CONTEXTS, MULTIPLE METHODS, AND VALUES IN THE STUDY OF COMMON-POOL RESOURCES

摘要

A staple of graduate-level coursework in natural resource management and policy is the problem of common-pool resource management. Common-pool resources are distinguished by their openness to exploitation and susceptibility to degradation. This is due to the high costs inherent in restricting access to these resources. No introduction to the topic is complete without Garrett Hardins classic "Tragedy of the Commons" - a mainstay in natural resource economics and policy syllabi for more than thirty years. Hardin described a hypothetical "pasture open to all" (1968, p. 1,244) - an "open access" resource in the parlance of the contemporary property rights literature. On such land, Hardin reasoned, every herdsman has incentive to "increase his herd without limit - in a world that is limited" (1968, p. 1,244). The inevitable outcome is the destruction of the common. Three emerging intellectual trends offer fresh insights - and revisions to - Hardins thesis, with implications for improved understanding of common-pool resource management and of natural resource management in general. First, context-specificity - the need to understand specific problem contexts so as to clarify the origins and causes (or etiology) of problems and to discover promising remedies - is of increasing importance to natural resource managers, including managers of common-pool resources such as public lands in the American West, straddling fish stocks, and the global atmosphere (Brunner et al., 2002). Second, there is growing interest in using multiple methods to examine and redress complex problems, including environmental and natural resource management problems (Durant et al., 2004; O'Leary et al., 1999; Holling, 1995). Third, policymakers, including those who broker the competing interests and demands of natural resource end-users, are increasingly eager to understand how values influence natural resource management outcomes (Clark, 2002). These three trends do not occur in isolation from one another and there is considerable promise for their co-development and integration, to the benefit of environmental policy and natural resource management students, experts, and practitioners alike.