File:Ostrom - the challenge of seeing possibilities to save the commons.jpg

In response to the Question of the 'Tragedy of the Commons'

Ostrom v Hardin.... The tragedy of the commons is not inevitable.... as a simplified theory, it is a false and dangerous myth

Via Aeon

By Michelle Nijhuis

Project editor at The Atlantic and author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction (2021)

May 2021

• https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

In December 1968, the ecologist and biologist Garrett Hardin had an essay published in the journal Science called ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’. His proposition was simple and unsparing: humans, when left to their own devices, compete with one another for resources until the resources run out. ‘Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest,’ he wrote. ‘Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.’ Hardin’s argument made intuitive sense, and provided a temptingly simple explanation for catastrophes of all kinds – traffic jams, dirty public toilets, species extinction. His essay, widely read and accepted, would become one of the most-cited scientific papers of all time.

Even before Hardin’s ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’ was published, however, the young political scientist Elinor Ostrom had proven him wrong....

Community-based conservation can’t solve everything, and it doesn’t always succeed in protecting the commons. In many cases, national governments don’t recognise the longstanding land claims of Indigenous and other rural communities, creating uncertainty that interferes with community efforts to manage for the long term. Even well-established systems are vulnerable to internal conflict, and to external pressures ranging from drought to war to global market forces. As Ostrom often reminds... any strategy can succeed or fail. Community-based conservation is distinctive because many societies have only begun to understand – or remember – its potential. "What we have ignored is what citizens can do."

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