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This article develops a critique of the tragedy of the commons theory that is frequently applied to explain fisheries decline. In its place the authors offer the tragedy of the commodity as an alternative framework that better explains resource overexploitation and environmental degradation. They use a political economic analysis to discuss the social and ecological transformations that have occurred in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery, with an emphasis on the Sicilian traditional trap fishery. Examining this case, the authors argue that Marx's explanation of capitalist private property, commodity production, and the general formula for capital provide powerful theoretical guides for clarifying the social relations of production that have driven the overexploitation of fisheries in the recent past. Relying on historical and qualitative data, the case study illustrates the ways in which the social imperative of capitalist commodity production toward accumulating surplus-value directs production, reorganizes social relations, and transforms nature into an instrumental input that can more easily serve the needs of capital. The resulting ecological problems demonstrate the tragedy of the commodity.

<p>This paper deals with Community Based Forest Management in Mountain rainforests in Babati. This form of management is when the Communities are managing the forest with some help from the Government.</p><p>I have made a field study to see how the managing is working the mountain forests. I made interviews with chairmen, guards and district council. The purpose with the interview is to give answers to my questions about CBFM and how it is working. I want to see if the CBFM is sustainable in Babati and know if the villagers are satisfied with it. To answer the sustainability questions, studies in Ostroms eight principles for sustainable forest management is made.</p><p>The main conclusions of the study are: Babati will have a sustainable management if they follow the rules and laws that are made for Community Based Forest Management, if the community gets some kind of benefits for being the manager and they want to take care of the forest in a good way when they are the owners. If there are threats against the villagers like pressure from others villages or corruptions this sustainability can be destroyed.</p><p>CBFM needs supporting systems, help from the Government, clearly defined boundaries and the basic needs like food and shelter is fulfilled before they can think of the ecosystem health and sustainability.</p>

In a time of climate change the Arctic region is undergoing rapid changes, and the decreasing sea ice cover is expected to draw increased commercial interests as The Arctic Ocean gets more accessible for resource exploitation. The central part of the ocean is common area, where, in theory, overfishing may result in a tragedy of the commons and related fish stocks collapse. This study aims to provide insights into how fishing in the central Arctic Ocean relates to successful collective management, and was conducted using Elinor Ostroms design principles and The Logic of Collective Action as a framework for an ideal type inspired analysis. The results show that conditions for collective fisheries management in the central Arctic Ocean are relatively good, and it’s concluded that collective fisheries management is already embraced and enacted upon by several actors. However, to attain the ideal state of collective management further improvements are required, although there are also multiple options as to how such requirements could be met and there was no indication of why collective management would be unsuccessful. / I samband med ett förändrat klimat så genomgår även den arktiska regionen snabba förändringar, där den minskande havsisen i Arktiska oceanen ger ökad tillgång till naturresurser och förväntas dra allt större kommersiella intressen. Den centrala delen av oceanen är en allmänning, vilken enligt teorin kan överfiskas och resultera i en allmänningens tragedi och relaterade kollapser av fiskbestånd. Denna studie ämnar ge en insikt i hur fisket i centrala Arktiska oceanen förhåller sig till lyckad kollektiv förvaltning, och utfördes genom att låta Elinor Ostroms designprinciper och det kollektiva handlandets logik utgöra ett ramverk för en idealtypsinspirerad analys. Resultaten visar att förutsättningarna för kollektiv förvaltning är relativt goda och att fisket i viss utsträckning redan förvaltas kollektivt. För att uppnå en idealtypisk kollektiv fiskeförvaltning framgår det dock att ytterligare insatser behövs men att det även finns flera alternativ för att möta dessa behov, och det fanns heller ingen antydan av att kollektiv förvaltning skulle misslyckas.

