Recent evolution of common-property corporations.

Hill irrigation in the Swiss Alps has a long tradition of more than 700 years, especially in the Rhone Valley (the Canton of Valais) where a network of more than 1400 km of channels was created. Until the 19th century, irrigation was generally limited to the meadows. In the 19th century, it was extended to vineyards and orchards. Since the first decades of the 20th century, in relation to the decrease of mountain agriculture, irrigation has been in regression. Recently, the channels, called locally bisses, were integrated into the tourist industry as paths for hiking. This paper aims to analyse the recent evolution (the last 50 years) of irrigation in the Valais and the correlated transformations of common-property irrigation corporations called consortages. The analytical framework of the Institutional Resource Regime (IRR), that combines property regimes and public policies analysis, is used. The analysis shows that the social and economic framework has drastically evolved (winter mass tourism, tertiarisation of society, new water uses, especially hydropower production) and that mountain agriculture is in regression. Adaptation of the consortages to the new conditions is very different from case to case. Collective management is globally in regression and new actors (from the tourist sector) are emerging. The interest of tourist circles for the traditional channels has generally stopped their regression. Recently, Switzerland has shown a greater ecological focus for its water and agricultural policies. The correlated ne