From elite-driven to community-based governance mechanisms for the delivery of public goods from land management

Several non-governmental initiatives have emerged in the Czech Republic in recent years with the aim to organise the provision of public goods or ecosystem services from agriculture and forestry. These initiatives are usually started by activists (elites) and take forms such as foundations or trust funds, but often present themselves as collective actions of communal interests. This paper sets out to present four cases of such efforts and to show their common and contrasting features in light of their relevance to local needs and possible integration in the future CAP framework. A particular focus is on the community-based character of these initiatives for the provision of public goods. This is done by examining the necessary conditions for the success of collectively managed common pool resources. The research shows that elite-driven non-governmental organisations often emerge because of a lack of interest on the part of public bodies and because local communities do not have the capacity to set up a collective action for the provision of environmentally and socially beneficial outcomes (ESBO). The investigated NGOs, however, soon came into conflict with non-involved actors. To improve the governance mechanism, an extension towards a community-based collective action is proposed. However, each step of such a transition is a challenge for the initiatives of the presented case studies. The first critical issue is to find a common interest among actors. Similarly, sharing power represents a struggle which consequently delays progress in creating effective internal governance. The difficulty in progressing towards community-based collective action is amplified by the uncertainty concerning property rights induced by the activities of the NGOs and unfavourable socioeconomic and institutional conditions. Finding that the private initiatives are far from being able to transform into community-based collective action, we propose to launch a measure of institutional funding for the coordination and management of their projects - similar to LEADER but more concentrated in scope.

Automated summary

Several non-governmental initiatives have emerged in the Czech Republic aiming to provide public goods or ecosystem services from agriculture and forestry. These initiatives, often started by elites, present themselves as collective actions but face conflicts with non-involved actors. Despite proposals to transition towards community-based collective action, challenges remain in finding common interests among actors and sharing power effectively within the initiatives.