Collective Action and Common Property Resource Rejuvenation: The Case of People's Artificial Reefs (PAR's) in Kerala State, India

Abstract

"Issues concerning the degradation of our planet's environment and the implications of this for the future of life on. earth are matters of widespread concern today. Together with this environmental consciousness there is a growing recognition that the most affected environmental resources are those over which control by individuals, firms or the state is difficult to establish and maintain. Such resources are often qualified using the adjectives open access, common property' or common pool implying that in general they are open to use by all and owned by none. Important examples of such resources include: the earth's atmosphere, seas and oceans, ground water, forests and village grazing grounds. Contemporaneous with this welcome environmental consciousness is the resurgence of influential opinions that in the case of resources that are in the realm of the commons, precious little can be done to save them from ecological ruin. The most influential of these opinions is that of Garett Hardin whose expression tragedy of the commons (Hardin, 1968) is today gaining currency in symbolising the degradation of the environment that is to be expected whenever many individuals freely use a resource in common."