Despite a renewed interest for the notion of “commons” within the academic world, little work has been done about land and housing issues in cities of the Global South.

Yet access to urban land is a major issue for dwellers of these rapidly growing cities and a determining factor for the improvement of their living conditions and for their access to “adequate housing”, according to UN terminology. The mainstream approach to urban land tenure, based on full individual private ownership and the free market, generates speculation and land grabbing, and exclusion of the most precarious households.

The critical dimension of the commons notion opens up innovative ways to produce housing in the Global South, according to plural perspectives that take into consideration the inhabitant’s needs and their agency abilities.

This research project aimed to highlight the diversity of hybrid, permeable, evolving commons within space and time.  These commons aim at getting and securing access rights to land and housing and associated services, which often arise from unexpected opportunities.

The research team looked at innovative ways of holding land: commonly held, with a housing function and in a nonspeculative perspective (when the transfer of land is carried out according to a framework decided beforehand by a community, without any capital benefit).

The methodology was based on case studies in developing cities:

• The first phase of the study (2017-2018) led to three field surveys in Burkina Faso, Kenya and India.
• The second phase (2018-2020) consisted of two additional field surveys (Brazil, Mexico), as well as the follow-up of the work carried out in New Caledonia by students in the framework of the School of Urban Affairs (Master’s Degree « Urban Planning Cycle») of Sciences Po Paris.

The team consisted of:

• An academic with authorization to supervise research (HDR), who directed the study;
• A research engineer, who provided the scientific coordination of the study;
• Local researchers specialising in land and urban issues in survey countries.

The study consisted of five phases: documentary research, field research, data processing, drafting of deliverables, valorisation of  research findings. 

This research project resulted in the publication of several research papers:

• “Land-based commons for inclusive cities” (available in French): this research paper presents the conclusions of 8 case studies, focused on securing popular habitat through shared ownership of the land.
• “Does Mexico’s social land still bear commons?” (available in French): Mexican common land has undergone major transformations since the 1990s. This research paper presents the study on the outskirts of the metropolitan area of Mexico City led by the students of the Urban Planning Programme of Sciences Po Paris, under the supervision of Jean-François Valette.
• “Regularizing Rio favelas through land pooling?”: the paper sheds light on an original system of collective land regularization in precarious neighborhoods, which puts into practice the notion of “plural property” running through Brazilian law, and which defends the right of the inhabitants to remain in place.
• “User cooperatives in Uruguay: the challenge of housing as common” (available in Spanish)

The final report of the research project on urban land-based commons for housing in the Global South can be downloaded here.

All the publications and events related to the research project are listed on the following website: Communs fonciers pour l’habitat – Quelle contribution à l’inclusion urbaine dans les Suds ? (hypotheses.org)

"The commons can be understood as a social policy of housing, offering access to housing to the most vulnerable social categories. Moreover, they can provide an alternative path to classical public housing policies which favor individual private property. Indeed, even though these initiatives emerge from dwellers organizations, they might be supported and framed by national governments. Often acknowledged, supported and even presented as standard to be followed, the commons have drawn increased attention recently from dwellers federations, associations, NGOs and international institutions that document their functioning and contribute to the international circulation of these alternative ideas." (Simonneau & Denis, 2021)

• Claire Simonneau, professor and researcher at Université Gustave Eiffel and researcher at the Laboratoire Techniques, territoires et sociétés (LATTS)
• Stéphanie Leyronas, research officier at AFD

New Caledonia is a land of contradicting forces. It is a lush biodiversity hotspot, containing a high level of endemic wildlife. The local economy on the other hand, particularly the mining and metallurgy industries, has an impact on the environment. The stakeholders responsible for public development and environmental protection policies need to monitor the shifting state of the environment using the most effective tools available. 

The Environmental Sustainability Gap methodology, or ESGAP uses a scoreboard and a number of detailed criteria to monitor environmental conditions. It provides information on changes in the state of different components of the environment, emphasizing the gaps that exist between these changes and the objectives of maintaining or achieving "good environmental status" for each component, or between how things are and how they should be. ESGAP in its current form was conceptually developed taking the European Union as a case study. This assessment was carried out by the Ecological Accounting Chair, in partnership with WWF France's “Conserving Natural Capital” program.

This pilot project implementing the ESGAP scoreboard in New Caledonia aims to assess the operationality of this tool, in territories where environmental data are lacking and fragmented. If effective, the project can be enriched and implemented in New Caledonia, in order to inform public decision-making.

The project is based on an initial study carried out Europe-wide, which resulted in the creation of a methodology and scoreboard with the SES (Strong Environmental Sustainability) and SESP (Strong Environmental Sustainability Progress) indicators. 

 

The methodology used in this project was based on the work of Paul Ekins’ team at the Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London. The ESGAP method assesses the sustainable use of natural resources, critical pollution loads for ecosystems, biodiversity, and human health and well-being, and identifies the territory's overall level of sustainability with regard to these four components. It was adapted for New Caledonia, its institutional constraints and regional ecological specificities.

As part of a field study, some 30 stakeholders responsible for environmental management (including decision-makers, managers, research centers, NGOs and the private sector) were consulted in order to:

• Provide information on the four environmental components and adjust them to the local context
• Define the environmental objectives to be achieved or maintained, as well as the associated indicators in the New Caledonian context
• Collect the data required to build the indicators

Statistical analysis was then performed to develop the ESGAP composite indicators from the databases provided.

The project made it possible to calculate New Caledonia's environmental sustainability score: the aggregate sustainability score was 43%, which represents a gap of 57% compared to an ideal of 100% sustainability.  

Despite the scattered, fragmented data, the analysis reveals the critical load of pollution on ecosystems function in New Caledonia. Greenhouse gas emissions, burnt areas and bathing water quality have an increasingly heavy toll.

On the other hand, biodiversity and human health measures are in a relatively sustainable state. The ESGAP analysis shows, for example, that fish resources and outdoor air quality have reached their sustainability objectives and can now be maintained. 

Implementing ESGAP also reveals the lack of data on the state of the environment in developing countries and territories. Coordinated efforts on international frameworks could improve the quality and availability of environmental data. Consultation around ESGAP has also revealed a lack of regulatory frameworks, as well as of quantifiable environmental and scientific objectives. 

Nevertheless, the ESGAP framework makes it possible to summarize the state of natural capital, and can be used for environmental management, even when only certain indicators are used.

Finally, the project has provided insights into how ESGAP could be implemented in other countries, and has established connections with other international sustainability monitoring frameworks.

The final report is available on the Chair and WWF France websites.

Contact :

Oskar Lecuyer