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TitleThe common property resource problem and the creation of limited property rights
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication1985
AuthorsBerkes, F.
Volume13
Issue2
Pagination187-208
PublisherHuman Ecology
Publication Languageen
Keywordsallocation, common property resource theory, fishery management, Lake Erie, resource policy, steady-state fisheries, the Great Lakes
Abstract

Fish resources are generally considered common property and open to any user. This, the assumption goes, makes them susceptible to the tragedy of the commons in which selfish users are both the villains and the victims. While it is true that wild fish populations cannot readily be privatized, it hardly follows that they are completely open-access. In addition to social controls found in many traditional fishing communities, amply documented by anthropologists, many administrative controls in contemporary fisheries management also create limited property rights over fishery resources. This study focuses on Great Lakes fisheries of Ontario in Lakes Erie and St. Clair, and the kinds and diversity of limited property rights instituted in these areas: the formal and informal allocation of fishing areas, and the allocation of quantitative fishing rights (quotas), all of which serve as mechanisms to solve the common property resource problem. The Great Lakes fisheries suggest certain generalizations about the management of common property resources. The paper offers a life-cycle model of living resources use.

Group

CEMA

Citation Key24630

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