Commons in a Landscape

Initiatives that address the restoration, management, and access of Commons and other natural resources across a contiguous landscape, at the Panchayat, Federation, or Block levels.

Commons and Biodiversity

Initiatives taken around the protection and conservation of a region’s diverse flora and fauna, and its other various species and habitats that sustain biodiversity.

Water Governance

Initiatives highlighting efforts to protect, conserve and manage water commons including groundwater, surface water and springsheds.

Governing Land Commons

Initiatives around formal and informal institutions, laws and customary practices that govern the use, access, management and ownership of land commons like pastures, grasslands and forests.

Commons for Food Security, Subsistence and Well-being

Initiatives that highlight Commons’ contribution, like providing fruits, vegetables, tubers, seeds, medicinal herbs, fish, meat, grass, and other minor forest produce, to ensure food security, meet subsistence needs and aid overall well-being in a particular region.

Commons-Livestock-Agriculture Connect

Initiatives that harness the interlinkages between Commons, livestock and agriculture systems to enhance livelihoods, nutrition, and ecological health.

Coastal and Marine Commons

Initiatives around protection and management of diverse and rich coastal Commons to support coastal communities and marine biodiversity.

Urban Commons

Initiatives that highlight efforts around , restoring, governing, and managing urban Commons such as public places, lakes etc.

Commons and Climate Action

Initiatives that address sustainable management of Commons and contribute towards mitigating the impacts of global warming, like reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting overall environmental sustainability.

Commons and Gender

Initiatives that enhance accessibility of spaces, information, resources to both women and men for governing their Commons equitably, including those that look beyond the binary concept of gender.

Commons and Culture

Case studies reflecting on the culture of a community through its various traditional systems, like worshipping of forests and agricultural crops for better harvest, using indigenous knowledge to protect resources, various usages of medicinal plants.

Struggles of Commoning

Experiences highlighting shared struggles and challenges of communities while bringing different stakeholders together for Commons management like inequitable accessibility, lack of proper governance conditions, and other threats that put their identity, income source and well-being at jeopardy.

We also welcome other submissions around Commons, including campaigns to generate awareness, drive action, or revive practices (such as melas, yatras, etc.), and experiences of federations, landscape level forums, etc. established for Commons stewardship.