Design Principles and Threats to Sustainable Organizations that Manage Commons

Abstract

"Farmer organizations are responsible for the governance and management of a wide variety of common-pool resources (CPRs) including irrigation systems, pasture lands, community-owned forests, as well as their own 'budgetary commons' involved in organizing a wide diversity of cooperative activities. All CPRs are jointly used by a community of individuals where one person's use subtracts from the amount available to others. It is typically difficult to exclude potential beneficiaries from gaining access to a CPR. A wide diversity of literature written during the past two decades focuses on how individuals organize themselves to manage diverse kinds of CPRs."