Land as Common Property: The Fit of Land Governance with Ostrom’s Design Principles

Ostrom’s design principles have been widely recognized in sustaining commons governance. However, studies focusing on the assessment of the design principles in land governance are limited, especially in Africa. Focusing on Ghana, this study examines the fit of the local land governance structure with the design principles, using four case study areas with operational Land Management Committees (LMCs). Through in-depth interviews with local land governance stakeholders, the findings show that the existing legal and institutional frameworks for land governance in Ghana fit the Ostrom design principles. However, operational challenges such as undocumented customary land boundaries, absence of graduated sanctions, restricted proportional equivalence, and collective choice in some areas, as well as limited platforms for horizontal cooperation among the LMCs, threaten the sustainability of some land management regimes. The strong social capital in the study areas makes the existing weak sanctioning regime imperceptible. We argue that land as a common property resource when managed within the framework of the Ostrom design principles could enhance sustainability of both the management regimes and the resource system.