Tenure policy toward common property natural resources

Some analysts have placed primary blame on increased government control of these resources, which has undercut supposedly viable local management systems. This paper, on the other hand, argues that the rise of national authority is an economic and political response to the increasing inability of local institutions to manage communal resources effectively. Reasons for this include, inter alia, the weakness of economic incentives for individual participation in common property arrangements, the breakdown of the social relationships needed to sanction collective control of individual behavior, and the erosion of patron-client relationships and traditional authorities. At the same time, however, direct state regulation is expensive, generally ineffective, and often unfair to resource users. The report presents short-term recommendations for appropriate state and community roles in co-managing natural resources. For the long term, it is suggested that governments promote incentives for individual participation in communal management activities and conduct thorough reviews of the costs and benefits - social, economic, and political - of alternative tenure arrangements.