2009 Annual Report
Meet Our Visionary Grantees
- Elinor Ostrom Natural Resource Management
- Bryan Stevenson Justice Reform
- Tarcila Rivera Zea Indigenous Rights
- Jake Shapiro Public Media
- Nia Dinata Documentary Film
Elinor Ostrom
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2009 Distinguished ProfessorIndiana University, Bloomington
“There’s a lot of ingenuity in communities. Resources such as land and water can be managed successfully by local commons.”
Challenging conventional wisdom is the hallmark of Elinor Ostrom’s life work. In recognition of her groundbreaking contributions, she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics. She has proven repeatedly that those living in rural communities are often the most effective stewards of the land, water and other natural resources. Her work has spurred a paradigmatic shift in resource management—and given millions of people access to otherwise unimagined social and economic opportunities.
Ostrom explains her visionary research:
Local Leadership
When I started, there was a presumption that local leaders who had helped forests and fisheries survive in challenging environments couldn’t do anything—that governments or privatization had to come in and impose rules. But there’s a lot of ingenuity in communities. Resources such as land and water can be managed successfully by local commons where community members can create and enforce rules that lead to sustainable economic governance.
Tapping into Community Knowledge
Our program is the only multi-country, multidisciplinary program that exists. Without the Ford Foundation, we wouldn’t have been able to start it. We work in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the United States, and at each site we measure the trees and then see how the forest is improving or degrading over time. We do in-depth interviews with people in the community and try to figure out how a local or national government body may be helpful to the area. We try to be imaginative without throwing out everything that existed before.
Keys to Social Change
We need to help people across disciplines understand things in similar ways. Ecologists, sociologists, political scientists, economists—they all have their own language. To me, developing a common language is essential to lasting social change.
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