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Common property theory and resource governance institutions: strengthening explanations of multiple outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

ARUN AGRAWAL  and
CATHERINE SHANNON BENSON
ARUN AGRAWAL*
Affiliation:
SNRE, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 48109, USA
CATHERINE SHANNON BENSON
Affiliation:
SNRE, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 48109, USA
*
*Correspondence: Dr Arun Agrawal Tel: +1 734 647 5948 e-mail: arunagra@umich.edu
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Summary

Different strategies to govern resource commons generate outcomes that can be assessed along different dimensions, in terms of the ecological or social sustainability of the resource system, contributions to the livelihoods of those who rely on these resources, or equity in the allocation of benefits. This paper reviews the existing literature concerning three major renewable resource commons, namely pasture lands, fisheries and irrigation water. Most existing work on these commons has been inattentive to the multiple outcomes that management of all renewable resources generates. Studies of commons can provide better information about livelihoods, sustainability and equity dimensions of natural resource governance outcomes than previously. Attending to the distinctive determinants and drivers of these outcomes and the nature of trade-offs and synergies among them has the potential to advance common property theory substantially. Possible relationships among livelihoods, sustainability and equity are identified, and the major explanations of outcomes advanced by scholars of fisheries, pastoral and irrigation commons reviewed. An interdisciplinary approach is needed to improve existing efforts to determine the outcomes that resource commons generate.

Keywords

commons theoryfisheries commonsirrigation commonsmultiple outcomespastoral commonstrade-offs
Type
THEMATIC SECTION: Interdisciplinary Progress in Environmental Science & Management
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 38 , Issue 2: Thematic section. Interdisciplinary Progress in Environmental Science and Management , June 2011 , pp. 199 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2011

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