Passion and Perception: community action for the creation of an institution managing its forestry commons

Using a case study from a village in west central Sardegna Region, this paper focuses on the process of a community shift towards local sustainability and resilience in the governance of common pool resources. We demonstrate how outsiders are facilitating the development of a separate autonomous institution in a series of public events aimed at increasing civic responsibility for the protection ad collective use of mountain resources. Inspired by Ostrom’s studies of the commons and related issues, we point to her laboratory experiments that assert that communication can have a positive impact on cooperation. In reality a successful forestry management must take into account a multitude of objectives is the key to interpreting the choice of governance regime over the forest and grazing land held in common. We will theorize the necessary “scientific framework” for fostering community cooperation and participation in recovering a civic sense for governing common pool resources. To this end, we understand self-governance of forest resources to be a communicative practice. In this paper we will illustrate one communicative event through visual research methods.