Land Commons Anti-Privatization Addendum (Non-Normative)
This addendum defines structural protections to prevent the informal or irreversible privatization of land or shared ecological systems.
It MAY be adopted alongside any RCOS-compatible land or ecology module.
What this is
The Land Commons Anti-Privatization Addendum is a non-normative, optional safeguard module that constrains known high-risk failure modes related to land, commons, and exit. When adopted, it introduces additional requirements and artifacts across Layers 0, 1, 3, and 6, but is not itself a mandatory RCOS artifact.
Purpose
To ensure that:
- commons remain commons,
- exit remains possible,
- care, money, or time do not silently convert into control,
- land does not become a governance hostage.
This addendum is preventative, not ideological.
Scope
This addendum applies to:
- land,
- buildings,
- long-lived ecological infrastructure,
- any asset declared as commons or stewarded commons.
Anti-Privatization Rules
No Ownership by Care
No amount of:
- labor,
- expertise,
- duration of stewardship,
- emotional attachment
MAY create ownership, veto rights, or permanent control unless explicitly authorized through governance.
No Irreversible Transfers
Before any transfer, sale, lease, or subdivision:
- exit scenarios MUST be defined,
- resale conditions MUST be explicit,
- reversion or buy-back mechanisms MUST exist.
If exit rules cannot be defined, transfer MUST NOT proceed.
Separation of Use and Control
Where possible:
- use rights,
- stewardship rights,
- ownership rights
SHOULD be separated and explicitly documented.
Combining all three in the same role is a high-risk configuration and MUST be reviewed.
Investment Safeguards
Private investment into commons MUST define:
- what is gained (if anything),
- what is NOT gained (control, veto, permanence),
- how investment is recovered or written off.
Unrecoverable investment MUST be voluntary and explicit.
Exit Protection
Members MUST be able to:
- leave without losing unrelated rights,
- disengage from land care without punishment,
- recover defined value if applicable.
Land arrangements that make exit economically or socially impossible are non-compliant.
Governance Lock-In Prevention
Land decisions MUST NOT:
- permanently constrain future governance,
- override Layer 0 invariants,
- make the community legally or structurally non-evolvable.
If land ownership conflicts with governance, governance prevails.
Mandatory Review Triggers
The following REQUIRE immediate review:
- land sales to members,
- inheritance planning,
- long-term exclusive leases,
- introduction of external investors,
- legal restructuring affecting land control.
Compatibility
This addendum reinforces:
- Layer 0 (Scope & Invariants),
- Layer 1 (Exit),
- Layer 3 (Commons protection),
- Layer 6 (Reversibility).
It does not prescribe legal forms, only structural constraints.
Non-Normative Note
Most community collapses are not social. They are legal and structural.
This addendum exists to prevent “we didn’t realize until it was too late.”