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The proposition that natural resources need protection from the destructive actions of people is widely accepted. Yet communities have shown in the past and increasingly today that they can collaborate for long-term resource management. The term social capital captures the idea that social bonds and norms are critical for sustainability. Where social capital is high in formalized groups, people have the confidence to invest in collective activities, knowing that others will do so too. Some 0.4 to 0.5 million groups have been established since the early 1990s for watershed, forest, irrigation, pest, wildlife, fishery, and microfinance management. These offer a route to sustainable management and governance of common resources.
From Malthus to Hardin and beyond, analysts and policy-makers have widely come to accept that natural resources need to be protected from the destructive, yet apparently rational, actions of people. The compelling logic is that people inevitably harm natural resources as they use them, and more people therefore do more harm. The likelihood of this damage being greater where natural resources are commonly owned is further increased by suspicions that people tend to free-ride, both by overusing and underinvesting in the maintenance of resources. As our global numbers have increased, and as incontrovertible evidence of harm to water, land, and atmospheric resources has emerged, so the choices seem to be starker. Either we regulate to prevent further harm, in Hardin's words (1), to engage in mutual coercion mutually agreed upon, or we press ahead with enclosure and privatization to increase the likelihood that resources will be more carefully managed.
These concepts have influenced many policy-makers and practitioners. They have led, for example, to the popular wilderness myth (2)-that many ecosystems are pristine and have emerged independent of the actions of local people, whether positive or negative. Empty, idle, and "natural" environments need protection from harmful large-scale developers, loggers, and ranchers, as well as from farmers, hunters, and gatherers (3). Since the first national park was set up at Yellowstone in 1872, some 12,750 protected areas of greater than 1000 hectares have been established worldwide. Of the 7322 protected areas in developing countries where many people rely on wild resources for food, fuel, medicine, and feed, 30% covering 6 million km^sup 2^ are strictly protected, permitting...