The network of researchers for the Territories of Commons in Europe is glad to announce the publication of a comparative article titled “Territories of commons: a review of common land organizations and institutions in the European Alps” in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The research, preliminary results of which was presented at the XIX Biennial IASC Conference in Nairobi, reports on six Alpine countries: France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. It assesses the status of rural commons in the Alpine area and their heterogeneity between and within the investigated countries. Land surface owned by the commons, type of land use and number of units of commons in each country was assessed. The number of rural commons range from 5785 units up to 11063 depending on the considered sources. They cover roughly 13% of pastureland area, 13% of forest area and 10% of the total area of the Alpine Convention. The available data is extremely fragmented and often inconsistent.
This article is only the first of a list of efforts in identifying, mapping and valorizing rural commons in Europe carried out by the Territories of the Commons network.
Pagot, G., Hribar, M. Š., Rail, L. F., Walters, G., Hymas, O., Liechti, K., … & Manzoni, A. (2025). Territories of commons: a review of common land organizations and institutions in the European Alps. Environmental Research Letters 20: 063001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/add1f4
