The shifted ownership regime of a common-pool resource: the case of water exploitation in Sanandaj County, Iran

摘要

In this article, we reveal how a shift of water ownership regime has affected overexploitation of water resources in Sanandaj County, Iran, since the nationalization of water resources and centralization of the water policy in the 1960s. The shift was subject to structural changes concerning monitoring, the size and type of user groups, and the actors involved, and we conclude that the state has unintentionally turned a communal ownership regime into a regime of open access to common-pool resources. The article adds to the knowledge on how a communal ownership regime could successfully sustain water as a common-pool resource.