The Tragedy of the Commons

The Tragedy of the Commons was initially an economic phenomenon, referring to the overconsumption and overproduction of goods that use the common pool resource, meaning a resource that is rivalrous (using it reduces the availability for another person), but non-excludable (does not charge a price to exclude other people from using the resource). A common pool resource is a public good that everyone has access to; some examples include ponds, grazing fields, rivers, etc. In the environmental world, the Tragedy of the Commons has long become an issue due to issues such as overfishing and overgrazing.

Overfishing

Before The Magnuson-Stevens Act in 1976, international waters were relatively unregulated. They were often fished by unregulated foreign fleets. Since they were unregulated, fishermen from all around the world would fish in these waters, only focusing on their own benefit and neglecting the harms that they were dealing to the local marine environment. Overfishing becomes especially detrimental when fishermen start to fish at a rate faster than the fish’s reproduction rate (replacement rate), meaning that the pond will eventually be depleted of fish, killing an entire local food chain. Such damage would take more than a few decades to repair and hundreds of years to potentially fully ‘fix’, and even more money would need to be poured into an operation to salvage this issue. 

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act is a law passed in 1976 that manages marine fisheries in the US federal waters. Its main objectives include: preventing overfishing, rebuilding overfished stocks, and ensuring a long-term supply of seafood. The establishment of this law has helped build more sustainable industrial fisheries practices in the US for the long term.

Overgrazing

Another example of The Tragedy of the Commons is the overuse of grazing land. When different producers overuse the publicly provisioned grazing land, not only will the piece of land be depleted of grass and therefore lose its purpose, it is also associated with different problems such as soil degradation and soil erosion. When animals eat all of the grass on land, the roots of the grass are no longer able to help maintain the structural integrity of soil, meaning the topsoil - the most nutritious part of soil, would be easily lost due to it being extremely prone to weathering and erosion, through wind and rain.

Conclusion

Although using common pool resources to maximize one’s personal profits might be very tempting, it is important for both farmers and fishermens alike to be extremely cautious of the sustainability and ethics of their actions, in order to foster sustainable fishery and butcher industries.

Work Cited

Business Insights Blog. (2019). Tragedy of the Commons: Examples & Solutions | HBS Online. [online] Available at: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/tragedy-of-the-commons-impact-on-sustainability-issues [Accessed 24 Dec. 2024].

‌NOAA Fisheries (2024). Laws & Policies. [online] NOAA. Available at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/laws-policies [Accessed 24 Dec. 2024].

World Wildlife Fund. (2015). Overfishing. [online] Available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/overfishing [Accessed 24 Dec. 2024].