Territorial Distribution, Technological Progress and Renewable Natural Resources Management: The Case of Fisheries
The efficient management of natural renewable resources in open access and common property became popular among economists due to the «Tragedy of the Commons». Earlier writings emphasized the need of a regulatory system that could end with overexploitation and preserve the resource. Open access and common property were associated with economic inefficiencies. Elinor Ostrom, in a seminal work, departed from that conceptual approach and advocated for self-governed communal areas. This paper has two main objectives. On the one hand, to make a review of the economic literature about exploitation in common property and open access natural resources. On the other, to explicit that local components and distributional aspects in fishery management are in danger because of technological advances which are threatening artisanal small-scale fisheries.
Check other articles from the issue Otoño 2012 or from other issues.