Context and the commons

Despite the grim view of resource overexploitation and the collapse famously described in Hardin's (1) much-cited “Tragedy of the Commons,” we now know that local governance institutions have the potential to overcome common pool resource dilemmas. A growing literature (2, 3), including Chhatre and Agrawal's analysis of forest commons (4) in this issue of PNAS, demonstrates the conditions of successful commons governance. This body of research augurs well for our ability to design decision-making processes that facilitate both environmental and economic sustainability and thus is of immense practical importance.

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