Finding Emotions in the Drama of the Commons: A Multi-Relational and Multi-level Analysis of the Access to Fishery Resources in the Loreto Bay Marine Park, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Abstract

"The sad ending of Hardin's 'Tragedy of the Commons' has now been supplemented with a happy 'Comedy of the Commons.' Such 'balance' has kept intact the 'cold headed' rational individual responding to economic incentives mediated by the presence or lack of institutions. Drawing on research in the Loreto National Marine Park, I examine the role of different emotional relations in the cooperative behaviour for accessing fishery resources at the community, municipal and state levels. Results indicate that cooperative behaviour for accessing fisheries resources is strongly embedded in affective relations and widespread even under a de facto open access. Moreover, such emotionally engaged cooperation transcends individual attributes of occupation, locality and organizational levels, with important insights into the issues of resource users' heterogeneity and scale in the management of the commons. More generally, results support the thesis that emotions and reason are mutually complementary rather than exclusive, particularly when it comes to social facts such as human cooperation where positive emotions may be an essential element. If emotional bonds are a key force in cooperative behaviour, we should reconsider our theoretical stands and analysis regarding human cooperation, and how we go about promoting cooperative solutions for conservation of the commons through sustainable resource use."