This thesis provides a detailed examination of the development and implementation of a commonage management system on newly acquired municipal commonage in the Leliefontien communal area of Namaqualand, South Africa. This commonage has been acquired ostensibly for use by all of the Leliefontien's residents. A Commonage Committee made up of community members and state representatives manages this land on behalf of the municipality.

Thesis -- Departmental honors in Philosophy. / Bibliography: ℓ. 84-88.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Science)) - Rhodes University, 2009.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Science)) - Rhodes University, 2009

All democratic organisations operate under a particular set of rules. Such procedures are implemented by the very individuals that create and maintain them, usually under a majority voting rule. This research project engages with the question of why and how members of parliament "abdicate" procedural power, focusing on the evolution of the rules of debate in the UK House of Commons. Working from newly collected data on the reform of Standing Orders of the House spanning 205 years (1811 - 2015), as well as records of over six million speeches, it provides a new perspective on procedural choice. Framing debate as a platform for speech-as-filibuster behaviour, I develop a formal model where the decision to support an anti-dilatory reform is primarily a function of polarisation. I show that legislators adopt restrictive rules when they are more likely to share policy preferences with colleagues within their party. The presence of shared views, then, motivates MPs to prioritise responsible use of the common resource of plenary time over individual policy influence. Both empirically and theoretically, my research offers new insights into the process of parliamentary reform in the absence of party discipline, and studies how the dynamics of procedural choice change as political parties enter the stage. Methodologically, it makes a contribution to the text-as-data field, exploring the use of novel machine-learning techniques in the measurement of political preferences.

abstract: This dissertation discusses the Cournot competition and competitions in the exploitation of common pool resources and its extension to the tragedy of the commons. I address these models by using potential games and inquire how these models reflect the real competitions for provisions of environmental resources. The Cournot models are dependent upon how many firms there are so that the resultant Cournot-Nash equilibrium is dependent upon the number of firms in oligopoly. But many studies do not take into account how the resultant Cournot-Nash equilibrium is sensitive to the change of the number of firms. Potential games can find out the outcome when the number of firms changes in addition to providing the "traditional" Cournot-Nash equilibrium when the number of firms is fixed. Hence, I use potential games to fill the gaps that exist in the studies of competitions in oligopoly and common pool resources and extend our knowledge in these topics. In specific, one of the rational conclusions from the Cournot model is that a firm's best policy is to split into separate firms. In real life, we usually witness the other way around; i.e., several firms attempt to merge and enjoy the monopoly profit by restricting the amount of output and raising the price. I aim to solve this conundrum by using potential games. I also clarify, within the Cournot competition model, how regulatory intervention in the management of environmental pollution externalities affects the equilibrium number of polluters. In addition, the tragedy of the commons is the term widely used to describe the overexploitation of open-access common-pool resources. Open-access encourages potential resource users to continue to enter the resource up to the point where rents are exhausted. The resulting level of resource use is higher than is socially optimal, and in extreme cases can lead to the collapse of the resource and the communities that may depend on it. In this paper I use the concept of potential games to evaluate the relation between the cost of resource use and the equilibrium number of resource users in open access regimes. I find that costs of access and costs of production are sufficient to determine the equilibrium number of resource users, and that there is in fact a continuum between Cournot competition and the tragedy of the commons. I note that the various common pool resource management regimes identified in the empirical literature are associated with particular cost structures, and hence that this may be the mechanism that determines the number of resource users accessing the resource. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Applied Mathematics for the Life and Social Sciences 2017

No description available.

Forests at the tropical Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers (VRAE), the second coca-growing region of Peru, are public common resources and nevertheless privately managed mainly by coca farmers, without effective State control of such use. The need for survival of the coca farmers, their chrematistic perception of the forest, the cultivation of cocoa (theobroma cacao) and land availability are crucial factors influencing the rates of deforestation of primary and secondary forest. Variables such as the legality of land tenure seem to have no influence. However, other institutional factors such as state policies in titling processes and its weakness or absence facilitate the destructive patterns of settlement in the upper forest.  Grassroots organizations of farmers focused on defending coca cultivation and access to credit and technical conditions for their legal products do not consider the defense of the forest as a fundamental aspect of their agenda. Nor were grassroots organizations whose core agenda was the control and monitoring of the management of forest resources. All this leads to argue that the Amazonian farmers are trapped in the "prisoner's dilemma". On the one hand, institutional and media pressure press them strongly not to grow coca and on the other hand, if they do not grow coca o clear the forest, others will follow this destructive path and benefit immediately of such a decision / Los bosques en el Valle del río Apurímac y Ene (VRAE), la segunda región cocalera del Perú, son recursos comunes públicos que se manejan como privados por los agricultores principalmente cocaleros, sin un control efectivo de tal uso por parte del Estado. La necesidad de sobrevivencia de los agricultores cocaleros, su percepción crematística sobre el bosque, y la mayor o menos disponibilidad de tierras constituyen factores determinantes en el ritmo de deforestación del bosque primario y secundario. Variables tales como la legalidad de tenencia del predio no parecen tener influencia. Sin embargo, otros factores también institucionales facilitan una ocupación del espacio muy desordenada y destructiva, tales como las políticas de Estado en los procesos de titulación y la debilidad o ausencia del mismo.  Las organizaciones de base de los agricultores centradas en defender el cultivo de la coca y/o acceder a condiciones crediticias y técnicas para sus productos legales no consideran a la defensa del bosque como un aspecto fundamental de su agenda. Tampoco existían organizaciones de base cuya agenda central fuese el control y la vigilancia del manejo de los recursos forestales. Los agricultores son conscientes del daño ambiental y de salud que provoca la economía de la coca. Todo ello nos induce a argumentar que los productores rurales amazónicos se encuentran atrapados en el “dilema del prisionero”. Por un lado, la presión institucional y mediática los presiona fuertemente a no cultivar coca y por otro lado, si ellos no siembran coca y no deforestan otros seguirán ese camino destructivo y se beneficiaran de manera inmediata de tal decisión.

