Potentials and Constraints of Common Pasture Use - Field Experiments on Common Pool Resource Management in Azerbaijan and Georgia

Grazing livestock on commonly managed pastures is a widespread practice in post-socialist countries such as Azerbaijan and Georgia. Despite the value of livestock as an important income source for rural households, commonly managed pastures frequently show signs of degradation, pointing to shortcomings in the joint management of common pool resources in those countries. Among other factors, the success of common management crucially depends on the cooperation and self-organization capacity of stakeholders. Especially in post-socialist countries, their capacity and willingness to cooperate in natural resource management is said to be low due to previous experiences of forced cooperation during the socialist period. In this paper, we investigate stakeholders' capacity to cooperate in natural resource management in two post-socialist countries drawing on a framed field experiment for common pasture use. The analysis of group and individual participant performances show that groups are indeed capable of managing experimental pastures sustainably, especially if participants have the possibility to communicate which, in addition, is positively affecting cooperation. However, we find significant differences in participant performances and decisions between both countries, pointing to differing experiences with real-world pasture scarcity, common pasture management, as well as to differences in social capital endowment and cultural context factors.