Course description
Territories and areas that Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) govern, manage and conserve are increasingly recognized by scientists, international agencies, nongovernmental and grassroots organizations, as key to a sustainable planet.
Hundreds of thousands of such areas exist globally, covering millions of square kilometers of land and seascapes on all five continents, contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of a significant proportion of the world’s natural resources and biodiversity. However, these systems are under threats and often have little to no formal recognition or support from nation-state governments. These territories are called by many local names (e.g. cayolars, regole, beni communali, sections de commune, patriziati) in Europe, but can be classified under the rubric of “commons”, which are geographical areas where groups of people collectively manage their resources.
Commons as a concept was first misunderstood as a case of mismanagement of open access resources by Hardin, an idea which unfortunately gained a lot of attention. Later, Elinor Ostrom, laureate of a Nobel prize for her work on these institutions, helped us to understand that commons are rules-based institutions which ensure the future of a shared resource; her 8 rules of common property institutions guide commons work around the world. In Europe we see active commons movements in both rural and urban areas.
In this course, we will explore the challenges of IPLCs and various movements by these groups to defend their rights. Globally we will explore famous cases from the Amazon such as the Sarayaku and the Sacred Headwaters Initiative, then at the European level we will explore cases from Spain, Finland, France, and Switzerland, and finally considering the Italian case. Italy and its legal reforms in the last 7 years are a stellar example of how legal change can support recognition for commons and the people who depend on them. We will discuss global movements and associations such as the ICCA Consortium and the International Association for the Studying of the Commons, amongst others.

Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will understand the struggles of IPLCs generally, but also through specific examples from around the world. They will have an understanding of the European context, and specifically of the Italian one. They will be able to apply this learning to cases from their home countries or regions.

Teaching and Evaluation methods
Teaching will be a mixture of classic teaching, discussion groups around key works, and a field visit to an Italian common in the Venice area, and guest speakers (via Zoom) who work with Italian commons

In this course, there will be two evaluations:
1) group work, where students apply Ostrom’s 8 rules to a common of their choice, and present this work orally in class with a powerpoint presentation, assessing its challenges and opportunities (60% of the grade)
2) Prepared in-class debate "Can recognition of IPLC territories coexist with state resource demands?" (40% of the grade).

Overview of the Course

1. Introduction to territory
• Definitions, mapping, Indigenous peoples and local communities, commons, territories of life. Actors: ICCA Consortium, Indigenous rights groups
• Ostrom and Hardin
• Global frameworks: UNDRIP, UNDROP, ILO169
• Diverse ways of knowing and governing resources.
Readings:
Agrawal, A., Erbaugh, J., & Pradhan, N. (2023). The Commons. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 48(Volume 48, 2023), 531–558.
Bassi, M. (2022). Territories of Life in Europe: Towards a Classification of the Rural Commons for Biodiversity Conservation. Antropologia Pubblica, 8(2).
Bravo, G., & De Moor, T. (2008). The commons in Europe: From past to future. International Journal of the Commons2, 2(2), Article 2
Berkes, F. (2012). Sacred ecology (3rd ed). Routledge.
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243–1248.
Haudenosaunee. (n.d.). The thanksgiving address: greetings to the natural world. Ohén:ton Karihwatéhkwen. The Tracking Project
Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions.
Matose, F., Oyono, P. R., & Murombedzi, J. (2019). Customary authority and commons governance. In Routledge Handbook of the Study of the Commons. Routledge.
Ostrom, E., Burger, J., Field, C. B., Norgaard, R. B., & Policansky, D. (1999). Revisiting the Commons: Local lessons, global challenges. Science, 284, 278–282.
Pascual, U., et al. (2023). Diverse values of nature for sustainability. Nature, 1–11.
Website exploration: Landmark’s Indigenous and Local community landrights: https://landmarkmap.org/map

2. Caring for territory
• Stewardship and care
• Reading the landscape
• Sacred areas
• Cases from Europe
• Cases from the Arctic, Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Americas
Readings:
Barrow, E. (2019). Our future in nature: Trees, spirituality and ecology. Balboa Press.
Borrini-Feyerabend, G. (2024). Territories of life: Exploring vitality of governance for conserved and protected areas (First). ICCA Consortium.
Brown, J., & Mitchell, B. (1998). Stewardship: A working definition. Waterloo, 26(1).
Novello, E. (2017). 'The marshes would return': Veneto's land reclamation consortia between oral history and environmental history. Proposte e Ricerche, 78, 37–56.
Mustonen, T., Scherer, A., & Kelleher, J. (2022). We belong to the land: Review of two northern rewilding sites as a vehicle for equity in conservation. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9(1), 1–9.
Pagot, G. et al. (2025). Territories of commons: A review of common land organizations and institutions in the European Alps. Environmental Research Letters, 20(6), 063001.
Film: Second nature, Fairhead and Leach, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgsRnGmI3UU
Website exploration:
Territory of Life global report: https://report.territoriesoflife.org/
2024 European Commons narratives: https://ruralcommons.eu/narratives/
Speaker: Dr. Giacomo Pagot or Prof. Paola Gatto, University of Padova: Working with the Italian commons in the Veneto

