The Evolution of Global Commons

The concept of ‘commons’ is often associated with Garrett Hardin’s classic essay ‘The Tragedy of the Commons,’ although others such as William Forster Lloyd (1933) had written earlier about commons and the tendency for unregulated ones to be overused or misused, even to their destruction (Hardin, 1968). Numerous historical and contemporary examples of commons of a local scale can be identified throughout the world, such as fields or pastures, hunting or fishing grounds, forest tracts, irrigation systems, and aquifers. Studies of many of these commons reveal that it is not unusual for local communities to develop ways of limiting use of these common resources to sustainable levels, thereby avoiding a Hardinian ‘tragedy.’ In some cases, these local management schemes have operated successfully over many generations (for examples, see Panel on Common Property Resource Management, 1986; Bromley, 1992).