Assessing the social impacts of fisheries decline on fishing communities

Abstract

The depletion and degradation of Common Pool Resources (CPR) has been a major concern for development theorists and policymakers in recent decades. In countries like India, where the great majority of rural poor people depend on resources like pastures, forests, groundwater, and others to sustain themselves, this is particularly true (Jodha 1990). However, two of the most crucial elements when it comes to shared resources are governance and selecting the appropriate organizations to manage them. Social scientists, particularly mainstream economists, have been debating this issue extensively. Some people think that the state is the best alternative when market systems don't work, while others think that privatization is the only solution. It should be noted that, up until the 1980s, most academics believed that the people who used these resources couldn't organize themselves to manage them, thus they suggested that the government or private sector should be imposed. These discussions frequently make the assumption that the lines between the public, private, and communal types of resource tenure are clearly established.