The 'Commons' Revisited: Learning from the Past for More Resilient Social and Ecological Communities in the Future

Abstract

The collapse of the natural resource base can in part be seen as the result of the inherited European system. However it is possible to achieve efficient and sustaining systems, leading to better outcomes, as is shown in southern England, as well as on a tableland in the high country of northern New South Wales. The core of the project there, as elsewhere, indicates that better results, the possibility of eco-tourism, and 'a real sense of community' are all possible and invaluable consequences of CPR, the open access as developed in a common property management system (CPRM).