On the Exploitation of an Unmanaged Local Common; Hardin's Analysis Reconsidered

Abstract

"A system of communally owned grazeland and privately owned livestock is considered. The local common is unmanaged in the sense that none of the fixed number of herdsmen owning and using the common pay any attention to their impact on the common when deciding the size of their livestock and offtake. The exploitation of the common is studied under different social and economic constraints and four types of harvesting strategies are analysed. Three of the strategies reproduce Hardin's verbal notion of a 'tragedy of the common' while a fourth one can result in a relatively robust and stable ecological system."