GARETT HARDINGS

Garett Hardings



Garett Hardings

The “tragedy of the commons,” probably the most common framework through which environmental issues are understood today, was made famous by biologist Garrett Hardin in a 1968 essay in Science. Hardin was specifically concerned with population growth and invoked the notion made popular by Thomas Malthus in 1798 that because population grows exponentially while food supply grows only linearly, population growth will lead inevitably to starvation, war, and disease, and eventually to a collapse in population levels. Hardin argued that population growth is a tragedy of the commons, which he explained with this image: “Picture a pasture open to all. It is expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on the commons.” Every animal that is added contributes to pasture degradation, but this negative effect is shared by all of the herders. Each herder enjoys full benefits, however, from adding an additional animal to his own herd. Because each herder acts to maximize his or her own gain, more and more animals will be added. In the end, this leads to overgrazing and a tragedy of pasture degradation: “Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit—in a world that is limited… Freedom in the commons brings ruin for all.” Hardin argued that there are only two solutions to this problem. The first option is coercion, or control of each individual's behavior by an outside agent, particularly the state. The second is to privatize the commons; only if the common pasture is divided up into privately owned parcels will individuals take care of the resource, and thus preserve it from overuse and destruction.

In many countries, laws that impose rights and obligations of the local users capture in relation to forests, farmland and fishing grounds. But this intervention is associated with a poor understanding of their own local institutions and practices (Williams 1998). It is therefore unlikely that the resource is in an efficient and appropriate manner, as she often does not have enough information and knowledge about the state of a resource and its users. And even though this information needs met, there remains the problem of control of the users. For violating rules against going, the state should impose heavy fines, which may give rise to corruption. (Baland and Platteau, 1996, p. 173) 1.3 Privatisation Privatisation is often cited as a simple way to the tragedy of the commons problems. To improve efficiency, but a number of conditions must be met: property rights must be well defined, all markets in the economy and are also perfect and competitive, and no charges associated with the imposition of private property rights . It is clearly unlikely that these conditions are met in the real world (Baland and Platteau, 1996, p.176). So it will be very difficult for such fishermen to the coast can be divided into small areas owned by individual owners. The costs of defending such an area would be a significant barrier ...