ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a particular subset of natural resources known as common-pool resources (CPRs). CPRs are characterized by rivalry in consumption and non-exclusivity, which describes many natural resources including fisheries, forests, grazing pastures, and local water resources. In order to convey the idea, the discussion begins with the famous tragedy of the commons (TOC) metaphor and then goes on to argue that the TOC is based on a particular set of assumptions that are not always made explicit. The better metaphor for a TOC is the so-called roving bandits model, that makes the assumptions of the TOC model explicit. The discussion then goes on to present the social-ecological systems (SES) framework, based on the work of Elinor Ostrom. This framework has been proposed by Ostrom and her collaborators as providing a way to analyze local commons situations in a diagnostic way. It illustrates the SES framework with a particular example of polluted lakes in Bangalore, India. The discussion concludes with a discussion of the anticommons model and its implications for resource use.
