powers. We then ventured on a 20 minute relatively straight uphill walk to a palace. When we made it to the top, we could see panoramic views of farm and grazing land. From there we could also see part of the trail that cattle ranchers would move all their cattle along each year due to weather changes seasonally. We were supposed to hike along part of this trail, but unfortunately colds are going around in the group. Our last adventure of the day was walking through a Stiffe cave. The water running through was incredibly clear and I personally have not seen rock formations like there were inside the cave before. 

The article I read for this trip relates largely to the views we were able to see from the palace hike and in  general to all the “country side” we have been exploring. My article focused on the common property problem that pastoralists face. This is when privately held livestock are kept on communally owned land. The problem that can arise from this is abnormally fast degradation of the land because of elevated numbers of livestock. The article mentioned a couple of possible solutions to at least better the situation. One way would be to introduce more regulations on the amount of livestock people are able to own. Another solution would be to privatize the land, with the thought that farmers would think more about long term effects if it is the only land they have to survive off of. There are some broad assumptions being made in this model such as non cooperation among the pastoralists and that the carrying capacity of the land is a fixed number. These factors need to be looked into more before statements can be made about whether there were too many cattle on the land at once. 

As we were on our bus ride to Amalfi, the bus had to stop because there were cattle crossing the road. It was interesting to see the cattle freely grazing the land as talked about in my article. One great thing about Europe in general has been getting to see “historical” practices still being continued today, and seeing that every community has its own little niche. Now, we are headed to find out about the niches of Amalfi.