What Are Perpetual Commons?

Perpetual commons represent a fundamental shift from treating land as private property to treating it as a shared resource held in trust for future generations. Unlike traditional ownership models where land can be bought, sold, or leveraged for profit, perpetual commons are legally structured to exist for the community in perpetuity.

In OASA's model, land is "locked" in trust through a non-profit entity (typically a Swiss association with a local Special Purpose Vehicle or SPV). No individual holds title or equity in the land itself. Instead, the association grants eternal usage rights to the community, ensuring the land can never be sold off or exploited for private gain.

Legal Structure and Protection

The legal architecture of perpetual commons involves several key components:

1. Non-Profit Entity: Land is held by a non-profit organization (in OASA's case, a Swiss association) committed to conservation and regenerative purposes.
2. Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV): Each project's land is placed into an SPV or equivalent legal entity controlled by the association, preventing privatization.
3. Legal Guardrails: The structure includes provisions that any proceeds from dissolution (if it ever occurs) must go to similar regenerative causes, not to private individuals or for-profit entities.
4. No Equity Claims: Members and token holders have no ownership claim on the land's exchange value—they hold only usage rights.

From Ownership to Stewardship

The perpetual commons model fundamentally repositions the relationship between people and land. Rather than ownership—which implies the right to extract value, sell, or exclude others—the model emphasizes stewardship: the responsibility to care for land and resources with long-term responsibility.

This shift addresses the classic "tragedy of the commons" concern by encoding long-term responsibility into the legal and governance structure. It echoes Elinor Ostrom's insights that with the right institutions and rules, communities can successfully manage shared resources for the long run—turning potential tragedy into prosperity of the commons.

Benefits of Perpetual Commons

Intergenerational Equity

By locking land in trust forever, perpetual commons ensure that future generations have access to the same resources. This prevents the short-term extraction and speculation that often characterizes private land ownership.

Ecological Protection

Land held in perpetual commons cannot be sold to developers or extractive industries. This provides permanent protection for ecosystems, allowing for long-term regenerative practices that require decades or centuries to fully mature.

Community Stability

Communities built on perpetual commons are immune to market volatility, foreclosure, or displacement. Members can invest in long-term improvements knowing the land will remain available to them and future generations.

Alignment with Regenerative Goals

Because the land cannot be sold for profit, all value derived from the land stays tied to its ecological and social utility. This aligns incentives toward regeneration rather than extraction.

Comparison to Other Models

Versus Private Ownership

Private ownership allows land to be bought, sold, and leveraged for profit. This creates incentives for short-term extraction and speculation. Perpetual commons eliminate these incentives by removing the ability to sell or profit from land sales.

Versus Community Land Trusts (CLTs)

While CLTs also hold land in trust, OASA's perpetual commons model adds tokenized access rights and blockchain-based governance, enabling innovative financing mechanisms while maintaining the trust structure. See Rethinking Wealth for a detailed comparison.

Versus Conservation Easements

Conservation easements restrict certain uses of land but typically still allow private ownership. Perpetual commons go further by removing private ownership entirely, ensuring the land serves the commons in all aspects.

Implementation in OASA Projects

At Traditional Dream Factory (TDF), OASA's first prototype, the 25-hectare site is being purchased by a non-profit entity committed to conservation. The land is held in a Portuguese SPV controlled by the OASA Association, ensuring it can never be sold or exploited for private gain. See Rethinking Wealth for the full case study.

This structure allows the community to invest in long-term regenerative infrastructure—water retention landscapes, food forests, rewilding—knowing that these investments will benefit the community for generations, not be sold off for short-term profit.

Challenges and Considerations

Implementing perpetual commons requires careful legal structuring and governance design. Key considerations include:

• Ensuring the legal structure is robust across different jurisdictions
• Designing governance mechanisms that prevent capture by special interests
• Balancing community autonomy with ecological protection
• Creating financing mechanisms that don't compromise the perpetual nature of the commons

Future Implications

If scaled widely, perpetual commons could fundamentally reshape land economics. Rather than land being a speculative asset class, it becomes infrastructure for community and ecological flourishing. This aligns financial incentives with long-term regeneration and creates a new category of investment: one where returns are measured in ecosystem health and community wellbeing rather than financial dividends. This is the foundation of a nature-backed economy, as explored in Rethinking Wealth.