Common Property Resource Management and the World Bank [1]

 The World Bank, in 1997, released this document siting the importance of recognizing traditional common property resource management systems. The brief concludes that, "all natural resources that are managed in a traditional way, or in a way that combines traditional and more modern approaches, are affected by Bank projects." However, little to no research has been done on these impacts. The blame is placed on the shoulders of borrowers: "As a rule, borrowers attach little value to supporting and maintaining communally managed natural resources." Two years prior to the publication of this report, the Common Property Resource Management Network (CPRNET) was established to raise awareness among Bank staff about common property resource regimes.

So Common Property Resource Management was identified as a salient issue over 10 years ago at the World Bank. What prompted this recognition and interest? Was it the explosion of academic scholarship on common property at the time? If so, was it mainly the Ostrom school that got noticed? Was common property recognized, as George Caffentzis claims, as a necessary accommodation by the global elites to quell the rebellions against neo-liberalism? This I want to know...