Universidade Federal do Cearà / A tese intitulada "Ensaios Econometricos sobre a dinÃmica do Pib AgrÃcola" à composta de trÃs artigos. O primeiro artifo à intitulado "Setor AgrÃcola Brasileiro: Uma anÃlise de ConvergÃncia Microregional" analise o processo de convergÃncia microregional agrÃcola utilizando o Modelo Threshold no perÃodo de 1970 a 1996. Os resultados mostraram a existÃncia de cinco clubes de convergÃncia; um com um grupo de microregiÃes mais ricas, um com um grupo de microregiÃes mais pobres e trÃs grupos intermediÃrios. Os resultados tambÃm mostraram que o capital fÃsico à mais importante que o capital humano na explicaÃÃo do processo de crescimento. O segundo artigo intitulado: "O Setor AgrÃcola Brasileiro: Uma aplicaÃÃo do Modelo de TendÃncias e Ciclos Comuns no perÃodo de 1990 a 2005", analisa o comportamento das variaveis produto agrÃcola, taxa de cÃmbio real e saldo da balanÃa comercial agrÃcola brasileira. Utilizou-se a tÃcnica de cointegraÃÃo para identificar um sistema de vetores auto-regressivos com tendÃncias estocÃsticas comuns e para investigar as respostas do sistema a choques transitÃrios e permanentes. Os testes comprovaram a existÃncia de uma tendÃncia estocÃstica comum e dois ciclos comuns entre as variÃveis. As decomposiÃÃes das variÃncias indicam que os choques transitÃrios explicam a maior parte das flutuaÃÃes de curto e longo prazo no produto agrÃcola. Constatou-se tambÃm que os choques permanentes sÃo mais importantes para explicar as variÃncias da taxa de cÃmbio e da balanÃa comercial agrÃcola, principalmente no longo prazo. O terceiro artigo intitulado: "PrevisÃo da Taxa de Crescimento do Produto AgrÃcola Brasileiro: Uma aplicaÃÃo de Modelos de Ãndice de DifusÃo Linear e NÃo Linear" aplica os modelos linear e nÃo linear de Ãndice de difusÃo com efeito threshold para prever, um perÃodo à frente, a taxa de crescimento trimestral do Pib agrÃcola brasileiro. Estes modelos sÃo compostos por fatores que sÃo observÃveis e representam uma caracterÃstica comum das variÃveis explicativas, permitindo uma reduÃÃo significativa do nÃmero destas variÃveis. Em seguida à feita a comparaÃÃo das previsÃes destes modelos entre si e em relaÃÃo ao modelo AR que à tomado como benchmark. Verifica-se que o modelo de Ãndice de difusÃo linear apresentou uma pequena superioridade, em termos de eficiÃncia preditiva, em relaÃÃo aos modelos nÃo linear e AR, que apresentaram resultados semelhantes. / The thesis entitled "Econometrical assays on the dynamics of the agricultural Gdp" is composed of three papers. The first article is entitled "Brazilian Agricultural Sector: An Analysis of Microregional Convergence" analyzes the process of agricultural micro regional convergence using the Threshold Model in the period 1970 to 1996. The results show the existence of five clubs of convergence: one with a group of richer micro regions; one with a group of poor micro regions and three intermediates groups. The results also show that physical capital is more important than human capital in the explanation of the growth process. The second paper with title "The Brazilian Agricultural Sector: A Application of the Model of Common Cycles in the period os 1990 the 2005" analyzes the behavior of Agricultural Gdp, real exchange rate and the current account balance agricultural in Brazil during the period of 1990 to 2005. Cointegration techniques were used to identify a VAR system with common stochastic trends, and to investigate the system responses to transitories and permanent shocks. The tests had proven the existence of a common trend and two cycles between the variables. Variance decompositions indicates that transiotories shocks accont form most of the short and long run fluctuations in agricultural Gdp. It was found that permanent shocks explain most of the variance of the exchance rate and of the current account balance mainly in the long run. The third paper entitled "Forecast of the Rate of Growth of the Brazilian Agricultural Gdp: An Application of Models of Diffusion Index Linear and Non-Linear". This article applies the linear and non-linear diffusion index model with a threshold effect to forecast, one step ahead, the qyarterly growt rate of Brazilian Agricultural Gdp. These models are composed by common factor which allow a significant reduction in the number of the original explaining variables. After comparing forecast of these two models between themselves and to an AR model, used as benchmark, one comes to the conclusion that the linear model presents a small superiority, in terms of predictive efficiency, in relation to the nonlinear and AR models.