The Struggle to Govern the Commons

Human institutions—ways of organizing activities—affect the resilience of the environment.
Locally evolved institutional arrangements governed by stable communities and
buffered from outside forces have sustained resources successfully for centuries, although
they often fail when rapid change occurs. Ideal conditions for governance are
increasingly rare. Critical problems, such as transboundary pollution, tropical deforestation,
and climate change, are at larger scales and involve nonlocal influences. Promising
strategies for addressing these problems include dialogue among interested parties,
officials, and scientists; complex, redundant, and layered institutions; a mix of institutional
types; and designs that facilitate experimentation, learning, and change.