ABSTRACT
Managing the commons, shared resources, has been a puzzle for environmentalists: how can we resolve the conflict between short-term individual self-interest vs. long-term collective interest? In theory, commons can be managed in one of three ways: as state property, as private property, or through community management. Each approach has both strengths and weaknesses. In practice, the pathway most likely to succeed is a combination of the three, tailored to specific cases. Community or local-level management, government regulation and market mechanisms can work together. Under the right conditions, commons management can be scaled up from local to international.
