Resumen de The dilemma of property rights and indigenous institutional arrangements for common resources governance in China
Traditionally, property rights have been seen as an efficient means of optimizing the allocation of common resources. The arrangement of property rights, however, has historically led to a number of social, economic and ecological issues. Herders living in China are currently exploring collective grazing partnerships as they seek to maintain balance between ecological protection and livelihood development in the process of grassland governance. For the purposes of this study, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the property rights dilemma, offering possible solutions for indigenous institutional arrangements as exemplified in six typical cases. We assert that (1) stakeholders should respect local culture by ensuring the participation of herders in policymaking, (2) the use of fences for the demarcation of property rights is ineffective and often serves as a catalyst for the destruction and degradation of grassland ecosystems, and (3) herders� use of collective action techniques should be reinvented with the support of state policy.
