ABSTRACT
There has recently been a growing interest in common property regimes and systems of local resource management (Berkes 1989; Bromley 1991, 1992; McCay and Acheson 1987; Ostrom 1990). This paper is particularly concerned with situations where property rights are contested and the implications of this for a legitimate change in property regime. Specifically, can natural resource management be sustainable in a situation where there are contesting claims to ownership and dispute over legitimacy?
