Date of Award:

5-1991

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Wildland Resources

Department name when degree awarded

Range Science

Committee Chair(s)

Brien E. Norton

Committee

Brien E. Norton

Abstract

I empirically tested an hypothesis derived from a popularized version of Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" paradigm. Some range-development authors predict overgrazing and ecological abuse on all traditional communal rangelands. I estimated forage production, consumption, and season of use on one traditional agdal or intertribal common in the Moroccan Western High Atlas Mountains. Results from 1984-85 do not support the overgrazing predicted by "tragedy" proponents. I argue that the lack of overgrazing is not coincidental but is due to the traditional communal mechanism of controlling season of use.

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