The theme of this thesis is environmental research as a tool for change. In the first part of the thesis a “Situation of Opportunity” is studied, i.e. a situation when the opportunities to reduce negative environmental impacts are larger than usual. The maintenance of a multi- family residential area, here called a Small Neighbourhood, is studied as a series of Situations of Opportunity. To explore the prerequisites for using maintenance as a Situation of Opportunity, two case studies were carried out and reported as a licentiate thesis. The first one on the rental area Idö-Våldö in Stockholm managed by the association Stockholms Kooperativa Bostadsförening (SKB), and the second one on Järven, a housing cooperative in Malmö that cooperates with the management organisation HSB Malmö. In the study the researcher developed long-term environmental strategies based on the planned maintenance of the areas. Besides exploring the prerequisites for using planned maintenance as a Situation of Opportunity, the intention was that the studies would initiate an environmental practice within the areas studied. Results indicated that maintenance, at least in principle, creates many possibilities for reducing negative environmental impacts and that it to some extent also can be used for creating a dialogue between residents and managers. However, the conditions for using maintenance in the cases studied were limited by low interest among the residents as well as the economical and organisational prerequisites of the cases. The studies did not initiate an environmental practice as intended. The reason for that might be the mentioned conditions, but it could also depend on the researcher’s limited knowledge on action-oriented and collaborative research. Thus, the second part of the thesis aims at developing a research methodology for such research. Based on empirical experiences from the Idö-Våldö and Järven-studies and a literature study, a methodology for action-oriented research for environmentally sustainable housing (ARESH) is outlined. It is proposed that methods of action research and of case study methodology could be applied in ARESH. However, there are several potential conflicts in ARESH. The researcher has for instance to judge if the study should be led in the first hand by participants or by researchers, or if it should be more oriented towards theory than practice. One conclusion is that a research methodology for such research needs to be further discussed and also further explored in practice. Since there are indications that a collaborative and action-oriented research is evolving in the field of environmental research, it is hoped that the findings of the thesis can contribute to a discussion on how to carry out research as a tool for change / QC 20110121

This paper deals with Community Based Forest Management in Mountain rainforests in Babati. This form of management is when the Communities are managing the forest with some help from the Government. I have made a field study to see how the managing is working the mountain forests. I made interviews with chairmen, guards and district council. The purpose with the interview is to give answers to my questions about CBFM and how it is working. I want to see if the CBFM is sustainable in Babati and know if the villagers are satisfied with it. To answer the sustainability questions, studies in Ostroms eight principles for sustainable forest management is made. The main conclusions of the study are: Babati will have a sustainable management if they follow the rules and laws that are made for Community Based Forest Management, if the community gets some kind of benefits for being the manager and they want to take care of the forest in a good way when they are the owners. If there are threats against the villagers like pressure from others villages or corruptions this sustainability can be destroyed. CBFM needs supporting systems, help from the Government, clearly defined boundaries and the basic needs like food and shelter is fulfilled before they can think of the ecosystem health and sustainability.

<p>The theme of this thesis is environmental research as a tool for change. In the first part of the thesis a “Situation of Opportunity” is studied, i.e. a situation when the opportunities to reduce negative environmental impacts are larger than usual. The maintenance of a multi- family residential area, here called a Small Neighbourhood, is studied as a series of Situations of Opportunity.</p><p>To explore the prerequisites for using maintenance as a Situation of Opportunity, two case studies were carried out and reported as a licentiate thesis. The first one on the rental area Idö-Våldö in Stockholm managed by the association Stockholms Kooperativa Bostadsförening (SKB), and the second one on Järven, a housing cooperative in Malmö that cooperates with the management organisation HSB Malmö. In the study the researcher developed long-term environmental strategies based on the planned maintenance of the areas. Besides exploring the prerequisites for using planned maintenance as a Situation of Opportunity, the intention was that the studies would initiate an environmental practice within the areas studied.</p><p>Results indicated that maintenance, at least in principle, creates many possibilities for reducing negative environmental impacts and that it to some extent also can be used for creating a dialogue between residents and managers. However, the conditions for using maintenance in the cases studied were limited by low interest among the residents as well as the economical and organisational prerequisites of the cases. The studies did not initiate an environmental practice as intended. The reason for that might be the mentioned conditions, but it could also depend on the researcher’s limited knowledge on action-oriented and collaborative research.</p><p>Thus, the second part of the thesis aims at developing a research methodology for such research. Based on empirical experiences from the Idö-Våldö and Järven-studies and a literature study, a methodology for action-oriented research for environmentally sustainable housing (ARESH) is outlined. It is proposed that methods of action research and of case study methodology could be applied in ARESH. However, there are several potential conflicts in ARESH. The researcher has for instance to judge if the study should be led in the first hand by participants or by researchers, or if it should be more oriented towards theory than practice. One conclusion is that a research methodology for such research needs to be further discussed and also further explored in practice. Since there are indications that a collaborative and action-oriented research is evolving in the field of environmental research, it is hoped that the findings of the thesis can contribute to a discussion on how to carry out research as a tool for change</p>

Existing research shows that plants produce less root when growing alone than when growing in competition with other plants. When plants under root competition over-allocate resources to roots at the cost of reproduction, it represents a Tragedy of the Commons. I constructed simulation models to determine the circumstances likely to give rise to a Tragedy of the Commons, and explore mechanisms by which plants may solve it. I grew plants in nutrient-rich transparent gel, allowing me to quantify root growth and development without destructive sampling. My plants responded positively to additional space and the presence of a competitor at full nutrient treatment levels, and negatively to those same conditions between low phosphorus treatment levels, demonstrating nutrient mediation of the direction of plant response to an added competitor with additional space. This effect may feature self / non-self recognition by roots. Since the hard barrier in these studies blocks nutrients, roots, and root signaling compounds from passing between the plants in the barrier treatment level, existing studies cannot tease apart the effects on plant development of these individual factors. I add a semi-permeable membrane treatment level, which allows nutrients and signaling compounds to pass while preventing root growth between sides.

