Chapter 06 · Governance & regulationGovernance, Ethics & Risk
Common pool resource
Definition
A common pool resource is a natural or human-made resource from which exclusion is costly and whose use is subtractable — one user's withdrawal diminishes what is available to others. Garrett Hardin's 1968 'tragedy of the commons' framed such resources as doomed to overuse; Elinor Ostrom's Governing the Commons (1990) showed communities can sustain them through self-designed governance rules.
References
Hardin 1968; CPR characteristics; institutional analysis
Ostrom 1990 and design principles
Overview
What it means
The concept explains why unowned resources degrade — and under what institutional conditions they do not.
How it is used
Ostrom's design principles (clear boundaries, local rule-making, monitoring, graduated sanctions) guide community management of fisheries, forests, water and grazing lands.
Why it matters
It is the theoretical basis for community-based natural resource management and a core reference in debates on the global commons.