Which of these is NOT listed as a feature of successful shared-resource management?
In an influential account, a shared pasture is ruined because each herder gains the full benefit of adding one more animal while the cost of overgrazing is spread across everyone. The story is often told as proof that shared resources must be privatised or governed from above. Yet field studies of irrigation systems and fisheries have recorded communities that manage shared resources successfully for centuries, using agreed boundaries, graded penalties for rule-breaking and low-cost ways of settling disputes. These cases do not show that the original account is false. They show that its conclusion depends on an assumption: that the herders cannot talk to one another or enforce rules among themselves.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Ownership of the resource by a single private company
- Step 1: The passage lists boundaries, graded penalties and cheap dispute settlement. Step 2. Single private ownership is mentioned only as an alternative proposal. Answer: private ownership. Why not the others: the other three are in the passage.
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