How do you sustainably manage common natural resources that are characterized by free access? This is the central question of Elinor Ostrom’s research on common property resources. In light of resource scarcity, increasing environmental problems such as overfishing and ocean pollution, deforestation, and climate change, it is also one of the most pressing challenges of our time. The decision of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to award Ostrom the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences reflects this fact. However, regarding the importance of her work to better understand cooperative behaviour in resource management, it could have also been the Nobel Peace Prize.



In her seminal book "Governing the Commons", published in 1990, Ostrom contested the assertion that only central state control or privatization could prevent the degradation of common pool resources. This "Tragedy of the Commons" was initially described by Garrett Hardin in 1968 using the example of a pasture open to all. The tragedy develops as each herdsman makes the rational choice to add another animal to his herd in order to maximize his individual gain. However, if the same decision is taken by each herdsman it leads to overgrazing and the degradation of the pasture, which brings ruin to all. Going beyond mere state or market regulation, and based on a vast amount of empirical case studies, Ostrom developed a third way out of the dilemma: she argues that through cooperation and the use of local institutions, communities may be able to manage their rangelands, waters or forests collectively in ways that benefit the whole community without destroying the resource. She emphasizes the importance of a great variety of institutional arrangements to cope with the diversity of socio-ecological systems. Ostrom places regional context specific solutions at the centre. Instead of waiting for uniform top-down approaches to solve global problems such as climate change, she calls for a polycentric approach. In a first interview after receiving the award she stated: "I am far from being against a global agreement on climate change. But when we sit and wait until these agreements become effective, it might be too late." (Christiane Roettger)



The Press Release of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is available at http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2009/press.html



Further information on Elinor Ostrom’s research, including a list of publications is available at http://www.indiana.edu/~workshop/people/lostromcv.htm

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, October 2009