The Sharing of the Common Resources - Essay Example

Tragedy of the Commons Tragedy of the commons are problems that arise from the sharing of the common resources as a result of an increase in mans population. Population increase is directly proportional to the tragedy of commons. Wade asserts that groundwater is an illustration of common- pool resource (2). In the event of inadequate water, ground water table depletion is a likely to occur (Wade 2). Tragedy of commons are not problems that can solvable through technical solutions. A good example in the paper is of Indian society that was comprised of big and energetic men. However, they did not manage to solve the escalating pollution and marine life destruction problems in India. A technical solution applies a technical approach in averting a situation; it has little or no consideration on the aftermath to human values or their ideas. Hardin (3) in the discussed paper provides a case study in which as the Indian population increased they started scrambling for the available resources. As stated earlier, from the paper it is evident that as the population increases the available resources decreases. A good example in the paper is how the national parks had been converted into grazing and farming grounds. This culminate to a reduction in the number of animals in the national parks. The paper states that goods are commensurable. For this reason, it may be an uphill task to equalize individual shares of resources in the whole world. In my views, unless the population optimization occurs, the disparity will always be there. Additionally, it is evident that tragedy of commons has been as a result of freedom of Commons. From the paper provided Hardin (5) freedom when wrongly used will result in harming of everybody in that population. Man is a rational being, his decisions and actions are majorly driven by his self-interests. Human beings will rarely consider that effects of their actions or decisions to other people. Hardin (10) gave an example of hearders who grazes their animals in a common fried. The herders will increase the number of their animals without regarding the effect caused by that increase. The herders do not consider the effects of overgrazing in the common. Consequently, the effects of the overgrazing will be farfetched and they will affect the entire population. Similarly, in human being scenario, they will pursue their personal interests without taking into consideration how much they ruin the lives of others. To some extent, some actions may ruin the entire population. According to Hardin (12) the whole idea of tragedy of commons did not start yesterday, it started since the time human beings started the art of Agriculture. However, initially the effects were not felt as it is today. Of late tragedy of commons have been perpetuated to greater levels. A good example given in the paper is how overgrazing has significantly resulted into soil erosion. Similarly, freedom of oceans has lead to destruction of marine life. In my opinion, clear policies must be formulated to fight the menace caused by the tragedy of commons. Increase in population leads to environmental pollution because natural and other human processes become rampant (Hardin 4). According to the paper Pollution, is characterized by adding effluents into the common pool resources. Pollution includes water air and land pollution. Interestingly, the rational nature of human beings plays a role in pollution. In the calculation of utility, man finds that it is more economical to discharge the wastes into the common rather than recycling the wastes or making them risk free before releasing them. For this reason, so long as there will remain to lack a clear boundary between the private property and the commons, tragedy of commons will always be there. Hardin (5) gives a good example of an ancient population where dogs ate other dogs. In his example, he contextualizes the issue of human breeding. Human breeding is uncontrollable since it is part of human conscience. Additionally, natural selection favors the high breeders; there are high chances that those who shy off from breeding will be wiped out in future generations. In my views, the solution to the trouble of the commons caused by breeding practices is responsible parenthood. Property rights in solving common problems According to Wade’s paper, there are two key aspects in solving common problems. One of the aspects is, people can join hands in a society and produce goods that they require together rather than doing it individually. Laws can also be formulated to avert the tragedy. Wade (3-4) uses an example of Indian community, this community practiced Agriculture, marine fishing and also livestock keeping. When they felt the pain caused by tragedy of commons, they installed measures to curb the tragedy. This paper majors on the studies carried out in this Indian community. According to Wade, (8) Cooperation must be there since such a practice will reduce the ruin caused by the increasing population with no increase of the space available. Common property with no restrictions, overexploitation will occur; to prevent this there must be regulations that govern their use. Such properties can also be made private mostly the common pool properties. However, privatization and Legislation has proved to be ineffective. According to Wade (13), collective management of properties will likely prevent further degradation of forests, degrading of grazing commons, avoid the effects caused by pollution and avert the dwindling marine life. Similarly, Wade (13) explains that, common property makes individuals have equal rights of using them. The rights may be explicit to a certain group without any monitoring or regulate the extent to which each person can use the property. It is hard to use the public goods until they are fully exhausted. However, there are some of the common properties that if overused by one person they are depleted. However, they are always prone to being polluted, being finished or destroyed. For instance, there are common properties such as water, grazing fields, and trees. In my views, rules are essential to prevent the overexploitation of this common pool resources. Further to that, the rules must be set by an external force; this can be either a Government agency or a taskforce set by the members of the community affected. Additionally, users of common pool resources can voluntarily refrain themselves from the use of a certain public goods. Conversely, this is due to observation of a specific set regulation by an external force. Regulation must be a collective action involving all the users to achieve the target goals that is a regulated and a healthy exploitation of a certain common pool property. In this paper, the Indian villagers have come together to control how they use their common resources. Common resources are domestic water, irrigation water, fisheries and how they prevent pollution (Wade 6) The villagers have formed a task force that oversees the use of the common pool property. They put their efforts on collective gains, but not individual gains. How the theoretical problems and solutions have played out in practice. Theoretical Issues According to Cinner (2), there exists a Customary Marine Tenure (CMT) found in the Pacific. Customary Marine Tenure is contrary to the western ways of controlling access to the oceans. In this case, access is controlled by social and political units. They include individuals, family, clans, relatives and villages. There are areas that only a specific group of people are allowed to access. An example given in the paper is that of a marine region that is being controlled from being accessed by unauthorized individuals. Customary marine tenure is part of the laws governing the Pacific region according to Cinner (4). Additionally, he further explains in the paper that efforts are being put to include it in social and economic developments in these regions. In his paper, research was carried out where a comparison done in regions that allowed non-owners to access the marine tenures with those that restricted non-owners from accessing the marine tenures (Cinner 8). The research showed that those communities who restricted non-owners recorded a better social-economic development. The paper found that those communities with a strict tenure control had a lower rate of migration and also had an increased dependence on marine life than others. Additionally, the effectiveness of CMT was determined by the population size. According to Joshua Cinner, the study shows that this method can only be applicable in the case of a moderate population, but not in a population that is characterized by extensive immigration patterns (Cinner 12). CMT applies population dynamics and approaches. In my views, It is apparent that the more a population increases, the more it becomes uncontrollable. However, the population itself can put measures to control its tenure. Consequently, members of a population interaction with one another is improved, and their economic level boosted. Work Cited Cinner, Joshua. Social, economic factors influencing customary marine tenure in the Indo-Pacific. Chicago: 2005, Print. Hardin, Garrett. The Tragedy of the Commons science. New York: 1968, Print. Wade, Robert. The management of common property resources: Finding a cooperative solution. New York: 1987, Print. Read More