Resource Efficiency Complexity and the Commons: The Paracommons and Paradoxes of Natural Resource Losses, Wastes and Wastages

Bruce Lankford, Professor of Irrigation and Water Policy, School of International Development, University of East Anglia

The efficient use of natural resources is key to a sustainable economy, and yet the complexities of the physical aspects of resource efficiency are poorly understood. In a recent Routledge book, the author analyses resource efficiency and efficiency gains from the perspective of common pool resources, applying this idea particularly to water resources and its use in irrigated agriculture. In a world of increasing scarcity, the tracking, amount and ownership of ‘saved’ resources while controlling for rebound (where savings lead to consumption elsewhere) will be of increasing importance as exemplified by Norris (2011) “… the United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in Montana v Wyoming brings to the forefront one of the most complicated and contested facets of irrigation efficiency: who owns the rights to the conserved water?”

The book proposes the concept of “the paracommons”, through which the savings of increased resource efficiency can be viewed. In effect this asks; “who gets the gain of an efficiency gain?” By reusing, economising and avoiding losses, wastes and wastages, freed up resources are available for further use by four ‘destinations’; the proprietor, parties directly connected to that user, the wider economy or returned to the common pool. The paracommons is thus a commons of – and competition for – resources salvaged by changes to the efficiency of natural resource systems.

During the presentation, ‘liminality’ will be explored signalling the in-betweenness of systems caught between overly optimistic prefigurations of future efficiencies and disappointing outcomes.

 All welcome.