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.

奥斯特罗姆的设计原则在维持公地治理方面得到了广泛认可。然而，专注于评估土地治理设计原则的研究有限，特别是在非洲。本研究以加纳为重点，利用四个具有运营土地管理委员会 (LMC) 的案例研究领域，考察了当地土地治理结构与设计原则的契合度。通过对当地土地治理利益相关者的深入访谈，调查结果表明，加纳现有的土地治理法律和制度框架符合奥斯特罗姆的设计原则。然而，诸如无证习惯土地边界、缺乏分级制裁、限制比例对等和某些领域的集体选择等操作挑战，以及澜湄国家之间横向合作平台有限等，威胁到一些土地管理制度的可持续性。研究地区强大的社会资本使得现有的弱制裁机制难以察觉。我们认为，在奥斯特罗姆设计原则框架内管理土地作为公共财产资源可以增强管理制度和资源系统的可持续性。