3. Stealing territory
• Colonisation by Europe and colonisation within Europe
• Capitalism, extractive industries and commons grabbing
• Protected area creation
• Climate change justice
Readings:
Barnett, S. (2016). Asterix and the Dream of Autochthony. In G. Kovacs & C. W. Marshall (Eds.), Son of Classics and Comics. Classical presences. Oxford University Press.
Ferdinand, M. (2019). A decolonial ecology: thinking ecology from the Caribbean. Éditions du Seuil.
Gatto, P., & Bogataj, N. (2015). Disturbances, robustness and adaptation in forest commons: Comparative insights from two cases in the Southeastern Alps. Forest Policy and Economics, 58, 56–64.
Haller, T. (2022). From commons to resilience grabbing: Insights from historically-oriented social anthropological research on African peasants. Continuity and Change, 37(1),
Serrão, J. V. (2017). Land and property rights in colonial contexts: An introduction. Portuguese Journal of Social Science, 16(2), 135–142.
MacInnes, A., Colchester, M., & Whitmore, A. (2017). Free, prior and informed consent: How to rectify the devastating consequences of harmful mining for indigenous peoples’. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation, 15(3), 152–160.
Tauli-Corpuz, V., Alcorn, J., Molnar, A., Healy, C., & Barrow, E. (2020). Cornered by PAs: Adopting rights-based approaches to enable cost-effective conservation and climate action. World Development, 130, 104923.
Website exploration:
The Morrill Act in the US and dispossession of Native Americans https://www.hcn.org/issues/52-4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities/
https://www.landgrabu.org/
Film: Story of Massaha community defense from a logging company: https://youtu.be/YaVMeOj6n9k?si=VGMDYnnivZuxHpbz

4. Fighting for territory
• Recognition, environmental defenders
• Initiatives in Europe and the Arctic: River Guardian Program in Finland, ICCA Networks in Spain and Italy
• Initiatives in Africa, Asia and the Pacific: Hawaiian biocultural renewal
• Initiatives in the Americas: Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, Saryaku case, Standing Rock pipeline protest
• Rights of nature
Readings:
Chang, K., Winter, K. B., & Lincoln, N. K. (2019). Hawai‘i in Focus: Navigating Pathways in Global Biocultural Leadership. Sustainability, 11(1), 283.
Scheidel, A., Del Bene, D., Liu, J., Navas, G., Mingorría, S., Demaria, F., Avila, S., Roy, B., Ertör, I., Temper, L., & Martínez-Alier, J. (2020). Environmental conflicts and defenders: A global overview. Global Environmental Change, 63, 102104.
Film: Amazonía 2041: A Vision from the Future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiJLqcIV7kE
Blog and website exploration:
Matika Wilbur’s https://www.project562.com/#1
Global Atlas of Environmental Justice https://ejatlas.org/

Co-curricular activities: Visit to a nearby common near Venice, potentially the Consorzio di bonifica of Brenta https://www.consorziobrenta.it/ or a commons fishery the Marano and Grado Lagoons.

*The content of this syllabus is subject to change.

Bibliography
Baidoo, A., Walters, G., & Ongolo, S. (2024). Global China and the ‘commons’: Rosewood governance in rural Ghana. World Development Sustainability, 4, 100126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2024.100126
Bassi, M. (2022). Territories of Life in Europe: Towards a Classification of the Rural Commons for Biodiversity Conservation. Antropologia Pubblica, 8(2).
Bravo, G., & De Moor, T. (2008). The commons in Europe: From past to future.
International Journal of the Commons2, 2(2), Article 2.
Galán, E., Garmendia, E., & García, O. (2022). The contribution of the commons to the persistence of mountain grazing systems under the Common Agricultural Policy. Land Use Policy, 117, 106089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106089
Haller, T. (Ed.). (2021). Balancing the commons in Switzerland: Institutional transformations and sustainable innovations. Routledge.
Haller, T. (2022). From commons to resilience grabbing: Insights from historically- oriented social anthropological research on African peasants. Continuity and Change, 37(1), 69–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026841602200011X
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243–1248.
ICCA Consortium. (2021). Territories of Life: 2021 Report. ICCA Consortium. https://report.territoriesoflife.org/executive-summary/
Iniciative comunales. (2013). The Valdeavellano de Tera Declaration on the Recognition and defence of the Commons and ICCAs in Spain. http://www.icomunales.org/wp- content/uploads/2017/02/ENG-The-Valdeavellano-de-Tera-Declaration.pdf
Louvin, R., & Alessi, N. P. (2021). Un nouveau souffle pour les consorteries de la Vallée d’Aoste. Revue de Géographie Alpine, 109–1. https://doi.org/10.4000/rga.8249 (work to be translated to English: A new lease of life for Aosta Valley consorteries)
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press.
Ostrom, E., Burger, J., Field, C. B., Norgaard, R. B., & Policansky, D. (1999). Revisiting the Commons: Local lessons, global challenges. Science, 284, 278–282.
Pascual, U., Balvanera, P., Anderson, C. B., Chaplin-Kramer, R., Christie, M., González- Jiménez, D., Martin, A., Raymond, C. M., Termansen, M., Vatn, A., Athayde, S., Baptiste, B., Barton, D. N., Jacobs, S., Kelemen, E., Kumar, R., Lazos, E., Mwampamba, T. H., Nakangu, B., … Zent, E. (2023). Diverse values of nature for sustainability. Nature, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06406-9
Smith, G., Walters, G., & Hymas, O. (2021). Dwelling in the relational commons: Exploring the contemporary role and significance of a “section de commune” in the Jura Mountains, France. In J.-F. Joye (Ed.), Les “communaux” au XXIe siècle (pp. 397– 413). Presses Universitaires Savoie Mont Blanc.

Last updated: January 21, 2026