Reclaiming the Commons

From October 31 to November 2, Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) attended the International Commons Conference in Berlin, Germany. The conference, which was supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, brought together about 180 people involved in commons-based activities.  The commons is a framework for reclaiming, sharing, and self-governing natural, cultural, and social common pool resources. Over the 3 days, participants discussed and critically analyzed the range of commons approaches that exist and established networks with the aim of collaborating in activities in the future. Natural Justice was invited to present its work on the Traditional Knowledge Commons (see publication here) and share the experiences it has learned from communities dependant on common pool resources in Africa, Asia, and South America.