Elinor Ostrom and resource management

As noted in a blog post by Richeng Piao, a Visting Lecturer in Economics at Northeastern University, the work of Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) has had a profound influence on resource management practices through her innovative approach to the governance of common resources.

Here are some key impacts of Dr. Ostrom’s work as highlighted in Dr. Piao’s post:

• User-Managed Resource Governance: Ostrom introduced the concept of user-managed resource governance, challenging traditional approaches that favored either privatization or government control 1. 

• Principles for Sustainable Management: Ostrom's research culminated in the formulation of principles for the sustainable management of common resources. These principles encompass clear boundaries, rules adapted to local needs, collective decision-making arrangements, monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms, conflict-resolution mechanisms, and acknowledgment 1. 

• Challenging the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’: Ostrom provided empirical evidence that communities could sustainably manage common resources through cooperative strategies and self-regulation, thereby offering a third option beyond the binary choice of privatization or government control 1. 

• Nobel Prize Recognition: In 2009, Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for her work demonstrating how common resources could be effectively managed by groups using collective action 1.

• Framework for Global Challenges: Ostrom's insights hold immense relevance to current global challenges such as climate change, where collective action is of paramount importance. Her work serves as a guide for how communities, nations, and global actors can work together to manage shared resources, preventing their depletion 1. 

Elinor Ostrom’s legacy continues to shape and influence environmental policy, resource management, and the study of collective action. Her work provides a robust framework for understanding and managing shared resources sustainably, underscoring the profound impact of her contributions. 

Dr. Ostrom’s is probably most famous for her alternative perspective on the “tragedy of commons”, which was advanced by ecologist and biologist Garret Hardin in an essay entitled “Tragedy of the Commons” in the journal Science in December 1968. ‘Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest,’ he wrote. ‘Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.’ His essay, widely read and accepted, would become one of the most-cited scientific papers of all time.

Hardin concluded the tragedy of the commons could be avoided only through total privatization or total government control, Ostrom, on the other hand, had witnessed groundwater users near her native Los Angeles hammer out a system for sharing their coveted resource. As a professor at Indiana University Bloomington, she studied collaborative management systems developed throughout the world—cattle herders in Switzerland, forest dwellers in Japan, and irrigators in the Philippines. These communities had found ways of both preserving a shared resource – pasture, trees, water – and providing their members with a living.

Ostrom concluded that successful resource management systems include:

• clear boundaries (the ‘community’ doing the managing must be well-defined);

• reliable monitoring of the shared resource;

• a reasonable balance of costs and benefits for participants;

• a predictable process for the fast and fair resolution of conflicts;

• an escalating series of punishments for cheaters;

• and good relationships between the community and other layers of authority, from household heads to international institutions.