abstract: This dissertation discusses the Cournot competition and competitions in the exploitation of common pool resources and its extension to the tragedy of the commons. I address these models by using potential games and inquire how these models reflect the real competitions for provisions of environmental resources. The Cournot models are dependent upon how many firms there are so that the resultant Cournot-Nash equilibrium is dependent upon the number of firms in oligopoly. But many studies do not take into account how the resultant Cournot-Nash equilibrium is sensitive to the change of the number of firms. Potential games can find out the outcome when the number of firms changes in addition to providing the "traditional" Cournot-Nash equilibrium when the number of firms is fixed. Hence, I use potential games to fill the gaps that exist in the studies of competitions in oligopoly and common pool resources and extend our knowledge in these topics. In specific, one of the rational conclusions from the Cournot model is that a firm's best policy is to split into separate firms. In real life, we usually witness the other way around; i.e., several firms attempt to merge and enjoy the monopoly profit by restricting the amount of output and raising the price. I aim to solve this conundrum by using potential games. I also clarify, within the Cournot competition model, how regulatory intervention in the management of environmental pollution externalities affects the equilibrium number of polluters. In addition, the tragedy of the commons is the term widely used to describe the overexploitation of open-access common-pool resources. Open-access encourages potential resource users to continue to enter the resource up to the point where rents are exhausted. The resulting level of resource use is higher than is socially optimal, and in extreme cases can lead to the collapse of the resource and the communities that may depend on it. In this paper I use the concept of potential games to evaluate the relation between the cost of resource use and the equilibrium number of resource users in open access regimes. I find that costs of access and costs of production are sufficient to determine the equilibrium number of resource users, and that there is in fact a continuum between Cournot competition and the tragedy of the commons. I note that the various common pool resource management regimes identified in the empirical literature are associated with particular cost structures, and hence that this may be the mechanism that determines the number of resource users accessing the resource. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Applied Mathematics for the Life and Social Sciences 2017

Forests at the tropical Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers (VRAE), the second coca-growing region of Peru, are public common resources and nevertheless privately managed mainly by coca farmers, without effective State control of such use. The need for survival of the coca farmers, their chrematistic perception of the forest, the cultivation of cocoa (theobroma cacao) and land availability are crucial factors influencing the rates of deforestation of primary and secondary forest. Variables such as the legality of land tenure seem to have no influence. However, other institutional factors such as state policies in titling processes and its weakness or absence facilitate the destructive patterns of settlement in the upper forest.  Grassroots organizations of farmers focused on defending coca cultivation and access to credit and technical conditions for their legal products do not consider the defense of the forest as a fundamental aspect of their agenda. Nor were grassroots organizations whose core agenda was the control and monitoring of the management of forest resources. All this leads to argue that the Amazonian farmers are trapped in the "prisoner's dilemma". On the one hand, institutional and media pressure press them strongly not to grow coca and on the other hand, if they do not grow coca o clear the forest, others will follow this destructive path and benefit immediately of such a decision / Los bosques en el Valle del río Apurímac y Ene (VRAE), la segunda región cocalera del Perú, son recursos comunes públicos que se manejan como privados por los agricultores principalmente cocaleros, sin un control efectivo de tal uso por parte del Estado. La necesidad de sobrevivencia de los agricultores cocaleros, su percepción crematística sobre el bosque, y la mayor o menos disponibilidad de tierras constituyen factores determinantes en el ritmo de deforestación del bosque primario y secundario. Variables tales como la legalidad de tenencia del predio no parecen tener influencia. Sin embargo, otros factores también institucionales facilitan una ocupación del espacio muy desordenada y destructiva, tales como las políticas de Estado en los procesos de titulación y la debilidad o ausencia del mismo.  Las organizaciones de base de los agricultores centradas en defender el cultivo de la coca y/o acceder a condiciones crediticias y técnicas para sus productos legales no consideran a la defensa del bosque como un aspecto fundamental de su agenda. Tampoco existían organizaciones de base cuya agenda central fuese el control y la vigilancia del manejo de los recursos forestales. Los agricultores son conscientes del daño ambiental y de salud que provoca la economía de la coca. Todo ello nos induce a argumentar que los productores rurales amazónicos se encuentran atrapados en el “dilema del prisionero”. Por un lado, la presión institucional y mediática los presiona fuertemente a no cultivar coca y por otro lado, si ellos no siembran coca y no deforestan otros seguirán ese camino destructivo y se beneficiaran de manera inmediata de tal decisión.